THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 419 



on with the same skill as in Flanders ; and the art of house 

 feeding, which is the basis of the Flemish system of small 

 farming, is still in its infancy in many French districts : a fact, 

 however, which only opens a brighter future for la petite culture 

 within them. And we may a fortiori by reason, on the one 

 hand, of the hold small farming has already established over both 

 the territory and the mind of France, and, on the other hand, 

 of the more recent development of manufactures, means of com- 

 munication, and commerce apply the language which Mr. Caird 

 has used with respect to England : 



The production of vegetables and fresh meat, forage, and pasture for dairy 

 cattle, will necessarily extend as the towns become more numerous and more 

 populous. The facilities of communication must increase this tendency. An 

 increasingly dense manufacturing population is yearly extending the circle 

 within which the production of fresh food, animal, vegetable, and forage, will 

 be needed for the daily and weekly supply of the inhabitants and their cattle; 

 and which, both on account of its bulk and the necessity of having it fresh, 

 cannot be brought from distant countries. Fresh meat, milk, butter, vegetables, 

 etc., are articles of this description ; and there is a good prospect of flax 

 becoming an article in excessive demand, and therefore worthy of the farmer's 

 attention. Now all these products require the employment of considerable 

 labour, very minute care, skill, and attention, and a larger acreable application 

 of capital than is requisite for the production of corn. This will inevitably lead 

 to the gradual diminution of the largest farms, and the gradual concentration 

 of the capital and attention of the farmer on a smaller space.^ 



Thus the very productions for which la petite culture is specially 

 adapted are the things getting new markets with every new 

 railway, road, manufacture, mine, and increase of national wealth ; 

 and that ascent of rural prices in France which M. Victor 

 Bonnet has shown to be the result of its economic development 

 is in effect an ascent in the economic scale of peasant property 

 and the little farm. It follows that the subdivision of the French 

 soil, which has been the subject of sincere regret and pity on 

 the part of many eminent English writers and speakers, as well 

 as of much ignorant contempt on the part of prejudiced politi- 

 cians, is really both a cause and an effect of the increased wealth 

 of every class of the population the seller and the buyer of 



1 Caird, English Agriculture. 



