APPENDIX I 



A FRENCH AGRICULTURIST'S OPINION 



A LATE friend 1 of the writer's who was a practical 

 agriculturist and had an intimate knowledge of both 

 the French and English systems of land cultivation and 

 tenure, held a conversation with a French agriculturist 

 on the respective merits of the English system of tenan- 

 cies and the French system of ownerships. He put the 

 arguments of the Frenchman into writing and sent a 

 copy to the present writer. These arguments were as 

 follow : 



" We maintain our growth of wheat at about 16 

 million acres, while you have decreased your growth 

 to under 2 million. By growing 16 million acres of wheat, 

 we also produce 16 million acres of straw, and the growth 

 of straw governs our style of farming. We keep three 

 times the number of cows that you do in Great Britain, 

 because we have sufficient straw to winter our stock in 



1 Mr. W. J. Harris, of Halwill Manor, North Devon. 

 He cut up a considerable area of his estate into small 

 holdings. He arranged with those tenants, who wished it, 

 to become owners on easy terms. These small holdings 

 were most successful, and in a few years they were the cause 

 of a large increase in the population of his parish. 



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