MANIA FOR LARGE FARMS. 11 



into form for tillage, and, in jealousy lest the nobles should again 

 accumulate land in large quantities through laws of entail and 

 primogeniture, the people made it a portion of the fundamental 

 law that all patrimonies should be equally divided among chil- 

 dren, leaving but one-third to be disposed of by the parent if he 

 had two children, and one-quarter only if he had three. This 

 provision of law has withstood the several changes of govern- 

 ment, and an attempt to modify it by Charles X. was, perhaps, 

 the primary cause of the revolution of 1830. The effect of this 

 salutary law has been the subdivision of landed estates and other 

 property in France until the result has been attained which we 

 have seen. The farms average less than fifteen acres, and there 

 are over three million of farms containing ten acres or less. The 

 farms in Massachusetts average 100 acres each. Do we wonder 

 now at the difference in cultivation ? 



May we not deduce, therefore, fairly from this analysis and 

 comparison of the agricultural industry of France, the proposi- 

 tion that the great fault of our farming is too great extent of 

 land in each farm and too little cultivation ? Is it not the duty 

 of the statesman to inquire whether legislation should not be 

 fitted to subdivide the land for the benefit of the whole people ? 

 and is it not equally the duty of the farmer to inquire whether 

 less land and more cultivation would not produce greater crops ? 



I have given you the facts and figures and have studiously 

 avoided giving any opinions of my own which would not be 

 valuable. But I have endeavored to impress these very valuable 

 and vital statistics upon you, in order to bring the questions I 

 have last indicated to your consideration. It will be observed 

 in this that I have not taken into account the advantages we are 

 supposed to derive from the political liberty which we enjoy com- 

 pared with France bearing the burdens of an empire, which we 

 have seen, in fact, are no greater than the unholy and unneces- 

 sary war, through which we have passed, have imposed upon us. 

 Nor would it have been just if I had undertaken to make any 

 allowance in our favor for this, because, to the statesman and 

 statistician, it is evident that for the last twenty years the agricul 

 tural portion of the people of France have enjoyed the best gov- 

 ernment possible for them. After a democracy, a pure despotism 

 is the best government. The wrongs, sins, crimes if you please, 

 of one man are iufinitessimal in their bearing upon thirty-eight 



