The writers in The Contemporary explained that the importance of the rural Commune lies, not in its actual condition, but in its capabilities of development, and they drew, with prophetic eye, most attractive pictures of the happy rural Commune of the future.

Let me give here, as an illustration, one of these prophetic descriptions: "Thanks to the spread of primary and technical education the peasants have become well acquainted with the science of agriculture, and are always ready to undertake in common the necessary improvements.

They no longer exhaust the soil by exporting the grain, but sell merely certain technical products containing no mineral ingredients.

For this purpose the Communes possess distilleries, starch-works, and the like, and the soil thereby retains its original fertility.

The scarcity induced by the natural increase of the population is counteracted by improved methods of cultivation.