116 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



may be made to respond to the labour of man, and almost 

 everywhere it is for the advantage of the community 

 that manual labour should be actively bestowed upon it. 

 I know parts of our country where small farming is the 

 bane of the district ; I know others where it is of inestim- 

 able benefit, and for which the large system could never 

 compensate. 



Let us suppose ourselves in the centre of France, in 

 the Limousin mountains ; we there find a soil poor and 

 granitic, and a climate rainy and cold. Cereals there 

 thrive badly, and do not pay the expense of cultivation; 

 crops destined for industrial purposes are out of the ques- 

 tion ; it is rye which predominates, and that gives only 

 a poor produce. Grasses and roots, on the contrary, 

 thrive well. Irrigation is rendered easy by the abun- 

 dance of streams, the fertilising properties of the water, 

 and the slope of the lands ; the breeding and fattening of 

 cattle may be carried on under favourable circumstances. 

 The soil and climate are nearly those of a large part of 

 England. Everything in this quarter calls for large 

 farming, but unfortunately, owing to circumstances 

 foreign to the question of agriculture, it is the small 

 which prevails, and there it is necessarily rather unpro- 

 ductive. Cereals exhaust the soil, for which insufficient 

 manuring does not make up. The manual labour be- 

 stowed on the land is excessive, considering the re- 

 sults; cattle, badly fed and worn out by work, give no 

 profit ; rent is almost nothing, and wages miserable. 



On the other hand, let us suppose ourselves in the 

 rich plains of Flanders, on the banks of the Ehine, the 

 Garonne, the Charente, or the Ehone ; we there meet 

 again with small farming, but, unlike the other, it is rich 

 and productive. Every method for increasing the fruit- 

 fulness of the land and making the most of labour is 



