Fabian Traet No. rrs. 


STATE-AID TO AGRICULTURE 


AN EXAMPLE. 

By T. S. DYMOND, 

LECTURER To THE EssEx CouNTY CouNCIL. 

PuBLISHED ANn So LD BY 

THE FABIAN SOCIETY. 

PRICE ONE PENNY. 

LONDON: 
THE FABIAN SociETY, 3 CLEMENT's I NN, STRAND, W.C. 
PECEMBER 190~. 



STATE-AID FOR AGRICULTURE.• 

Bv T. S. DvMoNo, 

In addressing meetings of farmers up and down the country,
the late Minister of Agriculture, Mr. R. W . Hanbury, never failed 
to ask his audience in what direction they desired that "the 
Government should do more for Agriculture," but he never 
seems to have got a satisfactory reply exc.ept from those who 
advocated an import duty on corn. 

As a matter of fact" protection" does not assume an importantposition in the assistance given by the State to agriculture in 
Hungary. It is true that, owing to the Zollvereitt with Austria, 
there is a heavy import duty on corn, intended to protect the 
Hungarian farmers, but the farmers feel it to be :1 very doubtful 
advantage because, while the Austrians would in any case buythe Hungarian wheat as the cheapest and best procurable, the 
import duty on agricultural machinery imposed to protect the 
Austrian machinists (which it fails to do) is to the Hungarians a 
grievous burden. 

There is, however, a form of protection given in Hungary, 
as in all the sugar-beet growing countries of the Continent, to 
which special reference must be made, viz., the rebate on 
exported sugar, a grant so considerable that it makes it possible 
to sell Hungarian sugar in Great Britain for half the price it is 
retailed at in Hungary itself, because it pays the producers better 
to export their sugar than to sell it at home except at an absurdlyhigh price. Hungary is almost a purely agricultural country,
and practically the whole population is directly or indirectlydependent upon agriculture. The farmers, then, are taxingthemselves in order to aid certain localities to grow sugar(localities which are limited in area, for sugar-beet growingdemands a sugar factory in the immediate neighbourhood), and 
the whole population is, besides, paying an enormous price f0r 
this article of food. In spite, therefore, of certain advantageswhich the sugar-beet industry possesses, e.~;., the large quantity of 
labour it necessitates and the value as cattle food of the refuse 
pulp, it only needed the counter-vailing duties on bounty fed 
sugar recently imposed in India-formerly one of the best 
markets for Hungarian sugar-and the recommendations of the 
Brussels convention, to cause the c-:>untry to welcome the prospect 
of casting off a heavy burden. 

From " protection" we may therefore pass to a description 

of other means of assistance afforded by the State in the direction 

of (a) agricultural education, (b) the scientific development of 

agriculture, and (c) the commercial development of agriculture.

It must first be explained that Hungaryconsists of a vast plain,

surrounded by a great tract of hilly country rising in places into 

etupendous mountain ranges, whose highest summits are never 

• Part of a paper read at a meeting of the Fabian Society on May 22nd, 1903 

3 


free from snow. The inhabitants aril as diversified as the 
country, for the Magyars are quite outnumbered by immigrantSlavonic, Teutonic, or Latin races, all of them differing not only 
in dress, language, religion and customs, but also in intelligence, 
ability and inclinations. 

With the exception of an insignificant minority engaged in 
mining, mechanical, or chemical industry, the whole population 
is directly or indirectly engaged in agriculture. The farmers 
may be divided into three classes, (r) the magnates who farm 
their ten to fifty thousand acres, (2) the gentry with their five to 
fifteen hundred acres, and (3) the peasants who farm in holdings 
of less than r2o acres just 50 per cent. of the whole of the 
cultivated land of the country (excluding forest). These peasantfreeholds are for the most part between 8 and 120 acres in size, 
but in some parts of the country, owing to the Hunganan custom 
of dividing a property on the death of a father equally between 
his sons, the holdings through several generations have become 
reduced to the size of a mere allotment of half an acre and 
upwa.rds, an area far too small to maintain a peasant and his 
family, who are therefore obliged to eke out a livelihood by acting 
as labourers on the large estates and taking as payment, not 
wages in money, but a certain fixed proportion of the prodw:e of 
their labour. 

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 

Excluding the means taken for elementary and secondaryeducation, agricultural education is afforded by the follvwinginstitutions :


r. The Agricultural Academy at Magyar6var, an institution 
which ranks with Hohenheim, Wageningen and Copenhagen 
as one of the first of the agricultural colleges of the world, 
intended for those who are destined to fill the highest agricultural 
positions (average attendance, 157).
2. Four agricultural colleges, ranking with the very best 
of our own colleges, intended for the sons of the gentry or largefarmers (average attendance at each, 125). 
3· Twenty -one tillage schools, for the sons of peasantfarmers, who receive a two-years' course of training in practicalfarming (average attendance at each, 26). 

4· An immense number of winter schools of agriculture in 
the villages for the sons of peasants (total yearly attendance, 
3oo,ooo).

5· Itinerant teaching by a staff of over 200 travelling lecturers 
and experts, attached for the most part to the staff of the 
Agricultural Ministry. 

6. Educational institutions for special industries, including 
-(r) a veterinary college, a huge and splendidly equipped institution; 
(2) an arboricultural college and four schools for 
foresters; (3) a dairy high-school and four schools for dairymen 
and women ; (4) a horticultural college and five schools for 
gardeners; (5, 6 and 7) a poultry-farming, a bee-farming, and a 
meadow culture school; and (8) a viticultural course and eightschools for vine dressers. 

4 


7· Eighty model peasant farms in the respective counties, 
each equipped with the implements and stock considered most 
suitable for the district', and five great State farms which while 
primarily intended for other purposes, also serve for education 
and demonstration, and to which parties of farmers are carried 
by the railways at reduced fares from all over the country. · 

8. The great agricultural museum at Budapest. 
The whole of this enormous scheme is supported and in 
most cases maintained by the State. Every year further developments 
take place, old institutions are enlarged and new institutions 
built, and the policy of the Government clearly is not to 
wait till the demand becomes imperative, but, by the provision

of the fullest facilities for instruction, to encollrage the people to 
take advantage of it. In this, as in every other agriculturaldevelopment in Hungary, the Government leads the way and the 
people follow. 

It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the details of 
teaching or equipment, or to dwell upon the marvellous collections 
in the museums, which possess of themselves an educational 
value I could never have believed had I not conducted a 
party of farmers through them and found how intensely interesting 
from a practical standpoint did they find the contents ; but 
one important feature must be clearly impressed-that in everyinstitution for higher teaching and even those intended for the 
training of peasant farmers, education is associated with research, 
it being realised that, for the future of agriculture to be prosperous, 
it is important not only to teach the students what is 
known already, but to impress upon their minds, by this association, 
how incomplete is our knowledge and how much remains 
to be discovered. 

SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT. 

This brings us then to the means taken by the State for the 
scientific development of agriculture by experimental and research 
work. The whole of this is under the control of a 
Departmental Central Committee, on which all branches of the 
work are represented, and the purpose of which is to encourageand control the harmonious working of the stations (and thus to 
prevent duplication and overlapping), to direct what experiments 
are to be carried out, to advise the Minister of Agriculturein what direction development is required, and to publish the 
results in the form of bulletins. The following is a brief description 
of the stations under the control of this Committee :


I. The Geological Institute at Budapest makes a scientific 
study of the soil in relation to agriculture and publishes maps. 
2 . The National Institute for Meteorology possesses an 
observatory, and issues weather forecasts daily to the press,
institutes, subscribers and about 400 telegraph offices in rural 
I. 
NUMBER OF M ODEL FARMS IN HUNGARY. 
9 
So 


5 

districts, telegraphs rainfall statistics with the object of providing 
mean!' to prevent the flooding of agricultural land in districts 
subject to inundation, and promotes defence again5t gales. 

3· The National Chemical Institute and Experiment Station 
undertakes the analysis and control of fertilizers, feeding stuffs, 
etc., with a view to prevent adulteration. There are also 
chemical experiment stations connected with the Academy at 
Magyar6var and at each of the four agricultural colleges before-
mentioned! 

4· The Bacteriological Institute in connection with the 
Veterinary College at Budapest carries on defence against swine 
fever and other contagious diseases, and prepares and distributes 
mallein and tuberculin. 

5· The Central Seed-testing Station at Budapest and those 
in connection with each of the Agricultural Colleges and the 
Agricultural Academy at Magyar6var undertake the control of 
seeds and feeding stuffs with the object of preventing adulteration 
; they carry on experiments with a view to developingfertility, feeding value, etc.; and they diffuse a knowledge of 
weed seeds and defence against weeds and plant parasites. Some 
40,ooo examinations are made annually. 

6. The Experiment Station for Agricultural Implements at 
Magyar6var examines all new machinery introduced and advises 
farmers as to its value. 
7• The Experiment Station for Plant·breeding in Magyar6var 
has for its object the improvement of species, the acclimatization 
of new species, the improvement of pastures, and the 
diffusion of knowledge on the rational manuring of crops. A 
part of this work is carried out in conjunction with farmers who 
in consideration of the free supply of manure or seed agree to 
undertake the work, but the experiments requiring more accurate 
observation are arranged in conjunction with the other agricultural 
colleges, identical experiments being thus made in 
several parts of the country. 

8. The Entomological Station at Budapest has for its 
object to obtain and disseminate information regarding insects 
injurious in agriculture and the means ot defence against them 
and in urgent cases to undertake the defence. Correspondents 
are appointed in different parts of the country. 
g. The Tobacco Experiment Station in connection with 
the Agricultural College at Debreczen is established with the 
object of counteracting the decline of tobacco culture during 
recent years, by improving the quality, productiveness, proper 
2 . NUMBER 01" ANALYSES MADE AT STATE EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS. 
Chemical. Seeds. 
1890 4,125 2,651 
r895 4.925 21,291 
1900 8,391 34.858 
Igor 10,082 


6 

cultivation and generally increasing the profitableness of its 
culture.J 

10. The Experiment Station for Plant Physiology and 
Pathology at Magyar6var has chiefly occupied itself up to the 
present with the investigation of a disease in sugar-beet; the 
cause of this disease and the remedies having now been fully 
ascertained, it is now carrying on experiments on smut, rust and 
other fungoid diseases of corn. 
1 r. The Experiment Station for Feeding of Cattle at Budapest 
has for its object to ascertain the most economical feeding 
stuffs grown in Hungary for the breeds of cattle produced in the 
country, i.e., to apply the results of German and American 
experiments to Hungarian conditions. 

12. The Experimental Wool-sorting Station at Budapest 
was established with the hope of counteracting the very serious 
decline in sheep breeding and wool production in the country.
13. The Ornithological Station at Budapest has mainly in 
view the protection of wild birds useful in agriculture, and 
publishes popular well-illustrated works on the subject to the 
general public and to farmers in particular.
14. The Experimental Station for Brewing at Kassa has 
the general aim of developing the industry.
Such is the program of scientific work carried on by, and at 
the entire cost of, the State. 

COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT. 

In the commercial development of the agriculture of Hungarywe find that the State takes a much more leading part than in 
most Continental countries. The grants made for the reclam'mation 
of land, the loans given to the agricultural credit banks, 
and the appointment of agricultural commissionerers in foreign 
capitals, have their counterparts in many countries, but, in 
Hungary, beyond all this, the State does not hesitate to foster, bydirect financial aid, farming in any depressed part of the country, 
or any branch of agricultural industry that is capable of development. 
And it should here be mentioned that HungarianGovernments have not been afraid to embark on industrtal 
enterprise themselves, for to the State now belong the principalrailways, it is the owner of silk, hemp, flax, sugar, and manyother factories in connection with the State farms, it is proprietor 
of the world-renowned baths of Hercules and the delightful 
pleasure resorts of the Northern Carpathians, :md it owns 

3· AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE IN HUNGARY. 

188o. !goo.
Wheat rs.Boo,ooo qrs. 17,5oo,ooo qrs. 
Rye 5·400,000 " 6,300,000 .. 
Barley 5.000,000 .. 6,5oo,ooo .. 
Potatoes ro6,ooo,ooo bushels . . 135,ooo,ooo bushels 

187o-Mo. tSgo-xgoo.
Tobacco-area r4o,ooo acres 1oo,ooo acres 
produce 44.375 tons ss.Boo tons 

.. produce per acre 710 lbs. 1,250 lbs . 
!Sgt. 1897· Value of cattle exported {2,330,000 {4,830,000 


and manages 3,7oo,ooo acres of forest. But besides this the 
State farms, and farms to the highest possible advantage, 163,466 
acres of land in its five great stud farms, farms which not only 
serve as models to the whole country of what farming ought 
to be, not only serve to produce the best stallions, the best bulls, 
the best seed for distribution through the country, and thus in 
the most effectual way tend to the improvement of stock, tiut 
which also yield a revenue to the State of£3oo,ooo a year. 

I propose now to give examples of the means adopted,

To assist the farmers in districts hardest hit by agriculturaldepression, seed wheat, seed potatoes, linseed, etc., are distributed 
at low cost or in deserving cases absolutely free. Potatoes 
being an important crop in these districts special inducements 
are held out for the establishment of small distilleries, the excise 
giving peculiar advantages to these distilleries, and the State 
railway conveying, when the potato crop fails, maize for distilling 
from other districts at exceptionally low rates. 

To encourage the cultivation of malting barley in districts 
suitable for barley growing, good seed is grown on, and distri· 
buted from, the State farms in exchange for seed grown by the 
farmers, grants are made for the establishment of annual barleyfairs, and a rebate of about 20 per cent. is given by the State 
railways on the rates for carriage of malting barley for export. 

To encourage silk worm culture, a home industry carried on 
it is said by the families of 1oo,ooo peasants in the country, the 
State has established and owns 145 nurseries, at which several 
million mulberry trees are propagated yearly, a silk worm 
breeding station for providing and distributing the eggs, 24 
cocooneries for collecting the silk, and five silk factories. 

Flax, hemp, and hop culture are encouraged by grantstowards the establishment of depOts or markets, and by special 
reduced rates on the State railway.

Agricultural co-operation in the collection, manipulation, 
and marketing of agricultural produce, which is an importantfactor in agricultural development of Hungary, has received 
the powerful encouragement of the State, firstly, by the distribution 
of co-operative literature and, secondly, by direct 
grants in aid of co-operative enterprises. Such grants have 
been made to the Farmers Market Hall Supply Co-operativeSociety in order to enable them to start the systematiccollection and marketing of eggs, to the co-operative dairies 
to aid their formation, to the Central Co-operative DistributingSociety to enable it to start co-operative stores in the villagesin congested districts, and to the National Co-operativeSociety of Hungarian Wine Growers in the form of the free 
use of wine cellars beneath the Board of Agriculture in Budapest.
Lastly, a grant is given to the county agricultt,Iral societies, 
co-operative organisations as many of these are, amounting in 
Igor to£8,270, to encourage and assist them in their invaluable 
labours for the development of agriculture in their respectivecounties. 

The co-operative credit movement has also had the powerful 
support of the State. " In ot;der to facilitate and control the 


. 8 


co-operative popular credit movement (I quote from the recentlyissued report of the Minister of Agriculture upon the work done 
by his department during his five years term of office) the Legislature 
passed a special Act in r8g8 on the agricultural and industrial 
credit banks, under which a part of the shares were subscrihed 
by the Exchequer, a part by the already existing cooperative 
credit societies, and the remainder, at the request of 
the Minister of Agriculture, by some of the large landowners. 
Since that time the central bank, so founded, has been verysatisfactory as a working institution and has helped the department 
in every way connected with local agricultural co-operation. 
The local branches in 1902 numbered r,566, with 317,85Imembers. 

"The action of the Department since starting the central 
bank has been practically limited to helping the formation of 
local banks which, situated in the economically worst parts of 
the country, cannot start themselves without assistance. The 
grant is limited to some hundreds of crowns. The greaternumber of these are situated in the congested districts of the 
North-Eastern part of the country. The Department beinganxious to form these co-operative banks in order to emancipatethe poor farmers from the local money lenders (Polish Jews who 
charged, I may interpolate, 20, 30, or even 40 per cent. on loans, 
and who have been reduced to a condition of most miserable 
penury by the loss of their business), not only strongly advocates 
the system, but being a local landowner everywhere itself, subscribes 
a part of the shares and deposits money. These banks 
in the neglected parts of t!J.e country combine credit-giving with 
store-keeping." 

It may be added to this account of the Minister that in con· 
nection with some of the local credit banks co-operative granaries 
have been established, a system which has a special advantagein Hungary, as it is there the custom for the buyer to tra\el 
from farm to farm purchasing corn, at his own price, from the 
farmers. 

Having given some examples of the aid given by the State 

towards the commercial development of agriculture in Hungary,

I propose now to deal somewhat more generally with certain 

typical branches of agriculture which have received State 

support on educational and scientific as well as commercial lines. 

An important point that is probably already self-evident should 

be borne in mind in considering what follows, viz., that in 

Hungary it is the deliberate intention of the Government to take 

the initiative in every forward movement, and by doing so and 

by granting aid to obtain control. The branches of agriculture

I shall deal with are fruit-culture, stock-breeding, and forestry. 

FRUIT CULTURE. 

The climate of Hungary is eminently suitable for fruit, but 
up to the 'nineties the imports yery nearly equalled the exports.
Attention had been drawn during the previous decade to the 
suitability of the sandy and almost barren districts of the plainfor fruit culture, because vineyards had been successfully started 


' 9 


upon them to replace the mountain vineyards devastated by the 
phylloxera. Steps were therefore taken to utilise these districts 
for the development of fruit culture. 

With this object in view the first step taken by the 
Department was to decide what fruits and what varieties were 
suitable for cultivation in each district. Lists were then drawn 
up and sent to the agricultural colleges and the orchards on the 
State farms. 

The next step was the planting of a number of nurseries in 
different parts of the country for propagating the varieties of 
fruit decided upon, and the forestry stations vvere utilised for 
cultivating the proper stocks for grafting. Between 1892 and 
1901, 25 State orchards were established altogether.

Next there followed the distribution and sale at very low 
charges of the fruit trees, fruit seedlings, wild fruit stocks and 
grafted stocks thus propagated. To schoolmasters and clergymen 
fruit trees were given free, as also the seedlings and fruit 
stocks to the nurseries of parishes and agricultural and horticultural 
associations, who were required to supply fruit trees for 
planting the highways. In 1901 as many as 378,ooo graftedstocks and over 2,ooo,ooo seedlings were thus distributed. Even 
this vast number proved insufficient for the demand, and, to 
further increase the supply, prizes were given to those schoolmasters 
who in tht parochial orchards produced the greatestnumber of grafted stems, and plum trees, being more useful to 
poor farmers than anything else, were imported from Orleans 
and Antwerp to the number of 6oo,ooo. 

Meanwhile steps were taken to provide the necessary instruction 
in fruit culture. The great horticultural school was 
established on the slopes of the Gellert Hill at Budapest for 
systematic, theoretical and practical instruction. For orchard 
labourers four country schools of fruit culture were founded, in 
addition to which the State orchards served for their practicaltraining. An industrial school at Budapest was made purelyhorticultural. The winter schools of agriculture in the villagesfor sons of peasant farmers v,·ere required to include fruit culture 
in their curricula, teachers of fruit culture were appointed to 
secondary and other schools, encouragement was given to schoolmasters 
in teaching the subject in the parochial schools byoffering prizes to their pupils, courses of lectures were arrangedfor the road surveyors who would have the care of the fruit trees 
upon the highways, and courses of fruit growing were arrangedfor all schoolmasters and for a few clergy (for the clergy in 
Hungary as in every country are the best pomologists) of whom 
172 applied for the 12 places offered! Lastly, the Departmentpublished a weekly paper, "The Fruit Gardener," and several 
treatises and popular pamphlets.

Finally came the question of the marketing and export of 
the produce. And here comes the advantage of the control that 
had been exercised in only encouraging the cultivation of a few 
kinds of fruit, the production of small lots of many kinds beingthe worst hindrance to an export trade. Grants were given to 


io 

encourage the formation of local fruit shows, and of co-operative 
fruit marketing societies. Willow plantations for basket-making 
were started on the State farms, and gifts of willow seedlings 
made to parishes together with grants to enable them to preparethe land for willow plantations. Special low rates were chargedby the State railway for export fruit, and reports upon the 
demand for fruit in Russia, Germany, Great Britain, and 
Scandinavia obtained from the respective consuls. For unsold 
fresh fruit the State began to hire out machines for cider-
making, spirit distilling and fruit drying to parishes and co


,operative associations, and sometimes to give them free, and 
grants were made towards building two fruit drying factories. 

STOCKBREEDING AND DAIRYING. 

Equally comprehensive is the aid given by the State in these 
branches of Agriculture, and also intensely interesting because 
the State itself farms 163,466 acres of land in the five great 
estates which serve for the production of the pure-bred stock 
which are distributed through the country with rthe object of 
improving the various breeds. 

The aim of the Government is that a particular breed~of 
horses or cattle should be bred by the farmers in a particulardistrict, the object being to keep the breeds pure, to economise 
sires, and to enable buyers to know to what particular district 
they must go to purchase what they want. With this aim in 
view each State farm breeds a particular class of horses or cattle; 
for each district of Hungary the Government decides upon the 
breed most suitable for enrouragement, and the County Councils 
publish particulars to the farmers as to where sires of this breed 
may be obtained. 

With regard to horses no expense is spared; £rzs,ooo is spentyearly in the interests of horse breeding ; the stables at Kisber 
contain some of our best English thorough-breds purchased at 
almost fabulous prices, and fresh batches of pure-bred Arab 
horses are fetched from Arabia every year. The number of 
registered stallions owned by the State and hired out for publicservice at fees of from 6s. to ros. is J,IOo, which in rgor covered 
as many as I rg,r 14 mares, and in addition to these are 200 
stallions hired out to private breeders. So strict is the control 
that a sire belonging to a private owner must not be used by his 
neighbours unless registered. 

The management of the studs is admirable. All are under 
military control and the men of the cavalry regiments serve their 
three years upon the farms, thus, not only saving the State a 
heavy bill for labour, but learning all there is to know about 
horse-breeding and gaining knowledge which they are able to 
turn to useful account on returning to their own farms or holdings. 
The policy of the country in this respect seems to be 
abundantly justified, for nothing is so astonishing as the excellence 
of the horses bred by the small holders. who in one small 
village I visited were able to produce some so or 6o horses, any 
one of which would have looked well in Rott~n Row. In any part 


of the Great Plain good post horses can be had. I think the 
most vivid impression that anyone who has travelled in Hungarywill bring back is driving over that limitless expanse behind a 
pair of Hungarian horses, on and on, mile after mile, now racingmadly along the soft unmetalled roads, mere cart tracks, 
canopied in a cloud of dust, or sweeping dustless over trackless 
turf. 

Similar steps are taken for the clevelopment of cattle breeding. 
The whole country is divided into 20 districts, to each of 
which an inspector is appointed, who possesses such powers as 
will enable him to induce farmers to develope their business in 
the direction approved by the Department, Every year an 
immense number of good bulls are sold from the State farms, 
generally to the parishes or village communities, a tax heingraised by the parish council for the purchase, the bulls being 
thereafter available for the use of any farmer living in the parish.
In rgor, 3,428 bulls were thus distributed. Stock markets are 
also organised and prizes for the best cattle given, the grant for 
this purpose amounting in rgor to {3,300.

Particular attention is paid to dairy cattle. The native 
Hungarian cattle being primarily draught cattle, a largenumber of the best stock from Alpine herds of dairy cattle are 
annually imported for breeding purposes (325 in rgor). The 
dairying industry, as already mentioned, is assisted by five 
Government dairy schools and by direct grants to the co-operative 
dairies. So remarkable has been the development of the 
dairying industry since the first co-operative dairy was started 
in r8gs, that the excess of exports over imports of dairy produce 
has increased from £57,ooo in r895 to {486,ooo in rgor, an 
increase of more than eight fold.• 

Equally striking are the results of the fostering care of the 
State in the poultry industry. A State poultry farm and school 
has been started on the Crown estate of God6116, and here the 
most suitable breeds are reared. These are distributed in a remarkable 
way,-the cock birds are exchanged with the farmers 
for common poultry, and as many as 7,666 cock birds beingexchanged in rgor ; the same system apply to eggs for hatching.
Still more has been done in conjunction with the Market Hall 
Supply Co-operative Society by establishing local egg-collecting 
stations, mostly in connection with the local co-operative dairies. 
By systematic sorting of the eggs, and by the elimination of the 
German middlemen, the price obtained by the farmers for 
exported eggs has been raised 30 or 40 per cent., and the exportof poultry and eggs increased in five years by 8o per cent. 

Another form of State-aid in stock-breeding is the stepstaken to eliminate contagious disease. Strict isolation regulations 
are imposed to prevent the spread of swine fever. A 
serious outbreak of pleuro-pneumonie~ in 1893 was dealt with by 

4. CooPERATIVE DAIRIES IN HUNGARY . 
Members. Receipts. 
2,767 {22,470 
40,673 £%92,415 


12 

the wholesale slaughter of the animals in infected yards, 
compensation being given in full, as many as 20,942 cattle being 
slaughtered in 1894 and£37,000 paid in compensation, measures 
which were entirely successful in stamping out the disease. 

FORESTRY. 


There is one other State-aided branch of agriculture to 
which reference must be made on account of its importance to 
this country-namely, forestry. The part of the report of the 
Minister of Agriculture that deals with this subject is somewhat 
apologetic. It points out that while the aid given is to the 
material benefit of the proprietor, it is also directly to the benefit 
of the nation because (1) forest provides an article of national 
wealth which is in permanent readiness, (2) it promotes health, 

(3) it has a favourable climatical influence, and (4) it providesthe raw material of a vast number of industries without recourse 
to import, besides which there is a vast amount of land in 
Hungary which it is otherwise impossible to render productiveand of which part, while barren, is an absolute danger to the 
surrounding districts. It is concluded that State-aid to the 
proprietors of such land is perfectly legitimate, both because it 
is to the public benefit, and because the afforestation cannot be 
remunerative for some years to the proprietors. 
An act was passed in 1879 which made it compulsory to 
re-afforest formerly de-afforested and now barren land, and it 
prevented the de-afforesting of land which could not otherwise 
be profitably cultivated unless an equal portion of barren land be 
afforested at the same time. 

The State affords dd in this direction by establishing a 
central experiment station for forestry, four schools for foresters, 
and nurseries for forest trees in connection with each of the 
foresters' schools. From these nurseries seedlings are distributed 
free to proprietors, as many as 358,ooo,ooo, it is said, 
having been distributed between 1874-1901. Proprietors can, if 
they wish, give over to State management the land that they are 
compelled to re-afforest. The State also sometimes buys forest 
land, for example, as a national pleasure resort or to preventforeigners from acquiring large tracts for sporting purposes. 

LABOUR. 

Owing to American competition and consequent low prices 
of agricultural produce on the one hand, and to abundance of 
labour due to completion of public works and the introduction 
of labour-saving machinery on the other, the wages of agricultural 
labourers in the beginning of the nineties fell to a very low 
figure. The disaffection produced was accentuated by the 
working of an Act of 1876, disadvantageous to themselves as 
the agricultural labourers considered it to be, which imposed 
between farmer and labourer the necessity of contracts in all 
cases, and which required that agricultural labourers should be 
able to produce certificates of efficiency in certain cases, which 
certificates there seems to have been difficulty in procuring. 
Encouraged by the Social Democratic Party, the labourers 
secretly determined, in order to secure higher wages, to refuse to 


13 

perform their conhacts with the farmers as soon as the harvest 
in 1897 was begun. The Department conceiving that its duty 
was to aid the farmers to get in the harvest where actual contracts 
had been made, made ample preparation, chiefly by providing 
some thousands of labourers from the State stud farms 
and forests, and although the strike was very wide-spread and 
the feeling aroused very bitter, harvesting operations were eventually 
safely performed. 

The result of the strike was to strengthen the demand for 
revision of the Act of 1876, and the Department therefore promoted 
an Amending Act in 1898, the object of which was to 
facilitate the smooth working of the 1876 Act. There was an 
attempt to revive the strike in the summer of 1898, but it failed 
partly owing to the same steps being taken by the Department 
to meet the emergency as in the previous year, and partly because 
the Department had included in the Amending Act a clause for 
facilitating the distribution of certificates, and a clause for 
establishing a labour bureau for the efficient interchange of 
labourers and so equalising the supply and demand in the various 
districts, in order to prevent the super-abundant supply of labour 
in any district and the consequent lowering of wages. Under 
this clause every parish council must nominate a person to 
keep a list of employers and employed in the parish. Anysurplus in supply or demand must be reported to the countycouncil, who draws up weekly reports which are sent back to 
the parishes on the one hand and to the central bureau on the 
other. This system of interchange between parishes or districts 

eems to work thoroughly well; it is further facilitated by a 
reduction of so per cent. on the railway fares for labourers 
travelling to their work in another district and home again.

Simultaneously with this reform, the Department began to 
take measures for bettering the circumstances of the labourers. 
They began to establish popular libraries for labourers (there are 
now 1,068), to give grants to clergy and schoolmasters to enable 
them to establish reading-rooms, friendly societies, etc., and to 
give rewards to those clergy and schoolmasters who had been 
most successful in their labours. They award prizes to the 
labourers for efficient performance of their work (some 1,279 
have been awarded), and yearly distribute 400 diplomas as a 
permanent recognition that the State recognises their conscientious 
work and fidelity. Through the request of the Department, 
the agricultural societies recommenced in 1899 the old 
harvest feasts in order to promote the mutual interest of farmers 
and labourers in each other, and lastly the Department issues a 
popular weekly paper for labourers, the circulation of which 
amounts to 43,000 copies, and which is published in Hungarian,
Slovac, German, Roumanian, Servian, and Ruthenian. The 
total grant made by the Department from 1898 to 1902 towards 
bettering the condition of the labourers amounts to £66,ooo. 

The last Act promoted by the Department for the benefit of 
the labourer (xvi., 1900) established a fund for insurance againstaccident, sickness, and old age, an Act of which the labourers, or 
their employers on their behalf, have eagerly availed themselves. 


!f 

APPLICATION TO GREAT BRITAIN AND 
IRELAND. 


With regard to education in, and the scientific developmentof, agriculture there is, with little exception, nothing done in 
Hungary which we cannot parallel in our own country.
But the great difference is that whereas in Hungary the 
systems adopted are applied to the whole country, with 
us there is, with the single exception of the control of 
contagious disease in farm stock, absolutely no general systematisation 
whatever. In my own county, farmers can have their 
sons given an agricultural education, can have field experimentscarried out on their own class of land, the object of which is 
the increase in quantity and improvement in quality of their 
agricultural produce, and can control, by having analyses made, 
the manures, feeding stuffs, and seeds that they buy, but in 
the adjoining county they have no such privileges, and they are 
debarred from ours. It is the system of decentralisation, of 
remitting to the county councils the duties of agriculturaleducation, under which title almost all scientific development of 
agriculture is now carried on in this country, that is the difficultyin the way of the systematic application of any scheme to the 
whole country. The great variation in different parts of our 
country necessitates of course very different treatment, but the 
time must surely soon come when the experimental period of 
agricultural education has proved what the right treatment 
for each part of the country is, and every county should be 
persuaded to carry out its share of the work. How the systematisation 
should be carried out, what counties should be groupedfor the purpose, what means of persuasion should be adopted,
and whether by the Board of Education or Board of Agriculture, 
is not my purpose to enquire. The Board of Agriculture has 
lead the way in attempting to systematize the field experi:nentsthroughout the country and have utilised the AgriculturalEducation Association-an association of agricultural professors 
and teachers-in carrying out the scheme, and this small 
beginning may be the beginning of a far reaching movement. 

Next, with regard to the commercial development of agriculture, 
it must be remembered that the prosperity of a countrydevoid of colonies chiefly depends upon the prosperity of its 
industry and that in Hungary agriculture is the only importantindustry. It is quite certain that the policy adopted has been a 
gigantic success, and that the country is going ahead by leapsand bounds as a direct consequence. On the other hand it 
cannot be denied that the knowledge that the State is ready to 
initiate any developments required discourages private enterprise. 
There is already a feeling-of dissatisfaction abroad, a 
feeling of the powerlessness of individuals to develope an 
industry without State interference, that the initiative in anyforward movement must come from the Government, and a 
feeling of resentment at the restraint and control which it is 
evident is and must be exercised b,-the State whenever State-aid 
is given. 


15 


And if there is this growing feeling against State-aid and 
interference (the two terms are almost interchangeable) in a 
nation so uncommercial and so primitive in many respects as the 
Hungarians, how much stronger would the feeling be with us. 
Our English farmers are intensely commercial; the barterings at 
the weekly market, the sale of corn by a farmer at 6d. a quarterbetter than his neighbour or the purchase of seed at 6d. Jess, is 
the bright spot in an otherw.ise monotonous existence, and all 
wish of sharing with others the advantages of a profit-sharingand co-operative undertaking is absent from a farmer's breast. 
I do not think that the farmers whom I accompanied to Hungarywill ask again that the Government should do more for agriculture; 
they are rather itu bued with the idea that it is better to 
have too little State-aid than too much. 

The commercial development of agriculture in this country 
is slowly but surely taking place as the result, not of State-aid, 
but of better education, and the development would take place 
far more quickly if agricultural education were better systematised 
in the whole country. 

In certain directions, however, I believe that the example of 
Hungary might be advantageously followed. Strict laws should 
be enforced against de-afforestation. The de-afforesting of land 
in the Eastern Counties during the great corn years was a 
perfect calamity, for the land that was originally woodland was 
always the poorest land. and is quite unremunerative to cultivate 
in any other way. The re-afforesting of this land might well 
receive some encouragement, and the same may be said of 
enormous tracts in Scotland and Ireland, the re-afforesting of 
which would in a number of ways be to the inestimable advantage 
of the nation. 

Again, the county agricultural societies and chambers of 
commerce might well be encouraged to develope in a commercial 
direction, perhaps by establishing depots for agricultural producewhere the means for its disposal are defective, or studs for the 
sake of facilitating horse-breeding by the farmers, and especiallyby organising agricultural labour bureaux in connection with a 
central bureau in London, which might possibly remedy the 
scarcity of labour, the greatest of all drawbacks to successful 
intensive farming in the home counties. 

There can be no doubt, too, that credit banks would be a 
boon to the farmers in every part of the country.

It is, of course, manifest that Ireland needs entirely different 
treatment. The Irish and Hungarian temperament is not unlike 
in some respects. The Department of Agriculture in Dublin 
appears to be fully alive to the possibilities. Already it has 
adopted several means, similar to those adopted by the HungarianDepartment of Agriculture, to foster the commercial development 
of the country, and there is every reason to believe that it 
will be equally successful. 

Printed by John Dutton, Chelmsford. 


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