M.— AGRICULTURE. 231 



syndicates. Their influence is, however, essentially local, attached to 

 the land, they concern themselves for the most part only with the 

 interests of the population over which their influence directly extends. 

 Very often a large landowner is the maire of the commune, or a member 

 of the Arrondissement Council, or of the General Council of the Depart- 

 ment, but very rarely is he a Senator or Deputy, as such positions 

 necessitate prolonged periods of residence in Paris. The influence of 

 the large landowner is specially felt by the ' metayers ' in those regions 

 where metayage exists. This influence takes the form of the choice 

 of their live-stock and fertihsers, and of advice as to the methods of 

 cultivation. This is only possible where mutual confidence and friendly 

 relations exist between the landowner and the ' metayers ' ; in districts 

 where these relations are disappearing or weakening metayage tends to 

 give place to rent-paying tenancy. 



In Italy, in those regions where large estates are the rule, the land- 

 lord, usually an absentee, often lets his land to intermediaries, who are 

 mere speculators, and who cultivate it extensively with a view to their 

 personal profit without regard to the interests of the community. Else- 

 where the landowners, where they themselves undertake the cultivation 

 of their own properties, usually seek to introduce increasingly scientific 

 methods of cultivation, and to draw advantage, in their own interests 

 and that of the public, from the latest teachings of chemistry, biology, 

 and agricultural mechanics. Even on the estates cultivated on the 

 metayer system the landlords, on whom falls the management of the 

 farms, have sought in the past to introduce all such improvements 

 as will increase the yield of the land and improve the economic condi- 

 tions of the metayers and their families. Latterly, however, the rela- 

 tions between the landowners and the peasantry have, as already men- 

 tioned, become somewhat strained; as the demands of the peasants 

 threatened in many cases to exceed the limits of the productivity of the 

 farms the landowners have felt themselves compelled to combine in 

 association for the defence of their own proprietary interests. A close 

 network of such associations has been formed, and these are affiliated 

 to the General Confederation of Agriculture. This organisation, acting 

 on behalf of its affiliated associations, proposes not only to safeguard 

 the interests of the landowning class, but also to carry on propaganda 

 in favour of the technical progress of agriculture and for the betterment 

 of the conditions of the rural classes in general. Eecently there has 

 also been formed an agricultural political party, to promote in Parlia- 

 ment the interests of agriculture. 



The history of agriculture in the United Kingdom for the last 

 seventy years does not redoimd to the credit either of landowners or of 

 statesmen. The landowners, who should have given a lead to the 

 industry, failed to do so, largely because they have not as a class been 

 trained for their proper profession, and because in a greater or less 

 degree they have regarded the land as an amenity, but never as a great 

 national problem for the solution of which they were themselves 

 primarily responsible. 



The British landowner, if he farms at all, being untrained to 

 the task, often farms indifferently, and generally at a loss. If 



