246 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



the workman in the field; in a word, to enable those 

 who remain in their native country to find something else 

 there than fern and buckwheat-bread, unhealthy pond- 

 water, and, true penance of Tantalus, immense lands to 

 cultivate, but no labour. And then, when this work of 

 reparation shall have been accomplished, we might, 

 without reverse of the medal, be justly proud of our 

 country. Instead of progressing towards the English 

 organization In what relates to the repartition of the 

 populations, we shall have preserved our old and strong 

 French organization — the predominance of the rural 

 populations over the urban, the scattered populations 

 over the agglomerated. 



Undoubtedly the progress of mechanical agriculture, 

 like that of mechanical manufacture, tends to the sub- 

 stitution, so far as it can, of the work of machinery for 

 that of men. But does it follow that this desirable 

 substitution has been, up to the present time, one of the 

 causes to which we are allowed to attribute the depopu- 

 lation of the country districts ? Have we a right to 

 say that the thrashing-machine, the drill, the horse-hoe, 

 the steam locomotive, the haymaking machine, &c., &c., 

 have in any degree whatever diminished on our farms 

 the demand for hand labour ? To maintain such affir- 

 mations would be to forget, in my opinion, that the 

 more agriculture is improved, the greater its need of the 

 arm — and let us mark well this fact — the arm of intel- 

 ligence. This is what appears to have escaped the 

 notice of many writers, who, on this question of popu- 

 lation, have spoken of the wants of agriculture in men, 

 and who understand manufacturing much better than 

 rural economy. More familiarity with this last science 

 would have taught them that amongst the elements that 

 determine the choice of systems of cultivation, it is 

 necessary, before all, to accord a very great importance 

 to the amount of the labouring population. Show us the 

 least populous country, and forest and pastoral agriculture 

 reign there ; ascend a ladder, and you find arable culture 

 mingled with fallows and pasturage ; see, in short, a 

 country well peopled, and you are in presence of in- 

 tensive culture, culture without fallows, culture with 

 stabulation of cattle, and predominance of roots, artifi- 

 cial forage, manufacturing and garden 'plants, &c. It 

 is quite true that machines are multiplied in proportion 

 as the earth is better cultivated ; but as, on the other 

 hand, the demands of consumption increase, it happens 

 that, up to the present at least, the increasing fertility 

 of the soil causes the extension of manufacturing and 

 gardening cultivation, which implies also a greater need 

 of hand-labour. And not only are more hands neces- 

 sary, but, Vv'hat is more important for the working 

 population, the rural labour formerly concentrated upon 

 the harvest season has become better distributed over 

 the whole year. Thus workmen are required for spring 

 tillage, for the autumn harvests, and for winter works 

 in the agricultural districts. Hence, less stoppage, but 

 a more equally-balanced labour, better sustained, and 

 better remunerated. 



Such is the truth of tho case. Machinery has in 

 no respect occasioned the emigration of the rural popu- 

 lation ; since agriculture, otherwise in presence of larger 

 outlets, has never had such extensive need of hand- 

 labour as since the period of the improvement of 

 machines. It is therefore not true that the attraction 

 of the cities over the rural populations can be a good 

 thing ; nor is it true that this attraction is a sign of high 

 civilization. On the contrary, this unclassing of the 

 populations is a fact not to applaud, but to combat with, 

 in its_ exaggerations. Let us not forget, as a last 

 analysis, that it not with French as with English agri- 

 culture. This latter, whether it be from its markets or 

 from the nature of the soil and climate, employs itself 

 little except upon forages, corn, and cattle. The former, 



much more complex, unites to the production of alimen- 

 tary commodities, those of vines, mulberries, olives, 

 fruit trees, manufacturing and horticultural plants, in 

 the open fields. The small culture therefore predo- 

 minates over our territory ; and the "small culture 

 signifies the rural population in the greatest number. 



All these ideas have been developed by M. de 

 Lavergne, in several chapters which he has devoted to 

 the special study of cattle, machinery, agricultural and 

 forest products. Written under the impression of the 

 visits made by the author to the Exposition of 1855, 

 these chapters are not simply a technical description of 

 the objects that the several nations had sent to the great 

 gathering at Paris. Much higher is their bearing, for 

 they are in truth a study of the whole of European 

 agriculture. Thus, when the Exposition terminated, 

 the author, always pre-occupied with the condition of 

 the rural classes, takes, at setting out, many of those 

 ideas which, with more or less opportunity, have been 

 thrown into public discussion. 



In many of these ideas appears commercial free- 

 dom ; that is to say, the suppression, or rather the pro- 

 gressive reduction of customs' duties exacted at the 

 frontiers of each nation. 1 will not enter into the dis- 

 cussion of this so-much controverted question ; and 

 besides, there is not a single reader of this journal who 

 does not know that M. de Lavergne does not in any 

 respect believe that our agriculture is efficiently pro- 

 tected by the sliding-scale and other fiscal arrangements. 

 I will only say that, in opposition to many ancient 

 organizers of free exchange in France, who explained to 

 us, as was done in England for the agriculture of that 

 country, that French agriculture was enriched at the 

 expence ( f the consumers, M. de Lavergue has clearly 

 shown that enormous difference which, in this respect, 

 exists between the agricultures of the two countries. 

 In fact, the free-exchangists of Outre-Manche might 

 justly support themselves upon the excessive dearness 

 of agricultural products, and by that argument organize 

 a league against the import duties on cereals. But in 

 France to talk of the excessive dearness of commodities, 

 and of the illegitimate profits of agriculture, was in 

 truth to place the spirit of system above the reality of 

 facts ; to discredit political economy ; and at all hazards, 

 to ruin the doctrine of free-trade in public opinion. 

 Real science, or that which is based on the study of 

 things, ought therefore to be pleased that M. de 

 Lavergne has re-opened this question, and placed it upon 

 its true foundation. Such men advance the sciences 

 slowly : it is not necessary to repudiate them because 

 they sometimes deceive themselves ; but when a principle 

 is badly advanced, it must be replaced. 



It is impossible that M. de Lavergne should not know 

 his own opinion on a measure that would tend to no- 

 thing less than the re-establishment of an order of 

 things incompatible with our present habits. Listen to 

 certain reformers, and they charge the subdivision of 

 the land with the backward state of our agriculture ; they 

 consequently demand that we introduce into our legisla- 

 lation the illimitable liberty of willing property at death, 

 and the right of entail. What does M. de Lavergne 

 think on this subject? A partisan of free competition, 

 he admits only one means of disallowing the sale to the 

 small proprietor, that is, to do better than he, as may 

 be done in certain situations. In the background, there- 

 fore, are those superannuated combinations, which, 

 powerless to reascend the course of time, would be useful 

 only in raising new storms. "The law of equal division," 

 says our author, " is the flesh and blood of France. We 

 cannot touch it without danger, at least in its essential 

 dispositions." This is saying plainly that M. de La- 

 vergne does not push the fanaticism of this law of equal 

 division to a disregard of the inconveniences of the 



