CONSTITUTION OF FARMING. 113 



bers figure almost all the aristocracy and the principal 

 country gentlemen ; the annual subscribers consist of 

 the small proprietors and common farmers. The Society 

 numbers no less than five thousand members for England 

 alone for Scotland and Ireland have their own societies 

 about one thousand being life members, and four 

 thousand annual subscribers. The ordinary amount of 

 annual subscription is 1, or 25 francs ; a life subscrip- 

 tion 10 ; and 50 for what is called a Governor. 



With these funds, which are increased by some addi- 

 tional resources, the Society possesses an annual revenue 

 of 10,000, or 250,000 francs. This it applies to fur- 

 thering the progress of national agriculture : it holds 

 weekly meetings, at which the agricultural questions of 

 the day are discussed ; it publishes an excellent collec- 

 tion of all that it considers worthy of notice ; it pays 

 professors for instructing in those sciences relating to 

 agriculture, and, among the rest, a chemist whose special 

 duty is to furnish analyses of earths and manures. The 

 Society holds every year and this is the principal ob- 

 ject of its foundation a great meeting for competition 

 in cattle and farming implements, to which the whole of 

 England is invited. By all these means, this Society 

 exerts a powerful and useful influence. 



In France, farming is not a branch of industry, pro- 

 perly speaking ; there are few real farmers among us, and 

 most of our cultivators, whether they be proprietors, 

 farmers, or metayers, have but an insufficient capital. 

 This is the real misfortune with us. The blame may, 

 with some appearance of reason, be laid upon the small 

 proprietary. With us, a cultivator, having a little money, 

 generally prefers to be a proprietor rather than a farmer. 

 The reverse is the case in England. Formerly there were 

 many small proprietors in that country, who formed an 



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