228 SUBDIVISION IN OTHEE COUNTKIES 



is to divide up large estates into small ones and to settle 

 peasant farmers on improved waste lands. This Commission 

 was founded by a law of 1886 which gave the Commission 

 certain powers and placed at its disposal a fund of 100,000,000 

 marks. With this money the Commission buys large estates, 

 divides them into suitable small farms, and contributes to 

 the necessary expenses of the settlements. These small farms 

 are given out — 



1. On lease for definite periods. 



2. On freehold, on payment of the price. 



3. On purchase by instalment, and subject to certain 

 definite conditions. 



System No. 3 is the most popular. 



By a law of 1896 the small farms, so formed, can be sub- 

 divided or separated into parts only with the consent of the 

 Commission. They can be transferred to persons outside 

 the family of the holder only with the consent of the Com- 

 mission, but this consent can be refused only when the effect 

 of the transfer would be to merge the farm in a larger estate. 

 To preserve the farm intact the law of 1896 subjects these 

 farms to special laws of inheritance differing from the prin- 

 ciple of equality of heirs as established by the German Civil 

 Code of the same year. The law lays down that in the 

 absence of testamentary disposition the holding passes intact 

 to the principal heir, and other heirs can obtain only limited 

 shares in the form of annuities. 



By 1908 the funds at the disposal of this Commission had 

 been raised to 550,000,000 marks. In purchasing land com- 

 pulsory expropriation is authorised when the land cannot be 

 obtained otherwise. The land is not handed over to the 

 peasants in its rough state, but drainage or irrigation works 

 are previously undertaken. Roads are made and great care 

 is taken to fix the area of the holdings with regard to their 

 productivity, and to give each holding a good assortment of 

 various qualities of soil without scattering the fields. En- 



