502 



laborer; who divide and subdivide, in the course of inheritance, until 

 the plot of each is insufficient for the most meager mainteuauce. This 

 class was in existence before the great revolution, but was increased 

 greatly in the distribution of the extensive landed property of the church. 

 There is another class, perhaps larger than the peasant proprietors, 

 more numerous in southern than in northern districts, who have no 

 ownership of land, but rent holdings, a part bv the payment of a speci- 

 fied sum of money, and a part b}^ a return in kind, under various condi- 

 tions, similar to cultivating " upon shares " in this country. These share 

 farmers are known as " metayers." While the entire metayer system is 

 one of association, and of labor with capital, a co-partnership of land- 

 lord and laborer, it is only occasionally that the union involves a suffi- 

 cient amount of labor under compact and manageable organization to 

 produce the best results. Unlike the case of England, therefore, rented 

 farms in France are not generally the best managed and the most pro- 

 ductive. Yet there are cases in which success of a higher order has 

 been achieved in co-operation on a large and liberal scale, notable 

 among which may be named the 



Co-operative farm of M. Bignon. — The intelligent political econo- 

 mist in France has long bewailed the unsatisfa^^tory condition of French 

 agriculture, the difficulties in the way of its rapid advance to an elevated 

 status, among which have been named ignorance of the laborers, increase 

 of wages, and emigration from the country. Many have deemed theme- 

 toycr system a scourge to agriculture. They say " share-farming perpetu- 

 ates ignorance and misery ; ignorance and misery perpetuate share- 

 farming." It is conceded that the standard of cultivation attained in 

 England, if reached in France, would increase, at least one-half, the pres- 

 ent production of the latter country ; and yet it is properly claimed 

 that great and incontestable progress has been made during the last 

 quarter of a century. 



With a desire to demonstrate the feasibility of ameliorating the con- 

 dition of the farm-laborer, by a system of association in which the pro- 

 duction of the soil and the profits, both of proprietor and laborer, could 

 be increased, M. Bignon, in 1849, gave up to his brother his business in 

 Paris, and purchased lands in the vicinity of his ancestral home, about 

 520 acres, at a cost of 81,220 francs, or about $16,000, which is very 

 nearly at the rate of $31 per acre. " The laud was argillo-silicious, with 

 an impermeable subsoil ; poor, damp, and almost entirely uncultivated ; 

 furze, broomsedge, brushwood, and heather covered the portions which 

 were not gullied or denuded by flowing water." It produced a little rye 

 and a few cart-loads of hay, scarcely sufficient to feed a meager stock of 

 cattle, consisting of only 27 head, valued at 2,774 francs, or $20 per 

 head. I:^ either wheat nor artificial forage plants were ever grown. There 

 was no lime or marl to aid recuperation. There were no practicable 

 roads between the different domains, or farms, of which there were three, 

 Lacroix, Bonneau, and Grandfy; and the farm -buildings were mere hov- 

 els. One of these, a miserable hut, such as still exist by thousands in 

 France for the occupancy of metayers, has been retained in the midst 

 of a fine meadow as a reminder of former days. 



General opposition was encountered from the metayers, though nearly 

 all were badly lodged, and insufficiently fed, crushed with toil, and " over 

 head and ears in debt." With nothing to lose and everything to gain, they 

 resisted improvement, as ignorance and squalor have always done. Com- 

 pelled to undertake patiently their conversion by degrees, he resided con- 

 tinually among them, and by his intelligent direction, tact, the justice of 

 Lis requirements, and his tenacity of purpose, advanced prosperously 



