452 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



M. Hippolyte Passy,^ "on the same area and under equal circum- 

 stances, the largest clear produce is yielded by small farming, which, 

 besides, by increasing the country population, opens a safe market 

 to the products of manufacturing industry." Which are the rich- 

 est and most productive provinces of France ? Precisely those in 

 which the small landowners are in the majority, especially Flanders 

 and Alsace. In this respect I need but refer the reader to the 

 works of M. Leonce de Lavergne. 



In the eastern provinces of Prussia (Prussia proper and Posen) 

 there are hardly any but large estates, worked by the owners 

 themselves. In Westphalia and the Rhenish provinces there are 

 to be found peasant proprietors and small farmers. The eastern 

 provinces are inferior to those of the west, even with respect to 

 live stock, as appears from the following table : 



There are to every square mile in the 



Provinces 



Metres of Road 



Inhabitants 



Heads of Large 

 Cattle 



Posen . . 

 Prussia 

 Westphalia 

 Rhineland 



5,000 \ 



4,000/ 



14,000 "1 



17,000/ 



3000 

 6000 



2980 



/3569 

 \4024 



In the western provinces agricultural wages are double what they 

 are in the eastern ones ; and while in the latter there are nine inhab- 

 itants to every house, there are but five and a half in the former. 



As regards Saxony, Dr. Engel's well-known statistics have shown 

 that small farms keep twice as much live stock as large ones.^ 



As to Italy, Mr. Kay expresses himself as follows in his "Notes 

 of a Traveller " : 



In 1836, Tuscany contained 130,190 landed estates. In the dominions of 

 the Pope, from the frontier of the Neapolitan to that of the Tuscan state, the 

 whole country is reckoned to be divided into about 600 landed estates. Com- 

 pare the husbandry of Tuscany, the perfect system of drainage, for instance, 



^ See " Memoire de TAcad^mie des sciences morales et politiques dans la 

 seance du 4 Janvier, 1845." 



2 See " Zeitschrift des Statistichen Bureau's des K. Sachsischen Ministeriums 

 des Innern," No. i, February, 1857. 



