The Insurrection of October, ij8o 5 



he wrote, "The same bad country — not one mile in twenty 

 cultivated.'' 1 



It thus appears that the area of cultivated land was too small 

 to produce the necessary supply of foodstuffs. The extent of 

 this area was unknown even to Necker, who was in a most favor- 

 able position to know and who in the preparation of his book, 

 De V administration des finances, certainly had occasion to in- 

 form himself upon this subject, if such a thing had been pos- 

 sible. 2 Various estimates had been made ranging from 40,000,- 

 000 to 112,760,000 acres, based for the most part on the amount 

 of grain produced, a very manifest reason for wide differences 

 between them. Out of eight estimates, two give 60,000,000 

 acres, while three are more and three less than this. 3 



According to Young's conjecture, the land under cultivation 

 amounted to from 66,000,000 to 70,000,000 acres out of a total 

 area of about 131,000,000.* The rest seems to have been utterly 

 unimproved. When we consider that to-day only about 7^ per 

 cent of the total area of France is unproductive, it is clear that 

 one reason for scarcity of food was a failure to cultivate the 

 land. 



This growing neglect of the soil and desertion of the country 

 did not go unheeded by the government. Measures had been 

 taken which it was hoped would result in increasing the produc- 

 tive area. Necker states that in 1776 "the king remitted the 

 tailles and the vingtiemes for twenty years to those who should 

 bring land under cultivation." 5 It does not appear, however, 

 that this measure was successful. 6 Again, a system of rotation 

 of crops prevailed in the greater part of the realm by which land 

 was left idle every third year, and by this arrangement the area 

 under cultivation was reduced a fifth or even a fourth. 7 



1 Young, Travels in Trance, 185. 



2 Necker, De V administration des finances, III, 162. 



3 Young, Travels in Trance, 455. 



4 Ibid., 456. Arable is the word used by Young, but it seems clear from 

 the context that he meant to include all improved land. 



5 Necker, De P administration des finances, III, 162. 



6 Ibid., 111,164. 



7 Young, Travels in Trance, 456. 



271 



