CONDITIONS IN HOLLAND 235 



apply the new processes of agriculture. Full of cunning as he is, 

 and able, as Balzac says, on any disputed point to out-Talleyrand 

 all the Talleyrands of diplomacy, the French peasant is, for all 

 that, narrow-minded, obtuse, and routinier. Moreover, he instinc- 

 tively feels that to meddle with the established order of things is 

 indirectly to attack his right of property. As a necessary conse- 

 quence, he opposes to the uttermost all new methods of culture, 

 his natural distrust of which has been aggravated by his own 

 experience of failure where such methods have been imperfectly 

 applied. And when, in spite of himself, he has been driven to 

 make use of foreign seeds, guano, and chemical manures, his igno- 

 rance has caused him to fall so easy a prey to the fraud and 

 quackery imposed upon him by the trade that his dislike of inno- 

 vations has become inveterate. 



In these latter respects a great improvement has 

 been effected in recent years through the agricultural 

 syndicates and the various other phases of that practical 

 organization which has done so much to advance the 

 general condition of agriculturists in France. But the 

 fundamental disadvantages, both moral and material, 

 inherent to the system of peasant proprietary still 

 remain. 



In Holland the position brought about by peasant 

 proprietary is, in some respects, still more acute than 

 in France. The supply of available land is, of course, 

 very much smaller, and, partly on this account, and 

 partly because so much of it is polder land, which 

 has been rescued at great cost from the waters, values 

 and rentals may be somewhat higher than in other 

 Continental countries ; and they would be higher still 

 but for the fact that Dutch land-owners are generally 

 satisfied with a return of 2\ to 3 per cent. Most of 

 the farmers and cultivators aspire to become owners, 

 and, in effect, of the total amount of land in the country 

 devoted to agriculture and horticulture, 99,290 hectares 

 are in the hands of proprietors, and 83,276 hectares 

 are occupied by tenants. The relative proportions, 

 and also the size of the individual holdings, in the case 



