44 OTHER COUNTRIES 



population. The new era demands that the 

 industry shall keep a large and happy popula- 

 tion profitably employed. This can only be 

 achieved by assuring that the land shall yield 

 the greatest production of crops possible, and 

 by creating a machine which can effectively 

 deal with the exacting demands of modern 

 commercial principles. 



A great diversity of opinion exists as to the 

 condition of the " peasant proprietors " in 

 Denmark, Belgium, France, and in most of 

 the countries of Europe where they are to be 

 found. The farmer abroad is as reluctant to 

 disclose a tangible account of his circum- 

 stances as the farmer is here. In France, 

 where there are no fewer than 6,000,000 small 

 freeholders, dreary pictures are drawn by some 

 of our critics of his ragged clothing and mud- 

 floored and neglected cottages. But the state 

 in which a man lives is usually based on cus- 

 tom or upbringing, and is not necessarily any 

 criterion to his actual circumstances. Cleanli- 

 ness and comforts are often hoarded in a 

 stocking. No one denies that the small culti 

 vator of France is a past master at his art, and 

 that he manages to procure the largest possible 



