398 A Spanish System of Estate Management, [aug., 



payment. At the same time the system avoids the fraud 

 to which the system of sharing the crops lends itself when the 

 tenant gathers his share. It allows the owner to deal with 

 the whole of the produce of his estate, conduces to uniformity 

 and efficiency of methods, and enables employment to be 

 given to the tenants for a considerable length of time. All 

 these circumstances justify the direct and continuous inter- 

 vention of the owner in the cultivation, because it is on the 

 condition of the produce that the result of its final preparation, 

 and consequently the profit of his business, must depend. 



The system undoubtedly necessitates the continued inter- 

 vention of the owner, but this intervention requires him either 

 to pay periodical visits to his estate or to reside there per- 

 manently. Those high in the social scale thus set an example 

 to those below them of the much deisired return to the land 

 which has been so splendidly advocated in the writings of 

 M. Meline. It also fosters the union of the tenant and the 

 owner, by creating 'a community in which the former 

 gradually recognises the advantage of the advice and modifi- 

 cations suggested by the latter with regard to cultivation, and 

 accepts them with pleasure, even though he may sometimes 

 have to abandon ancient practices. Facts show him clearly 

 that the benefits do not go solely to the owner, but are for his 

 own profit as well. 



Supplementary to this, the owners might take an' interest 

 also in the religious, moral and physical welfare of their 

 tenants by the provision of religious instruction and schools, 

 by forming societies for providing against illness, and by i 

 instructive and recreative meetings, as is done on the estate 

 under consideration. In such cases, it will be observed with 

 satisfaction how cordial are the relations between the two 

 classes, and how the discord between them insensibly 

 vanishes. This system may quite possibly not be applicable 

 everywhere, but surely in its essence it can be carried out in 

 numerous districts in many countries, and although to bring 

 it to a successful conclusion the owner must make certain 

 material sacrifices, without these sacrifices no ideal can be j 

 realised. The greatest ideal of the moment is certainly that j 

 of putting into practice the numerous improvements that have f 

 been effected in agriculture by stimulating the inertia of the j 



