382 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



greatest extent, in order to meet their wants. This circumstance 

 will prompt to the greatest exertions in procuring from every 

 available source, and in saving their manure for the enriching of 

 their small farms. Labor and economy, thus applied, may be 

 said in themselves to constitute a valuable and active capital. 



But in place of speculations, let us revert to facts, and inquire 

 how this system has actually worked in France. It has pro 

 duced a great revolution in the tenure of property ; but from the 

 best inquiries I could make among the most intelligent and can 

 did, I found a unanimous and emphatical acknowledgment of its 

 beneficial results. In what may most properly be called the 

 rural districts, that is, a district somewhat remote from large 

 towns and villages, there are found farms in size from one hun 

 dred to five hundred, seven hundred, and a thousand acres, and 

 upwards; and so it seems likely to remain. The law, though it 

 requires a division of the real estate among the heirs, does not 

 make it compulsory to continue such division. The law in fact 

 does little else in such situations than, so to say, to bring the 

 land into the market, and leave it then to be disposed of accord 

 ing to the circumstances of time and place. 



But in cases of partition, we may suppose a farm of twelve 

 hundred acres divided among four heirs ; they would have farms 

 of a respectable size ; divided again, it would leave farms of 

 seventy-five acres each, which perhaps may be considered the 

 average size of farms in New England, and exceeding the aver 

 age size of Flemish farms. Even another division of the same 

 number of parts might take place, and twenty acres would cor 

 respond with the size of many of the most productive farms in 

 Belgium. Many persons, in arguing against such an arrange 

 ment, proceed upon the supposition that the division is to be 

 infinitesimal. But this is absurd ; and, as I have already re 

 marked, the evil of too great a subdivision has already a ten 

 dency to correct itself, and to stop where it would become 

 positively mischievous. This is found to be the case, as I have 

 remarked, in the strictly rural districts. But a person passing 

 through the environs of large towns and cities will perceive that 

 the division has proceeded very far ; the fields often appear like 

 patchwork, and are cut up into very small pieces. This is 

 exactly as it should be. These pieces are owned by small gar 

 deners, who supply the markets with fruit or vegetables, and 



