196 LAND REFORM 



nourishment of the family of the small farmer depends 

 largely upon it."^ 



Nothing is wasted by the small cultivator, and no 

 kind of produce is neglected. Mr. Richardson illus- 

 trates this fact among other ways by stating that a 

 sum of ;^6o,ooo per annum is "gathered from bee- 

 hives in one department alone, which is a pure gift 

 of Nature, realized without cost, and as the reward of 

 a little care." 



The superior cooking of the French peasant woman 

 is one of the results of the thrift always practised by 

 peasant proprietors, and which is not likely to be ac- 

 quired by a proletariat. The late Sir Henry Thompson, 

 in his useful book, speaks of the cheap, tasty, and 

 highly nutritious meals produced by the " French 

 peasant's wife, who turns everything to account in a 

 manner quite incomprehensible to the English woman. 

 , . . To the pot of the peasant, who wastes nothing 

 whatever, all things are welcome ; and every atom of 

 nutritive material goes into it, to which are always 

 added herbs, vegetables, etc."^ 



The comparison drawn between the two systems 

 is an apt one, because the original positions of the 

 cultivators in the two countries were alike in princi- 

 ple. Peasant proprietary existed both in France and 

 England. In England it was crushed out by the 



^ Travellers in rural France know that at small inns in the villages, 

 fowls, eggs, vegetables, omelettes, etc., can, as a rule, be readily obtained 

 at cheap rates and well cooked. 



^ "Food and Feeding," 6th edition, 1891. By Sir Henry Thompson. 

 No girl should be allowed to leave our elementary schools without some 

 practical knowledge of cooking — cooking, not with expensive apparatus, 

 but with simple utensils. "Tether them by the teeth" is a good proverb 

 for all housewives, especially for those of the middle and poorer classes, 

 who would find that meals, however scanty, if well cooked, are a great 

 home-attraction for their men-kind. 



