FARMERS' MOVE MENT, a world-wide phase of propaganda actively carried on in agricultural districts to secure efficient co-ordination and co-operation among farmers, so that the best results may be obtained in the harvesting of crops and food supplies. In the United States the movement is fostered by the State Department of Agri ctilture and the National Association of State Commissioners of Agriculture, and is aggres ively carried on through various agencies. See AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS ; CO-OPERATION ; FARMERS' ALLIANCE; FARMERS' I NSTTTUTES ; FARMERS' NATIONAL CONGRESS; INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE.
a privileged asso ciation in pre-Revolutionary France, who leased the public revenue of the country. The system originated in the 14th century when the tax on salt was farmed out in order to raise money for the war with England. Thereafter other taxes were so leased or farmed and in 1720 a board of administration was formed with one of the farmers-general as president. The
Minister of Finance had the power to select the farmers-general but the system led to the most corrupt practices, court favorites being often given a tax instead of a pension. Just previous to the Revolution the body of farmers-general numbered about 60. They turned in a fixed amount to the treasury and all tax returns above this fixed amount went into their own pockets. The system was abolished by the consti tution of 1791 and during the Revolution many of the ex-farmers-general were sentenced to the guillotine. The system was one of the principal causes of the Revolution, the farmers general not being noted for their leniency in exacting the imports from the tax-paying pub lic. Consult De Nervo, 'Les finances fran caises sous l'ancienne monarchic' (Paris 1863) ; Lowell, 'The Eve of the French Revolution' (Boston 1892) ; Gomel, C., 'Les causes financieres de la revolution frangaise) (2 vols., Paris 1893).