160 
Variation in the Price and Supply of Wheat. 
approaching. Then comes a new crop, and a turn in prices. 
Ruin seldom quite overtakes a small farmer. 
The Metayer system and the petite culture " are bad insti- 
tutions for corn-growing. Small farming succeeds where the 
variety of the crops and the care of the dairy, the garden, and 
the orchard afford constant occupation to the farmer and his 
family, as in Jersey, some parts of Switzerland, and Italy ; but 
corn-growing for exportation should be a wholesale business, 
conducted on a large scale, and with the necessary machinery. 
The ' Journal d'Agriculture Pratique ' constantly points out that 
" wheat is grown at a costly rate in France by the Metayer and 
small proprietor-farmers, because they have neither the system 
of cultivation, nor the proper implements for obtaining the 
greatest return at the least cost." It is only in years of abund- 
ance that there is a surplus for exportation. 
While wages have risen and rents have increased as ten to 
one since 1750 (they were then 3s. 6d. an acre under large, and 
9rf. to Is. an acre under small, farming), the price of wheat 
remains the same as in the latter part of the century. Quesnay 
estimated the average yield of corn in France, in 1750, at 17 
bushels an acre under large farming, and 8^ bushels an acre 
under small farming (after deducting seed). The present esti- 
mated average return for wheat only is 14 bushels an acre (after 
deducting seed) : a quantity not greatly exceeding one half of 
the estimated average yield of wheat in England. The breadth 
of land in wheat had increased under the sliding-scale, but has 
retrograded under free trade ; the slight apparent increase being 
due to the annexation of territory. During the recent years of 
low prices, it is said that the growth of wheat on soils yielding 
less than 13 bushels an acre was abandoned. Land naturally 
poor, or exhausted by scourging, may yield a slight profit in rye, 
but none in wheat. 
In the last year of the Continental War (1815), the statistical 
return of the yield of wheat showed the low average of 9 bushels 
per acre, partly owing to the bad season, and partly to the 
decimation of labourers during the war. The breadth sown 
was 11,500,000 acres. In 1838 the breadth was 16,500,000 acres, 
and in 1866 it was 17,250,000 acres. For the forty-three years 
succeeding the war the average yield of wheat for each de- 
cennial period varied from 12J to 15 bushels an acre; for the 
five years ending 18G5, and including the great harvests, the 
average crop varied from 12j^y to ISh bushels an acre. These 
last figures are due to the crop of 1863, when the yield of 
wheat was the largest ever known in France, that of 1838 (a 
year of extraordinary abundance) having been slightly inferior. 
These figures show the extreme variability of the crop, but 
