3.—Changed Methods of Farming.

It is self-understood that these great tasks cannot be accomplished at once; but the new society will devote all its strength to these and similar undertakings, since it will be the avowed purpose of this new society to perform tasks in the interest of civilization and to permit nothing to interfere with their performance. In the course of time it will accomplish works the very thought of which would make present-day society dizzy.

Measures and institutions like the ones described above will make agriculture much more favorable. Still other points are to be considered in connection with the improved methods of farming. At present many square miles of land are planned with potatoes to be used mainly for the distilling of whiskey, which is consumed almost exclusively by the poor and needy portion of the population. Whiskey is the only stimulant they can obtain, the only banisher of care. But among the truly civilized people of the new society the consumption of whiskey will disappear; the soil and the labor power will be employed to raise wholesome food. We have already pointed to the cultivation of sugar-beets and the manufacture of sugar for export. In Germany more than 400,000 hectares of land, best suited to the raising of wheat, are devoted to the cultivation of sugar-beets, to supply England, Switzerland, the United States, etc., with sugar. Our standing army, the scattered methods of production and distribution, the scattered methods of farming, etc., make it necessary to breed millions of horses, and large areas of land are required to pasture them. The thoroughly transformed social and political conditions will enable the new society to utilize most of this land for agricultural purposes. Recently areas of many square kilometers have been withdrawn from agriculture, entire villages have been wiped out, because the new long-range firearms and the new methods of combat necessitate drilling-grounds on which whole troops may manœuvre. Such use will never be made of the land in the future.

The great realm of agriculture, forestry and irrigation has already been made the subject of discussion, and a considerable literature exists on the subject. No particular field has remained unconsidered. Forestry, irrigation and drainage, the raising of grain, the cultivation of vegetables, fruit, berries, flowers and ornamental plants, the raising of fodder for domestic animals, cattle-breeding, raising of poultry, fish and bees, the preparation of dung and manure, the use of waste materials in farming and in industry, chemical examinations of the soil, and its preparation for one or another kind of crop, the nature of seeds, rotation of crops, farm implements and machinery, proper construction of farm-buildings, conditions of climate, etc.—all these things have been made subjects of scientific discussion and investigation. Almost daily new discoveries and experiences lead to improvements along one line or another. Since the researches of Thaer and J. v. Liebig agriculture has become a science. Indeed it has become one of the first and foremost sciences and has attained a degree of importance that few realms of productive activity can equal. But if we compare this tremendous progress along all lines with the true status of agriculture, it must be admitted that, so far, only a small fraction of the private owners have been able to make use of this progress, and all only pursue their private interest, regardless of the public welfare. The great majority of our farmers, we may say about 99 per cent. of them, are quite unable to make use of the progress and the advantages offered by science and by technical improvements, because they lack the necessary means, or knowledge, or both. Here the new society will find a field that has been well prepared, both theoretically and practically, and that it will only need to organize to attain the grandest results.