444 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



Were a statement drawn up of the debts with which land 

 property is burdened in the various parts of Europe, it would be 

 seen that large estates are generally more encumbered than 

 small ones. 



In England the mortgages are reported to amount to fifty-eight 

 per cent of the value of the land ; in France only ten per cent, 

 according to Messrs. Passy and Wolowsky. In Prussia the eastern 

 provinces with their large estates show greater indebtedness than 

 those of the west with their small farms. 1 In Lombardy the total 

 landed debt amounts to twenty-five per cent of the value of the 

 land, and in the province of Sondria, where the farms are small, 

 they represent no more than one-and-a-half per cent of that value. 



Every one knows La Fontaine's story of Perette going to the 

 market to buy eggs ; the eggs are hatched into chickens, the 

 chickens produce a pig and then a calf, and the calf becomes a 

 cow. This dream of Perette's is daily realised by the Flemish 

 small farmer. 



We are often told that agriculture stands in need of capital ; 

 that institutions in aid of agricultural credit are wanting. I reply, 

 Good husbandry itself creates the capital needed. 



In agriculture the capital most needed is live stock, to furnish 

 the manure by which rich harvests are secured. 



The Flemish small farmer picks up grass and manure along the 

 roads. He raises rabbits, and with the money they fetch he buys 

 first a goat, then a pig, next a calf, by which he gets a cow pro- 

 ducing calves in her turn. But of course he must find food for 

 them, and this he does by staking all on fodder and roots ; and in 

 this way the farmer grows rich, and so does the land. The insti- 

 tution in Flanders in aid of agricultural credit is the manure- 

 merchant, who has founded it in the best of forms ; for money 

 lent may be spent in a public-house, but a loan of manure must be 

 laid out on the land. 



The poor labourer goes with his wheelbarrow to the dealer in 

 the village to buy a sack or two of guano, undertaking to pay 

 for it after the harvest. The dealer trusts him, and gives him 



1 See the excellent work by President Adolphe Lette, " Die Vertheilung 

 Grundeigenthun\s." 



