THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



IBM. 



stop further in this compared position, and say to what 

 extent the produce of cattle enters into the total revenue 

 furnished by a cultivated hectare on this side of the Channel 

 and the other. It is 1(13 francs in England, and does not 

 exceed 2& francs in France: And this is certainly not the 

 highest expression of the return of the soil. As to our- 

 selves, we are much too far from it. It would now be 

 thouglit sufficient if we approached it some degrees nearer, 

 m order to iuci-ease iu a perceptible manner our wealth 

 and the general welfare. The fact is well worthy of atten- 

 tion. Agiiculture is never stopped; unfortunately aban- 

 doned to its own insufficient powers, it advances only by 

 little steps, lento gradu, when the wants of society would im- 

 pose upon it the obligation of proceeding by forced marches. 

 It is necessary to come to it powerfully in aid, and to tend 

 to it largely on all points of the territory, if we wish it to 

 return much more without delay, if we desire that it quickly 

 raises its products to tlio level of the necessities of consump- 

 tion. 



So much for the whole question. Let us now return to 

 the part of tlie subject which brings us iu view of the public 

 administration. 



We luiow not the motives which oblige the authoritits to 

 watch over the free-trade of the butchery. There is iu it 

 one of those necessities which renders it imperative.which 

 we accept on one hand as a duty, and receive on the other 

 as a benefit ; but in order that the latter may be real and 

 complete, it is necessary that the former be fulfilled in all 

 its extent, exactly and rigorously if need be. 



The profession of a butcher is not one of those which 

 everybody would wish to, or can exercise. It has its bad 

 side ; those who adopt it perform, beyond douht, great ser- 

 vices to society ; and it is but just that they should derive 

 advantage from it ; but it is not necessary (thanks to a 

 situation iu some other respects exceptional), by or without 

 concerting together, that they should establish for a length 

 of time, and iu maimer almost indestructible, a perfect 

 monopoly, something iniquitous and crushing at once to 

 the producer and the consumer. It is not necessary that it 

 should be a custom, for example, of the trade, if we may 

 thus speak, that dead meat should be sold at a high price 

 by retail, when by wholesale or alive it has been purchased 

 at a low price. We have known how to prevent the 

 inconveniencies which threatened to attach themselves 

 to the corn trade; and the bakery, strongly organized in the 

 great centres, is very severely overlooked when the cu'- 

 cumstances require it ; and no one dreams of complaining 

 of it. We should Icnow too, if it was desired, how to apply 

 a remedy to the numerous abuses which have enrooted 

 themselves in the butcher's trade. We might shut our eyes 

 when meat was in some respects an article of luxury, used 

 almost exclusively by the rich, and when the working popu- 

 lation was as yet thinly scattered in the cities. It is no 

 longer so now. The consumption of meat is generalized, 

 and has become an aliment as common and necessary as, 

 bread to tlie dense and crowded population existing in cities. 

 It now requires bread, meat, and something else. Tliis is 

 what will compel us, in a given time, to make regulations 

 more stringent over a trade which knows not how to find in 

 the existence of a great competition a salutary counterpois 

 to that of an entente, always easy, and too cordialc,o{ mono- 

 polizers, These no longer appear as honest merchants, 

 worthy of interest and protection, but as speculators, hun- 

 gry and dishonest, imposing the law, fleecing without mercy 

 their defenceless clients. This is assuredly a case for 

 iuterventioD, in order to repress or prevent intolerable 



abuses. A profit of 60 per cent, cannot be the lawful share 

 of the seller, in the trade of an essential article of life. It 

 is to this rate that almost all the calculations an-ive 

 that we have instituted, in order to fathom the question of 

 the butchery. We do not allow the baker to charge the kilo- 

 gramme of bread at If. ( l<>d.), when he can sell it at 33 cen- 

 times (3 1-3d.). By what title should the butcher enjoy 

 such a privilege ? Both have a i ight to profit sufficiently 

 remunerative ; but no one ought to be victimized by mo- 

 nopoly. 



In the meanwhile the price of meat is enhanced by other 

 causeB. Wheat and bread are emancipated from the city 

 dues, and why not cattle and meat ? The latter, besides, is of 

 necessity subject to particular and unavoidable expenses in- 

 herent in its commerce, and which tax the return price. 

 Such is, for instance, the abatage tax, which incessantly tends 

 to increase itself more by the mania of the municipal council! 

 to transform the abattoirs into public monuments. Where 

 will luxury settle itself? No place now can content itself 

 with humble edifices, commodiouely situated and disposed, 

 proper and salubrious. There is no city or town so small as not 

 to aspire to grandeur, and which through imitation, envy, 

 and unthinking enthusiasm does not wish to expend large 

 sums foolishly in erecting a monumental abattoir. They are 

 proud of it ! Is there not reason to be so ? And we vote, 

 gloriously too, five hundred millions of francs and more for 

 such constructions ! 



In order to meet such large expenses the ordinary resources 

 are not sutficient. They therefore irapoae extraordinary taxes 

 for ten, fifteen, and twenty years, and raise the charges of 

 abatage to an extent to cover the interest upon the sums 

 borrowed. In the end, the city which has caused it to be 

 built is benefited, but who supports this charge ? The 

 butcher pay*, hut the consumer repays him with usury. 



The City of Koubaix solicited recently the authority to 

 borrow a rather large sum, for the purpose of erecting, for 

 slaughteriug and dressing cattle, one of these monuments, of 

 which they do not know how to appropriate any portion to 

 their humble rise; and the reporter of the law proposed to this 

 effect says, " the taxes will produce annually, accordiiif: to the 

 adopted tariff, about 22,000 francs." This is a bagatelle com- 

 pared with the miUions which circulate; but the population of 

 Roubaix, which is essentially of the working class, ought to 

 have calculated that if the city possesses twenty-two butchers, 

 each of them ought to pay annually to the municipal budget 

 a sum of 1,000 fr. for the abatage tax, without prejudice to 

 the other duties and charges, and that in a final analysis it is 

 the consumer who pays all the false expenses whatever, even 

 to the last fraction. 



There appears to be a good deal of agitation to ascertain 

 the causes of the increasing dearness of provisions, but there 

 was no need to search so long and so ardently. They are at 

 hand, and easy to point out. The remedy to meet them 

 ought not to be more difficult to discover, but the thing found 

 is nothing if the application should be repulsed. 



There is one sure principle in that which bears upon the 

 public administration, namely, to exempt provisions from all 

 useless expenses, those necessary being already too heavy. 

 The problem of cheap living can be solved with clearness 

 only by attention to the principles of a rational and healthy 

 science. Be doubly economical of charges which bear upon 

 the food of the people. Euo- Guyot. 



5- L 2 



