24<6 Notes and Reflections during a Tour -. — 



into account, still we cannot help wondering that so few Bri- 

 tish farmers have settled in the north of France. The single 

 circumstance in which the French farmer, as a practitioner, 

 has the advantage over the British one is in the frugal style 

 in which he lives, not only himself and his family, but his 

 servants and cattle : this is also the reason why his agricul- 

 tural operations are so imperfectly performed ; two of his 

 horses, fed with good oats, would draw a deeper furrow than 

 the three he uses, as now fed. 



When France and Eno-land shall have become better known 

 to each other, and when the facilities of travelling, and the 

 more general diffusion of all kinds of knowledge, shall have 

 diminished the force of early prejudices and local attachments, 

 then, it is probable, great numbers of rent-paying farmers, of 

 landed proprietors, and of retiring tradesmen and manufac- 

 turers, will settle in this part of the Continent ; not only on ac- 

 count of the greater profits which capital at present produces 

 there from its scaixity, which is but a temporally reason that 

 perfect freedom of commerce will effectually do away, but 

 from the very superior soil and climate of France for corn 

 culture; because, a possessor of land in France can produce, 

 in his own fields and garden, more of the things which con- 

 stitute the comforts and enjoyments of life than he can in 

 Britain ; and because the inhabitants are naturally more 

 amiable and more disposed for social enjoyment. Great part 

 of England, and the whole of Ireland, are better calculated 

 for, and, if commerce were free, would be more profitably 

 employed in, the production of grass and potatoes than of 

 corn. The beef and pork of the British isles will, on this 

 account, it is probable, always maintain their superiority ; and 

 the time may come when very little corn will be grown there, 

 and a great deal of animal food exported to other countries. 

 As thew^orld improves, the idea of rendering anyone country 

 independent of every other will probably cease to occupy the 

 minds of political economists; the agricultural and manu- 

 facturing industry of every country will be almost entirely 

 directed to the production of that which it naturally produces 

 best, and the rest left to free commerce. 



The only part of the culture by the road-side, which struck 

 us in passing along as decidedly good, was that of timber 

 trees. These were planted in rows, with a degi-ee of reo-u- 

 larity and exactness unknown in plantations in England, and 

 each tree pruned and trained to one straight stem or trunk, 

 with very few branches, except towards the head, and none 

 any where of large size ; the branches are all cut off when quite 

 young, and, as the wound heals over quickly, the trunks and 



