i8o AN AGRICULTURAL FAGGOT. 



1,000,000 separate plots of land not exceeding i acre in 

 extent, cultivated, of course, largely by persons whose 

 primary occupation is not agriculture. While, therefore, 

 it would no doubt be improper to suggest that a figure 

 exceeding 2,000,000 (which would result from the addition 

 of all the " allotments " to all the " agricultural holdings ' 

 in the United Kingdom enumerated above) could fairly 

 be placed against the French figure of nearly 5,775,000 

 of " holdings " {exploitations), it would, on the other hand, 

 be inaccurate to exclude from the comparison all the 

 plots of 1 acre and less. In France it is evident that a 

 large proportion of the holdings must be less than 1 acre, 

 seeing that the average size of those under 2\ acres 

 (1 hectare) is about i\ acres. The minute sub-division 

 of the land in France has been the theme of innumerable 

 dissertations and frequent lamentations. Mr. Jenkins, 

 who quotes from various authorities on this subject, 

 remarks that the excessive sub-division of the land " used 

 to be called in French morcellement until the progress 

 of facts rendered the word too feeble to express the 

 reality, and so of late years it has been replaced by the 

 term ' pulverisation.' " 1 



In northern France the system of landlord and tenant, as 

 we know it, largely prevails. At the market ordinary in the 

 principal hotel at Yvetot, a cheery blue-bloused farmer 

 informed us that not one farmer in 100 in that district 

 owned his farm. I was sceptical at the time, and thought 

 we must have misunderstood him, but on looking up the 

 matter I found that, although this was no doubt an 

 exaggeration, it might reasonably approximate to the 

 facts. In the whole of that department (Seine Inferieure) 

 more than 50 per cent, of the occupiers of land do not 

 own it, and in one or two other departments of the North 

 and North-west the proportion is considerably higher. 

 This farmer, like many others in all parts of the world, 

 was eloquent on the subject of the labourer. It was 

 1 Report to Royal Commission on Agriculture, 1882. 



