62 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. T-^r T. 



of-doors work, the- hoys plait straw for chairs, make baskets, saw logs with the cross-saw 

 and split them, thrash and winnow corn, grind colours, knit stockings, or assist the wheel- 

 wright and other artificers, of uliom there are many employed in the establishment For 



all which different sorts of labour an adequate salary is credited to each boy's class. 



! The t>oi/s never see a newtpaper, and scarce!,/ a book ; they are taught, viod voce, a few matters of 

 feet, .nut rules ol pr.u-nc.il application : the re»l ol their education cons'wta chiefly in inculcating habit* of 

 industry fru rality, veracity, docility, and mutual kindness, by meant of good example, rather than pre- 

 cepts: and above all, by the absence of bad ex imple. it has hem said or the Bell and Lancaster schools, 

 that the hi'mkI ilu-v ilo is nic.stlv negative : they take children out of the »treets, employ them in a harm, 

 leg, Bor tol rt two or three hours in the day, exercise their understanding gently and pleasantly, 



and accustom them to order and rule, without compulsion. Now, what these schools undertake to do 

 for a few hues of each week, during one or two years of a boy's life, the School o> Industry at Hofwyl 

 does incessantly, during the whole course of bis youth; providing, at the same tune, for his whole 

 physical maintenance, at a rate which must he deemed excessively cheap for any but the very lowest of 

 the people. 



353. The practicability of this scheme for inculcating individual prudence and practical 

 morality, not onlv in the agricultural, but in all the operative, classes of society, M. 

 Simond considers as demonstrated; and it only remains to ascertain the extent of its 

 application. Two only of the pupils have left Hofwyl, for a place, before the end of 

 their time; and one, with M. de lellenberg's leave, is become chief manager of the 

 immense estates of Comte Abaffy, in Hungary, and has, it is said, doubled its proceeds 

 by the improved method of husbandry he has introduced. This young man, whose name 

 is Madorly, was originally a beggar boy, and not particularly distinguished at school. 

 Another directs a school established near Zurich, and acquits himself. to the entire 

 satisfaction of his employers. M. Fellenberg has besides a number of pupils of the 

 higher classes, some of whom belong to the first families of Germany, Russia, and Swit- 

 zerland. They live en famille with their master, and are instructed by the different tutors 

 in the theory and practice of agriculture, and in the arts and sciences on which it is 

 founded. (See Siinond's Account of Switzerland, vol. i. ; Ed. Rev. 1819, No. G4. ; Des 

 Institutes de Hfwyldepar Cte. L. de V. Paris, 1821.) 



Subsect. 2. Of the Agriculture of the Duchy of Savoy. 



354. Of the agriculture of Sarny, which naturally belongs to Switzerland, a general 

 view, with some interesting "details, is given by Bakewell. (Travels in the Tarantaise, Sen., 

 1820-22.) Landed property there is divided into three qualities, and rated for a land- 

 tax accordingly. There is an office for registering estates, to which a per centage is paid 

 on each transfer or additional registering. There is also an office for registering all 

 mortgages, with the particulars ; both are found of great benefit to the landed interest 

 and the public, by the certainty which they give to titles, and the safety both to borrowers 

 and lenders on land. 



355. Land in Savoy is divided into very small farms, and is occupied by the proprietors 

 or pat/sans, who live in an exceedingly frugal manner, and cultivate the ground with the 

 assistance of their w ives and children ; for in Savoy, as in many other parts of Europe, 

 the women do nearly as much field labour as the men. 



356. The lands belonging to the monasteries were sold during the French revolution, when Savoy was 

 annexed to France. The gradual abolition of the monasteries had been begun by the old government of 

 Sardinia before the revolution, for the monks were prohibited from receiving any new brethren into their 

 establishments, in order that the estate? might devolve to the crown, on the extinction of the different 

 fraternities. This measure, though wise in the abstract, was not unattended with inconvenience, and 

 perhaps we may add, injustice. The poor, who had been accustomed to fly to the monasteries for relief 

 in cases of distress, were left without any support, except the casual charity of their neighbours, who had 

 little to spare from their own absolute necessities. The situation of the poor is therefore much worse in 

 Savoy, than before the abolition of the monasteries. The poor in England suffered in the same manner, 

 on the abolition of the monasteries in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, before the poor's rates 

 were enacted. The cliaritv of the monks of Savoy lost much of its usefulness by the indiscriminate manner 

 in which it was generally bestowed: certain days and hours were appointed at each monastery, for the 

 distribution of provisions, and the indolent were thereby enabled to support themselves during the whole 

 week, by walking to the different monasteries on the days of donation. This was offering a premium to 

 idleness, and was the means of increasing the number of mendicants, which will, in every country, be 

 proportionate to the facility of obtaining food without labour. 



The peasantry in Savoy are very poor, but they cannot be called miserable. In the neighbourhood 

 of towns, their situation is worse than at a distance ; and not far from Chambery may he seen a few 

 families that might almost vie in squalid misery, rags, and filth, with the poor of Ireland ; but the general 

 appearance of the peasantry is respectable. Having learnt the price of labour in various parts of Savoy, 

 Bakewell proposed the following question : Is it possible for a labourer, with a family, to procure a 

 Sufficient quantity of wholesome food for their consumption ? One of the answers was, " Cela est Iris facile 

 (It is very easy', the other was, "The labourer lives very fxugalljr (tres-sobrement)." " In general 

 he eats very coarse, but wholesome, bread, and, except in the mountains, he eats very little meat, and 

 rarely drinks wine, hut he has a great resource in potatoes." 



558. One day's labour of a farming man will purchase about twelve pounds avoirdupois of wheat, or from 



four to five pounds of hci f, veal, or mutton ; but these are dainties which he rarely tastes ; potatoes, rye. 



bread, chestnuts, and milk, form the principal part of the food of the poor. The day-labourer in Savoy has 



■ duct, from the amount of his labour, about seventy days in the year, including saint-days and Sundays, 



on which be receives no wages. [Bahevoell'S Travels, vol. i. 314.) 



359. There are four modes of occupying land for cultivation in Savoy: by the pro- 

 prietors ; by fanners ; by grangers ; and by tacheurs. 



Land very near to towns is generally cultivated by the proprietors, who either keep cattle, or take 

 them in to graze at so much per head. 



