General Conclusions. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 59 Looking at the results of the experiments at Rothamsted on the continuous growth of mangels with various manures for twenty-seven years from the point of view of the practical farmer, the following general conclusions can be drawn: (1.) That mangels can be grown continuously on the same land without injuring the tilth of the land or the health of the crop. (2.) That a liberal dressing of farmyard manure forms the best basis of the manure for mangels. (3.) That the erop will further respond to considerable additions of active nitrogenous manures to the dung, particularly of nitrate of soda. (4.) That a free supply of potash salts is essential to the proper development of the mangel, hence a specific potash manuring is desirable even when dung is used in large quantities, and on a strong soil initially rich in potash. When nitrogenous manures are used in addition to dung, the potash salts should be increased pro rata, in order to maintain the health and feeding value of the crop and to bring it to maturity. (5.) That, in conjunction with dung, superphosphate or other phosphatic manure is hardly necessary and will give little appreciable return, especially when the crop is grown in rotation. (6.) That, as soluble alkaline salts are beneficial to the mangel crop, either as direct foods or as economisers of potash, a dressing of salt should always be included among the manures for the mangel crop. Rothamsted Experimental Station, A. D. HALL. 60 AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION IN ITALY. THE growth of Farmers' Syndicates for the purchase of manures and other goods has developed very rapidly in Italy during the last ten years; and though it has not reached there to the extent of the parallel movements in France and Germany, it has special characteristics, which make a study of it of some importance. There, as in other Continental countries, the movement owes its rise to two facts-the agricultural crisis and the revolution in agricultural methods. In order to understand how this has come about, it is necessary, before tracing the development of the Syndicates, to take a short survey of the conditions of agriculture in Northern and Central Italy. The survey is confined to the North and Centre, because the co-operative movement has hardly reached the South and Sicily, and therefore the special agricultural character of the latter may be omitted. There are, There are The agricultural system of Italy is a very varied one; in its system of tenure, as in its agricultural methods and the character of its agricultural classes, there is a far greater diversity than any that obtains in Great Britain. roughly speaking, two main kinds of tenancy. tenancies at a money rent, more or less corresponding to annual tenancies and leases in England, except that it is rare to find leases for more than six, or, at the most, nine years. This section of tenants includes two classes, whose position differs widely. The large tenant-farmers of the Lombard plains are of much the same type as the English farmer-men of capital, large employers of labour, capable and business-like. On the other hand the small tenant-farmers of some of the hill districts are poor, rack-rented, cultivating their farms with little hired labour, exceedingly industrious, but often lacking in intelligence. Besides these tenancies at a money rent, there is a commoner form of tenure, to which we have no parallel in England. This is the mezzadria or métayer system,' under which the landlord stocks the farm more or less, the tenant as 1 For descriptions of the French Métayer System, see Journal R.A.S.E., Vol. 52, 1891, pp. 789, 781, and Vol. 55, 1894, pp. 360-364. General Characteristics of Italian Agriculture. 61 a rule finding nothing except the implements and half the live stock, and where the landlord takes in lieu of rent and interest a fixed proportion of the crops, generally one-half. It is found in practice that this system, though it secures the tenant against extreme poverty and promotes good relations with his landlord, offers no sufficient stimulus to improvement, and encourages a careful but unprogressive style of farming. There are also a large number of proprietors cultivating their own lands. The larger landlords (it must be remembered that in Italy 500 or 1,000 acres is considered a big estate) are tending more and more to take their land into their own hands, cultivating it under bailiffs, and often giving the labourers an interest in the cultivation by paying them partly by a share of the crops. Then, there are a great many peasant-proprietors, especially in the mountains and in the vine-growing hill country, fairly prosperous and very intelligent in the latter case, often miserably poor and backward in the former. Where small farms prevail, there is hardly any class of agricultural labourers; in the large farm districts it is a numerous and increasing one. They are a hard-working, sober, intelligent class as a whole, but generally very poor, though during the last two years the spread of Labourers' Unions has increased their wages very considerably. Italian crops differ of course not a little from our own, but hardly so much as might be expected in a southern country. It must be remembered that though the summer is hot in Italy, the winter is in many parts as cold as with us. The main crop is wheat; it is grown to a larger proportionate extent than in any other European country, and the area shows little or no sign of shrinkage. On the smaller farms vines and fruit-trees are often grown among the wheat, with doubtful advantage to either crop. Wheat is protected to the extent of 13s. 6d. a quarter, but it is the opinion of the best Italian authorities that the duty is unnecessary, and that its practical effect is to encourage bad cultivation. Where the land and style of farming are fairly good and rents are moderate, wheat, owing probably to the cheapness of labour, is produced at less than 11. per quarter, and it is probable that it seldom costs much more. As wheat is rarely imported at less than 1. 10s. without the duty, there is, apart from protection, an ample margin in favour of the native grower. The only other important cereal is maize. Some rice is grown on the irrigated lands near the Po. Oats, barley, rye are not grown to any large extent. In certain districts, chiefly on the hills, vines are the principal crop, and we shall see later how important a part the Syndicates are playing in combating the vine diseases. Mulberries for the feeding of silk-worms are often an important item on the farms. There is a good deal of live stock, but it is kept to a smaller extent than in England, and for rather different purposes. It is not bred chiefly for the butcher. The consumption of meat in Italy is small, and there is little good natural pasturage. Hence there are comparatively few sheep, and the cattle are mostly stall-fed, the best being fed from the rich irrigated meadows of Lower Lombardy, which are sometimes cut six or more times a year, and bear six to nine tons of hay to the acre. The cattle are kept mainly either for draught purposes for they are still used almost exclusively for draughtwork on the farms-or for the dairy. The production of butter and cheese in Italy is a prosperous and extending pursuit, and large quantities of both are exported abroad. There is also a very important poultry-rearing industry, and the exports of eggs and poultry for the table have doubled, or more than doubled, in the last twelve years. Since 1880 the character of Italian agriculture has been revolutionized by the agricultural crisis and the change in agricultural methods. Italy, like every European country, has suffered, in spite of its protective tariff, from the fall in prices, all the more because, owing to special causes, prices had gone up in the preceding twenty years. And the crisis there has been accentuated by factors, to which we have luckily been strangers. Italy, like France, has seen some of its chief crops half ruined by disease. The phylloxera disease has not affected vines to the same extent as in France, but the peronospora, a less deadly but more insidious pest, has seriously affected the vine production. The silk-worm disease has worked havoc in another important agricultural industry. At the same time taxation has increased, and forms a terrible burden on the land. The land tax amounts to from 4s. to 5s. in the 17. on the net return of the farms, and generally most of the incidence falls on the cultivator. In addition, he has to pay a local tax on his live stock, and the protective system adds heavily to the cost of his machinery. But he has met his difficulties manfully, and in the more progressive districts on the whole successfully. Contemporaneously with the crisis, the whole agricultural system has Improved Methods of Cultivation. 63 been transformed in many parts of Italy. Twenty-five years ago the methods of cultivation there were incredibly bad. There was little rotation of crops, little use of manure, whether farmvard or chemical; the live stock was of poor quality for everything except draught purposes; the yield of crops was extremely low; the implements had not much changed since. Roman days, and there was very little modern machinery. Since then, through large districts of Italy improvements have been introduced, which combine the changes that English agriculture went through in the eighteenth century with the discoveries of recent science. Rotation of crops is becoming general; the use of chemical manures has spread enormously; the vine diseases have been largely fought down by the use of sulphur disinfectants; the quality of the stock is slowly but surely improving; better seed is used; modern implements are coming rapidly into use; co-operation has been introduced for the purchase of manures and seeds, and for the manufacture of dairy produce, while co-operative banks have freed the small farmer from the money-lender, and put at his disposal the capital, for want of which he had been paralyzed before. Despite the fall in prices, the increase of taxation, the rise in the cost of labour, the absence of any big fall in rents, the Italian farmer is probably better off to-day than he has ever been. And this is due almost entirely to the increased productiveness of the land. In one large district, for instance, the vield of wheat has been increased from 12 to 22, and sometimes 27 bushels per acre; in other cases it reaches 30 or 40 bushels or more, where it used to be half as much. In another district the spread of co-operative dairies has increased the incomes of the small farmers by 30 per cent.; in another the value of land has nearly doubled. Of course there are still places untouched by the improvements, and it is perhaps only through a quarter of the country that the full effects of the change are felt. But within these limits the Italian farmer, and especially the small farmer, seems on the road to a prosperity which he has never known before. We have now to trace the relations between the Farmers' Syndicates and the general change in the agricultural position. They are partly its effect, partly its cause. The depression roused Italian agriculturists to efforts unattempted before; the new methods of farming created a new demand for chemical manures, for sulphur disinfectants, for better machinery, and |