The Size and Tenure of Farms in France. 451 



here. In the new returns the French holdings are analysed 

 in three groups : as farms cultivated by the owner, either 

 alone or with the aid of his family or others ; as farms occupied 

 under a system of metayage; and, lastly, as tenanted farms. 



Of the whole number, the owner-farmed holdings are much 

 in the majority in France, three out of every four belonging 

 to this category, but these owner-farmed estates are much 

 smaller in extent than the tenanted farms. The figures 

 as given under this classification, with a further analysis of 

 the land farmed as arable, pasture, vineyard, and garden, 

 respectively, may be grouped as follows : — 



Number and Area. 



Farmed by 

 Owners. 



Farmed on 

 Metayage. 



Farmed by 

 Tenants. 



Total. 





No. 



No. 



No. 



No. 



Number 



4,190,795 



349,338 



1,078,184 



5,618,317 



Area : — 



Acres. 



Acres. 



Acres. 



Acres. 



Arable land 

 Pasture 

 Vineyards 

 Gardens - 



31,607,800 

 9,116,000 

 3,723,500 

 813,900 



7,294,400 

 1,570,400 

 368,000 

 71,600 



25,034,400 

 5,509,300 

 355,7oo 

 293,700 



63,936,600 

 l6 , I95,7oo 

 4,447,200 

 1,179,200 



Total Area - 



45,261,200 



9,304,400 



31,193,100 



85,758,700 



Average Area 



io-8 



26-63 



28-93 



15*26 



These statistics very clearly indicate what we must 

 accept as a leading feature of French land tenure, and it 

 is significant to observe, that half of the arable land of 

 the country, a little more than half of the pasture, 

 as much as six-sevenths of the vineyards, and more 

 than two-thirds of the garden land are cultivated by their 

 proprietors. 



It is further to be noted that the owner-farmed holdings 

 reach 75 per cent, of the total, and the tenanted 19 per cent., 

 while those held on the system of metayage (includ- 

 ing what are known as "colonies") but 6 per cent. 

 We have no precisely similar classification here to place 

 beside these calculations ; but assuming that the area of 

 32,578,000 acres accounted for in the British enquiry of 1895 



F F 2 



