G22 
Small lloldiiujs in France. 
suflfered fully as much as farmers of the same class in England. In 
fact I am informed by M. de Vismes that not less than ten of his 
yeoman-farmer acquaintances at Vraignes have been sold up 
within fifteen years — a result, however, which he attributes to 
drinking habits as much as to agricultural depression. M. de Vismes 
himself, by hard work and strict economy— he does not, for instance, 
keep even a servant girl, Madame de Vismes doing all the house- 
work herself — manages to make both ends meet. But he remarked : 
“ We are the slaves of our harvests.” 
By universal consent, it is the menagers, or half farmers,' who 
hold their own in Picardy, and that, mainly, by dairying, poultry, 
and orchards, none of which industries are much helped by protection. 
If small holdings are ever to be successful in England, they must 
be conducted on much the same lines as they are in Northern 
France. But, as I remarked above, the French peasants compete 
with the British, with the immense advantage of hereditary skill, 
thrifty habits, holdings already small and provided with extensive 
buildings and yards, and orchard enclosures. 
All over France, every kind of animal, including sheep, for eight 
months of the year, is confined in buildings, within the farmyard, at 
night. The sheep manure, made under cover, is greatly esteemed 
in Picardy. From July 1 to November 1, the sheep of those culti- 
vateurs and menagers who belong to La Herte, are night-folded 
on the land of those who contribute sheep. La Herte is strictly 
a co-operative association, now consisting at Vraignes of four cul- 
tivateurs and seven menagers, contributing amongst them 198 sheep 
to the common flock, of which there is but one in the village. In 
larger communes there wmuld be two or more. The shepherd is in 
the pay of La Herte, which owns in common the hut which 
shelters him at night, the sheep hurdles, water-trough, and all the 
requisite plant. 
The right of vaine j)dture, or grazing over the whole com- 
munal territory, everywhere except in growing crops, exists in full 
force all the year round, and not only after harvest. The visits of 
the flock are much appreciated on the fallows, both for their manure 
and for keeping down the weeds, but the shepherd occasionally gets 
into trouble by allowing his sheep to stray into the standing clover. 
It is surprising, however, how well the sheep are trained to keep to 
the waste ground or fallows. Their habits, indeed, seem as thrifty 
as those of the peasants themselves. 
The arrangements for the division of the night-foldings on the 
land of the different members of La Herte are somewhat com- 
plicated and sometimes the subject of disagreements, which have to 
be referred to the prefect of the department for settlement. Quite 
recently, for instance, the prefect was called on to decide whether 
the number of night-foldings allotted to each should be determined 
exclusively by the proportion of sheep contributed, or whether the 
' I am indebted to a friend for the suggestion of the term “ husbandman ’’ 
as the English equivalent of vienaaer. 
