OF AGRICULTURE. 237 



crops are heavy ; so that real economy of both 

 space and labour requires different methods, 

 representing a combination of machinery work 

 with hand work. 



In agriculture, as in everything else, asso- 

 ciated labour is the only" reasonable solution. 

 Two hundred families 6f five persons each, 

 owning five acres per family, having no common 

 ties between the families, and compelled to find 

 their living, each family on its five acres, almost 

 certainly would be an economical failure. Even 

 leaving aside all personal difficulties resulting 

 from different education and tastes and from 

 the want of knowledge as to what has to be 

 done with the land, and admitting for the 

 sake of argument that these causes do not inter- 

 fere, the experiment would end in a failure, 

 merely for economical, for agricultural reasons. 

 Whatever improvement upon the present con- 

 ditions such an organisation might be, that 

 improvement would not last ; it would have 

 to undergo a further transformation or dis- 

 appear. 



But the same two hundred families, if they 

 consider themselves, say, as tenants of the 

 nation, and treat the thousand acres as a 

 common tenancy again leaving aside the 

 personal conditions would have, economically 

 speaking, from the point of view of the agri- 



