76 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



hectare; and the rest of the United Kingdom, exclusive 

 of the Highlands of Scotland, about one-half of this 

 figure, or 1250 francs. The Highlands of Scotland, with 

 their uncultivated lands, were worth, at most, 2 per acre. 

 Deducting 20 per cent from these prices, we obtain for 

 England an average of 32, for the Highlands 32s., and 

 16 for the rest of the United Kingdom. 



The cultivated lands of the northern half of France 

 may be worth, on an average, 24 per acre, and those 

 of the southern half 16. Valuing the eight million 

 hectares of uncultivated lands at 2, and the eight mil- 

 lions of forest grounds at 10, we find a general average 

 of 16 per acre. 



Thus a comparative examination of agricultural pro- 

 ducts, the number of the population, and the money value 

 of the land, all combine to prove, upon the most mode- 

 rate estimates, that, previously to 1848, the product of 

 British agriculture, taken as a whole, was to the product 

 of French agriculture over an equal surface as one hun- 

 dred and thirty-five to one hundred ; and if we com- 

 pare England alone with the whole of France, the former 

 produced at least twice as much as the latter. This de- 

 monstration appears to me to amount almost to proof. 



To be very exact, there must be added to these pro- 

 ducts one which is very difficult to estimate, but which 

 is not among the least important : this is the unexhausted 

 fertility, the surplus accumulations of manures, and im- 

 provements of all sorts, which the crops have annually 

 left in the ground. It is in order not to lose sight of 

 this that most compilers of statistics have been led to 

 include forage, straw, and manure among the products ; 

 but such a mode of reckoning is evidently erroneous, 

 since the crops annually absorb the greater portion of 

 the vigour thus communicated to the soil. That which 



