440 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



How is it that the Swiss peasant is much more substantially fed 

 than the Flemish ? Because the former is nearly always an owner 

 of the soil, while the latter is but too often only an occupier. The 

 Swiss has not for his market the insatiable stomach of the London 

 market, which the poor Fleming contributes to feed ; he has a 

 better one than that, namely, his own. 



Thus Switzerland and Groningen prove that agriculture does 

 not stand in need of a large foreign market to make progress. 

 A peasant proprietary is the best of all markets. 1 



On the ist of January, 1865, there were in West Flanders, on 

 an area of 323,466 hectares, 89,297 proprietors, and 693,904 

 "parcels" of land; in East Flanders, 155,381 proprietors and 

 845,220 parcels, towns and villages included ; in the entire king- 

 dom of Belgium there were 1,069,327 owners and 6,207,512 

 parcels. In 1846, the enumeration showed 758,512 proprietors 

 and 5,500,000 parcels of land. Thus it appears that the number 

 of landowners and of parcels has considerably increased. 



In Belgium I have never heard a complaint of the present state 

 of things, nor any expression of alarm for the future, such as one 

 used to hear in France before economists of eminence, such as 

 De Lavergne, Wolowski, and Passy, had undertaken the labour of 

 demonstrating the chimerical nature of the fears that the soil 

 would be crumbled to bits. 



As regards Belgium, and more especially Flanders, foreigners 

 should not be misled by the great number of parcels. The parcels 

 enumerated are cadastral parcels for the purposes of the survey ; 

 and very often the surface of the soil shows not the least trace 

 of any such divisions. Not only do many parcels often belong 

 to one and the same proprietor, but a single estate or farm of 

 10 or 12 hectares generally consists of many of them. The land 

 is divided into farms of different sizes in proportion to the cap- 

 itals of the cultivators ; for example, 50 hectares to 4 horses, 

 25 to 2, 12 for 1 horse, 5 or 6 hectares to a family without beasts 



1 Is another proof needed ? No vines are better cared for than those of the 

 Canton of Vaud, being the agricultural wonder of the Lake of Geneva. Is 

 the wine grown there exported like champagne, claret, or port ? Not at all ; the 

 Vaudois drink it themselves. That is still better. 



