466 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



No parallel can be drawn between the Belgian and the English 

 landowner. The latter, I believe, acts upon considerations un- 

 known on the Continent, and no inference can therefore be drawn 

 from so exceptional a case. Not that the English landlord is 

 intus ct in cute better than other men ; but he is subject to a 

 higher public opinion, and being a much wealthier man, he is 

 not tempted to screw the last farthing out of his tenant. Hence 

 the condition of the English tenant-farmer is a happier one than 

 that of the Flemish. 



As a rule, peasant property is an excellent thing wherever the 

 proprietor is himself the cultivator ; but where it exists side by 

 side with leasehold farming in an over-populated country, the 

 tenant-farmer is placed in a worse condition than if the estates 

 were large. But it is most important to bear in mind, in com- 

 paring the condition of the agricultural population in Flanders 

 and England, that the small Flemish farmer who cultivates his 

 land with his own hands corresponds, not to the English tenant- 

 farmer, but to the English farm-labourer. Now our small farmer, 

 though hardly better fed than the English agricultural labourer, 

 has a decided advantage over the latter ; he doubtless has the 

 cares and responsibility his superior position entails, but on the 

 other hand he acquires from it habits of providence and self- 

 control, and the exercise of his intellectual faculties. 



Let us next glance at the condition of the agricultural labourer 

 in Flanders. His wages are very low, ranging from i franc 10 

 centimes to I franc 50 centimes per day, without board. In the 

 Walloon country, in which are all the large centres of industry, 

 the wages are about double of this, owing to the mines and manu- 

 factories competing with the land in the labour-market. Some 

 facts connected with this are almost incredible. In the environs 

 of Liege, an agricultural labourer earns 2\ francs a day, while 

 near Hasselt, at a distance of no more than four leagues, he 

 earns but I franc ; the country is Flemish, and he is prevented 

 by the difference of language from going to a Walloon district, 

 in which he might earn much higher pay. 



For breakfast the Flemish labourer has bread and butter, with 

 chicory coffee and milk ; for dinner, potatoes, vegetables, and 



