nor that of Russian and Hungarian corn growers, whose excessive
labour could also be very much reduced if they adopted intensive
culture, instead of their present system of extensive agriculture.

II

It would be impossible to quote here the mass of facts on which we base
our assertions. We are therefore obliged to refer our readers who want
further information to another book, "Fields, Factories, and
Workshops."[11] Above all we earnestly invite those who are interested
in the question to read several excellent works published in France and
elsewhere, and of which we give a list at the close of this book[12]. As
to the inhabitants of large towns, who have as yet no real notion of
what agriculture can be, we advise them to explore the surrounding
market-gardens. They need but observe and question the market-gardeners,
and a new world will be open to them. They will then be able to see what
European agriculture may be in the twentieth century; and they will
understand with what force the social revolution will be armed when we
know the secret of taking everything we need from the soil.

A few facts will suffice to show that our assertions are in no way
exaggerated. We only wish them to be preceded by a few general remarks.

We know in what a wretched condition European agriculture is. If the
cultivator of the soil is not plundered by the landowner, he is robbed
by the State. If the State taxes him moderately, the money-lender
enslaves him by means of promissory notes, and soon turns him into the
simple tenant of soil belonging in reality to a financial company. The
landlord, the State, and the banker thus plunders the cultivator by
means of rent, taxes, and interest. The sum varies in each country, but
it never falls below the quarter, very often the half of the raw
produce. In France and in Italy agriculturists paid the State quite
recently as much as 44 per cent. of the gross produce.

Moreover, the share of the owner and of State always goes on increasing.
As soon as the cultivator has obtained more plentiful crops by prodigies
of labour, invention, or initiative, the tribute he will owe to the
landowner, the State, and the banker will augment in proportion. If he
doubles the number of bushels reaped per acre, rent will be doubled, and
taxes too, and the State will take care to raise them still more if the
prices go up. And so on. In short, everywhere the cultivator of the soil
works twelve to sixteen hours a da