ccupied Socialists, and they generally came to the
conclusion that four or five hours a day would suffice, on condition, be
it well understood, that all men work. At the end of last century,
Benjamin Franklin fixed the limit at five hours; and if the need of
comfort is greater now, the power of production has augmented too, and
far more rapidly.

In speaking of agriculture further on, we shall see what the earth can
be made to yield to man when he cultivates it in a reasonable way,
instead of throwing seed haphazard in a badly ploughed soil as he mostly
does to-day. In the great farms of Western America, some of which cover
30 square miles, but have a poorer soil than the manured soil of
civilized countries, only 10 to 15 English bushels per English acre are
obtained; that is to say, half the yield of European farms or of
American farms in the Eastern States. And nevertheless, thanks to
machines which enable 2 men to plough 4 English acres a day, 100 men can
produce in a year all that is necessary to deliver the bread of 10,000
people at their homes during a whole year.

Thus it would suffice for a man to work under the same conditions for
_30 hours, say 6 half-days of five hours each, to have bread for a whole
year_; and to work 30 half-days to guarantee the same to a family of 5
people.

We shall also prove by results obtained nowadays, that if we took
recourse to intensive agriculture, less than 6 half-days' work could
procure bread, meat, vegetables, and even luxurious fruit for a whole
family.

Again, if we study the cost of workmen's dwellings, built in large towns
to-day, we can ascertain that to obtain, in a large English city, a
semi-detached little house, as they are built for workmen for L250, from
1400 to 1800 half-days' work of 5 hours would be sufficient. And as a
house of that kind lasts 50 years at least, it follows that 28 to 36
half-days' work a year would provide well-furnished, healthy quarters,
with all necessary comfort for a family. Whereas when hiring the same
apartment from an employer, a workman pays from 75 to 100 days' work per
year.

Mark that these figures represent the maximum of what a house costs in
England to-day, being given the defective organization of our societies.
In Belgium, workmen's houses in the _cites ouvrieres_ have been built at
a much smaller cost. So that, taking everything into consideration, we
are justified in affirming that in a well-organized society 30 or 40