OCCUPYING OWNERSHIP 201 



Communes numbering two thousand souls, occupy 

 houses of their own, etc."^ 



In his book on this subject, M. de Lavergne not 

 only gives the history of French agriculture from the 

 year 1789, but gives a full description of its condition 

 during many years before the Revolution, because he 

 says " it is a question before all to seek the effects of 

 the Revolution of 1789 on our rural economy, and it 

 is impossible to fairly state these effects without going 

 back to the causes."^ 



It is urged by the apologists for the English system 

 of agriculture that this satisfactory state of things in 

 France is mainly due to soil and climate. As to 

 climate, that of course is the same as it was when 

 agriculture was in the deplorable condition described 

 by Arthur Young ; but the climate, no doubt, enables 

 certain articles — such as some kinds of fruit, flowers, 

 and vegetables — to be produced earlier than they can 

 be produced in England. 



With regard to the soil, the land of France, though 

 of much higher value on account of its intensive culti- 

 vation and consequent superior productiveness, is but 

 little, if anything, more suitable for general farming, or 

 for the growth of the smaller articles of food (taking 

 them as a whole) than is the land of this country. But, 

 as has been pointed out, the remarks and comparison 

 made apply not only to France, but to those other 

 countries in which a similar system prevails. The 

 conditions of both soil and climate in some of these — 

 Belgium, Holland, and Denmark, for example — are 

 less favourable to all-round cultivation than are those 

 of England. M. de Laveleye, in a letter to the present 



^ " Home Life in France," Miss Betham Edwards, Methuen, 1905. 

 ' " Economic Rurale de la France," M. de Lavergne. 3rd edition. 



