1922.] 



Agriculture Abroad. 



851 



AGRICULTURE ABROAD. 



AGRAEIAN LEGISLATION IN EUROPE— EXPENDITURE 

 OF THE U.S.A. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE- 

 APPROPRIATIONS FOR AGRICULTURE IN CANADA- 

 DAIRYING IN NOVA SCOTIA— WEEDS IN MANITOBA 

 — TIMBER SEASONING INVENTION — AGRICUL- 

 TURAL WAGES IN U.S.A. 



The issue oi the " International Labour Review " for 

 September contains a very interesting survey of post-war 

 New Agrarian ^^g^'^rian legislation in Central Europe. 



T • 1 +• • The main purpose of the reforms is 

 Legislation m , i i n i • 



Central Euro e ^^^^^^^ be the democratic ownership 

 ^ * of land, to be attained by dividing up 

 the great estates and by strengthening peasant proprietor- 

 ship. The land required for the purpose is acquired 

 by different methods. In Germany, Austria, and Hungary, 

 land belonging to or purchased from voluntary sellers by 

 the state (under rights of pre-emption) is used for creating small 

 farms. Should this means be insufficient for the purpose of 

 reform a strictly limited right of expropriation can be sanctioned. 

 In Czecho-SloMkia, Poland, Rumania and Lithuania, large- 

 scale ownership as such is rejected and the new reform legisla- 

 tion is based on the principle that this class of ownership should 

 loe suppressed. There is in consequence no question of acquisi- 

 tion from voluntary sellers, but the maximum areas which can 

 be held by individuals are fixed, according to the nature of the 

 land, and expropriation of the rest is insisted on by the terms 

 of the various Acts. In Esthonia and Latvia the properties 

 subject to exnronriation are not decided bv maximum areas but 

 are those belonging to a certain class of proprietors. The so- 

 called " estates of the nobles " are to be totally expropriated. 

 The method of compensation for expropriation has not yet been 

 decided in these two states, but in the other countries special 

 arrangements have been made for a full or partial payment by 

 way of compensation (either in cash or in government stock), 

 the valuations to be made generally on a pre-war basis. 



Tho cultivation of estates in their present form is. as a rule, 

 permitted by the new legislation, only when carried on by public 

 institutions, such as agricultural schools or experimental 

 stations, or sirniiar undertakings, or when agricultural co-opera- 

 tive societies are the owners. In several agrarian laws the 



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