I^O STUDIES OF NATURE. 



ralfing a numerous progeny, which it employs, al» 

 moll as loon as they are able to crawl, in collecting, 

 the fruits of the earth, or in tending the flocks and 

 herds J but it beftows thefe advantages only on 

 fmall landed properties. We have already faid, 

 and it cannot be repeated too frequently, that 

 fmall pofleflions double and quadruple in a coun- 

 try both crops, and the hands which gather them. 

 Great eftates, on the contrary, in the hand of one 

 man, transform a country into vaftfolitudes. They 

 infpire the wealthy farmers with a relilli for city 

 pride and luxury, and with a diflike of country 

 employments. Hence they place their daughters 

 in convents, that they may be bred as ladies, and 

 fend their fons to academies, to prepare them for 

 becoming advocates or abbes. They rob the chil- 

 dren of the trades-people of their refources ; for if 

 the inhabitants of the country are always preffing 

 toward an eftablilhment in town, thofe of the 

 great towns never look toward the plains, becaufe 

 they are blighted by tallages and impofts. 



Great landed properties expofe the State to an- 

 other dangerous inconvenience, to which I do not 

 believe that much attention has hitherto been paid. 

 The lands thus cultivated lie in fallow one year, 

 at leaft, in three, and, in many cafes, once every 

 other year. It muft happen, accordingly, as in 

 every thing left to chance, that fometimes great 



quantities 



