24. See an excellent article by Mr Shaw Lefevre, in the Fortnightly Review , Jan. 1877. 5,000 persons own two-thirds of thecountry, or an average of 10,000 acres each. See also Mr Cliffe Leslie. Even the partisans of large properties cannot denythat they devour small properties. "It is quite true," says Mr Froude, "that about two-thirds of Great Britain belong to greatpeers and commoners, whose estates are continually devouring the smaller estates that adjoin them."25. These details are borrowed from a resume of the memoirs of the Russian mission at Pekin, by M. J. Sacharoff. See Revue Germanique (first year).
CHAPTER XIX.
CO-OPERATIVE CULTIVATION.
At the present time there seems to be a desire to reconstitute the old agrarian communities under a new form. In Englandseveral agricultural undertakings have been established on the principle of co-operation. One of the oldest is that ofBalahine, in Ireland, started in 1830 by Owen's disciple, John Scott Vandeleur. It seems to have met with the best results,both in a moral and economical point of view, (1) until the experiment collapsed suddenly on the flight of Vandeleur, who wasruined at play. The report of the Rev. James Fraser, the present bishop of Manchester, government commissioner in theinquiry as to the employment of women and children in agriculture, brings before us two agricultural co-operative societies,which seem to succeed perfectly. They were on the estates and under the supervision of Mr Gurdon, of Assington Hall, nearSudbury in Suffolk. The first dates from 1830. It was formed, at the suggestion of Mr Gurdon, by the association of fifteenordinary labourers, who each contributed three pounds, and a further sum of four hundred pounds was advanced by thelandlord. They have now extended their farm from sixty to a hundred and thirty acres. They have returned the moneyadvanced to them, and each share is worth about fifty pounds, which represents more than sixteen times what was originallyinvested. One of the associates, elected by his fellows, directs the cultivation, having a committee of four to assist him. Theassociates may sell their share; but the consent of the landlord and of the society is necessary for the validity of the sale andthe admission of the new associate.
The second society was formed in 1854 under the same conditions, with the same success. Mr Gurdon again advanced fourhundred pounds, which has been repaid to him. The land cultivated has been from time to time enlarged, and now extendsover two hundred and twelve acres, the rent of which is two hundred and thirty-five pounds. The original shares, for whichthree pounds ten shillings were given, are now worth more than thirty pounds. Mr Fraser has much to say of the advantagesof the system; and another writer, who also visited the Assington co-operative agricultural associations, confirmed, in the Pall-Mall Gazette of June 4, 1870, the correctness of the facts given by Mr Fraser. The celebrated German economist VonThünen, about 1848, introduced, upon the land of Tellow in Mecklenburg, the system of participation in the profits in favourof his agricultural labourers. According to evidence furnished by Dr Brentano, of the Berlin statistical department, thisexperiment, which was carried on in spite of the death of Von Thünen, is giving excellent results; for each labourer receivesan annual dividend of about twenty-five thalers, and the oldest among them have a capital of five hundred thalers in thesavings-bank.
The working classes in England at the present time regard the idea of applying co-operation to agricultural labour with muchfavour: and it was even advocated by Mill, who would have had the State grant to co-operative agricultural societies aportion of the common land still existing. These schemes have found their echo in the antipodes, and an association has justbeen formed at Melbourne, in Australia, called the "Land Reform League," the object of which is to restrain sales by theState of public lands, which it would retain as provision for the future.
