1836.] 



F A R M E R S ' REGISTER 



645 



bandry:— let me have the honor of showing him 

 thai of our targe farms, and then let Dr. Price 

 conduct him to that of our small ones: when he 

 has viewed both, lie will find no difficulty in draw- 

 ing conclusions very different from those which he 

 has hitherto patronized. We have in England 

 brought to perfection the management of inclosing, 

 marling, claying, and every species of manuring. 

 We have made" great advances in irrigation; and 

 should, perhaps. "have equalled Lombardy, it the 

 liberty of the people would have allowed as ready 

 a trespass on private property. We have carried 

 the breeding of cattle and sheep to a greater per- 

 fection, than any country in the world ever yet ex- 

 perienced. We have, in our best managed dis- 

 tricts, banished tallows: and, what is the great glo- 

 ry of our island, the best husbandry is found on our 

 poorest soils. Let me demand, of' the advocates 

 for small farms, where the little farmer is to be 

 found who will cover his whole farm with marl, at 

 the rate of 100 to 150 tons per acre? who will drain 

 all his land at the expense of two or three pounds 

 an acre? who will pay a heavy price for the ma- 

 nure of towns, and convey it thirty miles by land 

 carriage? who will float his meadows at. the ex- 

 pensed £5 per acre? who, to improve the breed 

 of his sheep, will give 1000 guineas for the use of 

 a single ram for a single season? who will give 25 

 guineas per cow for being covered by a fine bull? 

 who will send across the kingdom to distant pro- 

 vinces for new implements, and for men to use 

 them? who employ and pay men for residing in 

 provinces, where practices are found which they 

 want to introduce on their farms? At the very 

 mention of such exertions, common in England, 

 what mind can be so perversely framed as to ima- 

 gine, for a single moment, that such things are 

 to be effected by little farmers? Deduct from agri- 

 culture all the practices that have made it flourish- 

 ing in this island, and you have precisely the man- 

 agement of small (arms. 



The false ideas, at present so common in France, 

 are the more surprising, as no language abounds, 

 with ]uster sentiments on many of these questions 

 of political economy than the French. There 

 cannot bejuster, truer, or more opposite remarks 

 on the advantage of great farms and rich farmers, 

 than in the Encyclopaedia.* Nor can any one 

 write better on the subject than M. Delegorgue.t 

 Artois, he observes, was universally under two 

 crops and a fallow; but changed to a crop every 

 year, by the old customs being abolished. So 

 beneficial an alteration, not common in France, 

 was founded on many and expensive experiments, 

 which could be established only by means of the 

 manures gained from large flocks and herds. By 



urge that great farms are injurious, should show that 

 small ones raise a greater quantity; that is, are better 

 cultivated; surely the assertion implies too gross an ab- 

 surdity to be ventured. Frederic, who attained the ti- 

 tle of Great, on account of his superior skill in the arts 

 of slaughtering men, was. on military principles a friend 

 to breeding them, — "confiderant que le nombre des 

 habitants fait la richesse des souverains on trouva" — 

 &c. Oeuvre de Fred. II. Tom. v. p. 1-16. 



♦Torn. 7, p. 821. Folio. 



f Mem, stir cette question: Est-il utile en Artois de 

 Divisor les Fermes? 1786, p. 7. 



whom was this change effected? by little farmers, 

 who can hardly effect their own support? Assur- 

 edly not. lie further observes, that some parts of 

 Artois are divided for the sake of a higher rent, 

 and cattle are there sensibly decreased; also, that 

 a country laborer is much happier than a little 

 farmer. And I give him no slight credit for his 

 observation, that little farmers are not able to keep 

 their corn; and that all monopolies are in conse- 

 quence of them; implying, that great farmcVs 

 keeping back their corn is beneficial; but monopo- 

 lies are equally beneficial, and tend as advantage- 

 ously to remedy^ the evils that flow from little far- 

 mers being in too great a hurry to sell. 



But however clearly I may be convinced of the 

 infinite superiority of large farms, and that no 

 country can ever be highly improved, by means of 

 small ones, yet I am very far from recommending 

 any laws or regulations to enforce ihe union of 

 several. I contend for nothing but freedom; and 

 for the rejection of those absurd and preposterous 

 demands, in some of the French cahicrs ibr laws 

 against such an union. And let me add, that little 

 attention should be paid to those writers and politi- 

 cians, who under despotic governments, are so 

 strenuous for a great population, as to be blind to 

 much superior objects; who see nothing in the 

 propagation of mankind but the means of increa- 

 sing soldiers; who admire small farms as the nur- 

 series of slaves — and think it a worthy object ol 

 policy to breed men to miser) 7 , that they may be 

 inlisted, or starve. Such sentiments may be con- 

 genial with the keen atmosphere ol German des- 

 potism; but that they should find their way into a 

 nation, whose prospectsarc cheered by the brighter 

 beams of new-born liberty, is a contradiction to 

 that general felicity which ought to flow from free- 

 dom. Much too populous to be happy, Fiance 

 should seek the means of feeding the numbers 

 which she hath, instead of breeding more to share 

 a too scanty pittance. 



Small properties. — In the preceding observations, 

 I have had rented (arms only in view; but there is 

 another sort which abounds in almost every part 

 of France, of which we cannot, form an idea irom 

 what we sec in England — I mean small proper- 

 ties; that is, little farms, belonging to those who 

 cultivate them. The number is so great, that I 

 am inclined to suppose more than one-third of the 

 kingdom occupied by them. Before I travelled, I 

 conceived that small farms, in property, were very 

 susceptible of good cultivation; and that the occu- 

 pier of such, having no rent to pay, might, be suf- 

 ficiently at his ease to work improvements, and 

 carry on a vigorous husbandry; but what I have 

 seen in France, has greatly lessened my good opin- 

 ion of them. In Flanders, I saw excellent hus- 

 bandry on properties of 30 to 100 acres; but we 

 seldom find here such small patches of property, as 

 are common in other provinces. In Alsace, and on 

 the Garonne, that is, on soils of such exuberant 

 fertility as to demand no exertions, some small pro- 

 perties also are well cultivated. In Beam, I passed 

 through a region of little farms, whose appear- 

 ance, neatness, ease, and happiness, charmed me; 

 it was what property alone could, on a small scale, 

 effect; but these were by no means contemptibly 

 small, they are as I judged by the distance from 

 house to house, from 40 fo 80 acres. Except these, 

 and a very few other intances, I saw nothing re- 



