19 



feeding of multitudes of stock, the employment of hired 

 labor, or generally the application of capital to the land. 

 As in Ireland, the subdivision or morcelling of the tillage 

 farms, has already, in whole districts, been carried to the 

 starvation limit. As into Ireland, the potato failure brought 

 with it into Belgian Flanders, famine and disease, and 

 large emigration, — and notwithstanding all that wise go- 

 vernments can do, it is to be feared that on the recurrence 

 of similar visitations, similar social evils will in both coun- 

 tries again re-appear. 



France. — In France I need hardly inform you that 

 practical agriculture is far in arrear. In Normandy the 

 mixture of Teutonic blood has probably some connection 

 with the superiority of the husbandry of this province as 

 compared with most of the other parts of the kingdom. It 

 is certain at least, that notwithstanding the many efforts 

 made by persons in power to promote the introduction and 

 adoption of better methods, the general farming of La 

 Belle France advances with comparative slowness. 



This country indeed presents another striking instance 

 of the small connection which may exist between the 

 existence of extensive means of agricultural iustruction, 

 provided by the central government, and the practical skill 

 of the rural population. 



In 1843 there existed in France one hundred and fifty- 

 seven agricultural societies — six hundred and sixty-four 

 agricultural committees — twenty-two model farms, some 

 of which had schools attached to them — and fifteen schools 

 and chairs of agriculture and agricultural penitentiaries. 

 In the early part of 1849, under the auspices of the repub- 

 lican government, and as part of the plan of M. Fouret, 

 then Minister of Agriculture, twenty-one farming schools 

 had already been opened — a national agricultural uni- 



