45^ The Size and Tenure of Farms in France. 



related to the same class of cultivated land represented by 

 the 85,759,000 acres dealt with above — an hypothesis which 

 may be accepted as nearly, though probably not quite, exact 

 until fuller definitions are forthcoming, the position here is 

 the reverse of that obtaining in France, for only 1 1.7 per cent, 

 of the 520,000 agricultural holdings returned in Great Britain 

 are shown as owner-farmed, against 75 per cent, in France, 

 while 84-5 per cent, of the 'farms accounted for here are 

 cultivated by tenant-farmers — besides the yS per cent, of the 

 British cases where the farms shown in our returns were as 

 to part of their area tenanted, and as to part owned. As, 

 however, the 4,191,000 owner-farmed holdings in France 

 show an average acreage of no more than io*8 acres, while 

 an average French holding of all types is over 15*2 acres in 

 extent, the bulk of the proprietor-farms in France is to be 

 found in the category of small farms. It is probably very 

 nearly true to say, that whereas 4,640,000 acres, or just one- 

 seventh of the cultivated area of Great Britain, was returned 

 as farmed in 1895 by its owners — that is by some 80,000 

 persons, including in that total those who own part only of 

 their farms — almost ten times that surface, or 45,261,000 

 acres, is in France cultivated in the 4,191,000 owner- 

 farmed holdings. 



There is, it must be confessed, some uncertainty as to the 

 smallest unit of area considered as an agricultural holding 

 in the French returns, while our own are now definite in 

 refusing that designation to anything that does not exceed 

 an acre. But if the two sets of figures may legitimately 

 be treated as parallel, the average holding of the whole 

 number of British owners who are wholly or in part culti- 

 vating their own soil comes out at 58 acres, or very little 

 less than the average holdings of this country. This com- 

 pares with under 1 1 acres in a typical French proprietor- 

 farmed holding — an area less by a third in extent than 

 the average French holding. Such a calculation, if per- 

 missible, roughly indicates the essential differences of the 

 two rural systems ; for it has already been noted that an 

 average French farm is just one-fourth the size of an average 

 English holding, whereas, it seems that a French owner- 



