ders are generally intent upon buying up the small
holdings, and thereby "rounding up" their estates. The large capitalist
magnates have a predilection for investments in land, this being the
safest form of property, one, moreover, that, with an increasing
population, rises in value without effort on the part of the owners.
England furnishes the most striking instance of this particular increase
of value. Although due to international competition in agricultural
products and cattle-raising, the yield of the land decreased during the
last decades, nevertheless, seeing that in Scotland two million acres
were converted into hunting grounds, that in Ireland four million acres
lie almost waste, that in England the area of agriculture declined from
19,153,900 acres in 1831, to 15,651,605 in 1880, a loss of 3,484,385
acres, which have been converted into meadow lands, rent increased
considerably. The aggregate rent from country estates amounted, in
pounds sterling, to:--

Countries. 1857. 1875. 1880. Increase.
England and Wales 41,177,200 50,125,000 52,179,381 11,002,181
Scotland 5,932,000 7,493,000 7,776,919 1,844,919
Ireland 8,747,000 9,293,000 10,543,000 1,796,700
---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
Total 55,856,200 67,911,000 70,499,300 14,643,800

Accordingly, an increase of 26.2 per cent. within 23 years, and that
without any effort on the part of the owners. Although, since 1880, due
to the ever sharper international competition in food, the agricultural
conditions of England and Ireland have hardly improved, the large
English landlords have not yet ventured upon such large demands upon the
population as have the continental, the German large landlords in
particular. England knows no agricultural tariffs; and the demand for a
minimum price, fixed by government, of such nature that they have been
styled "price raisers" and as the large landlords of the East Elbe
region together with their train-bands in the German Reichstag are
insisting on at the cost of the propertyless classes, would raise in
England a storm of indignation.

According to the agricultural statistics gathered in Germany on June 2,
1882, the farms fell into the following categories according to size:--

Percentage of
Area. Farms. Total Farms.
U