j 3 8 TRAVELS THROUGH 



provements, it would be impoffible for him 

 to allow half to the owner. It muft be re- 

 membered, that an improvement upon a 

 former cultivation is generally an increafe 

 more of labour or dunging, than in any 

 other article. Thus would all the addition 

 beat the expence of the metayer, whtf, in 

 return, would reap but half 'the additional 

 produce : no man breathing, in fuch cir- 

 cumftances, would think of any improve- 

 ment, however obvious. His cafe, indeed, 

 is peculiarly hard : improvements from the 

 crops, by increafe of labour and manure, 

 we fee are totally out of the queftion ; and, 

 if the poor fellow attempts it in cattle, he 

 muft leave as much on the farm as he 

 found, and if he carries the quantity beyond 

 that, the taille multiplies fo heavy on him, 

 that the profit turns out none of his. This 

 fmall culture, with all this multiplicity of 

 evils, is fpread over more than three-fourths 

 of the kingdom ; and the general fuppoii- 

 tion is, that it produces, of wheat, only 

 three times the feed, and of fpring-corn, 

 but five times. Where-ever it is in prac- 

 tice, you fee none but peafants, whofe po- 

 verty is Shocking j metayers, with only a 



hair's- 



