CHAPTER II. 



THE DIFFICULTY FAR-REACHING TO-DAY. 



Where is the country at the present time which has 

 not to face serious questions in relation to agriculture ? 

 Taking a hasty glance at the chief countries of Europe, 

 such as Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, and Great 

 Britain, we find not one of them whose thinking men 

 do not see in this matter (as it concerns themselves) 

 cause for reflection. 



Rural Italy has of late years been experiencing a 

 crisis in agriculture. The condition became so serious 

 that a government commission was set at work about ten 

 years ago to investigate the matter. Their labors cov- 

 ered a term of seven years, and the final report appeared 

 in 1885. The substance of the report was to the effect 

 that the peasantry of Italy are " poor and miserable, 

 leading a life of wretche'd existence, to which emigration 

 alone offers a recourse " ; that " nearly 150,000 Italians 

 quit the country every year " ; that " half the children, 

 die, under seven years, in the Marches " ; that " families 

 live together sometimes to the number of forty " ; that 

 " in the mountain districts the whole family live in one 

 smoky room, with their pigs, their goats, and their 

 chickens." This is certainly a gloomy picture of the 

 condition of modern rural Italy, the garden of Europe. 



Like Italy, France has made these matters a subject 



34 



