1909.] Cottages and Allotments in France. 863 



of the expenses incurred is refunded by the communes. The 

 Government, and in some cases the Provinces, pay a portion 

 of the expenses incurred in planting communal waste lands, 

 or in re-afforesting districts where the communal woods have 

 been destroyed. An exemption from taxes during ten years 

 is granted to communes in respect to waste lands which have 

 been planted with trees. Public lectures on forestry are given 

 free every year in various districts. 



For some years past the problem of discovering some 

 means of retaining the poorer agricultural labourers on the 

 land and of improving the conditions of 

 Provision of Cottages rural housing has been engaging the 

 and Allotments attention of the Legislature in France, 

 in France. j n l g 0 ( ) a j aw was passed for the pur- 



pose of encouraging the erection of 

 cheap and healthy dwellings for the labouring classes by 

 authorising the loan of official and charitable funds to recog- 

 nised societies, to enable them to build houses of this type and 

 sell them by instalments over a long term of years, or to lend 

 money for this purpose. The provisions of this law also 

 applied to the acquisition of gardens not exceeding one-eighth 

 of an acre when attached to dwellings, or one-fourth of an 

 acre if detached. Whilst, therefore, this law encouraged the 

 building of cottages with gardens, the limitation of the area 

 prevented agricultural labourers from acquiring under these 

 favourable conditions an allotment of sufficient size to pro- 

 duce much profit. It was pointed out that the lower wages 

 and frequent lack of work prevented agricultural labourers 

 from paying the annual instalments necessary for the pur- 

 chase of a cottage, though the town workman was well able 

 to do so, whereas if the area to be acquired were made larger 

 the profit obtained from it would suffice to cover the necessary 

 payments, and an important step would have been taken in 

 the direction of preventing the migration of rural labourers 

 into the towns. After considerable discussion, a law was 

 passed on the 10th April, 1908, which extends the provisions 

 of the earlier law in several important particulars. 



In the first place, the law of 12th April, 1906, as to cheap 



