THE NEW AGRICULTURE 203 



working at such problems. 1 Scattered though they had been 

 in different parts of Europe, they all arrived at the same 

 fundamental conclusions. What is more, the remedy which 

 they offered has had virtually the same effect in every country 

 that has begun to regain its social and agricultural health. 

 And what is the formula for this golden discovery ? It sounds 

 simple ; it is the cure by cooperation, and the basis of its 

 efficacy consists in restoring to the tillers of the soil their 

 sense of wholesome dependence one upon another. 



The working out of this new-old principle marks the be- 

 ginning of a superb movement ; in fact, cooperative -agri- 

 culture has begun to sweep across Europe with the onward 

 push of a great wave. Even yet it has probably not reached 

 the high-water mark. In Denmark, a country where the agri- 

 culturist has so fully come into his own, cooperation was first 

 attained by a determined uprising of the people ; in Hungary 

 it originated with the government ; while in France and Bel- 

 gium it started as a reform headed by a handful of keen- 

 visioned and devoted Catholic priests. This binding together 

 of whole communities for progress in agriculture, which has 

 in every case adapted itself so perfectly to the peculiar needs 

 of each country, makes an impressive chapter in the history 

 of our time. The story cannot fail to thrill the reader. 



The advance of cooperative agriculture in Belgium alone 

 shows the scope of the movement. A very noble type of 

 priest, the Abbe Mellaerts, in about 1890 threw himself into 

 it heart and soul. His attention was first aroused by the little 

 cooperative banks among German peasants. The business 

 success of these banks, and their moral influence, so impressed 

 him that he determined to found on the same lines an agri- 

 cultural league. Within fifteen years this league counted four 

 hundred thirty active branches, with thirty-two thousand 



1 Kropotkin, Fields, Factories, and Workshops. 



