THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 417 



class of productions for which la petite culture is eminently 

 adapted (whether exclusively, or in common with the large system 

 of farming) is one for which the demand steadily increases with 

 the growth of wealth, trade, and agriculture, and the prosperity 

 of the inhabitants of both town and countr)^, including the small 

 cultivators themselves. 



M. Leonce de Lavergne, in his " Rural Economy of Great 

 Britain," after remarking and the remark is in itself one of 

 no small importance and instructive suggestion that, "capital 

 being more distributed in France than it is in England, it is 

 expedient that the farms should be smaller, to correspond with 

 the working capital," proceeds : 



The extent of farms, besides, is determined by other causes, such as the 

 nature of the soil, the climate, and the kinds of crops prevailing. Almost 

 everywhere the soil of France may be made to respond to the labour of man, 

 and almost everywhere it is for the advantage of the community that manual 

 labour should be actively bestowed upon it. Let us suppose ourselves in the rich 

 plains of Flanders, or on the banks of the Rhine, the Garonne, the Charente, 

 or the Rhone ; we there meet with la petite culture^ but it is rich and pro- 

 ductive. Every method for increasing the fruitfulness of the soil, and making 

 the most of labour, is there known and practised, even among the smallest 

 farmers. Notwithstanding the active properties of the soil, the people are 

 constantly renewing and adding to its fertility by means of quantities of 

 manure, collected at great cost; the breed of animals is superior, and the 

 harvests magnificent. In one district we find maize and wheat ; in another, 

 tobacco, flax, rape, and madder; then again, the vine, olive, plum, and mul- 

 berry, which, to yield their abundant treasures, require a people of laborious 

 habits. Is it not also to small farming that we owe most of the market- 

 garden produce raised at such great expenditure around Paris 1 



And further on (notwithstanding the favour which, in his love 

 for political liberty and order, M, de Lavergne regards everything 

 in the economy of England) he observes : 



Our agriculture may find in England useful examples; but I am far from 

 giving them as models for imitation. The south of France, for example, has 

 scarcely anything to borrow from English methods; its agricultural future is 

 nevertheless magnificent. 



This passage was written sixteen years ago ; and a communi- 

 cation to the writer cited above shows how the predictions it 



