The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-10-03
Agricultural Conditions in Great Britain and Ireland
BY JAMES WILSON AND HENRY WALLACE.

JAMES WILSON AND HENRY Wal
! area OF arabic land This is the nat
ural result of the increase in the cos
of land. which again, is due to it
scarcity as compared with previous
years.
In order to counterfeit this ten
I dency, the English government i
adopting what may be called heroi,
measures; first, in giving to the coun
/ ty councils or local governments tn,
authority to build laborers' cottages
obtaining the land by compulsion, /
/ 1t can not be obtained otherwise, ant
/ then erecting homes. These are rent
ed to laborers at very low rentals, moi
more than eis per cent interest on this
investment Second, by the purchase
compulsory if necessary-of lane
| for small holdings, varying in size &C
cording to the district, the objest be
ing TO encourage the back to the lan6
movement. The total land acquired
by the county councils in this way
during the five years in which the
act has been In operation Is $4,000
acres; the average price. $3.50 an acre,
Fifty thousand acres of this has been
leased, the average rent paid being
S6,25 per acre.
We mention these facts simply to
cbou- 4ha oxt-oor5irorx- ,,,o,c,,res {bo +
the British government is undertaking
in order to enable farmers to obtain
cheaper labor, to check the drift of
population to the towns, and to in
crease cultivation and prevent the
land from going to grass. and also to
prevent migration. How successful
this movement will prove in the end,
time alone will determine
OF the wisdom OF the legislation
that gives the tenant the legal right
TO unexhausted manures and other
forms of fertility, there can be no
possible question. It makes 1t to the
interest of the land, the landlord and
the tenant. that the lease should be
as long as possible. During these
travels we have been constantly i'm
pressed with the fact that the United
States is travelling In the same direc-
ton in which Great Britain has gone
In times past; and If we are to re-
tain the fertility of our soil and thus
provide food for our own people, and
have rura population on which
America can depend both In war and
In peace. we must adopt measures
similar to those which Great Britain
has adopted with success.
Ireland.
The relations between landlord and
tenant in Ireland are entirely differ
ent from those in England and Scot
land. In fact. In Ireland landlords are
rapidly becoming an extinct race. In
England and Scotland, the landlord
owns the land, the buildings and 9TH
er permanent improvements. In Ire
land he held only the fee simple, the
gift of conquest hundreds of years
ago. The tenant owned all the i'm
provements. the buildings, fences,
bitches, roads. and everything else.
Rents were placed as high as the
traffic would bear This condition OF
things became SO intolerable that the
government by a series Of laws, which
it IS not necessary for us to detail.
finally began purchasing the estates
of landlor5~. generally at about TWEEN
ty years judicial rent, and compensat-
ing them by issuing land stock bear
ing 22 percent interest, and requir-
ink the tenant to pay about So per
cent for sixty-eight and one half years,
at the end of which time he or his
heirs become the owner of the land
lords interest. This was usually about
three-ffths Of the judicial rent, and
about half of what was paid prior to
the reform legislation. About so per
cent OF the land has already passed
from landlord to tenant; and the time
will soon come when the landlord will
be unknown IN ireland, except the own
ers OF homes and the land immediate
II adjoining.
Shortly after the beginning of this
legislation, it became evident to Sir
Horace Piunkett and a number of
other public spirited men, that the
Irish tenant even when owning his
land. could not hold his own with the
farmers Of Germany and Denmark.
with whom he must compete In the
English market, unless the Irish farm
ers are organized as their competitors
are. 50 that his product could be put
upon the market Of uniform quality
and at the minimum cost Of produc-
ton. In other words. the unorganizeG
man cannot compete with the CO
operator
They have spent about half mil
hon dollars in organizing cooperative