e soil. As to the
work itself, there is no townsman of either sex so enfeebled as to be
incapable of looking after machines and of contributing his share to
agrarian work after a few hours' apprenticeship.

Well, when we consider that in the present chaos there are, in a city
like Paris, without counting the unemployed of the upper classes, there
are always about 100,000 workmen out of work in their several trades, we
see that the power lost in our present organization would alone suffice
to give, with a rational culture, all the bread that is necessary for
the three or four million inhabitants of the two departments.

We repeat, this is no fancy dream, and we have not yet spoken of the
truly intensive agriculture. We have not depended upon the wheat
(obtained in three years by Mr. Hallett) of which one grain, replanted,
produced 5,000 or 6,000, and occasionally 10,000 grains, which would
give the wheat necessary for a family of five individuals on an area of
120 square yards. On the contrary, we have only mentioned what is being
already achieved by numerous farmers in France, England, Belgium, etc.,
and what might be done to-morrow with the experience and knowledge
acquired already by practice on a large scale.

But without a revolution, neither to-morrow, nor after to-morrow will
see it done, because it is not to the interest of landowners and
capitalists; and because peasants who would find their profit in it have
neither the knowledge nor the money, nor the time to obtain what is
necessary to go ahead.

The society of to-day has not yet reached this stage. But let Parisians
proclaim an Anarchist Commune, and they will of necessity come to it,
because they will not be foolish enough to continue making luxurious
toys (which Vienna, Warsaw, and Berlin make as well already), and to run
the risk of being left without bread.

Moreover, agricultural work, by the help of machinery, would soon become
the most attractive and the most joyful of all occupations.

"We have had enough jewelery and enough dolls' clothes," they would say;
"it is high time for the workers to recruit their strength in
agriculture, to go in search of vigour, of impressions of nature, of the
joy of life, that they have forgotten in the dark factories of the
suburbs."

In the Middle Ages it was Alpine pasture lands, rather than guns, which
allowed the Swiss to shake off lords and kings. Modern agriculture will
allow a city in revolt to free itse