THE LAND SYSTEM OF BELGIUM AND HOLLAND 453 



in the straits of the Arno, by drains between every two beds of land, all con- 

 nected with a main drain being our own lately introduced furrow tile drain- 

 ing, but connected here with the irrigation as well as the draining of land ; 

 compare the clean state of the growing crops, the variety and succession of 

 green crops for feeding cattle in the house all the year round, the attention to 

 collecting manure, the garden-like cultivation of the whole face of the country 

 compare this with the desert waste of the Roman Maremma, or with the 

 Papal country, of soil and productiveness as good as that of the Vale of 

 the Arno, the country about Foligno and Perugia ; compare the well-clothed 

 busy people, the smart country girls at work about their cows' food, or their 

 silkworm leaves, with the ragged, sallow, indolent population lounging about 

 their doors in the Papal dominions, starving, and with nothing to do on the 

 great estates ; nay, compare the agricultural industry in this land of small 

 farms with the best of our large-farms districts, with Tweedside or East 

 Lothian, and snap your finger at the wisdom of our St. Johns and all the host 

 of our bookmakers on agriculture, who bleat after each other that small farms 

 are incompatible with a high and perfect state of cultivation. 



In Lombardy, in the province of Como, where la petite culture 

 prevails, the value of the cattle per hectare in cultivation is 161 

 francs ; whilst in the province of Mantua, with its large farms 

 and fine pasture land, it is but 94 francs. 1 



In Portugal there are in the large-farming province of Alemtego 

 but 329,277 inhabitants on an area of 2,454,062 hectares, with 

 an annual production exclusive of cattle worth 54,762,500 

 francs, or 22.72 francs per hectare. On the contrary, in the 

 small-farming province of Minho, there are on an area of 749,994 

 hectares, 914,400 inhabitants, producing exclusive of cattle 

 37,756,250 francs per annum, or 50.34 francs per hectare, being 

 more than twice the production of Alemtego. 2 



1 See my " Etudes d'economie rurale en Lombardie," p. 112, and Zacini's ex- 

 cellent book, " La Proprieta fondiaria in Lombardia." 



2 With reference to Portugal, see the excellent work, " Compendio de Eco- 

 nomia rural," by Senhor A. Rebello da Silva, Colonial Minister of Portugal in 

 1870; and J. Forrester's "Portugal and its Capabilities," in which we find the 

 following passages : " The Minho is justly termed the garden of Portugal." 

 " The Alemtego is the largest, and perhaps naturally the richest, province of 

 Portugal. Once the granary of Portugal, it is now the worst cultivated and most 

 thinly populated of the entire kingdom. The reason of this change may be 

 traced to the following fact. The fecundity of this province has been proverbial 

 from the remotest times ; and people of substance, relinquishing the North, came 

 here, and united many small farms in a few extensive estates, which have 



