74 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



United Kingdom, the total gross produce thus reduced 

 gives the following results : 



England, .... 200 francs per hectare. 

 Lowlands of Scotland, Ireland, and 



Wales, .... 100 



Highlands of Scotland, . . 10 



General average, 135 francs per hectare. 



These tables suggest a host of reflections. Whilst 

 France, taken as a whole, produces 100 francs per 

 hectare, England proper produces 200. The animal 

 produce alone of an English farm is equal to at least 

 the total produce of a French farm of equal area all 

 the vegetable production being additional. Taking only 

 the three principal kinds of domestic animals sheep, 

 oxen, and pigs and not taking poultry into account, 

 the English obtain from these four times more than we do 

 in butcher-meat, milk, and wool. Among the vegetable 

 products, whilst the French soil does not produce quite 

 one hectolitre and a half of wheat per hectare, the English 

 soil produces three ; and it gives, besides, five times more 

 potatoes for human consumption. It produces neither 

 rye, maize, nor buckwheat, but abundantly makes up 

 for this in oats and barley; and this it requires to do, 

 for, less fortunate than we, it has to obtain from one of 

 these crops the national beverage. "We are forced," says 

 Arthur Young, "to have recourse to our best land for 

 our beer ; the climate of the French gives them a great 

 superiority in this respect, since the most barren soils are 

 available for the cultivation of the vine." 



Here the animal product becomes sensibly superior to 

 the vegetable. We shall again find at least a similar 

 productiveness in Wales and in Scotland. Ireland alone 

 exhibits, like France, a reverse proportion. 



