646 



F ARMERS' REGISTE R 



[No. 11 



spectable on small properties, except a most unre- 

 mitting industry. Indeed, it is necessary to im- 

 press on the reader's mind, that though the hus- 

 bandry I met with, in a great variety of instances 

 on little properties, was as bad as can well be con- 

 ceived, yet the industry of the possessors was so 

 conspicuous, and so meritorious, that no commen- 

 dations would be too great for it. It was sufficient 

 to prove, that, the property in land is, of all others, 

 the most active instigalor to severe and incessant 

 labor. And this truth! is of such force and extent, 

 that I know no way so sure of carrying tillage to a 

 mountain-top, as by permitting the adjoining villa- 

 gers to acquire it in property; in fact, we see that, 

 in the mountains of Languedoc, &c. they have 

 conveyed earth in baskets, on their backs, to form 

 a soil where nature had denied it. Another cir- 

 cumstance attending small properties, is the in- 

 crease of population; but what may be advantage- 

 ous to other countries, may be a misfortune to 

 France. 



Having, in this manner, admitted the merit, of 

 such small farms in property, I shall, in the next 

 place, state the inconveniences I have observed to 

 result from them in France. 



The first, and greatest, is the division which uni- 

 versally takes place after the death of the proprie- 

 tor, commonly amongst all the children, but in 

 some districts amongst the sons only. Forty or 

 fifty acres in property are not incapable of good 

 husbandry, but when divided, twenty acres must 

 be ill cultivated; again divided, they become 

 farms of ten acres, of five, of two, and even one; 

 and I have seen some of half, and even a quarter 

 of a rood, with a family as much attached to it, as 

 if it were an hundred acres. The population 

 flowing from this division, is, in some cases, great, 

 but it is the multiplication of wretchedness. Cou- 

 ples marry and procreate on the idea, not the real- 

 ity, of a maintenance; they increase beyond the 

 demand of towns and manufactures; and the con- 

 sequence is, distress, and numbers dying of disea- 

 ses, arising from insufficient nourishment. Hence, 

 therefore, small properties, much divided, prove 

 the greatest source of misery that, can be conceived; 

 and this has operated to such an extent and de- 

 gree in France, that a law undoubtedly ought to 

 be passed, to render all division below a certain 

 number of arpents, illegal. But what are we, in 

 this view of the subject, drawn from actual and 

 multiplied observations, to think of the men who 

 contend, that the property of land cannot be too 

 much divided? That a country is flourishing in 

 proportion to the equal dispersion of the people 

 over their territory, is the opinion of one celebrated 

 leader* in the National Assembly; but his father 



* De la Monarchic Prussienne, Tom. iv. p. 13. The 

 Count de Mirabeau in this passage agrees, that great 

 farms, upon a given space of land, will yield the great- 

 est possible production, at the least possible expense, 

 but contends, that there is a multitude of little objects, 

 which escape the great farmer, of much more conse- 

 quence than saving expenses. It is incredible that a 

 man of such decided talents should so utterly mistake 

 the facts that govern a question, to which he has »iv:n 

 much attention, at least if we are to judge by his recur- 

 ring to it so often. Where does he find" the fact upon 

 which he builds all his reasoning, that little farmers 

 make larger investments and expenses than great far- 

 mers? T will not appeal to England, in which the ques- 



was of different sentiments; with great good sense 

 and deep reflection he declares, that that culture 

 does not most favor population which employs 

 most hands;* "e'est a bien des egards un prejuge 

 de croire, que plus la culture occupe d'hoinmes 

 plus elle est favorable a la population;" meaning, 

 that the surplus of product carried to market, is as 

 favorable to population, by feeding towns, as if 

 eaten on the fields that produced it, ainsi plus V 

 Industrie fy la richesse des entre preneurs de la cul- 

 ture epargne de travail d'hommes, plus la culture 

 fournit a la subsistence d\iutrcs hammes. Another 

 deputy, high in general estimation, and at the 

 head of the committee of finances, asserts, that 

 the greatest possible division of land property is 

 the best. Such gentlemen, with the best inten- 

 tions, spread opinions, which, if fully embraced, 

 would make all France a scene of beggary and 

 wretchedness. Amidst a mass of most useful 

 knowledge, of deep and just reflections, and true 

 political principles, a tendency to similar ideas is 

 found in the reports of the committee of Mendici- 

 /e,| in which the multiplication of little properties 

 is considered as a resource against misery. No- 

 thing more is necessary, than to extend such ideas, 

 by supposition to fact, to show their real tendency. 

 There are 130 millions of acres, and at least 25 

 millions of people in France. Assign, therefore, 

 to each person, its shares of that extent: call it (al- 

 lowing for rocks, rivers, roads, &c.) five acres 

 each, or 25 acres per family. When, by the first 

 principles of the idea, which is that of encouraging 

 population, the luxury, celibacy, unhealthy em- 

 ployments, prostitution and sterility of cities, are 

 removed, and the plain manners of the country 

 are universally established, every circumstance in 

 natures carries the people to marriage and procrea- 

 tion: a great increase takes place; and the 25 

 acres gradually, by division, become 20, 15, 12, 8, 

 and so on, perpetually lessening. What, on such 

 a supposition, is to become of the superfluity of 

 people? You presently arrive at the limit beyond 

 which the earth, cultivate it as you please, will 

 feed no more mouths; yet those simple manners, 



tion is determined as soon as named; butl should wish 

 to be informed, in what provinces of France the little 

 farmers have their lands as well istocked as great ones? 

 or as well cultivated? M. de Mirabeau completely begs 

 the question, in supposing what is directly contrary to 

 fact, since the advances of the great farms are more con- 

 siderable, perhaps the double of those of the little ones; I 

 am sure it is so in every part of the kingdom in which I 

 have been. But the Count goes on to state how superior 

 the little farms are, because somany familiesare found on 

 the land, which is precisely the most powerful argu- 

 ment against them, as that merit admitted, implies at 

 once the annihilation of towns and manufactures beino- 

 beneficial to a modern state, provided the people be 

 found in the country; a position I have sufficiently an- 

 swered in the text. 



* VJlmi des Homines, oth edit. 1760, Tom. v. p. 43. 

 See also Tom. vi. p. 79. Tableau Oeconomique. See 

 the same subject, handled with much ability, by one of 

 the greatest political geniusses of the present age, De 

 L' Oeconomie Politique, par Moras. Herrenschwand, 

 Svo. 1786, p. 275. And Discours sur la division des 

 Terras, Svo. 1786, Par le meme. 



t Premier Rapport, Svo. 1790, p. 6. Qvairieme Rap- 

 port, p. 9. These reports were made by the chairman, 

 M. de la Rochefoucauld Liancourt, and do very great 

 honor to his abilities and his industry. 



