Profit-Sharing in, AgriciiUure, 
777 
and want to give place to sobriety, peace, and comparative 
independence," was brought suddenly to an end in 1833 by the 
bankruptcy of Mr. Vandeleur, caused by heavy gambling losses. 
The purchaser of Mr. Yandeleur's Ealahine estate was a man of 
orthodox views, who ruthlessly put his foot upon a "new- 
fangled " system, the virtues of wliich he was quite unable to 
appreciate. 
But though the Ralahine experiment had proved in two 
years that the temper and character of a district could be trans- 
formed by the application of principles which made it to the 
interest of the labourers that the farm on which they were 
employed should prosper, there is no other instance, that I am 
aware of, where a similar system, or even a modified plan of 
profit-sharing, has been attempted in Ireland : a fact which is 
much to be regretted when one reflects that the Ralahine ex- 
periment accomplished — to quote Mr. Craig once more — " what 
neither statesmen, soldiers, magistrates, nor political economists, 
with all their science, gunnery, preachments, warrants, councils, 
and coercion, could efiect." 
It was wittily said, in the same volume from which these 
facts have been gleaned, that an Irishman will either cany you 
on his back or lay you on your own, as you may treat him. 
The Ralahine experiment proved, to the common benefit of all 
parties — of the landowner, of the labourers, and of the State — that 
the same Irishmen who were thirsting for this latter satisfaction 
competed for the former so soon as they understood that their 
interests were bound up in those of their employer. 
The other well-known text-book instances of profit-sharing 
experiments in agriculture are taken from Germany, and I 
cannot do better than quote from the description of the most 
interesting experiment conducted by Herr Von Thiinen, on his 
estate, Tellow near Teterow, in ]\Iecklenburg-Schwerin, which is 
given by Mr. Sedley Taylor in his book on " Profit-Sharing : — " 
" To all his regularly employed workpeople occupying cottages on tbe 
estate he assigned, over and ahove ordinary wages paid at the full rate 
current in the neighbourhood, a share in the profits of farming. 
" If after deduction of all outgoings the profits exceeded 825/., each parti- 
cipant was to have one-half per cent, of the surplus above this amount. 
When, on the contrary, the assigned limit was not attained, the deficit was 
to be made good out of the next year's surplus. The number of bene- 
ficiaries, including bailifi', schoolmaster, cartwright, S:c., -was twenty-one. 
" The individual share in profits was not paid in cash, but credited to a 
savings account. On the sum therein standing', Herr von Thiinen paid 4^ 
per cent, interest, which was handed over each year in the form of a cash 
bonus at Christmas. Only at sixty years of age could a participant draw 
the capital sum accumulated for him. Should he die sooner, it passed to 
his widow, subject in some cases to partial settlement upon children. 
