Small Holdings in France. 
621 
which we shall be very slow to arrive at in England, if we ever do. 
Economic conditions, public opinion, legislation, are all favourable to 
small holdings in France, where land is, after all, still the main source 
of living, and where land-hunger is still universal. The main object 
of agriculture in France is still to maintain the larger part of the 
population on the land. In Great Britain, on the other hand, the 
dominant consideration, which determines the nature of farming, is 
the necessity of feeding large centres of town population. 
To illustrate the saving habits of the French rustics, let us take 
for example an old servant named Honors Mouquet, whom I found 
cutting up wood in M. de Vismes’s farmyard. M. Mouquet, who 
has been thirty years working for M. de Vismes, farms on his own 
account six acres of land, owning house and buildings (lately pur- 
chased), a cow, six sheep, and two pigs. M. Mouquet’s six acres 
are scattered all over the commune, in about half-acre strips called 
parcelles, or plots, no two of which touch each other — according to 
the almost universal rule. On one which I visited I found a veiy 
flourishing crop of wheat, and a narrow strip of rye grown by Madame 
Mouquet for the straw to plait into chair-bottoms, on which opera- 
tion I found her busily engaged the following morning. One of the 
daughters milks the cow, and attends to the sheep, pigs, and garden ; 
another daughter was handling a pick-axe, assisting in excavating 
new foundations for supports to the barn, just purchased by her 
father. Of the six acres farmed by him, M. Mouquet owns abso- 
lutely about one-third, hiring the rest. He began hy buying quite 
a small piece of land, a rood or thereabouts, and gradually crept up 
to his present holding. It is certainly one advantage of the extreme 
subdivision of land in France that it brings it within the reach of 
the humblest purchasers. 
In spite of the depression of agriculture, the primitive mode of 
cultivation prevailing at Vraignes, and the inconvenience of the 
scattering of the parcelles, the peasants continue to put money by. 
I was informed by the Juge de Paix, who resides in the cantonal 
town of Homoy, where the Savings Bank is situated, that, every 
Thursday, depositors troop in from Vraignes. Their savings are 
mostly made out of butter, eggs and poultry, with which all the 
numerous farmyards abound. Apples are a considerable source of 
revenue with all classes. It is an immense advantage that the 
French peasants enjoy over ours, to be already provided with the 
plant, as well as the skill, requisite for the production of butter, 
poultry, and eggs. In respect of subdivision of holdings and the pro- 
vision of some buildings, the Irish peasants enjoy advantages similar 
to the French, but they are wanting in the skill and thrift to which 
the French owe their success. For the system of small farming in 
France, which admits of putting money by in the present day, must 
bo entitled to be considered to some extent a success. 
If it is objected that it is protection which enables the French 
small holders to save, I think I can show that the objection is not 
valid. For the larger farmers, whose energies are mainly directed 
to producing cereals and meat, the articles specially protected, have 
