Another thing that strikes him is the influence of the small landed proprietor. “The possession of even a small piece of property in land … is no slight preventative of crime against property.”[24] The author gives the following statistical summary. [[52]]

He ranks in the class of small land holdings estates of 30 acres[25] and below. The total amounts to 10,655,460 acres to 1,716,535 estates, with an average of 6 acres.

There were in the following provinces:

Posen 57,519 of these estates, or 1 to 25 inhabitants.
Prussia 93,793 of,, these,, estates,,, or,, 1,, to,, 30 inhabitants.,,
Pomerania 61,752 of,, these,, estates,,, or,, 1,, to,, 22 inhabitants.,,
Silesia 230,710 of,, these,, estates,,, or,, 1,, to,, 14 inhabitants.,,
Total of the Eastern group 443,774 of,, these,, estates,,, or,, 1,, to,, 18 inhabitants.,,
Rhenish provinces 788,473 of,, these,, estates,,, or,, 1,, to,, 4 inhabitants.,,
Brandenburg 112,532 of,, these,, estates,,, or,, 1,, to,, 22 inhabitants.,,
Westphalia 197,383 of,, these,, estates,,, or,, 1,, to,, 8 inhabitants.,,
Saxony 174,373 of,, these,, estates,,, or,, 1,, to,, 11 inhabitants.,,
Total of Western group 1,272,761 of,, these,, estates,,, or,, 1,, to,, 8 inhabitants.,,

“The Rhenish provinces alone, then, have nearly twice as many as the four Eastern provinces together! This explains the figure, 5.59, for this district given in the table above, taken in connection with the noteworthy care given to the poor. Can the connection between the ratios given above and those of the occurrence of crimes against property be denied?”[26]

In this connection he treats of housing conditions, for which he gives the following figures.

Dwellings to 1 league:

Posen 258 Rhenish Provinces 901
Prussia 230 Brandenburg 304
Pomerania 218 Westphalia 579
Silesia 546 Saxony 529
Total 1252 Total 2313

A more detailed summary of the number of inhabitants shows us that there were:

Posen. Prussia. Pomerania. Silesia. Rhenish Prov. Brandenburg. Westphalia. Saxony.
Inhab. Inhab. Inhab. Inhab. Inhab. Inhab. Inhab. Inhab.
In each dwelling 9.8 9.8 10.1 7.9 6.9 10.0 7.2 7.5
In the cities 11.2 13.2 11.6 13.3 10.4 14.0 8.7 9.8
In the hamlets 8.8 10.6 10.0 8.1 6.1 9.6 7.0 6.8
In the villages 9.3 8.4 9.3 7.0 5.7 7.7 6.7 6.5