Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/452

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A G K I C U L T U K E rvsu.lt. the T2i being to secure to tht landlord the whole benefit cf continually rising prL-*s, the result that of depriving the Eetaver of the secaritv which- the prlmitiTe agr^i-ient ga velum. and of subjecting hin to ail the disadvantages of & leaseholder the latter s VL The plan of industrial partnerships, wherever it has had a fair trial has invariably been attended by the hap piest results: but it has hardly yet been fairly tried in farming, where, however, its application would in one respect be comparatively easy. In most other kinds of business, to determine to the satisfaction cf both parties concerned how much, if any. of extra profits had been due to extra zeal on the pan of the employed, might be an operation of some difficulty : but there need never be any dout-t whether the crops of a given acreage were or were not above the average, or what, therefore, if any, was the sra] ".us in which, according to the agreement, the employed were entitled to participate. That fanners would risk cut little and only occasional loss, and in the long run would be sure to gain considerably, by permitting their labourers to share with them in a surplus which the labourers would have by voluntary exertion to create before they could share in it. may perhaps to an indifferent bystander seem a self-evident proposition. Farmers in general, however. may long be prevented from recognising its truth by an intervening hruv of traditional prejudice, which must first be cleared away, and the removal may occupy so much time that not improbably another and more advanced form of agricultural co-operation, not needing the farmers con- . :ime coine into vogue. multitudinous peasant proprietary much larger number of well-to-do is commonly supposed, but also a _ of rural magnates, who, even beside English dukes, might well p<iss for extensive land- owners. Among these latter are representatives of some of the oldest and noblest French families men rejoicing in the grand historic names of Ec-chefoucauld, Xoailles. Luynes. Montemart, D Usez. and the like who having at the restoration been partially reinstated in the domains of which the first revolution had despoiled them, dis appeared, on the second expulsion of the Bourbons, from court and office, and. returning to their country seats, be took themselves, under the Orleanist dynasty and second empire, to the improvement of their estates. A difficulty which here confronted them was that of finding tenants possessed of capital enough for any but very small farms. and this they have latterly endeavoured to obviate by devising, under the name of metayage par gr^yvp-ft. an ex panded modification of a discredited tenure. This consists in letting a. considerable farm, not to one metayer, but to an association of several, who work together for the general a marked success, it may become the starting-point of much further progress. One easy and important step in advance would be for a body of metayers to persuade their landlord to let them have their farm on lease, and at a fixed rent, thus raising themselves to that higher stage of agri cultural co-operation of which an imperfect but encourag ing example has been afforded among ourselves by Mr Guidon s well-known experiment at Assington in Suffolk. Of the two or three scores of labourers who are there par ties to the leases by which two farms one of 130, the other of 212 acres are held, not more than ten or a dozen have regular work in their own fields, the rest being therefore little more than passive capitalists, sleeping partners in the concern, while the active members receive, in addition to wages at the rates current in the neighbour hood, no larger shares in the profits than the members who do not exert themselves to increase those profits. Never theless, to sum up in a single phrase of especial significance for our present purpose the praises of the results achieved, Mr Gurdon declares that " he has no other land so well

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thus partially applied. It would seem, therefore, that the adoption of the same principle in its integrity would result in better farming still, and it may be hoped that the ques tion will, at Assington or elsewhere, be ere long put to the

(w. T. T.)

ALFHABETICA " of France are not 01 country gentlemen 1 not inconsiderible s PC- . *>:*. r | Bosris^a 2M.

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H:es- 331. H:p*. SSI. E "*^cS ftr~ SS4. Icp-rtiTemenrA. r*2t.305. Rollers. 319. I-dioa corn. 562- RCTEC. andt-t. 2?2. Js-s-lih hsiiardrr. Ml. 3S7. C^tS crntin. S3i r. 573. 3S3. C**". bsxrts. 15L ~eLi:r.33S. SS3. K:lu Riii 37<>. Rye^nss. 375. LAboi^ers. *:?. ; Sainfoin. 377. Lin I te^^re. 4 > >5. i Sil:. K3. Liree fa iri 411. Sard.. 40*. La-irs. cli 23=?: r*ce-t- : Scct .tni *j"?. 1 5^a "! 3-y. 41 ^"""ir 1 * ^49 i:=. 4-:. Si-sT; a. $i*S, good, under the sup-err: himself, or of a, manager This plan is by no meaz appear, its near counterpart tury existed in some sir Jaolts. Guittards, and Lotrtur. 2d edition. PP. 4 r of the landlord of Bis appointment elty it may perhaps ithin the resent cen E.i^:*:i

! P^:^i 34-X FarmV . L::eri:^re. 25?. 3O5. S-:<ie;:M, &:$. K-5. L-oeme. 373. ; S:iis. Sf*. - - 313. ? --;:e-ezr. KO ^ 353; Ii-;rii 343. Mirl c-51.

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. Garriotts - : ciirr. 3SZ. -:ia. Gcrerr^:- :. 305. ff*.T*-r-r*-e* 323. ?**- --.-**- 313. 410. -.;! Itiiiv. Its merit consiits in its Ttrnr?. .n. 1 4-v:. ! Trerrfcirr. KS: firi. S2-X TzrC-ij 1 m..6T?. 3? : jt-t>- I eri, 336: tiuners. SiL T^mija. ???. Z&S. 414. I Tussic. 37i Z enoug in ikely to work. Intht

Pen. chiTT= I . . Vetch-: Pirs. Vfi. | Wure lir Ptcn^tir^ ~Z*. Wter, 3<9. P!c-r:i. 311: fteiz. 314, ! Wketi. 3^4. 1 " - " -

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