THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



M7 



826th article of the Code, which allows to each of the 

 heritors to demand his part in h'mcl, of the furniture 

 and fixtures of the succession. This regime of absolute 

 equality has conducted us straight to that of instalments, 

 of enclosures of pieces of land; that is, a regime that 

 multiplies inordinately the ditches, fences, rights of 

 passage, &c.; which hinders the reform of bad dis- 

 tribution of crops, and the execution of great works 

 connected with drainage, irrigation, &c. Here, then, 

 there is something to do ; and M. de Lavergne thinks 

 that, for example, one of the heirs should be authorized 

 to take possession of fixtures exceeding in value his 

 share, on payment to the others of three per cent, interest, 

 and two per cent, redemption, with the power of repaying 

 the whole on the principle of a credit -fonder . 



With regard to the soil, the principal element of 

 agricultural labour, M. de Lavergne demands the re- 

 duction, and even the suppression of the rights which 

 involve the real property mutations. This is well 

 spoken, and it was moreover the advice of M. Gaspavin; 

 these rights are, in fact, one of the first causes of the 

 enormous debt of the proprietary. They bar the idea 

 of all improvements ; and one of the best means of en- 

 couraiiing agriculture will unquestionably be to facilitate 

 the mutations. 



Again, with regard to the soil, M. de Lavergne has 

 met with a publicist who places the existence of com- 

 munal property in the list of the most efficacious 

 means for ameliorating the condition of the rural 

 classes. Upon this, a protest is urged by M. de La- 

 vergne, who knows very well that the land that is every 

 body's is nobody's, and who, in that frame of mind, 

 reproaches the communalities when they go beyond a 

 certain proportion with the population, for the main- 

 tenance of poverty, idleness, ignorance, and thought- 

 lessness. 



After the soil come capital and labour. Here agricul- 

 ture is, it may be said, in presence of two deserters, who 

 have given notice of passing over to the enemy. The 

 enemy ! that is undoubtedly the true expression, when it 

 is intended to point out those manufactures which do 

 nothing for the soil, whilst they consume nevertheless its 

 produce. 



Once more we must not be misunderstood. Manu- 

 facture and agriculture cannot be enemies under a reign 

 of free cojnpetition ; but their productiveness may be 

 singularly changed in a social state in which the urban 

 populations have remained longer protected than the 

 agricultural population. Indeed, such is the primitive 

 idea, resulting from the economic studies of M. de La- 

 vergne. Centralization has so far ruled our situation 

 in France, that almost all causes have combined to de- 

 velope the riches of the cities rather than those of the 

 country. Thus professional instruction occupies itself 

 with recruitment of the array, with medicine, with the 

 bar, with the arts and manufactures, rather than with 

 that of agriculture. So again, the majority of the great 

 families reside in the cities, where they find life more 

 agreeable. And we are astonished that capital and la- 

 bour desert the fields, when they have so high an exam- 

 ple set them. We are astonished that the peasants, sur- 

 rounded with lands which should be the best investments 

 for rural savings, have become the holders of railway 

 shares and debentures of French and foreign stocks ! 



O progress of the age ! Formerly, when the country 

 notaries made out inventories of inheritance, what did 

 they find in the house of the easy peasant ? Good clo- 

 sets furnished with good linen, and granaries well fur- 

 nished with corn. What do they find now ? Papers 

 and public deeds negoeiable at the Exchange. It is the 

 fulfilment of the proverb, "Other times, other manners." 

 It remains to be seen which manners are the best. 

 But what can be done to alter all this .' On this ques- 



tion M. de Lavergne shows himself faithful to all his 

 economic antecedents ; that is to say, that his advice is 

 not of those who would upset all social order. He has 

 interrogated the science of political economy. He knows 

 on what conditions capitals are created and manufactures 

 prosper. He has confidence also in the good sense of 

 our rural populations, who, in times of great crises, have 

 always known how to get us out of them. He hopes, 

 too, that more than one prodigal son will return sooner 

 or later to the village ; for, after all, it is there that 

 France will always reckon upon the most labourers, and, 

 at need, the most soldiers. 



On the other hand, it behoves us to prepare for this 

 future. Agriculture will become what agriculturists 

 themselves become : like as in all the social circles, high 

 as well as low, these should be able to treat on a footing 

 of equality with the representatives of other professions ; 

 and then not one measure of general interest will be taken 

 without the agricultural interest receiving full satisfac- 

 tion. All depends on that; it is necessary that agricul- 

 tural France should be able to constantly enlighten the 

 Government, for there are no more certain means of 

 rendering it stable and powerful, to the profit of the 

 country. Large culture and a large property, above 

 all, have much to do, to march on an equality with the 

 small proprietor and small culture. We may say that in 

 this respect we are not in equilibrium as a nation. 



If the number of cultivators were sufficient for suc- 

 cess, or rather, to place the agricultural element into 

 position amongst the other elements of national power, 

 it is evident that French agriculture, the employment of 

 twenty-five out of the thirty-five millions of inhabitants, 

 would be in a position to make the rural spirit predo- 

 minate in the public mind ; and, with the rural spirit, 

 all the principles of order and progress which it com- 

 ports. But we are not deceived there. If the rural 

 spirit exists in our country, let us admit, at least, that it 

 is much more alive in the subdivided districts than in 

 those of aggregated culture. It is not, therefore, sur- 

 prising that it should experience ideas, manners, and 

 aspirations of the intellectual level of the dominant 

 population, of which it is the representative. This is 

 why we find in it, in so high a degree, that love of 

 family and property, and all those domestic virtues, 

 which, in a word, are, without dispute, one of the 

 most solid bases of our social order. But by way of 

 retaliation, it is not amongst these laborious populations, 

 almost constantly bowed down to the soil, that we must 

 seek for those connected ideas, that knowledge of irene- 

 ral interests, and that superior education which our 

 modern society requires. Consequently it is no longer 

 there that we must seek for that useful counterpois, 

 which, amongst the English, places the defence of agri- 

 cultural interests under the protection of men who can, 

 know how to, and will, cultivate them. 



It is, therefore, essential that we should not confound 

 the rural spirit of large culture with that of small cul- 

 ture. The latter guarantees order in this respect, that 

 small workmen have neither time nor even desire to 

 employ themselves with anything but their harvests, 

 cattle, sales, and purchases. The former, quite as 

 strenuous for order, more particularly guarantee pro- 

 gress in this sense— that, sharing in the movements of 

 general interest, it can give the impulse to public 

 opinion, and does not conform itself to receiving the 

 word of command. In a word, if there were in a state 

 only small cultivators, the big-wigs of finance, manufac- 

 ture, and commerce would easily gain the ascendancy; 

 which would be a misfortune, for it would be the abso- 

 lute reign of certain interests. 



It will not be thus : science and capital come to the 

 fields; and, thanks to these levers of progress, there is 

 amongst our rural society a class of men who, without 



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