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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



tion, by an order of particular ideas, of the great law of 

 universal responsibility promulgated in the Gospel ! Is 

 it not also a sad abuse of the most sacred words, thus to 

 mix them up with questions which are habitually de- 

 cided by the simple laws of arithmetic ? What, for 

 example, has the great name of Christianity to do with 

 the question, whether it is right or not to give a bounty 

 on the exportation of agricultural produce ; the only 

 question being to ascertain whether it is not receiving 

 with one hand what we give with the other, with the 

 addition of much expense and abuse ? I have often 

 regretted, for my part, that the title of " political arith- 

 metic " given two hundred years ago by Sir William 

 Petty to the study of the social numbers, has not been 

 adopted ; that name had the defect of not taking ac- 

 count of all the aspects of the science, but it summed 

 up perfectly what it has of a practical character in its 

 first elements. 



The strictness displayed by Royer, in its purely agri- 

 cultural appreciations, does not appear to be much more 

 justified. He condemns without pity all practice of 

 culture that is not conformable to his ideal. His judg- 

 ments are almost always well founded in point of theory, 

 but he does not take sufficient account of circumstances, 

 too often more powerful than ideas. The province of 

 capital and markets, in the phenomena of production, 

 •has not in his estimation sufficient importance. How 

 can we blame the cultivator, who has only insufficient 

 markets and capital, for resting attached to practices 

 undoubtedly defective, but appropriate to his wants and 

 resources ? Why make a crime of his poverty as well 

 as his ignorance ? A proprietor of the centre of France 

 one day asked his metayer why he did not sow clover ? 

 " / would do so, sir," replied the metayer, " btci I can- 

 not eat it " — a profound, though naive reply, which 

 hits the true point of the difficulty. Necessity speaks, 

 and we must obey, and provide for the most imperious 

 wants of the present, before thinking of preparing by 

 skilful progress for the wealth of the future. 



Nor is it exactly correct that our agriculture in the 

 aggregate is a system of routine. It has made great 

 progress for a century past, and if it has not done more 

 it is not its fault. Speaking only of cattle, which Royer 

 justly places in the first rank of agricultural interests, 

 we can affirm that our production has quadrupled in the 

 last hundred years ; is that remaining stationary ? 

 True, our rural wealth may still double or quadruple 

 itself ; and the generous soil of this country, more and 

 more fertile by the union of experience and science, 

 could find, without impoverishing itself, a continually 

 increasing population. The greater part of the advice 

 of Royer is calculated to promote this brilliant future, 

 and his book is a mine of useful indications, on which 

 the most experienced practitian may depend. It is 

 only to be regretted that the enthusiasm of his imagina- 

 tion figures to him as easily and quickly practicable, 

 what requires always much time. There are few 

 theatrical opportunities in agriculture, and exagge- 

 rated expectations can only lead to bitter disappoint- 

 ments. The generality of agricultural writers have 

 fallen into this seducing illusion. The first of all, Arthur 



Young, has done more ; he has attempted to carry into 

 practice the ardour of his own mind, and he mis- 

 carried — a great example which it is necessary to bear 

 in mind. 



In other respects, Royer himself has given in one of 

 his writings a justly esteemed formula of agricultural 

 progression, which sums up in one view the obsta- 

 cles to be overcome and the results to be obtained. 

 The productive scale of the soil is divided into six 

 stages of fertility: the first, called " of the forests," 

 is that in which the earth, in a wild state, produces 

 nothing but wood ; the second, or " pasturaffe," is ap- 

 plied to a commencement of fertility, which furnishes 

 pastures and meadows capable of irrigation ; the third, 

 or "forage land," is indicative of the accession of arti- 

 ficial grasses ; the fourth, or " cereal," is that in which 

 the fertility, increased by manure, gives the return of 

 wheat at 20 hectolitres at least to the hectare ; the fifth, 

 or " industrial," is that in which the progressive use of 

 manures renders the most exhausting cultures possible ; 

 the sixth and last, or " gardeiiing," constitutes the 

 maximum of human industry applied to the cultivation 

 of the soil. That luminous formula contains in itself 

 alone a complete treatise on rural economy. Its only 

 defect is the want of a more definite idea of the economic 

 conditions of production. We can, in fact, pass from 

 one period to another only in proportion as new markets 

 are opened. The increasing use of manures is the 

 means and not the first cause of rural progress. 



About the same time that the Economic Notes ap- 

 peared, the indefatigable Royer undertook the transla- 

 tion of the great work of David Law, Professor of Agri- 

 culture at the University of Edinburgh, upon domes- 

 tic animals. This publication was the first that had 

 made known in France, with any details, the improved 

 breeds of England ; Royer has, therefore, the honour of 

 having initiated amongst us this profitable career. The 

 notes with which he has accompanied his translation 

 exhibit the same defects as his statistics, but the sub- 

 ject was then so new, that it was, perhaps, allowable 

 to exaggerate a little in order to popularise it. Even 

 now, after fifteen years' experience, the ideas are not 

 completely settled, and the introduction of the English 

 breeds has its fanatical detractors as well as its warm 

 partisans. Time will do justice between the exaggera- 

 tions of both parties, but the national agriculture will 

 ever owe a debt of peculiar gratitude to the useful 

 precursor who has revealed to it so original an order of 

 ideas. Our Society, always attentive, has decreed to 

 this translation a gold medal, with the bust of Oliver 

 de Serres. 



In the mean time the reputation of Royer was ex- 

 teaded by these multiplied works ; our Society admitted 

 him into the number of its members at the end of 1845, 

 and the Government appointed him to undertake the 

 functions of Inspector-General of Agriculture. It was 

 in that capacity that he published, in 1845 and 1847, his 

 two last works, and those which have exercised over 

 subsequent facts the most direct influence, and which 

 have unfortuately remained the last. Two great ques- 

 tions had for fifteen years already pre-occupied every 



