Mutual Aid: A Factor of EvolutionKropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Science
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Cooperation; Social groups; Social institutions
23. The communes own, 4,554,100 acres of woods out of 24,813,000 in the
whole territory, and 6,936,300 acres of natural meadows out of
11,394,000 acres in France. The remaining 2,000,000 acres are fields,
orchards, and so on.
24. In Caucasia they even do better among the Georgians. As the meal
costs, and a poor man cannot afford to give it, a sheep is bought by
those same neighbours who come to aid in the work.
25. Alfred Baudrillart, in H. Baudrillart's Les Populations Rurales de
la France, 3rd series (Paris, 1893), p. 479.
26. The Journal des Economistes (August 1892, May and August 1893) has
lately given some of the results of analyses made at the agricultural
laboratories at Ghent and at Paris. The extent of falsification is
simply incredible; so also the devices of the "honest traders." In
certain seeds of grass there was 32 per cent. of gains of sand, coloured
so as to Receive even an experienced eye; other samples contained from
52 to 22 per cent. only of pure seed, the remainder being weeds. Seeds
of vetch contained 11 per cent. of a poisonous grass (nielle); a flour
for cattle-fattening contained 36 per cent. of sulphates; and so on ad
infinitum.
27. A. Baudrillart, l.c. p. 309. Originally one grower would undertake
to supply water, and several others would agee to make use of it. "What
especially characterises such associations," A. Baudrillart remarks, "is
that no sort of written agreement is concluded. All is arranged in
words. There was, however, not one single case of difficulties having
arisen between the parties."
28. A. Baudrillart, l.c. pp. 300, 341, etc. M. Terssac, president of the
St. Gironnais syndicate (Ariege), wrote to my friend in substance as
follows:--"For the exhibition of Toulouse our association has grouped
the owners of cattle which seemed to us worth exhibiting. The society
undertook to pay one-half of the travelling and exhibition expenses;
one-fourth was paid by each owner, and the remaining fourth by those
exhibitors who had got prizes. The result was that many took part in the
exhibition who never would have done it otherwise. Those who got the
highest awards (350 francs) have contributed 10 per cent. of their
prizes, while those who have got no prize have only spent 6 to 7 francs
each."
29. In Wurttemberg 1,629 communes out of 1,910 have communal property.
They owned in 1863 over 1,000,000 acres of land. In Baden 1,256 communes
out of 1,582 have communal land; in 1884-1888 they held 121,500 acres of
fields in communal culture, and 675,000 acres of forests, i.e. 46 per
cent. of the total area under woods. In Saxony 39 per cent. of the total
area is in communal ownership (Schmoller's Jahrbuch, 1886, p. 359). In
Hohenzollern nearly two-thirds of all meadow land, and in
Hohenzollern-Hechingen 41 per cent. of all landed property, are owned by
the village communities (Buchenberger, Agrarwesen, vol. i. p. 300).
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