No. 216.] 543 



mal divisions. It may be doubted whether either is quite right, and 

 whether they have not run into too great extremes on each side. 



Land held in masses by great landlords has a tendency to debase 

 and degrade the tillers of the soil, who are not owners : divided too 

 much, it tends to make all poor alike; to prevent altogether the rear- 

 ing of cattle and horses, and to cause a great waste of land, cut up 

 by roads and paths. 



In some countries, where this subdivision of land has been prac- 

 ticed a great deal longer than in France, a most extraordinary custom 

 has arisen, which is intended to prevent the too absurd division of 

 lands, which otherwise would be cut up into farms of a foot square. 

 I allude to the custom of what is called Polyandrism, practised in the 

 Island of Ceylon, and in some provinces of India, which is the op- 

 posite of polygamy; for, instead of one husband having several wives, 

 one wife has several husbands. 



Three brothers, for instance, who inherit from their father a farm, 

 already reduced to Lilliputian dimensions, in the place of each one 

 taking a wife to himself, and again subdividing the little patrimony 

 among his own offspring, all marry the same woman, and bequeath 

 the estate undivided to their common family. 



I believe that we, more nearly than either England or France, ap- 

 proach the true condition, in which, as a general rule, there are nei- 

 ther great landlords nor very small farms. I do not now speak of 

 cultivation in the southern parts of our country — for there, I believe, 

 experience has shown, that as far as profitable cultivation is concern- 

 ed, large estates are far the most successful — but of our farming in 

 the northern and middle States. I refer to what is usually called 

 farming, and not to what is elsewhere usually called planting — to 

 farmers, not planters. 



It has been supposed, that in general, cultivation would be more 

 perfect while land was held in large parcels, and by wealthy indi- 

 viduals, since more would be, and could be expended in improve- 

 ments and experiments; and certainly the cultivation of England 

 goes to show that such may be the case; but certain things are 

 necessary to bring about a very 1 igh degree of success in such a 

 system, the objections to which, as it seeras to me, far more than 

 counterbalance any advantages to be derived from it. 



