APPENDIX II 227 



In his " Keport on the Tenure of Land in the Grand Duchy 

 of Hesse," submitted to the Foreign Office in 1870, Mr. K. B. 

 D. Morier makes the following interesting remarks : — 



" In the great majority of cases the holdings are dispersed 

 over the arable land of the community in single parcels 

 intersected by those of other holdings. In many parts of the 

 Grand Duchy the subdivision arising from these causes has 

 reached an intolerable pitch, and various consolidating Acts 

 have been passed for the purpose of remedying the evil. 

 These Acts have, however, only been partially successful, and 

 a new measure is being at the present moment prepared 

 which, it is hoped, will prove more efficacious. In the 

 districts in which the consolidated farms are situated, im- 

 memorial custom has ruled that the property in its entirety 

 descends to one child, almost invariably the eldest son, and 

 the younger children do not avail themselves of their un- 

 doubted right to claim their pars legitima, though it is, of 

 course, usual that some sort of provision is made for them." 



During the past thirty years much work has been done in 

 Germany in the way of creating and resettling peasants' 

 holdings on an economic basis. This work has been entrusted 

 to Land Commissions which have been created by the legis- 

 lative enactments of various States dating from the seventies 

 and eighties. In Prussia eight General Commissions exist for 

 settling land on an economic basis either by the subdivision 

 of large estates, by restriping, or by the occupation and im- 

 provement of waste lands. The aggregate area of the 

 economic holdings so formed is about 1,350,000 acres. The 

 economic holdings so formed may not be subdivided nor 

 may they be added to the lands of large land-holders.* 



A short account t may be given of the work undertaken 

 by the Commission in West Prussia where the main problem 



 " Bulletin of Economic and Social Intelligence " for March, 1912. 

 f Ibid., December, 1912, published by the International Institute 

 of Agriculture, Rome. 



15 * 



