62 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



split them, thrash and winnow corn, grind colors, knit stockings, or assist the wheels 

 wright and other artificers, of whom there are many employed in the establishment. For 

 all which different sorts of labor an adequate salary is credited to each boy's class. 



345. The boys never see a newspaper, and scarcely a book j they are taught, viva voce, a few matters of 

 fact, and rules of practical application : the rest of their education consists chiefly in inculcating habits of 

 industry, frugality, veracity, docility, and mutual kindness, by means of good example, rather than pre- 

 cepts ; and, above all, by the absence of bad example. It has been said of the Bell and Lancaster schools, 

 that the good they do is mostly negative : they take children out of the streets, employ them in a harm- 

 less sort of mental sport two or three hours in the day, exercise their understanding gently and pleasant- 

 ly, and accustom them to order and rule, without compulsion. Now, what these schools undertake to do 

 for a few hours of each week, during one or two years of a boy's life, the School of Industry at Hofwyl, 

 does incessantly, during the whole course of his youth; providing, at the same time, for his whole 

 physical maintenance, at a rate which must be deemed excessively cheap for any but the very lowest of 

 people. 



346. The practicability/ of this scheme for inculcating individual prudence and practical 

 morality, not only in the agricultural, but in all the operative classes of society, M. 

 Simond considers as demonstrated ; and it only remains to ascertain the extent of its 

 application. ** Two only of the pupils have left Hofwyl, for a place, before the end of 

 their time ; and one, with M. de Fellenberg's leave, is become chief manager of the 

 immense estates of Comte Abaffy, in Hungary, and has, it is said, doubled its pro- 

 ceeds by the improved method of husbandry he has introduced. This young man, whose 

 name is Madorly, was originally a beggar boy, and not particularly distinguished at 

 school. Another directs a school established near Zurich, and acquits himself to the 

 entire satisfaction of his employers. M. Fellenberg has besides a number of pupils of 

 the higher classes, some of whom belong to the first families of Germany, Russia, and 

 Switzerland. They live enfamille with their master, and are instructed by the different 

 tutors in the theory and practice of agriculture, and in the arts and sciences on which 

 it is founded. (See Simond' s Account of Switzerland, vol. i. Ed. Rev. 1819, No. 64. 

 Des Institutes de Hofwyl de 2)ar Cte. L. de V. Paris, 1821.) 



SuBSECT. 2. Agriculture of the Duchy of Savoy. 



347. Of the agriculture of Savoy, which naturally belongs to Switzerland, a general 

 view, with some interesting details, is given by Bakewell. ( Travels in the Tarantaise, &c. 

 1820-22.) Landed property there is divided into three qualities, and rated for a land- 

 tax accordingly. There is an office for registering estates, to which a per centage is paid 

 on each transfer or additional registering. There is also an office for registering all 

 mortgages, with the particulars ; both are found of great benefit to the landed interest 

 and the public, by the certainty which they give to titles, and the safety both to borrowers 

 and lenders on land. 



348. Land in Savoy is divided into very small farms, and is occupied by the proprietors 

 or paysans, who live in an exceedingly frugal manner, and cultivate the ground with the 

 assistance of their wives and children ; for in Savoy, as in many other parts of Europe, 

 the women do nearly as much field labor as the men. 



349. The lands belonging to the monasteries were sold during the French revolution, when Savoy was 

 annexed to France. The gradual abolition of the monasteries had been begun by the.old government of 

 Sardinia before the revolution, for the monks were prohibited from receiving any new brethren into their 

 establishments, in order that the estates might devolve to the crown, on the extinction of the difFerent 

 fraternities. This measure, though wise in the abstract, was not unattended with inconvenience, and 

 perhaps we may add, injustice. The poor, who had been accustomed to fly to the monasteries for relief 

 in cases of distress, were left without any support, except the casual charity^ their neighbors, who had 

 little to spare from their own absolute necessities. The situation of the poor is therefore much worse irt 

 Savoy, than before the abolition of the monasteries. The poor in England suffered in the same manner on 

 the abolition of the monasteries in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, before the poor's rates were 

 enacted. The charity of the monks of Savoy lost much of its usefulness by the indiscriminate manner in 

 which it was generally bestowed : certain days and hours were appointed at each monastery, for the dis- 

 tribution of provisions, and the indolent were thereby enabled to support themselves during the whole 

 week, by walking to the different monasteries on the days of donation. This was offering a premium to 

 idleness, and was the means of encreasing the number of mendicants, which will, in every country, be 

 proportionate to the facility of obtaining food without labor. 



350. The peasantry in Savoy are very poor, but they cannot be called miserable. In the neighborhood 

 of towns, their situation is worse than at a distance ; and not far from Chamberry, may be seen a few 

 families that might almost vie in squalid misery, rags, and filth, with the poor of Ireland ; but the general 

 appearance of the peasantry is respectable. Having learnt the price of labor in various parts of Savoy, 

 Bakewell proposed the following question : Is it possible for a laborer, with a family, to procure a sufficient 

 quantity of wholesome food for their consumption ? One of the answers was, Cela est tres-facile, (" It is 

 very easy ;") the other was, " The laborer lives very frugally," {tres-sobrement.) " In general he eats very 

 coarse, but wholesome, bread, and, except in the mountains, he eats very little meat, and rarely drinks 

 wine, but he has a great resource in potatoes. 



351. One day's labor of a farming man will purchase about twelve pounds avoirdupoise of wheat, or from 

 four to five pounds of beef, veal, or mutton ; but these are dainties which he rarely tastes ; potatoes, 

 rye-bread, chestnuts, and milk, form the principal part of the food of the poor. The day-laborer in Savoy 

 has to deduct, from the amount of his labor, about seventy days in the year, including saint-days and 

 Sundays, on which he receives no wages." (Bakewell's Travels, vol. i. 314.) 



352. There are four modes of occupying land for cultivation in Savoy by the pro- 

 prietors ; by farmers ; by grangers ; and by tacheurs. 



353. Land very near to towns is generally cultivated by the proprietors, who either keep cattle, or take 

 them in to graze at so much per head. 



