Agricultural Depression at Home and Abroad. 
087 
Norway, the Land Mortgage Bank, the savings banks, and the 
traders in towns, although nearly all the small farmers are 
nominally proprietors of their holdings. 
Austria-Hungary. 
There is no doubt that agricultural depression has been felt 
severely in Austria-Hungary. The decay of peasant-proprietor- 
ship in Austria and the generally depressed condition of the 
agricultural population have exercised the minds of statesmen 
and economists for years past, and many changes in the law 
have been advocated. “ One hears everywhere of the distress 
of the small farmer,” writes Dr. Hainisch, a high authority ; 
“ seldom of his prosperity.” Deriving his information largely 
from this authority, Mr. Drage in his report on Austria-Hun- 
gary says : “ Where the small independent farmer is not actually 
driven from the land by the pressure of competition and the 
burden of land taxation, which is said to fall comparatively 
more heavily on the small than on the large landed proprietors, 
he is often obliged to sink into the position of a tenant, or to 
see his estate broken up into small holdings.” An Austrian 
paper, quoted by Mr. Drage, states that “ the very conditions of 
existence of the smaller land proprietors seem to be threatened.” 
The condition of the farm labourers, tco, is unsatisfactory, their 
wages being low and their diet poor. A very full and inter- 
esting account of the conditions of land tenure and the causes 
of depx-ession is given in Mr. Drage’s report. 
In Hungary the state of affairs is no better, the condition of 
the peasant proprietors being especially distressing. “ The 
different views,” says Dr. Hirsch, alluding to that condition, 
“ lead to but one conclusion, that it is as bad as possible ; that 
the peasant holdings are loaded with debt, and are growing into 
an ever closer dependence on capitalists. The sinking of the 
peasant proprietors into the position of an agricultural proleta- 
riat, and the growing emigration as a necessary consequence of 
this situation grow clearer day by day.” 
Russia. 
Volumes have been written upon the miserable condition of 
the agricultural population in Russia, and the only difficulty in 
presenting evidence upon the subject lies in the vastness of the 
records from which it has to be selected. In 1889 Colonel 
Waghorn, then of Taganrog, forwarded a report to the Foreign 
Office, which consisted mainly of a condensed translation of a 
