CONSTITUTION OF FARMING. 115 



The whole secret lies in these two words, Capital and 

 Skill. Large farming, without skill and without capital, is 

 not so useful as small farming, which possesses both, and 

 vice versd. There may be striking instances of capital and 

 skill combined with large farming, and others where they 

 are found with small ; these differences decide the matter. 



A time will certainly arrive when a goodly number of 

 the small and even middling class of French proprietors 

 will find it their interest to give up, more or less, being 

 proprietors, and turn their attention to farming. Capital 

 invested in land yields at the most two or three per cent, 

 and when laid out in farming it ought to yield eight or 

 ten, if judiciously employed : the result is evident. A 

 host of small and middling proprietors will then disap- 

 pear, who are now very badly off; but this revolution 

 will never be general, nor is it necessary that it should. 

 Small farming, like small property, is more in conformity 

 with our national character. Capital with us being 

 more distributed than it is in England, it is expedient 

 that the farms should be smaller, so as to correspond 

 with the working capital. Many of our proprietors would 

 rather sell a portion of their properties than part with 

 them altogether ; and even supposing the latter done, 

 very few would realise enough to be able to work a large 

 farm advantageously. 



The extent of farms, besides, is determined by other 

 causes, such as the nature of the soil, the climate, and 

 the kinds of crops prevailing. France, on this account, 

 is still destined in a greater degree than England to be a 

 country of small farming. Many branches of her agri- 

 culture require a great amount of manual labour, which 

 renders it necessary to have a greater division of fields of 

 operation. The great resource of pasture is less generally 

 within our reach. Almost everywhere the soil of France 



