THE CROPS. 53 



At first it appears that France has the advantage 

 over the United Kingdom in the proportion of uncul- 

 tivated to cultivated lands ; but then the lands left waste 

 by our neighbours are, for the most part, incapable of 

 cultivation ; they lie almost entirely in the Scotch 

 Highlands, the north of Ireland, and in Wales ; while 

 most of our waste lands are susceptible of cultivation. 

 We have, besides, more wood than our neighbours ; and, 

 adding our forest grounds to the uncultivated land, we 

 find nineteen millions of hectares out of fifty-three ex- 

 cluded from cultivation, properly speaking : this brings 

 the proportion to nearly the same in both cases. Owing 

 to the abundance of cheap fuel which their coal supplies, 

 the English have been enabled to get rid of the extensive 

 woods which once covered their island, and by this means 

 to redeem their inferiority in other respects : few vestiges 

 of their ancient forests now remain, and these are every 

 day threatened with destruction. 



On the one side, then, the area under cultivation con- 

 sists of nineteen millions of hectares, and on the other of 

 thirty-four. At first sight, we find that out of the nine- 

 teen millions of English hectares, fifteen are devoted to 

 the growth of food for live stock, and at most four for 

 that of man. In France, nine millions of hectares are 

 appropriated to ameliorating crops, whilst the exhausting 

 crops occupy double that surface : the extent of fallows, 

 again, is enormous, and in their present state they cannot 

 be of much service in renewing the fertility of the land. 

 An examination into details will only confirm the truth 

 of what is here presented. 



our best authorities in this matter differ materially, and it is well known that no 

 data commensurate with the scope of the inquiry, or of any reliable nature, have 

 ever yet been obtained to warrant a just estimate of so important a phenome- 

 non, we hold that the above, upon the whole, may be found as near the truth as 

 any that has been hitherto hazarded. T. 



