286 SMALL INDUSTRIES AND 



communal grazing grounds or woods have not 

 been lost, they cling to a combination of industry 

 with agriculture. Having, hi most cases, no 

 horses to plough the land, they resort to an 

 arrangement which is widely spread, if not 

 universal, among small French landholders, even 

 in purely rural districts ( I saw it even in Haute- 

 Savoie). One of the peasants who keeps a 

 plough and a team of horses tills all the fields 

 in turn. At the same time, owing to a wide 

 maintenance of the communal spirit, which I 

 have described elsewhere,* further support is 

 found in the communal shepherd, the communal 

 wine-press, and various forms of " aids " amongst 

 the peasants. And wherever the village-com- 

 munity spirit is maintained, the small industries 

 persist, while no effort is spared to bring the small 

 plots under higher culture. 



Market-gardening and fruit culture often go 

 hand in hand with small industries. And 

 wherever well-being is found on a relatively 

 unproductive soil, it is nearly always due to a 

 combination of the two sister arts. 



The most wonderful adaptations of the small 

 industries to new requirements, and substantial 

 technical progress in the methods of production, 

 can be noted at the same time. It may even be 



* Mutual Aid : a Factor of Evolution. London (Heine- 

 mann), 1902. 



