THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



449 



The work before us is the result of his experience and observa- 

 tion; and we consider its contents so important and intereat- 

 ing, that we willingly give a larger space to its review than 

 we can ordinarily afford to publications of the kind. 

 This first number contains seven parts, as follows : — 



1. Introduction. 



2. Effects of Free Trade on English Agriculture. 



3. History of Agricultural Societies in England, Part 1 — 



The Smithiield Club. 



4. System of Culture without Manure practised at Lois 



Weedou. 



5. Prize Machines at the Meetings of the Royal Agricul- 



tural Society of England. 



6. Physiological Studies and Practice on the Crossing of 



Breeds— a paper read before the Scientific Congress at 

 Auxerre, in September, 1858. Part 1— On the re- 

 spective influence of the Male and Female in Repro- 

 duction. 



7. Biography— Jonas Webb. 



In the introduction, the author speaks of the general move- 

 ment in France at this time in favour of agriculture, as the 

 apology for undertaking the work ; and certainly, if the French 

 agriculturists are disposed, or are able, to avail themselves of 

 the example of those cf England, the lucid, graphic, and, we 

 will add, candid manner in which the English system is 

 described by our author, is quite sufficient both to direct and 

 to stimulate them to follow in the same steps. A short, but 

 faithful history of English agriculture introduces the subject 

 and shows that it is not long since England and France were 

 upon a par in point of production ; and, consequently, that 

 whilst the former has made rapid strides towards a perfect 

 system, the latter has remained almost stationary, if in some 

 parts of the country she has not retrograded. " What conclu- 

 sion," he says, do we draw from all this ? That we must profit 

 by this brilliant example of a people at our frontiers ; we must 

 study their practice, and the principles on which it is based, 

 and then adopt it,with the modifications which local circum- 

 Btances of climate, supply, and demand require. We must, 

 above all, consider our cultivation, not as a miserable means of 

 existence for ourselves and our metayers, but as industrial es- 

 tablishments, guided by the principles of commercial economy; 

 in which we manufacture bread, meat, and wool, which ought 

 to supply the markets of the world ; meat, above all, for we 

 must not forget the enormous sums paid by France for foreign 

 cattle brought to our market, which are so much money lost to 

 French agriculture, the resources of whose soil ought to feed and 



fatten four times the number of animals it fiow does The 



initiation ought to come from the proprietors themselves, they 

 being the class most directly interested in progress. In France 

 we leave everything to be done by the Government, whose action, 

 all powerful as it is, is necessarily too general to produce ap- 

 preciable results. Progressive action must be immediate, in- 

 dividual rather ; exercised directly upon the soil, by measures 

 of detail that the influence of Government cannot embrace. 

 Each interested party must till his own fields ; the prizes, meet- 

 ings, honours, &c., are only encouragements to merit and not 

 causes of progress. Let us accomplish the progress first, and 

 then meet for the rewards we shall have merited by the results 

 of our cultivation. To make no progress but with the view of 

 obtaining prizes and honours at the meetings, is, in my estima- 

 tion, only a barren deception, a false flash, ending only in ruin 

 and ignorance," &c. (p. 26). 



The effect of free trade upon English agriculture is 

 upheld, and a similar benefit claimed from it for France ; 

 but it must be under a different system from the present. 

 " I cannot shut my eyes to the obstacles that men 

 and our institutions of routine have amassed on the hill of 

 progress — the elements of progress and prosperity that already 

 exist in English agriculture, and which demand only a ray of 

 the sun of freedom to germinate and bring forth fruit, do 

 not exist with us. We have neither the coal nor the iron at a 

 cheap price, and the manufacture of agricultural machines 

 consequently scarcely exist with us, The soil is overbur- 



dened ; it supports the mass of the taxes. In many depart- 

 ments tlie taxes on landed property amount to a lifth of the 

 revenue ; whilst the incomes of stock holders, manufacturers, 

 merchants, and literary men pay absolutely nothing. Landed 

 property is liesides devoured by mortgages ; its extreme divi- 

 sion serves as a temptation for the little savings of the pea- 

 sants, who sink in it, witli an inexplicable eagerness, the 

 capital which they ought rather to devote to the requirements 

 of their cultivation ; and it is still further reduced by the 

 taxes on transfer. The town dues, by deducting before 

 the sale the tsx upon articles of general consump- 

 tion, press upon agriculture and the poor popula- 

 tions of the towns, to the advantage of the urban 

 proprietors and merchants. Thus, instead of being fa- 

 voured, the natural and most advantageous markets for 

 agriculture, that is to say, the centres of the working popula- 

 tions, are open to its products only across barriers, at which 

 they are burthened with a tax which tends to restrict consump- 

 tion. It must be adraited that it is not the consumption of 

 the rich that causes agriculture to prosper, but that of the 

 masses; and the more that consumption is facilitated, by ren- 

 dering the exchange of alimentary commodities perfectly free, 

 the more will the progress cf agriculture be promoted. Here 

 I slop. The reader has only to look over again what I have 

 said of English agriculture, and to compare the advantages I 

 have enumerated, with the state of our own, in order to measure 

 in his mind the enormous difference that separates us from 

 England. After that, can we be aatonished at the slow and 

 imperceptible progress of our agriculture?" (p. 55.) 



He then goes on to enumerate the efforts of the French 

 Government, or rather of the Emperor Louis Napoleon, to 

 accelerate the piosperity of agriculture. " Shows, splendid 

 rewards, honours, money, agricultural schools, and societies, 

 studs of improved races, learned and zealous inspectors, a 

 credit of 100,000,000 for drainage, a Bank of Credit fonder, 

 missions to England, learned reports, the Institute, the 

 Academy, the example of the Chief of the State himself; in 

 a word, the influence of the Government, money, science and 

 genius of France, &c., &c. Alas! with all these powerful 

 powerful means, what results can we show?" 



The conclusion arrived at by our author in summing up, ia 

 that there are "radical vices" in the agricultural interest of 

 France which have not yet been touched. At the head of these 

 he places the law of inheritance as requiting a " profound mo- 

 dification ;" and goes on to enumerate, again, the drawbacks 

 and hiniiracces before stated, as absolutely requiring imme- 

 diate attention. We confess that we look upon the first as the 

 main-spring of all other " vices ;" and until that law is abro- 

 gated we do not believe it possible for agriculture to flourish. 

 It is the want of intelligent cultivators, with capital to work 

 with, that renders the progress of agriculture in France an im- 

 possibility. To tell the poor metayer that he must grow 

 roots, keep cattle and sheep, purchase guano, drain his land, 

 &c., is about as rational as telling an English peasant to go to 

 the Court of Chancery f;or redress of an injury. Poverty m 

 both cases ia a bar to action. 



The question then is, will it be possible to modify this lead- 

 ing " vice" of the land system in France, so as to render it 

 innoxious? We do not believe it is; but that nothing less 

 than its abrogation will remedy the evils arising from it. But 

 De Lavergno says that this is the life-blood of the French 

 nation, and to touch it is like touching the apple of the eye. 

 Yet, on the present principle, neither free trade nor the most 

 rigid protection will place the French agriculturists in a posi- 

 tion of prosperity. And so says our author : " In the circum- 

 stances of financial legislation, routine, prejudice, and indefinite 

 subdivision, to which the land in France is subject, free trade 

 will be no more powerful to awaken agriculture from the secu- 

 lar torpor in which it reposes, than the otllcial efforts have done 

 for two years past." 



The various other subjects of this " Revue" will be found 

 very interesting to those who can read it in the original. We 

 hope that M. De la Trehonnais will give a translation of it, for 

 the benefit of those who cannot. The paper on the crossing 

 of breeds of cattle is a highly philosophic essay, and contains 

 facts connected with the reproduction of animals that ought to 

 be known by all breeders. We shall look with interest for the 



ext number of the work, but do not know whether it is to be 



monthly or a quarterly, as we find no intimation of the 



eriod of its appearance. 



