182 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



[Sept. 3896, 



common lands. As regards the measure of success which attended 

 this effort of the Government, it would appear from a work by 

 Senor Fermin, published by order of the Crown in 1864,* that up 

 to that year very little had been accomplished in the way pf 

 colonisation of waste and common lands. Sen or Fermin pointed 

 out that further concessions were needed to facilitate the deve- 

 lopment of rural industries, and that measures should be intro- 

 duced which would promote a better system of cultivation and 

 encourage labourers to settle in districts where they were 

 needed. 



In view of the recommendations of Senor Fermin, a law was 

 enacted in June 1868 to encourage the formation of villages and 

 agricultural colonies. This enactment not only repeated the 

 provisions of the previous law of 1855, but went a good deal 

 further. 



One feature of the new measure was the concession of certain 

 privileges, in the shape of exemption from taxation to parties 

 building and occupying houses, with land attached for purposes 

 of agriculture, in rural districts, the period of exemption being 

 longest in the case of those houses situated at the greatest dis- 

 tance from the nearest village. Similar privileges were granted 

 to persons erecting establishments for the purpose of carrying 

 on rural industries. Owners occupying such houses or buildings, 

 as well as their agents, tenants, and bailiffs, could not be called 

 upon to take up any municipal office, except that of provisional 

 mayor, until the houses were sufficient in number to constitute 

 a village ; they were also granted certain privileges in respect of 

 partial freedom from military service. 



The objects of these provisions were clearly to induce agricul- 

 turists to settle in the remote and sparsely populated districts, 

 and to promote the formation of agricultural colonies or commu- 

 nities. When a new colony or group of houses situated at a 

 greater distance than four and a half miles from a village 

 consisted of 100 or more houses or buildings, the Government 

 undertook to provide a doctor, a surgeon, a veterinary surgeon, 

 a schoolmaster and a schoolmistress, all of whom were to be paid 

 by the State for a period of ten years. 



In addition to the establishment of agricultural colonies, the 

 law of L868had for its object the encouragement of tree planting 

 and the reclamation of marsh and uncultivated land. 



Marsh lands which had been reclaimed and brought under 

 arable cultivation or converted into pasture were to be exempt 

 from all taxation for a period of ten years. Planted with fruit 

 trees such lands were exempt for 15 years, and if converted 

 into olive or mulberry plantations, the period of exemption from 

 taxation was extended to 25 years. If lands which had been 

 uncultivated from time immemorial, or had been out of cultiva- 

 tion for 15 years, were brought under arable cultivation, or 

 converted into pasture, they were to be exempt from all addi- 



* Fomento de la Poblacion Rural por el exemo. Sr. D. Fermin Caballero^ 

 Madrid, Imprenta nacional, 186-4. 



