16 



staiicesj tluit is, able to li^'e without work or Ijusiiie.ss^ 

 Of the reiiiaiuiiig 8 million, which may he said to be 

 composed of tlie industrial and working- classes, 3 million 

 only are inhabitants of the towns. That is, of the wholes 

 population, two-fifths of the people in France, live in the 

 cities, and three-fifths live in the country. This gives a 

 very surprising result as compared with England, where 

 four-fifths of the whole people live in town and one-fifth 

 only in the country. We have }'et no data with which 

 I am acquainted, to make a like comparison with this 

 country. 



All property is then very equally distributed among 

 the liulk of the })Opulation. There are six million of 

 houses in France, the greater part of them cottages with 

 small plots of land. Nearh" the whole of this number 

 are small freeholds belonging to their occupants. In 

 other words, more than two-thirds of the entire po})ula- 

 tion own their own houses. 



After liearing these statistics, the question, I ha^e no 

 doubt, arises to the lips of each one of my auditors, as 

 it came to me, — how are these very great results possi- 

 ble ? What is the secret ? This may be told in a word. 

 It is the thorough cultivation of the soil. Of her 132 

 million of acres, 64 million are arable ; 12 millions only 

 are in meadows, or, as we say, fields and grass • 5 million 

 in vineyards; 11 millions in orchards and gardens; 2| 

 million in miscellaneous crops ; 20 million in wood and 

 forest ; a half million in ponds ; 20 million only may be 

 called heath or waste lands, the remainder being for 

 roads, public squares, canals and pleasure grounds — 

 al)out 7 millions of acres. Thus it will appear that two- 

 thirds of the entire area of France is under actual culti- 

 vation every year. 



