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EUKAL ECONOMY

ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND

PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.

THE

RURAL ECONOMY

OF

ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND

BY

LEONCE DE LAVEEGNE

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH

WITH NOTES BY A SCOTTISH FARMER

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

MDCCCLV

P K E F A C E,

THIS Essay is a fragment of the course of Lectures which I
had undertaken for instruction in Rural Economy at the
Agricultural National Institute. Although denied the
opportunity of using them in the way of oral teaching, I
considered that these notes might prove useful in another
form, and began by publishing extracts from them in the
Revue des Deux Mondes. The kind reception which the
series met with, both in France and in England, has
induced me now to collect them info one volume.

I hope soon to give a sequel to this publication. In
the years 1851 and 1852, during the short existence of
the Agricultural Institute, I found time to compose a
complete course of Eural Economy. I am now revis-
ing my Lectures, and hope soon to publish them. But I
thought it advisable, for the sake of the science itself, to
precede the preceptive part of the subject by a practical
demonstration of its utility.

Some persons have done me the honour to consult
me as to what should be done in France, in order that
we may benefit from the examples of England and

99490

VI PKEFACE.

Scotland. The answer to this question will be found
in my Course of Rural Economy, so far, at least, as I
alone can give it ; for it must be remembered that my
department of instruction formed but one branch of the
subject, and that the studies of agriculture, of zootechnie,
of tillage, and other applied sciences — natural philosophy,
chemistry, &c. — form an indispensable addition.

Unfortunately, our country is much more clever at
destroying than in constructing, and all that now re-
mains of this great attempt belongs to the past. Some
precious germs, which will by-and-by bear fruit, have,
however, succeeded in springing up. I shall give but one
instance, because it has been confirmed by an academic
reward ; — I speak of the investigations of M. Doyere,
Professor of Zoology, as to the means for destroying
noxious insects, and particularly the corn alucite, whose
ravages cause the loss periodically of enormous sums.
Other results of these few years of study will successively
come to light.

If I may judge from the numerous communications
which I receive, public attention with us is at this moment
directed in a lively manner towards agriculture. I con-
gratulate myself upon this movement, feeling proud to
have contributed my humble part towards it ; but I
must at the same time confess, that it gives me some
cause for uneasiness.

Agriculture is the most beautiful of all arts, but it is
also the most difficult : it requires, especially, patience
and perseverance — rare qualities among us. Let us be
careful lest we add many chapters more to the already

PREFACE, vii

long history of our agricultural mistakes ; in such case, we
should soon relapse into discouragement, and at last dis-
cover that we had retrograded in place of having advanced.

I address those especially who, like myself, after hav-
ing tried other careers, have turned towards a country
life, disgusted by the revolutions of the times. In the
bosom of nature, which changes not, they will find what
they seek, — occupation in undisturbed quiet, with an in-
dependence resulting from their labours, always provided
they do not undertake too much at once.

Those who may desire to devote their time to agricul-
tural improvements should, first of all, study the local
causes of what is called the routine. Very often these
causes are only transitory, or accidental, and may be boldly
set aside. Often, also, they are deep-rooted and funda-
mental, and failure is certain if they are attacked by
direct means. The most prudent plan is, to proceed step
by step, getting knowledge always by experience, and
leaving a large margin to time. If ' the practice which
attempts to do without theory results in disappointment,
the theory which pretends to dispense with practice is
vain and rash.

There is a radical difference between France and Eng-
land ; — in the one is to be found the extreme simplicity,
and in the other the extreme variety, of the problem. In
France the mistake is almost always committed of gener-
alising too much, whereas nowhere is this less admissible
owing to the immense variety of soils, climates, crops, races,
origins, and social and economical conditions, which make
an infinitely multiplied world of our apparent unity.

Ylll PREFACE.

But to return to this Essay, had I not feared to
increase needlessly the bulk of the volume, I would have
quoted the numerous authorities from whence I have
drawn information. I confine myself, however, to remark-
ing here, that, independently of my own personal observa-
tions during the four visits which I have paid to England
since 1848, I have consulted principally the Letters upon
English Agriculture in 1851, by Mr Caird, Commissioner
for the Times (the best work of the kind which has ap-
peared since Arthur Young), the excellent works of Messrs
Porter and M'Culloch, and the English periodical Maga-
zines devoted to subjects of economy and agriculture.

I cannot close this preface without also rendering my
public acknowledgments to M. le Comte de Gasparin,
who, during two years, fulfilled the duties of Director-
General of the Agricultural National Institute, and who,
in that capacity, sought to encourage in every way the
labours of myself and colleagues. I could wish that this
testimony of acknowledgment and respect from one of his
most devoted coadjutors might soften this severe dis-
appointment, which has come upon him in his old age,
after a life so nobly consecrated to the public good, and
particularly to the advancement of national agriculture.

L. L.

PARIS, \ttih March 1854.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PACK

I. THE SOIL AND CLIMATE, 1

II. SHEEP, 14

in. CATTLE, 31

IV. THE CROPS, 48

V. THE GROSS PRODUCE, 67

VI. RENTS, PROFITS, AND WAGES, 79

VII. CONSTITUTION OF PROPERTY, 93

VIII. CONSTITUTION OF FARMING, . . ' . . . 108

IX. COUNTRY LIFE, ' . . 120

X. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS, 137

XL MARKETS, 151

XII. THE CUSTOMS REFORM, 169

XIII. HIGH FARMING, 182

XIV. THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES, 198

XV. THE EASTERN COUNTIES, 218

XVI. THE WESTERN COUNTIES, . 233

XVII. THE MIDLAND COUNTIES, 244

XVIII. THE NORTHERN COUNTIES, 261

XIX. WALES AND THE ISLANDS, '274

X CONTENTS.

CUAP. PAGE

XX. SCOTLAND, . 285

XXI. THE LOWLANDS, 303

XXII. THE HIGHLANDS, 318

XXIII. IRELAND, 343

XXIV. STATE OF WARFARE, 359

XXV. THE FAMINE AND EXODUS, 377

FRENCH WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, WITH THEIR
ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS.

SUPERFICIAL MEASURE.

Square yards.

Centiare, .... 1.1960

Are (a square decametre), 119.6040

Decare, 1196.0460 .

Hectare, 11960.4604 or 2 acres, 1 rood, 35 perches.

Arpent = 40.466 ares, = 4840 square yards, or 1 Imperial acre.

WEIGHTS.
Grains avoirdupois.

Miligramme, . . . . 0.0154

Centigramme, .... 0.1543

Decigramme, .... 1.5434

Gramme, .... 15.4340

Decagramme, .... 154.3402
Hectogramme, . . . 1543.4020 or 3.527 oz.

Kilogramme, 35.300 „ or 2.206 Ib.

Myriagramme, 22.0485 „

Quintal, 220.4850 „

Millier or bar = 9 tons 16 cwt. 3 qrs. 12 Ib. or . . . 22048. „

MEASURES OP CAPACITY.
Cubic inches.

Militre, 0.06103

Centilitre, .... 0.61028

Decilitre, .... 6.10280

Litre (a cubic decimetre), 61.02803 or 0.264 wine gallons, or 2.1135

wine pints.

Decalitre, 2.642 „

Hectolitre, 26.419 or 22 imperial gallons, or

2.7513 imperial bushels.
Setier, 4.4300 „ „

LONG MEASURE.

Millimetre, . . . 0.03937 inches.

Centimetre, . . . 0.39371 „

Decimetre, . . . 3.93710 „

Metre, . . . 39.37100 „ or 3.2809 feet.

Decametre, 32.8091 „

Hectometre, 328.0916 „ or 109.363 yds.

Kilometre, 1093.633 „

Myriametre, 10936.330 „

League, . . 2.422 miles.

MONET.

1 franc =100 centimes = 9^d.
25 francs, ... £1.

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\CA, ^

^ScO»/4 ' ( r-f

BURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND,

CHAPTER I.

THE SOIL AND CLIMATE.

WHEN the Great Exhibition attracted to London an im-
mense concourse of the curious from all parts of the world,
strangers were struck, but not astonished, at the great
industrial and economical power of the English. People
generally were prepared for the great show which the
productions of Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, and
Leeds made under the transparent roof of the Crystal
Palace ; and also for that other, and not less wonderful
sight, the docks of London and Liverpool, with their
immense piles of warehouses and countless shipping. But
what caused surprise to more than one observer, was
the agricultural development displayed in those depart-
ments, of the Exhibition set apart for implements of hus-
bandry and English agricultural produce. Of this no
idea had been formed.

In France, perhaps, more than anywhere, and that too
notwithstanding our proximity, the belief that agricul-

2 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

ture in England had been neglected for the sake of the
manufacturing and mercantile interests, has hitherto
been too prevalent. Ignorance of the principle and
effects of Sir Kobert Peel's .customs' reform has contri-
buted to spread among us these erroneous ideas. The
fact is, that English agriculture, taken as a whole, is at
this day the first in the world ; and it is in the way of
realising further progress. I design concisely to show its
actual condition ; to point out the true causes of that con-
dition ; and to draw inferences as to its future. France
may derive some useful lessons from this study.

Nearly five years ago, a serious and disastrous crisis
occurred, almost simultaneously, although from different
causes, in the agricultural concerns of the two countries.
I shall attempt separately to estimate the bearing of each.
But first it is of consequence to inquire what was the
position of agriculture in the two countries previous
to 1848. Two kinds of questions are connected with
this comparison ; the one, fundamental, belonging to the
entire history of their development ; the other transitory,
arising out of the crisis.

In the first place, we shall endeavour to give some
account of the theatre of agricultural operations — the
Soil.

The British Isles have a total area of thirty-one millions
of hectares, * or equal to about two-thirds of the French
territory, which contains not less than fifty-three. But
these thirty-one million hectares are far from being of
uniform fertility ; on the contrary, they exhibit perhaps
greater differences than are to be found in any other
country. It is well known that the United Kingdom is
divided into three principal sections — England, Scotland,

* A hectare=2£ English acres. In acres, the amount for the British Isles is
77,394,433 : England proper, 32,342,400.— See Porter'* Progress.- 3. D.

THE SOIL AND CLIMATE. 3

and Ireland. England alone forms about one-half of the
whole territory, while Scotland and Ireland divide the
remainder between them in nearly equal portions. Each
of these three grand sections should itself be divided in
respect to farming, as in other points of view, into two
separate parts.

England, into England proper and Wales ; Scotland,
into Highlands and Lowlands ; Ireland, into south-east
and north-west regions. Enormous differences exist be-
tween these different districts.

England proper — the largest and richest portion of the
three kingdoms — contains thirteen millions of hectares, or
a little more than a third of the total extent of the British
Isles, and equal to one-fourth of France, It is this por-
tion especially which is now to be considered. In com-
paring with it the best-cultivated fourth part of France —
viz. the north-west angle, comprising the ancient pro-
vinces of Flanders, Artois, Picardy, Normandy, the Isle
of France, and even adding to it the richest departments
in other parts of the country — we have not an equal
extent of well-cultivated land to oppose to it. Certain
parts of our soil, such as almost the entire department of
the Nord, and some other detached districts, are superior
in productiveness to the best of England : others, such
as the departments of the Seine Inferieure, the Somme,
Pas de Calais, and Oise, may sustain a comparison ;
but thirteen million hectares, equal in cultivation to
the thirteen million hectares of England, we do not
possess.

Can it be that the soil and climate of England are
naturally superior to ours \ Far from it. One million
hectares out of the thirteen remain entirely unproductive,
having hitherto resisted all attempts at cultivation ; of
the remaining twelve, two -thirds at least are ungrateful

4 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

and stubborn lands, which human industry alone has
subdued.

The southern point of the island — forming the county
of Cornwall, and more than the half of Devonshire — is
composed of granitic soils, similar to those of our Brit-
tany. There, in the ancient forests of Exmoor and Dart-
moor, the mountains which terminate at Land's End, and
those verging on the Welsh peninsula, are nearly one
million hectares of little value. In the north, more
mountains — those which separate England from Scot-
land— cover with their ramifications the counties of Nor-
thumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and parts of
Lancashire, Durham, York, and Derbyshire. This region,
which contains upwards of two million hectares, is worth
scarcely more than the former. It is a country famous
for its picturesque scenery, studded with lakes and water-
falls ; but, like most picturesque countries, offering few
resources for cultivation.

Wherever the ground is not hilly, it is in general natu-
rally marshy. The counties of Lincoln and Cambridge,
now reckoned, especially the first, among the most pro-
ductive, were formerly but one vast marsh partially
covered by the sea, Kke the polders of Holland opposite
to them on the other side of the Channel. Numerous
peat-mosses still show the primitive state of the country.
In other parts are extensive sands abandoned by the sea :
the county of Norfolk, where that system of agriculture
arose which has made the fortune of England, is nothing
else.

There remain the undulating hills, which form about
half of the whole surface, and which are neither so dry
as the mountains, nor so wet as the undrained plains ;
but these lands are not all of the same geological forma-
tion. The Thames basin is composed of a stiff clay,

THE SOIL AND CLIMATE. 5

called London clay, from which bricks are made for the
buildings of the immense capital, and which is tilled only
with difficulty. The counties of Essex, Surrey, and
Kent, as well as Middlesex, belong to this clay bed, —
called in England stiff land, and well known to every
agriculturist as exceedingly troublesome, — which aggra-
vates still further the coldness of the climate. Left to
itself, this clay never dries in England; and when not
transformed by manure and improved by draining, farmers
despair of making anything of it. It prevails through-
out the south-east, and also makes its appearance in many
parts of the midland districts, as well as in the east and
north.

A long band of chalky lands of indifferent quality runs
through this great bed of clay from south to north, form-
ing the greater portion of the counties of Hertford, Wilts,
and Hants ; the chalk shows itself almost in a pure state
on the surface.

The sandy clay lands, with calcareous subsoil, and
the loams of the lower valleys, occupy only about four
millions of hectares. The rivers in this narrow island
being shorter, and the valleys more confined than in
other countries, alluvial lands are rather scarce. It is
the light soils which predominate, what were formerly
called poor lands. These, not very long ago, were ex-
tensive moors, coming up to the very gates of London on
the west ; but now, through cultivation, they have become
almost as productive as the loams. A special method of
working, suited to their nature, was necessary, in order
to turn them to such good account.

It is the same with the climate. British agriculturists
have known well how to avail themselves of the pecu-
liarities in their climate, for in itself there is nothing
very seductive about it. Its mists and rains are pro-

6 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

verbial ; its extreme humidity is little favourable to
wheat, which is the prime object of all cultivation ; few
plants ripen naturally under its dull sky ; it is propitious
only to grasses and roots. Eainy summers, late autumns,
and mild winters, encourage, under the influence of an
almost equal temperature, an evergreen vegetation. Here
its action stops ; nothing need be asked of it which de-
mands the intervention of that great producing power,
the sun.

How superior are the soil and climate of France ! In
comparing with England, not the fourth only, but the
north-west half of our territory — that is to say, the
thirty-six departments grouped around Paris, exclusive
of Brittany — we find more than twenty-two millions of
hectares, which surpass in quality, as they do in extent,
the thirteen millions of English hectares. Scarcely any
mountains ; few natural marshes ; extensive plains, sound
almost throughout ; a soil sufficiently deep, and of a
nature most favourable to production ; rich deposits in the
broad valleys of the Loire and Seine, with their tribu-
taries ; a climate not so moist, but warmer — less favour-
able perhaps to meadow vegetation, but more suitable for
ripening wheat and other cereals ; all the productions of
England obtained with less trouble ; and, in addition,
other valuable products, such as sugar, textile and olea-
ginous plants, tobacco, wine, fruits, &c.

It would be easy to carry out this comparison step by
step, and to oppose, for example, to Leicestershire, which
is the most naturally fertile of the English counties, our
magnificent department of the Nord, to the chalky lands
of Wiltshire those of Champagne, sands to sands, clays
to clays, loams to loams ; and thus find for most of the
English districts one corresponding in the north of France.
Such a detailed examination would demonstrate in some

THE SOIL AND CLIMATE. 7

measure acre by acre, and, with few exceptions, the supe-
riority of our territory ; there are no lands among the
worst in France, for which we do not find still worse on
the other side of the Channel ; nor so rich in England,
which with us may not be equalled, or even surpassed.

Wales is just a mass of mountains, covered with barren
moors. Including the adjacent islands, and that part of
England bordering upon it, it contains two millions of
hectares, only half of which are capable of cultivation.
In France, a similar country is to be found in the penin-
sula of Brittany, whose inhabitants are connected with
the Welsh by a common origin. But besides that Brittany
occupies relatively less space upon the map of France,
the English Armorica is more rugged and wild than
ours. The resemblance certainly is not very perfect,
excepting in some few localities.

The two divisions of Scotland are pretty equal in
extent, and are both well known by the names which
poetry and romance have rendered familiar. The Low-
lands occupy the south and east, the Highlands the north
and west. Each of these moieties, with adjacent islands,
contain about four millions of hectares.

The Highlands, without exception, form one of the most
unfertile and uninhabitable countries in Europe. Imagina-
tion pictures it only through the charming fancies of the
great Scotch novelist ; but if most of its scenery owes its
reputation to its sterile grandeur, these rugged beauties
are little capable of being brought under cultivation. It
is an immense granite rock cut up into sharp peaks and
deep precipices, and, to add still more to its ruggedness,
extending into the most northerly latitudes. The High-
lands face Norway, which in many respects they resemble.
The North Sea, which surrounds and penetrates them in
every direction, beats against them with its continual

8 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

storms ; their sides, unceasingly torn by winds, and
flooded with those never-failing waters which collect and
form immense lakes at their base, possess only here and
there a thin covering of vegetable soil. Winter lasts there
nearly all the year ; and the islands belonging to them—
the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetlands — partake of the
gloomy Icelandic character. More than three-fourths of
the Highlands is uncultivated, and the small portion
which it is possible to work requires all the industry of
the inhabitants to produce anything. Oats even do not
always ripen there.

Where is such a country to be found in France \ That
most nearly resembling it is the nucleus of central moun-
tains, with their ramifications, which cover some ten
departments, and stretch to the Alps beyond the Ehone
—namely, the ancient provinces of Limousin, Auvergne,
Vivarais, Forez, and Dauphine ; but the departments of
the Higher and Lower Alps, the poorest and most unpro-
ductive of all, and those of Lozere and Haute-Loire, which
come next to them, are still greatly superior in natural
resources to the celebrated counties of Argyll and Inver-
ness, and the still more inaccessible county of Suther-
land. This superiority, more and more marked in Cantal,
Puy-de-D6me, Correze, Creuse, and Haute- Vienne, be-
comes beyond all comparison when we come to oppose
to the best straths of the Highlands the Limagne
d' Auvergne and the valley of Gr^sivaudan, — those two
paradises of the cultivator dropped into the midst of our
mountainous region.

Even the Lowlands of Scotland are far from being
everywhere susceptible of cultivation. Numerous ridges
cross the country, and may almost be said to unite the
Northumberland mountains to the Grampians. Out of
the four millions of hectares two are nearly unproductive ;

THE SOIL AND CLIMATE. 9

the other two exhibit almost everywhere prodigies of the
most improved farming, especially in the neighbourhood
of Edinburgh and Perth; — but only one million of hectares
are of rich and deep soil ; the rest is poor and thin. As
to climate, it is sufficient to bear in mind that Edinburgh
is in the same latitude as Copenhagen and Moscow. Snow
and rain fall in great abundance, and the fruits of the
earth have only a short and precarious summer for bring-
ing them to maturity.

The part of France which best corresponds with the
Lowlands of Scotland is the ten departments which
form the eastern frontier, extending from the Ardennes
to Dauphine by the Vosges and Jura ; but these again
are superior both in soil and climate. Nature has made
the pastures of Lorraine and Franche-Comte at least equal
to those of Ayr and Galloway, and Alsace is better than
the Lothians. The most northerly point of this region is
six degrees south of Berwick, and its most southern is
in the same latitude as Venice ; the hot air of Italy blows
as far as Lyons.

Of the two divisions of Ireland, that of the north-west,
embracing a fourth of the island, and comprehending
the province of Connaught, with the adjacent counties of
Donegal, Clare, and Kerry, resembles Wales, and even, in
its worst parts, the Highlands of Scotland. Here again are
two millions of unsightly hectares, the frightful aspect of
which has given rise to the national proverb, "Go to the
devil or Connaught." The other, or south-east and much
larger division, since it embraces three-fourths of the island,
and includes the provinces of Leinster, Ulster, and Mun-
ster, equal to about six millions of hectares, is at least
equal in natural fertility to England proper. It is not
all, however, equally good ; the amount of humidity there
is still greater than in England. Extensive bogs cover

10 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

about a tenth of the surface ; more .than another tenth is
occupied with mountains and lakes. In fact, five only
out of the eight millions of hectares in Ireland are culti-
vated. *

Deducting the north-west of France, which we have
compared to England, and the middle and east to Scot-
land, the south only remains for comparison with Ireland.
This comparison holds good in some respects, for the south of
France, with reference to the north, is a distinct country, and
inferior in acquired richness, just as Ireland is in respect to
England ; but here the likeness stops, for in every other
respect no two things can be more dissimilar. The com-
parison, as in the former instances, and perhaps even to
a greater degree, is in favour of France. Our southern
region extends from the mouth of the Garonne to that
of the Var ; it contains some twenty departments and
thirteen millions of hectares ; it has also its mountainous
parts in the Pyrenees and CeVennes. But there is a
vast difference in fruitfulness between the mountains of
Herault and Gard, which produce silk, and even some
Pyrenean cantons, where cultivation may be carried to
the verge of perpetual snow, and the bleakness of Con-
naught and Donegal. The further we descend into
the plains, the superiority becomes more and more
striking, notwithstanding the natural advantages of
Ireland, which have acquired for it the poetical cog-
nomen of First flower of the earth, and first gem of
the sea.

The flat country which extends across the island, from
Dublin to the bay of Galway, and which is the pride of Ire-
land, is surpassed in richness, as well as in extent, by the
magnificent valley of the Garonne, one of the finest agri-

* 12,125,280 acres out of 19,441,944.— J. D.

THE SOIL AND CLIMATE. 11

cultural countries in the world. The Golden Vale, which
is the boast of Limerick, the pastures on the banks of the
Shannon, the deep lands around Belfast, so favourable to
the production of flax, are doubtless of great value ; but
the vineyards of Me'doc, the soils of Comtat, which grow
madder, those of Languedoc, where corn and maize suc-
ceed each other, and those of Provence, where the olive
and orange ripen, are more valuable still. Ireland has
over England this advantage — she has less clay, sand, and
chalk, and her soil generally is of good quality ; but the
south of France has the advantage of her in sky. The
Irish bogs find no equivalent in the marshy landes of
Gascogne and Camargue, which are not so unsuitable
for production.

Thus our territory is superior in all points to Great
Britain, not only in extent, but in fertility. Our north-
west region is more valuable than England and Wales,
the middle and east than Scotland, and the south than
Ireland.

It is now more than sixty years since that great agri-
cultural authority, Arthur Young, admitted this natural
superiority of our soil and climate. At the conclusion of
his Agricultural Tour in France during 1787-90, he
says, " I now come to pass in review all the provinces of
France, and I believe that kingdom to be superior to
England as regards soil. The proportion of bad lands in
England, as compared to the extent of the country, is
greater than in France ; there is nowhere that prodigious
quantity of dry sand which is found in Norfolk and
Suffolk. The marshes, heaths, and landes, so common in
Brittany, Anjou, Maine, and Guienne, are much better
than ours. The Scotch and Welsh mountains are not
to be compared in point of soil to those of the Pyrenees,

12 RITUAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

Auvergne, Dauphin^, Provence, and Languedoc. As to
the clay soils, they are nowhere so stiff as in England ;
and in France I have never met with any clay like that
of Sussex/' This celebrated agriculturist renders similar
homage to the sky of France. " We know" says he with
pride, " how to turn our climate to best account, and the
French in this respect are still in their infancy!' * But as
regards the intrinsic value of the two climates, he does
not hesitate to give ours the preference. This conviction
is repeated in every page of his book ; and yet, in spite of
exceptions of detail — Numerous, no doubt, but which do
not destroy the broad fact — England, even previous to
1848, was better cultivated and more productive over
an equal surface, than the north-west of France. The
Lowlands of Scotland at least rivalled the east ; and
even Ireland, poor as it is, was richer in production than
our south. The Highlands of Scotland alone, as a whole,
are surpassed by their corresponding region, and that not
from any fault of the inhabitants. There is, however, a
portion of the French territory beyond the Continental
bounds, which may be compared to the Scotch Highlands
for the actual value of its productions, notwithstanding
the great disproportion between their natural resources.
I mean the island of Corsica. And this comparison may
be extended still further : both countries are difficult of
approach, and both were at one time possessed by an un-
tamable race of herdsmen and robbers.

If France has remained behind the United Kingdom,
she is considerably in advance of the other nations of the
world, excepting Belgium and Upper Italy, which possess
superior natural advantages. The causes of this relative
inferiority, however, do not originate with our agricultural
population — the most laborious, intelligent, and economical,

THE SOIL AND CLIMATE. 13

perhaps, that exist. These causes are manifold and
deeply, seated ; and I propose to inquire into them; but
first I must prove what I have advanced. For this pur-
pose, I am obliged to enter into some details which are
purely agricultural. I proceed, then, to show, in the first
place, how it is that English agriculture is richer than ours,
and shall then inquire why it is so.

CHAPTER II.

SHEEP.

THE most striking feature in English agriculture, as com-
pared to ours, consists in the number and quality of
its sheep. One has only to pass through any of the
English counties, even by railway, to discover that Eng-
land feeds a proportionately greater number of sheep than
France ; it requires only a glance at any one of these
animals to see that they are much larger in the average,
and must give a greater weight of meat than ours. The
truth of this must be perfectly obvious to the most super-
ficial observer ; and it is not only confirmed by an atten-
tive examination of the facts of the case, but such an
inquiry leads to the discovery of unexpected results.
That which to the mere traveller is simply a matter of
curiosity, becomes for the agriculturist and economist the
subject of investigations, which astonish even him from
the immensity of the results.

The English farmer, with that instinctive calculation
which distinguishes the class, has not failed to observe
that of all animals the sheep is the easiest to feed, the
one which derives the greatest benefit from the food
which it consumes, and at the same time gives the most
active and rich manure for fertilising the land. His first
object consequently is, to keep a great many sheep. In
Great Britain there are immense farms which have

SHEEP. 15

scarcely any other stock. While our farmers have had
their attention distracted by many other things, the rear-
ing of the sheep tribe has from time immemorial been
considered by our neighbours as the most important of
agricultural pursuits. As if symbolical of the importance
which the nation attaches to this production, the Lord
Chancellor of England, as President of the House of Lords,
sits upon a wool sack (so called). Mutton also is highly
appreciated by the English.

For the last hundred years France and the British Isles
have kept equal pace in the number of their sheep ; in
both countries it has doubled. It is calculated that in
1750 each possessed from seventeen to eighteen million
head ; at present the numbers may be reckoned at thirty -
five millions. The French official statistics give thirty-
two millions, and JVTCulloch makes the number the same
for the United Kingdom ; * but both I believe are a little
understated. This apparent similarity, however, conceals
a serious inequality. The thirty-five millions of English
sheep live upon thirty-one millions of hectares, those of
France upon fifty-three. To have proportionately as great
a number as our neighbours we should have sixty millions.

This difference, which so far is material, is farther in-
creased when we compare France with England proper ;
the two other portions of the United Kingdom have but
few sheep relatively to their extent. Scotland, in spite
of all her endeavours, can maintain only about four
millions ; Ireland, which from its pastures ought to rival
England, reckons at most only two millions upon eight
millions of hectares ; and this is not one of the least of the
marks of its inferiority. England alone has about thirty
millions upon fifteen millions of hectares, or proportion-
ately three times more than France.

* 31,754,189.

16 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

To this numerical difference has to be added a no less
important difference in the quality.

For a century past, independently of previous progress,
which had been greater in England than with us, the
two countries have pursued two opposite objects in the
rearing of their flocks. In France wool has been looked
upon as the principal product, and meat the accessory ;
in England, on the contrary, the wool has been looked
upon as the accessory, and meat the chief production.
From this simple distinction, which at first sight appears
unimportant, arise differences in results which count by
hundreds of millions of francs.

The efforts which France has made during the last
eighty years to improve the race of sheep may be summed
up almost entirely in the introduction of merinos. Spain
formerly was the sole possessor of this superior breed,
formed by slow degrees upon the immense table-land of
Castile. The reputation of Spanish wools induced many
other nations of Europe, especially Saxony, to try the
importation of the breed. This experiment having suc-
ceeded, France also desired to attempt it, and that excel-
lent prince, Louis XVI., who gave the impetus to all the
progress since realised, solicited and obtained from the
King of Spain a Spanish flock for his farm of Eambouillet.
This flock, improved, and to a certain extent remodelled
by attentive care, is the stock from which almost all the
merinos in France are derived. Two other sub-races,
also of Spanish origin, those of Perpignan and Naz, have
been surpassed by this one.

The French proprietors and farmers hesitated very
much at first to adopt this innovation, and in conse-
quence of the Eevolution many years elapsed before any
important results were obtained. It was scarcely before
the establishment of the Empire that the advantages of

SHEEP. 17

the new race began to be understood. The movement,
once begun, gradually advanced; and additional spirit
was given to it by the great profits realised.

Much of the success of our farmers, especially in the
neighbourhood of Paris, dates from this period. The
breeding of rams for propagating the race had become a
very lucrative business in the first years of the Eestora-
tion. A Kambouillet ram was sold for 3870 francs
(£155) in 1825. The fact is, that while the indigenous
sheep gave barely a few pounds of coarse wool, the
merino fleece gave double or treble the weight of fine
wool of greater value. This profit was considerable ; it
appeared sufficient to our farmers, who could imagine
nothing beyond. Thus it was that the propagation of
merinos was considered in France as the supreme object
which rural economy had to attain in the rearing of
sheep. About one-fourth of the French sheep at the pre-
sent day consists of merinos and half-bred merinos ; the
rest have at the same time improved, both in carcass and
wool, simply by means of more skill in their management
and better food. Without fear of exaggeration, it may
be said that the income of France from sheep has quad-
rupled during the last hundred years, although the num-
ber of these animals has only doubled. This is no doubt
a considerable advance ; but we are now about to point
out a much greater, in comparing the history of the
French flocks for the last hundred years with that of the
English for the same period.

England has always possessed a great many sheep ;
the British Isles were celebrated for this even in the time
of the Eomans. The primitive races lived in a wild state,
and their descendants are still to be found in the Welsh
mountains, the Cornish peninsula, and the Highlands of

B

18 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

Scotland, where, through time, the nature of the soil and
climate has only made them more hardy. Nearly three
centuries ago, at the period when commercial and manu-
facturing enterprise began to develop itself in Europe, the
breeding of sheep took a start in England unusual else-
where : wool was then the special object, as with us nowr
in France. The distinguishing feature was between long
and short wool breeds, the former being the most highly
esteemed. Thus when we commenced to give our atten-
tion to the breeding of sheep, England was greatly in
advance of us ; and this advance became more marked
by the new revolution, which established in England the
superiority of meat over wool as a production.

About the time that the French Government sought to
introduce merinos into France, experiments of the same
kind were made in England. Following the example of
Louis XV L, George III., who paid a good deal of attention
to agriculture, on several occasions caused Spanish sheep
to be brought over, which he placed upon his own lands.
Those first imported died ; the wetness of the pastures
engendered diseases which soon destroyed them. Subse-
quent importations were placed upon drier land, and
they survived. From this time it was demonstrated that
the climate of England, although it limited the propaga-
tion of merinos, was not, at all events, an insuperable
obstacle to their introduction. Certain noblemen and
celebrated agriculturists actively engaged in the endea-
vour to naturalise this new race ; but the farmers from
the first made more serious objections than that of
climate. Ideas had changed, and the importance of the
sheep as an animal for food began to be foreseen. By
degrees this new idea predominated; the Spanish breed
has been abandoned even by those who at first vaunted
it most, and now neither merinos nor half-merinos are to

SHEEP. 19

be found in England, except among amateurs, as objects
more of curiosity than of profit.

The greatest promoter of this preference was the cele-
brated Bakewell, a man of genius in his way, who has
done as much towards enriching his country as his con-
temporaries Arkwright and Watt. Before his day the
English sheep was not fit for the butcher till the age at
which ours are now slaughtered ; that is to say, about
four or five years old. Bakewell thought, very justly,
that if it were possible to bring sheep to their full
development before that age — to make them fit for being
killed at two years old, for example — the produce of the
flocks by this single means would be doubled. With
that perseverance which characterises his nation, he suc-
cessfully carried out this idea at his farm of Dishley
Grange, in Leicestershire, after many years of labour and
expense.

The breed thus obtained by Bakewell is called the new
Leicester, from the county, or Dishley, from the name
of the farm, where it took its rise. This extraordinary
breed, unrivalled in the world for precocity, produces
animals which may be fattened as early as one year old,
and in every case have reached their full growth before
the end of the second year. To this invaluable quality
is added a perfection of shape, which renders them more
fleshy and heavier for their size than any known breed.
They give on an average 100 Ib. of meat net, and some-
times more.

The means adopted by Bakewell for obtaining such a
marvellous result, is known to all breeders by the name
of selection. It consists in choosing individuals of a breed
exhibiting in the greatest degree the qualities desired to
be perpetuated, and to make use of such only for repro-
ducing. At the end of a certain number of generations,

-20 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

following always the same principle, the points selected
in all the reproducers, both male and female, become per-
manent ; and thus the breed is established. This mode
of proceeding appears extremely simple ; but what is less
so, is the choice of those qualities to be reproduced, in
order to arrive at the best result. Many breeders mis-
take these, and, in a measure, work contrary to their
desired object.

Before BakewelTs time, the farmers on the rich plains
of Leicestershire, in their desire to produce the greatest
possible quantity of meat, sought, above all, great size in
their sheep. One of the merits of the illustrious farmer
of Dishley Grange, was his apprehension of more certain
methods for increasing the yield of butcher-meat; and
that precocity for fattening on the one hand, and round-
ness of form on the other, were of greater importance
than excessive development of bone. The new Leicesters
are not bigger than those they have replaced ; but the
breeder can now send three to market in the same space
of time that it formerly took him to prepare one ; and if
they are not taller, they are broader, rounder, and have a
greater development in those parts which give most flesh.
Of bone, they have absolutely no greater amount than is
necessary to support them, and almost all their weight is
pure meat.

England was astonished when the results announced
by Bakewell were definitively attained. The originator
of the new breed, who, like all good Englishmen, looked
especially to profit, reaped great advantage from the
emulation excited by his discovery. As everybody
wished to have Dishley blood, it occurred to Bakewell to
let out his rams in place of selling them. The first he
let, returned him only 22 francs (18s.) a-head. This was
in 1760, when his breed had not reached its perfection ;

SHEEP. 21

but in proportion as he continued to make progress, and
the reputation of his flock increased, his prices rose
rapidly ; and in 1789, a society having been formed for
the propagation of his breed, he let his rams to it for one
season, at the enormous price of 6000 guineas (more than
150,000 francs). It has been estimated that in the fol-
lowing years the farmers of the midland counties spent
as much as £100,-000 a-year (2,500,000 francs), in the
hire of rams. In spite of all his endeavours to keep the
monopoly, Bakewell was not the only one who let rams :
this business spread around him, and many flocks were
formed after the model of his own.

The wealth which Bakewell has conferred upon his
country is incalculable. If it were possible to compute
what the Dishley breed has yielded to English agricultu-
rists during the last eighty years, the results shown would
be truly enormous.

But this is not all. Bakewell has not only produced a
particular kind of sheep, which realises the maximum of
precocity and return, but he has pointed out the means
by which the indigenous races placed in other circum-
stances may be improved. The pure Dishley does not
thrive equally well everywhere. Bred upon wet and fertile
plains, it succeeds only in like situations. It is quite an
artificial race — therefore delicate ; rather of a sickly con-
stitution, precocity being only a disposition to premature
old age ; and its conformation incapacitating it for exer-
tion, it must have, together with a cool climate and abun-
dance of food, almost entire repose and constant attention,
which it repays with usury, it is true, but which it is not
always possible to give.

Like every other country, the soil of England may
be divided into three parts — plains, uplands, and moun-
tains. The Dishley breed is the type of the sheep of

22 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

the plains, and the one superior model which all breeds
should resemble as much as possible. Two others have
been selected, the one a little inferior to the Dishley, but
always tending towards it, constituting the type of the
higher ground — the sheep of the south downs of Sussex ;
the other, inferior, in its turn, to the south downs, but
still somewhat similar in character, has become the type
of the mountainous country ; it is that which took its
rise in the north of Northumberland, between England
and Scotland, among the Cheviot mountains.

The south downs of Sussex are ranges of calcareous
hills, averaging a breadth of about five miles, by sixty
in length, running east and west along the coasts of
the channel opposite to France. The beautiful town
of Brighton, celebrated for its sea-bathing, and which
every year attracts a large concourse of English fashion-
ables, is situated at the front of these hills, which have
an appearance peculiar to England ; they are entirely
destitute of trees, show here and there patches of heath,
but are otherwise covered with a fine short and close
grass. From time immemorial these pastures have been
used for feeding sheep, for which they are admirably
adapted ; but the ancient race of these downs was small
and coarse, and yielded little meat ; otherwise their
mutton was highly esteemed, and their wool in request
for certain descriptions of cloth.

A proprietor of the district, called John Ellman, about
the year 1780 applied himself to the improvement of
this race, upon the principles which succeeded so well
with Bakewell in improving the long-woolled race. One
particular circumstance admitted of his making such a
trial with some chance of success ; all along the Sussex
hills there extends a strip of low and cultivated lands,
capable of furnishing, and which in effect did provide, a

SHEEP. 23

supply of artificial nourishment for the down sheep
during the winter. What keeps the mountain sheep gene-
rally in low condition, is not so much the shortness of the
pasture during summer, as the almost entire want of food
in winter. The truth of this has been abundantly de-
monstrated by the experiments of EUman and his suc-
cessors with the down sheep.

As soon as this sheep had a good winter regimen added
to its summer food, it was observed rapidly to acquire a
fuller development; and as, at the same time, by a careful
selection of reproducers, attention was directed to give it
as much as possible aptitude for early fattening, and that
perfection of shape which characterises the Dishley, the
Southdowns have at last become almost rivals of Bake-
well's race. At the present day, after seventy years
of skilful treatment, the Southdown sheep gives on
an average 80 to 100 Ib. net of mutton. They fatten
generally about two years old, and are sold after their
second clip.* Their mutton is considered superior to the
new Leicester ; their fleece, like their carcass, has doubled
in weight ; and as they are continued on the same summer
pasturage to which they were accustomed, they have re-
tained their primitive robust and hardy constitution.

It is calculated that the downs of Sussex and neigh-
bouring plains feed now a million of the improved breed ;
and the race is not confined to its ancient limits, but is
widely spread to distant quarters, either as an entire sub-
stitute for local varieties, or to mix with, and remodel,
those by crossing. It has made its way wherever the soil,
not rich enough for the Dishley breed, is yet sufficiently
so to provide a proper quantity of winter food in addition
to good summer pasture. It predominates in all the dis-
tricts of lime formation, tends to displace the old breeds

* We believe few males ever reach this age. — J. D.

24 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

of Berks, Hants, and Wiltshire, and is found again as far
north as Cumberland and Westmoreland.

The history of the Cheviot sheep is not quite so bril-
liant as that of the Dishleys and Southdowns. Notwith-
standing, the breed is not less valuable than the others
— inasmuch as it is a means by which every possible
advantage is obtained from cold and uncultivated regions.
Emanating from the mountains lying between the high
chains of England and the cultivated lands, like the
Southdowns it owes1 its improvement to a supplement of
artificial nourishment during winter ; so far at least as
the wild district it inhabits permits. Besides, it has been as
much as any other the object of selections conducted with
great care, and its shape is now as perfect as can well be.
The improved Cheviot sheep fatten in their third year,'*
and yield on an average 60 to 80 Ib. of excellent meat.
Their fleece is thick and short. They spend even the
winter months upon their native mountains, exposed to
all the inclemencies of the seasons, and are seldom shel-
tered in folds.

In England the Cheviots have scarcely been introduced
anywhere out of their native districts, excepting in the
most mountainous parts of Wales and Cornwall. In
Scotland, whither they were imported by Sir John Sin-
clair, they have spread widely. They commenced by
invading the Highlands of the south, and from thence,
following the line of the Grampians, have penetrated as
far as the extreme north, where they increase rapidly.
Everywhere in these high and stormy regions they dispute
the ground with another still wilder race — the black-faced
sheep of the heather — which by degrees leave to the new-
comers the best walks, in order to take refuge upon the
wildest summits.

* Many now in their second. — J. D.

SHEEP. 25

These three breeds tend now to absorb all others, and
take entire possession of Great Britain. Some local varie-
ties, remain, however, and develop themselves separately.
Such are those of Komney Marsh in Kent, those of the
uplands or Cotswold hills of Gloucestershire, the long-
wool races of Lincoln and Teeswater,* the short-wool of
Dorset and Herefordshire, &c. All these breeds are im-
proved upon the principles followed with the Dishley,
Southdowns, and Cheviots. Throughout England, the
sheep farmer now seeks either to improve his breed by
itself, or by crossing it with others already improved, or
else he substitutes one of these breeds for his own—
whichever method appears to him most efficacious for
increasing the precocity and giving roundness of form to
his produce. It may be said that the genius of Bakewell
pervades all his countrymen.

Let us attempt a rough comparison between the an-
nual produce derived by the two countries from this
equal number of sheep.

The production of wool in France may be put down at
about sixty millions of kilos.t This production in England
is reckoned at 550,000 packs, of 240 Ib. English, equal
to sixty millions of kilos also. The two countries would
then be on an equal footing as regards wool ; but England
takes the lead in an enormous ratio when the question
comes to be of meat.

About ten millions of head are annually slaughtered in
the British Isles, of which eight millions belong to Eng-
land alone, yielding, at the average weight of thirty-six
kilos (80 Ib.) of net meat, three hundred and sixty mil-
lions of kilos.

* The long-wools of Lincoln have of late risen into greater favour; and
some splendid specimens have recently been exhibited at the great Shows in
England.— J. D. t A kilogramme = 2^ Ib. English.

26 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

Ill France there are about eight millions of head
slaughtered, which, at the average weight of eighteen
kilos of net meat, equal to one-half the weight of the
English sheep, give one hundred and forty-four millions
of kilos.

From whence it follows that the produce from the
thirty-five millions of French sheep would be represented
by the following figures : —

Wool, . . 60,000,000 of kilos.

Meat, . 144,000,000

And the return from the thirty-five millions of English
sheep by these —

Wool, . . 60,000,000 of kilos.

Meat, . . 360,000,000 „

These figures, doubtless, are not of mathematical cor-
rectness, but they are near enough the truth to give a
sufficient idea of the general facts. I have rather reduced
than added to the results given by the statistics in the
estimate relating to England, and on the other hand
rather increased those as to France. David Low, the
learned Professor of Agriculture in the University of
Edinburgh, in his Domesticated Animals of the British
Islands, published several years ago, sets down the value
of wool annually produced in England, at 227,000,000
of francs ; but this estimate is evidently exaggerated.
The French commentator of David Low reckons at the
same time the produce of English sheep in meat, at six
hundred and forty millions of kilos, which is an impossi-
bility, even supposing all the English sheep were Dish-
leys. On the other hand, M. Moreau de Jonnes, in his
agricultural statistics drawn up from official documents,
estimates six millions as the number of head slaughtered
in France, thirteen kilos as the average yield, and eighty

SHEEP. 27

millions of kilos the total produce. I have raised all these
averages, as appearing to me too low.*

It is easy to foresee how this result, which appears
already so great for the British Isles, becomes enormous
when speaking of England alone. England feeds two
sheep per hectare, whilst the average for France is only
two-thirds of a head ; and the produce of the English
sheep being besides double that of the French, it fol-
lows that the average return of an English sheep-farm is
six times greater than a French one.

This sad disproportion does not hold good, doubtless,
for some French farms, where the rearing of sheep is as
well understood as in England, and where they are even in
the way of excelling our neighbours by a judicious mix-
ture of English and Merino blood. It is sufficient to refer,
among others, to the magnificent flocks of M. Pluchet at
Trappes (Seine-et-Oise), that of M. Malingie' at La Char-
moise (Loir-et-Cher), and the crossings which are being
carried on in the State folds, particularly at Alfort. But
France in general remains far behind. Ireland, alone of
the British Isles, is on a par with us as regards sheep ;
even Scotland is superior ; and these figures, in themselves
so striking, are far from showing the full amount of bene-

* These calculations are no doubt perfectly sufficient, up to the measure of the
information we possess, to warrant the striking result as to the superiority of
British agriculture at which M. Lavergne arrives ; and we have been surprised,
from the nature of the materials with which he has had to deal, on this as on
other occasions, at the superior discrimination he shows in the estimate which he
adopts. It is well known that in this country no means have hitherto existed
capable of affording correct data as to our agricultural wealth ; and the vague
and various statements upon many points which our best statisticians put forth,
attest too truly that we are more indebted to individual ingenuity and bold
assumption for attempted definite results, than to any opportunity of access, on
the part of those who hazard such conclusions, to superior information. It is
believed they manage these matters better in France. We have no means of
showing precisely the total number of live stock maintained in Great Britain, far
less of ascertaining the numbers annually slaughtered ; and we know this has
been variously estimated at from a third up to fully two-fifths of the whole —

28 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

fit which English agriculture derives from its sheep. It
must not be forgotten that this valuable animal not only
gives its meat and wool to the farmer, but further en-
riches him by its manure; and all this return is obtained,
while ameliorating the soil which produces it. This is in
some measure the perfection of rural economy.

If we now extend our view beyond Europe to the
British colonies, we there find the rearing of sheep carried
on with a marked predilection for the example set by the
mother country. The population there being fewer and
more scattered, and wealth consisting more particularly
in exports, wool, and not meat, becomes the object of pro-
duction. At the very time when England, was getting quit
of her merinos, she was importing them into her colonies.
At the antipodes are found uninhabited regions of bound-
less extent, admirably suited to the Spanish race. That
breed is there extensively propagated, and a new world
has been created ; magnificent towns have sprung up, as
if by enchantment, upon these desert lands. Thither the
stream of British emigration flows in a continuous tide ;
and yet it is a feeble animal — the sheep — which produces
all these wonders. At one time the people of England

though we believe the former, as adopted by our author, will be found nearest
the truth. With regard to wool, again, we feel inclined to adopt a much higher
superiority for England even than that above set down ; for supposing the num-
bers of sheep in France and the British Isles to be alike, the greater size and
nature of the wool of the majority of the sheep of the latter country may fairly
be assumed as producing a fleece nearly twice the weight of the merinos'of France.
Upon the whole, then, we have no doubt, upon this same number of sheep said to
be produced in France and England, the latter will yield upon an average fifty
per cent greater weight of wool. This, allowing for the greater number pre-
sumed to be clipped in France from the smaller proportionate number slaughtered,
as we have seen — and assuming, as we are bound to do, a less price for the coarser
variety grown here — may be held as showing the relative value of the wool of the
two countries to be as sixty to seventy-two, thus giving a still more favourable
result for Great Britain. We should not be surprised that Professor Low's esti-
mate in this matter will be found to come nearest the truth. — J. D.

SHEEP. 29

were very much afraid that the gold discovery would
cause an abandonment of the pastures; but these fears
are a little calmed, and the sheep disputes attention
even with the gold.

At the commencement of the present century, England
imported half of her foreign wools from Spain, but that
country now appears only nominally upon her import
lists. Countries which, fifty years ago, did not give a
pound of wool, the names even of which were scarcely
known, figure upon these lists for enormous quantities.
Among these are the British colonies in Australia, which
furnish forty million pounds of wool, the Cape of Good
Hope and the British possessions in India, which send
home ten to twelve million. These wools are of excel-
lent quality, and improve every day. The producers
from these far-off countries come to bid against our far-
mers for the Rambouillet rams, for which they give long
prices. Adding to her own the produce of her colonial
sheep, England every year realises six hundred to seven
hundred millions of francs, which she afterwards doubles
by her manufactures. What a wonderful power of hu-
man industry, that can thus turn the gifts of Providence
to such good account !

Surpassed in the production of meat by the European
portion of the British empire, France is again left behind
in the production of wool by the colonies and mother
country together. Yet, both at home and in our African
colony, which is much nearer to us than the Australian
colonies are to England, we have abundant means- for
rivalling her. The same distinction which exists between
England and her colonies may some day probably exist
also between our own country and colony. Our breeders,
without altogether renouncing wool, will have their

30 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

attention directed more than hitherto to the production
of meat. The Algerian breeders, in their turn, have a
wide field open to them for the production of wool.
The impulse is given from all quarters, and great pro-
gress is made every day in this double path ; but we are
a little late in setting out, and England has such a start
of us, that we shall find it difficult to overtake her.

31

CHAPTER III.

CATTLE.

THE superiority of British husbandry to ours is not
quite so great in cattle as it is in sheep. There is still,
however, a sensible difference.

The number of horned cattle possessed by France is
reckoned at ten million head. The United Kingdom feeds
somewhat less, say about eight million ; but if the actual
number be less, the proportionate quantity is not so.
Of this number England and Wales count five million
head, Scotland one million, and Ireland two million ;
that is, England has one head for every three hectares,
Scotland one to eight hectares, and Ireland one to four.
Thus the average of France is in reality superior only to
Scotland ; and then it is her soil which causes the excep-
tion. We are even below Ireland, and a long way below
England. So much for numbers ; in quality our inferi-
ority is greater.

There are three descriptions of produce which man
may demand from cattle, besides the manure, the hide,
and the offal — namely, their labour, their milk, and their
flesh. Of these three the least profitable is the first ; and
we here again find a distinction quite analogous to that
winch we observed in respect to sheep ; for while the French
agriculturist requires labour from his cattle, in preference
to everything else, the British agriculturist looks chiefly

32 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

to the milk and the meat. This second distinctive feature
has led to differences almost as marked as the first. Let
us, in the first place, consider the milk produce in the two
countries. France possesses four millions of cows, and
the United Kingdom three millions. But three-fourths
of the French cows are not really milch cows, and almost
all the English ones are. The exigencies of labour re-
quiring a strong and hardy race, agree badly with the
condition favourable to an abundant supply of milk.
Bad food, want of care, absence of all precaution in the
selection of reproducers, and probably also, in the most
southern districts, the drought and heat of the climate, —
these complete what labour had already begun. In those
parts of France where the attention of breeders has been
directed, from local circumstances, to the production of
milk, results equal, and often superior, to those obtained in
England show that, generally speaking, we are placed in
as favourable a position for this kind of husbandry as our
neighbours ; but if our milch cows are as good, and some-
times better than theirs, they are not so widely diffused.
There is no breed of cows in England superior appa-
rently to our Flemish, Norman, and Breton cows, for the
quantity and quality of their milk, nor for the propor-
tionate return in milk for the quantity of food consumed.
As to dairy produce, if English cheese is in general
superior to ours, French butter is better than English;
there is nothing in England to be compared with the
better qualities of butter made in Brittany and Nor-
mandy. In spite of these unquestionable advantages,
the total produce of the English cows in milk, butter,
and cheese, far exceeds that of the French, although the
latter are more numerous, and in certain districts as good
or even better milkers. It is the generality of a practice
only which can produce great results in agriculture ; and

CATTLE. S3

in England it is the universal custom to keep one or
several milch cows.

The milch cow race par excellence of the British empire
comes originally from those islands of the Channel which
are detached fragments of our Normandy. The breed
usually goes under the name of Alderney, or, in French,
Aurigny. The greatest precautions are adopted for
maintaining the purity of this race, which is, after all,
only a variety of our own. A large number of heifers
are bred in the Channel Islands and sold into England,
where they are in great request among the wealthy
classes for their dairies in the country. Any one who
has visited Jersey must have admired these beautiful
animals, so intelligent and gentle -looking, which stock
the pasture-lands of that island, and which form a part
of the family of every farmer there. Although naturally
good, the affectionate care with which they are treated
has not a little contributed to render them so productive.
The Jersey people are as proud and jealous of them as if
they were the greatest treasures in the world.

This race, however, has a rival in one which much
resembles it, and which has been produced from it by
crossings — namely, the Ayrshire in Scotland. It is not
long since Scotland was in an almost uncultivated state ;
Ayrshire, particularly, has been cultivated, with some
degree of care, only within the last fifty or sixty years.
This country, at one time covered with heather and moss,
has become a sort of Arcadia. Eobert Burns, the shepherd
poet, was born there. His rustic poetry, which was written
about the time of the French Eevolution, was coeval with
the dawn of agriculture in his native country. The same
feeling which inspired the pastorals of Burns, raised up
that charming race of Ayrshire cows, whose graceful
forms, speckled hides, quiet disposition, large udders, and

34 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

rich and abundant supply of milk, realise the ideal of
pastoral life. A good cow of this breed will give more
than four thousand litres ~* of milk in the year : on
an average they yield three thousand. And these ani-
mals are to be found everywhere, both in Scotland and
England.

A cow which does not give milk may be considered
the exception in that country. Ireland itself possesses
two races of milch cows ; the one small and coarse, similar
to our Breton race, and belonging to the wild mountains
of Kerry ; the other large and strong, bred upon the rich
pastures of the Shannon.

The consumption of milk under every form is enormous
among the English. Their habits in this respect are those
of past ages. Caesar said of them, long ago, Lacte et came
vivunt. They are not in the habit of preparing their
food with fat and oil, like most of the French, but use
butter for all culinary purposes ; cheese, too, appears at
their principal repasts. The quantities of butter and
cheese manufactured throughout the whole extent of the
British Isles exceed all belief. Cheshire alone produces
cheese to the value of a million sterling, or twenty-five
millions of francs annually. Not content with what their
own dairies give, the English import butter and cheese
from abroad ; and this circumstance, showing to what
extent the national taste is carried, explains the reason
why it is that the average price of milk with them is
higher than in France. While our producers obtain at
most ten centimes per litre (Id. per quart) for their
milk, the English get twenty centimes (2d.)

In fine, the milk produce of English cows may be
reckoned at three milliards (three thousand millions) of
litres, of which one milliard goes to feed the calves, and

* A litre is equal to about a quart (or 2.1135 wine pints). — T.

CATTLE. 35

two for the consumption of man. This gives an average
of about one thousand litres for each cow. The produc-
tion of France is probably at most two milliards, or at
the rate of five hundred litres per head, of which at least
one-half is consumed by the calves.

Thus, while the French have only one milliard of litres
to sell for human consumption, the English have two ;
and as, in consequence of their large manufacturing
population, they obtain double the price for their milk
that we do, it follows that the dairy produce of Eng-
land is worth four times as much as it is in France. The
production of the two countries should, then, be repre-
sented by the following figures : —

France, 1 milliard of litres at 10 cents, 100 million francs (£4,000,000).
British Isles, 2 milliard of litres at 20 cents, 400 million francs (.£16,000,000).

This difference, great though it be, will not cause
surprise to any one who may have compared, even in
France, the production of dairies in different localities.
Between a Normandy dairy, for example, where the pro-
duction and management of the milk are skilfully con-
ducted, and one in Limousin or Languedoc, where the
lactiferous properties of the cow have not been encouraged,
the contrast is greater than between an ordinary French
dairy and an English one. Not only is the quantity of
milk infinitely less, but the price obtained for it is less
also. The producer of the centre or south does not know
what to make of his milk when he has it ; the producer
of the north, on the contrary, derives from it a good
profit. In every country the art of dairy husbandry is a
profitable employment ; and the districts which make but-
ter and cheese are always richer than those that do not.

If the work we impose upon our large cattle deprives
us of a large revenue in milk, it also deprives us of a
not less important return in butcher-meat.

36 RUEAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

It appears, at first sight, that the work which our
cattle are made to go through should have but little
influence upon the return they give in meat. It might
even be supposed that this work, since it turned the life
of the animal to account, admitted of a cheaper produc-
tion of meat. Experience, however, has shown, that if in
some particular instances such was the case, it is a mis-
take as a rule. Habitual labour causes animals to become
hardy, vigorous, and slow; which, like man given to labo-
rious work, causes them to eat much and fatten little,
to increase in bony structure, make little available flesh,
and that but slowly. Habitual inaction, on the contrary,
produces a soft and lazy race, which fatten early, assume
rotundity of form and fleshiness, and on an equal
amount of food give a better produce for the butcher.
Attention on the part of the breeder assists this natural
disposition, and increases it, in some measure, to an un-
limited extent. To this general cause of superiority may
be added other secondary ones, all arising out of the same
principle. Thus, where labour is the first consideration,
the animal is not killed until it has finished its office ;
but, on the other hand, where meat only is sought, it is
slaughtered just at that period when it gives most. Again,
with animals of draught, poor agriculturists are easily
induced to increase the number in proportion to their
requirements, without considering the quantity of food
they can give them. In this way they are led to breed
small and lean animals, which, after all, like the ass,
fulfil their intended purpose, but beyond that are value-
less : when on the other hand, however, the object is
meat, they very soon learn to have only as many as
they can afford to feed well, because these derive more
benefit from what they eat.

The result of all this is, that, contrary to appearances,

CATTLE. «#

it is the animals for slaughter which make the best return
for what they consume ; and that the working of horned
cattle, whether necessary or not, instead of being profit-
able, entails a loss.

It was, again, the celebrated farmer of Dishley Grange,
Eobert Bakewell, who gave the spur in England to the
improvement of cattle, considered specially with reference
to beef. His mode of proceeding was similar to that
practised with sheep, only individually he was not so
fortunate. The sheep, as produced by Bakewell, continues
to be the most perfect type of the animal for the butcher.
The race of cattle which he bred was not so successful.
The long-horned cattle of the midland counties, which
he selected as the subject for his operations, is a race in
many respects defective. In spite of his ability and
perseverance, he was not able to modify it sufficiently to
eradicate its primitive defects. This race is now pretty
generally abandoned ; but if this great breeder did not
altogether succeed in his undertaking, he has at least
given examples and models which have everywhere been
followed, and have caused an improvement in all the Eng-
lish races. There probably does not exist at this day in
Great Britain a single head of cattle which has not been
considerably modified according to Bakewell's method ;
and if none bears his name, as among the woolly tribe,
all have equally received his stamp.

Among the improved breeds of long standing, the short-
horn of Durham ranks first. It took its rise in the rich
valley of the Tees, and appears to have been formed
originally by a cross between the Dutch cow and the
native bull. When Bakewell's ideas spread in England,
this race was already remarkable for predisposition to
fatten, and for its lactiferous qualities. The brothers
Collins, farmers at Darlington, first thought of applying

88 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

these principles to the race of Tees valley about the year
1775, and they obtained almost from the first important
results. The herd of Charles Collins had acquired
such a reputation in the space of thirty years, that
when sold by auction in 1810, the forty-seven animals
of which it was composed, and of which twelve were
under a year old, were purchased for 178,000 francs
(£7100). The race of improved short-horns has spread
since that period throughout the United Kingdom, and
was some time ago introduced into France. The animals
bred from it may be fattened as early as two years
old, and attain at that age a weight which no other breed
can arrive at so soon. Their head, legs, and bones, have
been reduced to such small proportions, and the more
fleshy parts of the body so largely developed, that nearly
three-fourths of their weight is meat.

After the Durham short-horn, which among cattle is
what the Dishley breed is among sheep, come the Here-
ford and Devon breeds, which in their turn may be
compared to the Southdowns and Cheviots. The Here-
ford breed follows closely upon the Durham, and is
even more generally sought after, as offering almost
an equal precocity, the same aptitude for fattening, but
with greater hardiness. The county of Hereford, from
whence it comes, lies at the foot of the Welsh moun-
tains; and although renowned for its woods, its pastures,
and its landscape, possesses a soil of but indifferent fer-
tility. The cattle it produces are rarely fattened in the
country, but are purchased at an early age by graziers,
who bring them into more fertile districts, where they
undergo their full development : a mode of treatment
not easily accomplished with the Durhams, which require
an abundant supply of food from their birth. Here-
fordshire is thus to a great portion of England what

CATTLE. 59

Auvergne or Limousin is to France — a breeding country,
the produce of which is exported at an early period, and
by degrees reaches the market of the capital. To a con-
temporary of Bakewell, called Tomkins, is due the im-
provement of the Herefords.*

The Devon is a mountain race, which at one time was
much used for work, and in some places is so still. It is
small, but admirably formed.

All the other races of Great Britain, without having
reached precisely the same degree of perfection, have
been improved in the same way. Scotland produces
several which have a great reputation. A large number
of the Scotch cattle leave their mountains at about three
years old, to be fattened in England ; of such are those
called Galloways, the black race without horns from
Angus, and that excellent breed from the Western High-
lands— one of the most wonderful creations of man : it
lives without shelter upon the wildest mountains of the
north, and, notwithstanding the barrenness of the soil
and severity of the climate, reaches an extraordinary
average weight. The value of this animal is further in-
creased by the excellent quality of its meat.t

The comparative results of the two systems may be
stated as follows : —

In France the number of cattle annually slaughtered
is four millions, producing a total of four hundred million
kilogrammes of meat, at the rate of one hundred kilos
average weight. Official statistics make it only three
hundred millions.

In the British Isles the number annually slaughtered

* The improved Herefords, treated as liberally as tlie short-horns, may be said
to attain equal precocity. — J. D.

*f* A complete collection of these valuable breeds had been made in France at
the Agricultural National Institution ; but in consequence of the breaking up of
that establishment, it has been dispersed.

40 RUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

is two millions of head, giving a total of five hundred
million kilogrammes of meat, at the average of two hun-
dred and fifty kilos. "r

Thus with eight million head of cattle, and thirty
million hectares, British agriculture produces five hun-
dred million kilos of beef ; whilst France, with ten
million head, and fifty-three million hectares, produces
in all only four hundred million.

This new disproportion is perfectly explained, inde-
pendently of the difference in race, by the difference in
age of the animals slaughtered. The French cattle are
slaughtered either too soon or too late : the paramount
necessity for maintaining cattle intended for labour obliges
us to kill a great number of calves at that age when
growth is most rapid. In our four millions of head
figure two and a half millions of calves, which, on an
average, give not more than thirty kilos of meat ; those
that survive are not slaughtered until an age when growth
has long ceased — that is to say, after the animal has for
several years continued to consume food which has not
served to increase its weight. The English, on the con-

* It has long been matter of regret that hitherto in this country we have had
no means of correctly ascertaining the number and value of the stock of cattle in
Great Britain ; far less can an accurate estimate be made of the proportion
annually slaughtered, or of the income thus derived. M. Lavergne has, with his
wonted care, adopted, in the number above set down, those which exhibit a fair
average of the estimates of our best authorities. The inquiry so long desired,
and now set on foot by the Government, will, we have reason to believe, this
year furnish with great precision the gross numbers of live stock of all ages and
descriptions maintained in the country ; but that the returns should be of real use,
it is further requisite that some discrimination should be made as to age and variety
of breed, and that we be made acquainted with the proportion annually disposed of
for the shambles. The machinery at present in use we have no doubt would easily
effect this, and we trust to see it attempted in another year. Until this additional
information is obtained, there will exist nearly the same difficulty in securing a
correct estimate of the value of the chief source of our agricultural wealth. In
proof that there is some reason to suppose this has hitherto been much underrated,
we think it may not be uninteresting to refer to the following facts lately educed
in relation to this matter, upon which some dependence may be placed. From

CATTLE. 41

trary, kill their animals neither so young, because it is
when young that they lay on flesh most rapidly, nor
so old, because then they have ceased to increase : they
seize the precise period when the animal has reached its
maximum growth.

These results, so favourable to English rural economy,
are reduced, it is true, by the value of the labour which
the cattle in France give. We possess in all about two
millions of oxen used chiefly for work ; and among the
cows there are many also which work in the plough. If,
like the English, we had nearly everywhere dispensed
with the working of oxen, we should have been obliged
to replace them by horses, and these horses would have
involved an expense representing the actual value of the
labour of the horned cattle. Valuing this labour at about
200 francs (£8) per team, would give an annual sum of
two hundred millions to put to the credit of our race of
cattle.

The produce of cattle in the two countries may there-
fore be reckoned in round numbers as follows, exclusive

the report of a Commission appointed by the Crown in November 1849, to inquire
into the state of Srnithfield Cattle Market, it was shown on satisfactory evidence
that the number of cattle sold in -that mart alone amounted to 247,000 in the
previous year. These are variously assumed as producing from £16 to £18
each, showing an average total value of £3,853,000 ; but as the consumption of
butcher-meat in London is otherwise made up from the dead market, to the
extent, it is calculated, of nearly three-fourths of the whole, it may be fairly
estimated _that the value of cattle consumed annually in London alone amounts to
not less than £4,8-16,000 — or thus, to what appears to be nearly a fourth part of
the amount generally set down as the total value of the cattle consumed in the
whole of the British empire. Again, the evidence produced before the above
Commission tended to show that the value of butcher-meat of all kinds annually
consumed in the metropolis, with a population of 2,360,000, was upwards of
£10,000,000 ; while the highest estimate which we have seen — that of Mr Spack-
man — gives the annual value of sheep and cattle slaughtered in the whole United
Kingdom, with a population of 27,720,000 (in 1851), at £45,000,000. We can
scarcely think., though no doubt it must be greatly superior, that the proportion
of animal food devoured in London can be so large in reference to that consumed
by the rest of the inhabitants generally.— J. D.

42 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

of the value of the offal and manure on both sides, as
these should about balance each other, and valuing the
kilogramme of meat at 1 franc (5d. per Ib.) : —

FRANCE.

Milk, . . 100,000,000 francs, or £4,000,000

Meat, . . 400,000,000 „ 16,000,000

Work, . . 200,000,000 „ 8,000,000

Total, . 700,000,000 „ £28,000,000

Equal to 70 francs per head, and 14 francs per hectare
(55s. per head> and 4s. 9d. per acre).

UNITED KINGDOM.

Milk, . . 400,000,000 francs, or £16,000,000

Meat, . . 500,000,000 „ 20,000,000

Total, . 900,000,000 „ £36,000,000

Equal to 110 francs per head, and 30 francs per hectare
(85s. per head, and 10s. per acre). In England proper
this produce may be reckoned at about 50 francs per
hectare.

These figures are verified by a fact extremely simple
and easy to prove — namely, the average price of the
animals in the two countries. Generally speaking, the
current price of an animal is a sufficiently correct criterion
of the profit which the purchaser expects to derive from
it ; now it is invariably the case that the average value
of horned animals in England is much above what it is in
France. It is not even necessary to go so far as England
to ascertain a difference of the same kind. We have in
France two districts — the one where they do not work
the cattle, and the other where they do. If we take the
average values in these two quarters, we find that in the
former it is very much above what it is in the latter ;
and yet the art of rearing cattle for butcher-meat only
is still scarcely known in France. What would that be

CATTLE. 43

if it had reached the point attained in England at the
present day 1

I am aware that the substitution of milking and butcher-
meat races for working animals is not always practicable.
I am not finding fault with those portions of our territory
where cultivation is carried on with oxen, or even cows.
I recommend no sudden and rash change ; I simply con-
fine myself to stating facts as they exist, and believe I
have demonstrated that, by the sole fact of the almost
entire abandonment of tillage by oxen, the soil of Britain,
even including Scotland and Ireland, has in cattle reached
a production double that of ours. Such in agriculture is
the power of a correct principle, when practically carried
out.

The other species of domestic animals are horses and
pigs. As regards horses, the pre-eminence of the English
breeders has long been recognised. We possess in France
about three millions of horses of all ages, or about six
head for every one hundred hectares ; in England, Scot-
land, and Ireland, these are reckoned at two millions,
equal also to about six head per one hundred hectares ;
but our three millions of horses cannot be valued at more
on an average than 150 francs each, making a total value
of four hundred and fifty millions ; whereas the two
millions of English horses are worth an average price of
300 francs, equal to a capital of six hundred millions.
It is true that, in order to make a complete comparison,
there must be added to our capital in horses the value of
our mules and asses, which official statistics set down at
eighty millions, though probably nearer one hundred ;
but even with the addition of this latter sum we are still
behind, although the extent of our soil should secure for
us a great superiority.

It will perhaps be said that the average value of our

44 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

horses has been understated in the preceding estimate,
and that of the English increased. Such an assertion I
consider without foundation. Doubtless all the English
horses are not race-horses ; it' they were, they would be
worth more than 300 francs. The value of the English
race-horse is quite fanciful, but it is taken upon a small
number ; and so far it is in many respects justified by
the high value which the English set upon everything
capable of improving their breeds. It is entirely owing
to the enormous sums paid for first-rate stallions that the
breeders of Great Britain have been enabled to improve
their common horses in the way they have done. Each
species of domestic animal has its special use — that of
the horse is for purposes where strength combined with
speed are required. The English seek to develop these
two properties in their horses, although the first expense
is considerable ; and, in the long run, it is found that
power and speed together do not cost them more than
it does us, because they concentrate as much as possible
their means of production and their care upon choice
individuals, in place of lavishing these on animals of no
value.

Besides their celebrated saddle-horses, they have breeds
for draught, which are equally valuable. Such, for ex-
ample, are the plough horses, the best of which perhaps
come from Suffolk. We have already observed that tillage
with horses has been generally substituted by the English
for that of oxen : they thought, and with reason, that the
quicker action of the horse made its work more productive.
But they have done more ; they have even substituted
horses for men wherever manual labour — the most ex-
pensive of all — could be replaced by a machine set in
motion by horse-power. The amount of agricultural
work executed in England by horses is therefore very

CATTLE. 45

considerably more than in France ; and the number of
these animals employed in agriculture has not been
increased in proportion. The reason of this is, that their
teams, more choice and better kept than ours, are more
vigorous and active.

o

The brewers' horses, and those used in coal waggons
and for other heavy draughts, are celebrated for their
strength and bulk. The best fetch very high prices. It is
the same with the carriage horses : the breed of Cleve-
land bays from Yorkshire is reckoned one of the most
perfect which exists for carriage work.

As for the race-horse, and his rival the hunter, every-
body knows by what a combination of efforts the English
have succeeded in producing and keeping up these supe-
rior breeds. They are productions of human industry,
real works of art, obtained at great expense, and designed
to gratify a national passion. It may be said, without
exaggeration, that all the wealth of Britain seems to have
no other object than the keeping up of studs from whence
these privileged creatures emanate. A fine horse consti-
tutes with everybody the ideal of fashionable life ; it is the
first dream of the young girl, as it is the latest pleasure
of the aged man of business : everything which relates to
the training of saddle-horses, to racing, hunting, and all
exercises which display the qualities of these brilliant
favourites, is the great business of the whole country.
The common people, as well as the wealthier classes, take
great interest in these matters, and the day on which the
Derby is run at Epsom is a general holiday. Parliament
does not meet, no business is transacted, the eyes of all
England are directed to that course where a few young
stallions run, and where millions are gained or lost in a
few minutes.

We are still far from this national infatuation, and

46 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

certainly it is not because our own breeds are without
value ; they are, on the contrary, possessed of natural
merits, which art alone has communicated to the English
horses. The truth is, that production with us is never
below consumption ; but what is needed for the improve-
ment of our breeds is, that we learn to pay a price for
good horses. This is the great secret. Nothing is more
expensive to produce than a good horse. As long as our
first object is cheapness, handsome and good horses will
be the exceptions with us, although it would be an
easy matter to multiply them. Our Percherons, our
Boulonnais, our Limousins, Bretons, and B&irnais, afford
already excellent types, which might be easily spread and
improved if our breeders could obtain sufficient remune-
ration for their trouble.

English pigs, on an average, are not larger than ours,
but they are much more numerous, and are killed younger
—exemplifying always the great principle of precocity,
contended for by Bakewell, and applied to all kinds of ani-
mals destined for food. England alone feeds as many
pigs as the whole of France ; those of Scotland and Ireland
are over and above, and very few of these animals are kept
alive beyond a year. They are all of breeds which fat-
ten rapidly, and whose shapes have been improved for
a lengthened period. Official statistics make the annual
production of pork in France two hundred and ninety
millions of kilogrammes. This figure must be much
under the real amount, a great many of these useful
animals being killed and consumed in country house-
holds, without any account of them being taken ; but
even extending it to four hundred millions, the United
Kingdom produces double : a superiority, again, which
causes no surprise to any one who has witnessed with
what ability the piggeries of our neighbours are con-

CATTLE. 47

ducted. Farms where pigs are fattened by hundreds are
not rare, and almost everywhere they figure among the
principal branches of farm revenue.

Such, at a rough estimate, are the advantages obtained
by British agriculture in the rearing of domestic animals.
It is true that France retaliates in another branch of
animal products, which is hardly reckoned in England,
and is very considerable with us — that of the poultry-
yard. The English rear few fowls, the dampness of their
climate being unsuitable for it ; and notwithstanding the
endeavours which wealthy amateurs have been making
for some time past, this occupation has hitherto obtained
little favour. The most to which statistics bring the
annual value is twenty-five millions (one million ster-
ling) derived from this source ; whilst in France the
annual production of eggs alone is estimated at one
hundred millions, and that of all kinds of fowls at an
equal sum. A large portion of the population live upon
poultry, especially in the south, and this addition partly
makes up for what we lack in butcher-meat ; but while
rendering every justice to the real importance of this too
often neglected resource, we cannot shut our eyes to the
fact that it but imperfectly makes up the deficiency.

We shall see, in treating of the crops, what are at once
the causes and consequences of this large animal pro-
duction.

48

CHAPTER IV.

THE CKOPS.

THE object of all cultivation is, to produce -the greatest
possible quantity of human food upon a given surface of
land : to attain this object, several widely different means
may be adopted. French agriculturists are greatly pre-
possessed in favour of the production . of cereals, because
these serve directly for the food of man ; but it is diffe-
rent in England, for, owing to the nature of the climate,
and upon a careful consideration of the subject, agricul-
turists there have been induced to take a more circuitous
course, which does not arrive at cereals until after having
passed through other crops, and it is found that this indi-
rect way is the best.

One great drawback attends cereals generally, which
has not been sufficiently appreciated by the French culti-
vators : they exhaust the soil which bears them. This
defect is scarcely perceptible upon certain favoured lands^
capable of producing wheat almost uninterruptedly; it
may be of little consequence, also, where land is plenti-
ful and population scanty, for there corn need be grown
only on the best soils, or that which is inferior may be
allowed to rest for several years before being again brought
under the plough ; but as population increases, a different
system must be adopted. If attention is not given to
restoring the fertility of the soil, in proportion to its

THE CEOPS. 49

exhaustion by cereal crops, a period arrives when the land,
too often required to bear corn, refuses to do so. Even
where climate and soil are most favourable, the old Eoman
system, which consisted in growing corn one year, and
leaving the land fallow the next, is found ultimately to be
insufficient ; the soil ceases to produce crops of any
value.

In northern latitudes, it is found that the land becomes
sooner exhausted under cereals than in the south : this
inferiority in their soil led the English to the know-
ledge of one of its valuable properties. The impossi-
bility of taking from their land as many white crops
as were elsewhere produced, set them at an early period
to discover the causes, and to effect a remedy for this
exhaustion. At the same time, their soil presented one
resource, which less naturally offers itself to southern
agriculturists ; namely, the spontaneous growth of an
abundant grass for cattle. These two facts combined
to produce their entire agricultural system. Animal
manure being the best agent for renewing the fertility of
the soil after a cereal crop, they concluded that they
ought to apply themselves especially to the feeding of a
large number of cattle. Besides that butcher-meat is
an article of food more required by the inhabitants of
northern than those of southern latitudes, they perceived
in this large animal production the means of increasing,
by the quantity of manure, the richness of the soil, and
so augmenting their production of corn. This simple
calculation succeeded, and since they adopted it, expe-
rience has led them to apply it every day more and
more.

At first the English contented themselves with natural
pastures for their cattle, and upon this system one-half

D

50 RUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

of the land remained in pasture, the other half being
divided between corn and fallows. But by -and -by,
not satisfied with this proportion, the idea of artificial
grasses and roots suggested itself — that is to say, the culti-
vation of certain plants exclusively intended for the food
of cattle — and by so much was the domain of fallows
reduced. After a time the breadth of cereals itself was
diminished, and now, including oats, it occupies only a
fifth of the soil ; and what proves the excellence of this
system is, that in proportion as cattle increase, the return
from corn increases also ; though narrowed in extent, the
harvests are larger, thus effecting for agriculture a two-
fold benefit.

The decisive step in this direction was taken sixty or
eighty years ago. At the time when France was occu-
pied with the sanguinary struggles of her political Revo-
lution, a less noisy and more salutary revolution was
being accomplished in English agriculture. Another man
of genius, Arthur Young, completed what had been begun
by Bakewell. While the one showed how the most was
to be made out of cattle, the other taught how the largest
possible number of them could be fed upon a given extent
of land. Extensive proprietors, whose efforts have been
rewarded with large fortunes, favoured the diffusion of
these ideas, by putting them into practice with success.
It was then that the famous four-year course, known as
the Norfolk rotation, from the country where it arose,
began to spread. This system, which, with some varia-
tion, prevails at the present day in England, has com-
pletely changed the character of the most ungrateful
land of that country, and everywhere created agricultural
richness.

I will not here repeat the well-known theory of this
rotation. Everybody nowadays is aware that most forage

THE CROPS. 51

plants derive from the atmosphere the principal elements
of their growth, while they give to the soil more than
they take from it ; thus both directly, and by their con-
version into animal manure, contributing in two ways
to repair the mischief done by cereals and exhausting
crops generally ; one principle, therefore, is, that they
should at least alternate with these crops : in this consists
the Norfolk rotation. Since the commencement of the
present century, great exertions have been made by
eminent agriculturists in France to introduce this benefi-
cial practice, and not without some effect. But the
English have greatly outstripped us ; and therefore this
precious fertilising capital, which no good agriculturist
should lose sight of, has in their hands been constantly
accumulating.

Nearly half the cultivated soil has been maintained in
permanent grass ; the rest, composing what is called the
arable land, is divided into four fields of operation,
according to the Norfolk rotation — 1st year, roots (chiefly
turnips) ; 2d year, spring corn (barley and oats) ; 3d
year, artificial grass (chiefly clover and rye-grass); 4th
year, wheat.

The practice of late has been to add another year to
the course, by allowing the artificial grasses to retain pos-
session of the land for two years, thus making the
rotation quinquennial. For example, upon a farm of
a hundred and seventy-five acres, seventy-five would be
in permanent grass, twenty in potatoes and turnips,
twenty in barley and oats, twenty in artificial grass of
one year, twenty in artificial grass of the second year,
and twenty in wheat. In those parts of the country
most favourable to herbaceous vegetation, the proportion
of grass land is increased, and that of corn reduced ; and
where the soil is not so suitable for roots and grass, beans

52 KUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

are substituted for turnips, and the breadth of corn is
extended in the place of other crops ; but, upon the
whole, these exceptions compensate the one for the other,
at least in Great Britain — in Ireland the whole system
is different.

Upon the whole, deducting eleven millions of un-
cultivated hectares contained in the British Isles, the
twenty millions of cultivated hectares are divided nearly
as follows : —

Hectares.

Natural pasture, ..... 8,000,000

Artificial grasses, ..... 3,000,000

Potatoes, turnips, beans, .... 2,000,000

Barley, .- ; . . . 1,000,000

Oats, ....... 2,500,000

Fallows, ...... 500,000

Wheat, ...... 1,800,000

Gardens, hops, flax, &c., . . . . 200,000

Wood, ...... 1,000,000

Total, ..... 20,000,000*

In France we have also eleven millions of hectares un-
cultivated out of fifty-three ; the remaining forty-two
millions being divided as follows : —

Hectares.

Natural meadows, ..... 4,000,000

Artificial ditto, ..... 3,000,000

Boots, ...... 2,000,000

Oats, . . . . . . 3,000,000

Fallows, ...... 5,000,000

Wheat, . . . . 6,000,000

Eye, barley, maize, buckwheat, . . . 6,000,000

Other crops, . . . . . . 3,000,000

Vineyards, ...... 2,000,000

Wood, 8,000,000

Total, ..... 42,000,000

A comparison of these two tables shows the difference
between the two agricultures.

* This is a distribution of the soil of the British empire in many respects
differing from that given by any of our statists, so far as we have seen ; but as

THE CROPS. 53

At first it appears that France has the advantage
over the United Kingdom in the proportion of uncul-
tivated to cultivated lands ; but then the lands left waste
by our neighbours are, for the most part, incapable of
cultivation ; they lie almost entirely in the Scotch
Highlands, the north of Ireland, and in Wales ; while
most of our waste lands are susceptible of cultivation.
We have, besides, more wood than our neighbours ; and,
adding our forest grounds to the uncultivated land, we
find nineteen millions of hectares out of fifty-three ex-
cluded from cultivation, properly speaking : this brings
the proportion to nearly the same in both cases. Owing
to the abundance of cheap fuel which their coal supplies,
the English have been enabled to get rid of the extensive
woods which once covered their island, and by this means
to redeem their inferiority in other respects : few vestiges
of their ancient forests now remain, and these are every
day threatened with destruction.

On the one side, then, the area under cultivation con-
sists of nineteen millions of hectares, and on the other of
thirty-four. At first sight, we find that out of the nine-
teen millions of English hectares, fifteen are devoted to
the growth of food for live stock, and at most four for
that of man. In France, nine millions of hectares are
appropriated to ameliorating crops, whilst the exhausting
crops occupy double that surface : the extent of fallows,
again, is enormous, and in their present state they cannot
be of much service in renewing the fertility of the land.
An examination into details will only confirm the truth
of what is here presented.

our best authorities in this matter differ materially, and it is well known that no
data commensurate with the scope of the inquiry, or of any reliable nature, have
ever yet been obtained to warrant a just estimate of so important a phenome-
non, we hold that the above, upon the whole, may be found as near the truth as
any that has been hitherto hazarded. — T.

54 EURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

First in order come the natural meadows, estimated as
covering four millions of hectares with us, and eight in
the British Isles — here (in France) less than one-eighth,
there, nearly one-half of the cultivated land. It is true
that the English meadows consist principally of such as
are pastured only, but these pastures are as productive
as our mown meadows.

This extent of pasture is certainly one of the most
striking features of British fanning. Comparatively little
hay is made in England, the winter food of cattle being
chiefly obtained from the artificial meadows, besides roots,
and even corn. Of late, new systems, of which I shall
speak by-and-by, tend to the substitution of stall-feeding
even in summer, in place of the old national custom ; but
these trials are still, or were, at any rate, five years ago,
only exceptions to the rule. The almost universal prac-
tice is to confine cattle as little as possible. Three-fourths
of the English meadow-lands are grazed ; and as one-half
of the artificial grasses are so also, especially in the second
year ; as turnips, too, are to a great extent eaten off the
ground by sheep ; and, lastly, as the uncultivated lands
cannot be turned to account except in the shape of
commons, two-thirds of the whole soil are thus given
up to live stock. In this consists the peculiar charm of
the British fields. With the exception of Normandy, and
some other provinces where the same practice prevails,
our territory seldom presents that smiling aspect which
England does, with its greensward depastured with ani-
mals at large.

The attractive beauty of this landscape is enhanced by
the picturesque effect of the quickset hedges, often inter-
spersed with trees, which divide the fields. The existence
of these hedges is strongly assailed in the present day,
although hitherto they have been considered as indispen-

THE CROPS. 55

sable to the general system of agriculture. Each field
being pastured in its turn, it is convenient to be able, in a
manner, to pen the cattle, so as to leave them without any
further care. It appears strange to us, whose habits are
so different, thus to see cattle, and especially sheep, left
entirely to themselves, on pastures sometimes far from
human habitations. To account for such a state of secu-
rity, it must be recollected that the English have destroyed
the wolves in their island; that they have, by severe
laws under a system of rural police, protected property
against human depredations ; and, finally, that they have
taken care to make their fields secure by means of
fences. These beautiful hedges, then, are thus a use-
ful defence as well as an ornament, and it is only sur-
prising how there should be any wish to do away with
them.

The system of pasturage has many advantages in the
eyes of English farmers : it saves manual labour, which
with them is no small consideration; it is favourable — at
least, so they think — to the health of herbivorous animals ;
it admits of turning to account lands which otherwise
would give but a small return, and which, in the course
of time, are improved by the deposits of the cattle ; it
supplies a food always springing up afresh, and the sum
of which is found, in the long run, to equal, if not to
exceed, what would have been obtained by the scythe.
Considerable importance, therefore, is attached to having
on every farm a sufficient extent of good pasture ;
even the mown meadows are often submitted to one
year of pasturing between two of hay cropping. Whilst
our pastures are, generally speaking, neglected, theirs,
on the contrary, are carefully attended to ; and any one
who has but a slight knowledge of this most attractive
kind of culture, can appreciate the immense difference

56 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

that exists between a wild uncultivated pasture, and one
which has received proper care.

It may be confidently asserted, that the eight millions
of hectares of English meadows give three times as much
food for cattle as our four million hectares of meadows
and five million hectares of fallow put together. The
proof of this is to be found in the money value of these
different kinds of lands. The English meadows, whether
for mowing or otherwise, sell on an average at about
4000 francs per hectare, or £60 per acre ; and some are
worth 10,000, 20,000, and even 50,000 francs. With us
the good grass-lands of Normandy are the only ones we
have which may compare with any of these prices : our
meadows are worth, on an average, about three-fourths
that of the English; and as for our fallows, they are greatly
inferior. Nowhere has the art of improving meadows and
pasture-lands been carried to such an extent as in England :
they have been rendered sound by draining, fertilised by
irrigation, judicious manuring, subsoil-ploughing, clearing
off stones, embankments, improvements of every sort for
the encouragement of nutritious plants and the destruc-
tion of weeds, which spread so easily on grass-lands.
Nowhere is the expense of creating and maintaining less
grudged, when the object is to carry oat some improve-
ment which may be thought beneficial. Such instances
of skill and intelligence, favoured by climate, have been
productive of marvellous results.

Next come roots and artificial grasses. The roots uni-
versally cultivated in England are potatoes and turnips.
Beetroot, so common in France, is very little cultivated
as yet on the other side of the Channel, and makes very
little progress. Potatoes were in great favour before the
appearance of the disease. It is well known that the
quantity of these consumed by the population of Eng-

THE CROPS. 57

land is much greater than in France ; in addition to
which, immense quantities are appropriated to the feed-
ing of cattle. But the great characteristic of English
rural economy, and that which in some degree may be con-
sidered the pivot of the whole system, is the turnip crop.
This crop, which with us covers but a few thousands of
hectares, and is little known except in our mountain-
ous provinces, is reckoned in England the surest indica-
tion, the most active agent, of agricultural progress.
Wherever it is introduced and thrives, fertility follows.
Through its means, ancient moors have been converted
into fertile lands. The value of a farm is most frequently
estimated by the extent of ground which can be profit-
ably devoted to this crop. It is no uncommon thing, in
going through the country, to see spaces of hundreds
of hectares of turnips. Their brilliant verdure is every-
where to be seen at the proper season.

Turnips were anciently cultivated in Holland, and
passed into England towards the end of the seventeenth
century, along with the financial and political institutions
brought over by William III. Lord Townsend acquired
a great name in the reign of George II. for having done
much towards their propagation, for these services are
not forgotten in England.

The turnip crop is the starting-point of the Norfolk
rotation ; upon its success depends that of the rest of the
course. Not only is it capable of insuring the succeed-
ing crops, from the abundance of manure given by the
quantity of cattle it can feed ; not only does it produce
much butcher-meat, milk, and wool, from the quantity
of food it supplies for all the domestic animals ; but
it further serves to clean the land, by the frequent
dressings it requires, and by the nature of its growth.
Neither is there any cultivation — not even that directly

58 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

producing wheat — which has been brought to such a state
of perfection. The English farmers spare no pains upon
the turnip crop ; for it they reserve almost all their
manures, the most thorough weedings, and the most
assiduous cares. On an average they obtain from five
to six hundred metrical quintals * of turnips per hectare ;
or the equivalent of a hundred to a hundred and twenty
metrical quintals of hay, and sometimes as much as double
this. Turnips require a light soil and wet summers, con-
ditions which render them so suitable for successful culti-
vation in England.

It is easy to understand how such a resource, which
has but few analogies in France, would add to the pro-
duce of the natural pastures. Beans take the place of
turnips in the rotation on certain soils ; and on all,
artificial grasses complete the system.

French official statistics estimate the extent of artificial
grasses at only 1,500,000 hectares. But, considering the
constant progress which this kind of cultivation is making
among us, I consider this statement no longer correct,
and have, accordingly, set it down at double — that is
to say, three millions of hectares — reducing the fallows
to an equal extent. With this addition, however, we
are still much behind the English ; for, putting Ireland
and Scotland out of the question, they have upon the
fifteen millions of hectares in England the same extent
of artificial grasses as we have upon fifty-three. Our
artificial grasses are quite as good as theirs, for their
soil being little suited for lucern, they have little besides
clover and rye-grass ; and however good the produce
of these crops may be, it does not surpass that of the
superior kinds which we possess : to say that they are
equal is saying a good deal. For some time past the

* Metrical or new measurement quintal=100 kilos, or nearly 221 Ib.

THE CROPS. 59

English have obtained remarkable results from Italian
rye-grass.

The remaining crop used for forage is oats. France
sows about three millions of hectares of oats every year,
while upon a less extent in the British Isles a much
superior harvest is gathered. The average production of
oats in France, deducting seed, is eighteen hectolitres *
per hectare (about twenty bushels per acre) ; in the
United Kingdom it is about twice as much, or five
quarters per acre, and sometimes even as much as ten.
We find differences as great in France also, when compar-
ing those districts where the cultivation of oats is well
understood, and well suited to the soil, with others where
such is not the case : moreover, of all the cereals, it is
the one which naturally thrives best in northern climates.
The Scotch, as a nation, had at one time scarcely any
other food ; from which circumstance Scotland got the
name of the Land of Cakes, just as Ireland, in the same
way, came to be called the Land of Potatoes.

Thus upon a total surface of thirty-one millions of
hectares, reduced to twenty by the uncultivated lands,
the British Isles produce much more food for cattle than
the whole of France, with twice the extent. The quantity
of manure, therefore, is proportionably three or four times
greater, independently of the animal products which go
directly for consumption, and yet this mass of manure is
not considered sufficient. Everything fitted for increas-
ing the fertility of the soil — bones, blood, rags, oil-cake,
the refuse of manufactories, all kinds of animal and
vegetable waste, minerals considered as possessing fertil-
ising properties, such as gypsum, lime, &c. — is assiduously
collected and put into the ground. British shipping go
in search of additional supplies to all parts of the world ;

* A hectolitre is 2f bushels.

60 POJRAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

and guano, that rich material, is imported by shiploads
from the most distant seas. Agricultural chemistry is
constantly at work to discover either new manures, or
which are the best suited for particular crops ; and in
place of despising these researches, the farmers encourage
them by their active co-operation. In the expenditure
of every farm a good round sum figures every year for
the purchase of fertilising materials ; the more the farmer
can afford to lay out in these, the more does he consume.
The sale of these additional manures has given rise to a
large trade.

Land requires not only manure and fertilisers, but it
must also be dug, pulverised, levelled, weeded, drained,
and worked in every direction, so that the wet may pass
through it without lodging ; and be rendered pervious to
atmospheric gases, in order that the roots of useful plants
may have free scope to strike down and extend them-
selves easily. A host of implements have been invented
in order to facilitate these various operations. A pretty
correct estimate may be formed of the immense import-
ance attached to the manufacture of agricultural imple-
ments in England, and the great demand for them, by
the space they occupied at the Great Exhibition : there
were nearly three hundred exhibitors in this class, from
all parts of the kingdom, and some among them, as the
Garretts and Eansomes in Suffolk, employ thousands of
workmen, and every year execute orders to the value of
millions of francs. These machines economise labour
to a wonderful extent, and supply the place of a large
number of hands.

All these operations and expenses contribute mainly
to the production of two cereals — barley, from which
the national beverage is produced ; and the queen-plant,
wheat.

THE CROPS. 61

Upwards of a million of hectares are sown in barley
every year ; this is about as much as is grown in
France, where this cereal does not hold the same relative
importance ; but, as in the case of oats, the average pro-
duction is about twice as great as with us. In France
the yield is fifteen hectolitres — while in England it is
thirty, or a little more than four quarters per acre.
More than one-half of this crop is used in the manufac-
ture of beer (and spirits). The duty collected on malt
proves that fourteen to fifteen millions of hectolitres of
barley are thus annually employed ; the other moiety
affords an additional resource for the feeding and fatten-
ing of live stock, especially pigs.* Human consumption
takes off a small quantity, as it does of oats ; but the use
of these coarser articles of food is falling off every day.

Besides barley and oats, the English formerly used a
good deal of rye as food. Eye, in fact, is, along with the
spring cereals, the grain best suited for the short sum-
mers of the north. All the north of Europe cultivates and
consumes rye only. In England, however, it has almost
entirely disappeared, being now scarcely ever grown ex-
cepting for green fodder in spring ; and its price, which
is generally very low, is quoted in the market only about
seed-time.t The quantity imported is insignificant.
Most of the soils which formerly grew only rye, now
grow wheat ; and those which were absolutely unfit for it
have been turned to other uses. The English rightly

* This, we fear, is not altogether correct. About five million quarters barley,
oil an average, are consumed as malt, besides upwards of one million quarters
distilled as raw grain. A large quantity goes otherwise for human food, and
little comparatively for feeding purposes. — J. D.

•f Rye is, no doubt, very sparingly cultivated in England, and is much out of
favour where the soil is suitable for any other cereal. Still it is scarcely so rare
as the above remarks would lead one to infer, as it is generally to be found in
our markets, and in some quantity is used for distillation — the price being by
weight equal to that of barley. — T.

62 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

contend that this crop, which occasions as much work
and requires almost as much manure as wheat, for greatly
inferior results, does not merit that consideration which
it obtains throughout the rest of Europe, and even in
France. This is another of those correct principles in
rural economy which suffice to change the agricultural
aspect of a country. The abandonment of rye may be
considered in the same light as the abandonment of
labour by oxen, the increase in the number of sheep,
and all the other parts of the English system.

Eye is still cultivated in France to the extent probably
of about three millions of hectares. This includes half
the lands sown with wheat and rye mixed. In general
it gives a miserable result, yielding no more than five
or . six fold, and barely paying the expenses of culti-
vation. It would be well to renounce it entirely ; but
this is not always practicable. The abandonment of rye
would not of itself be sufficient : it is necessary to be in
a position to produce something else with success ; and
all are not in a position to force nature. To attain
their present production of wheat, the English have been
obliged to do violence to their soil and climate. The
use of lime as a stimulant has been their chief aid ;
and similar effects, by the same means, have been pro-
duced in many parts of France. At the same time, we
must bear in mind this other principle which the English
have laid down, that if it is scarcely ever advantageous
to grow rye, it is not profitable to grow wheat excepting
where circumstances are favourable. Ten hectares in
good condition are worth more, for the production of
corn, than twenty or thirty partially improved and badly
worked.

While nearly the fourth part of our soil is under cereal
crops for human consumption, less than one-sixteenth of

THE CROPS. 63

the British territory— say 1,800,000 out of 31,000,000
hectares — is in corn ; at the same time, whilst out of
our eleven millions of hectares, five millions bear inferior
grain, not including barley and oats, the 1,800,000 Eng-
lish hectares produce wheat only. Deducting seed, the
whole grain production of France is estimated at seventy
million hectolitres of wheat, thirty of rye, seven of maize,
and eight of buckwheat. That of the British Isles may
be reckoned at forty-five million hectolitres of wheat
without any rye.

With us the average production is thirteen and
one-half bushels of wheat and eleven of rye per acre,
deducting seed. Adding to this maize and buckwheat,
and dividing the whole by the number of hectares sown,
the average result for each acre is rather more than seven
bushels of wheat, about three bushels of rye, and a little
more than one bushel of maize or buckwheat — making a
total of about twelve bushels per acre. In England the
production is twenty-eight bushels of wTheat — say more
than double in quantity, and in money value three times
as much. This superiority is certainly not to be attri-
buted, as in the case of the natural and artificial meadows
and roots — and, to a certain extent, also with oats and
barley — to the soil and climate, but to superior cultivation,
which shows itself chiefly in limiting the wheat crop
to the extent of land rendered fit for its production.

As to maize and buckwheat, in place of being causes of
inferiority, they ought to be sources of wealth ; for these
two grains are endowed by nature with a much greater
power of reproduction than the other two ; and what they
yield with us in certain parts, shows what they may be
made to produce elsewhere.

Scotland and Ireland are included in the above esti-
mate ; but taking England by itself, the results are much

64 EUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

more striking. That small country, which is no larger
than a fourth of France, alone produces thirteen million
quarters of wheat, six of barley, and twelve of oats.
If France produced in the same ratio, her yield, deducting
seed, would be fifty million quarters of wheat, and seventy
of barley, oats, and other grain — equal to at least double
her present production ; and we ought to obtain more,
considering the nature of our soil and climate, both much
more favourable to cereals than the soil and climate of
England. These facts verify this agricultural law — that,
to reap largely of cereals, it is better to reduce than to
extend the breadth of land sown ; and that by giving the
greatest space to the forage crops, not only is a greater
quantity of butcher-meat, milk, and wool obtained, but
a larger production of corn also. France will achieve
similar results when she has covered her immense fallows
with root and forage crops, and reduced the breadth of
her cereals by several millions of hectares.

In this consists the whole system of English farm-
ing. Nothing is more simple. A large extent of grass,
whether natural or artificial, occupied for the most part
as pasture; two roots — the potato and turnip; two
spring cereals — barley and oats ; and a winter one —
wheat ; all these plants linked together by an alternating
course of cereals or white crops with forage or green
crops, commencing with roots or plants which require to
be hoed, and ending with wheat : this is the whole secret.
The English have discarded all other crops, such as sugar-
beet, tobacco, oleaginous plants, and fruits ; some because
the climate is unfavourable, others on account of their too
exhausting nature, or because they do not like unneces-
sarily to complicate their means of production. Two only
have escaped this proscription ; these are the hop in Eng-
land and flax in Ireland ; both are very successfully pro-

THE CKOPS. 65

duced in their several localities. The value of the flax
crop in Ireland is £15 per acre, but its extent is only
100,000 acres/" The hop yields a still higher return,
but it covers only about 50,000 acres.

Gardens and orchards occupy a relatively much less
space in England than in France, and their produce is
much inferior in value to ours. The English are not
great consumers of fruit and vegetables, and they are
right ; for both the one and the other, with them, are very
tasteless. All their eating as well as production is con-
fined to a few articles obtained in great abundance.

As in the case of animal products, France can show a
certain number of crops almost unknown among our
neighbours, and these extra productions with us have to
be added to those wre both have in common. Such, for
instance, is the vine, a source of wealth belonging espe-
cially to our soil, covering not less than five millions of
acres, and producing at least £4 the acre ; then again,
rape, tobacco, sugar-beet, madder, the olive, and mul-
berry ; and, finally, two and a half millions of acres of
gardens and orchards, from which fruit, vegetables, and
flowers are obtained in great abundance. The sum of
these productions amounts in annual value to at least a
milliard (£40,000,000).

These are unquestionable sources of wealth, which
partially redeem our inferiority, and may do so to a still
greater extent, for there is no limit to their production.

* The flax crop in Ireland has of late years attained to about 140,000 acres ; in
1853 it took a rapid rise to 175,000.— T.

Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Royal Flax Society of Ireland.

1848, 53,863 acres under cultivation, value £15 per acre.

1849, 60,314 „ ., „

1850, 91,040 „ „ „

1851, 138,619 „ „ „

1852, 136,009

1853, 175,495

E

66 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

The diversity of our climate, and, what is more, our
national genius, which naturally aims at quality in
variety, as that of England seeks quantity in uniformity,
give us promise of immense progress in those crops which,
to a certain extent, are dependent on art. We have not
yet shown all we can do in this respect ; our labourers,
like our mechanics, by means of improvements and novel-
ties, can compensate for our deficiencies in amount of
production. The art of horticulture, affording as it does
such large returns upon a small extent of land, would,
by extension, add considerably to our wealth ; and the
same may be said of improved methods in the fabrica-
tion of wines and brandy, as well as in the production
of sugar, silk, oil, &c.

Still, it is impossible to be blind to the fact that, as
matters stand, the English, with their two or three
crops upon a large scale, produce, by the univer-
sality and simplicity of the means they employ, much
superior results in the aggregate — results which we also
obtain in particular parts of France where the same
system is followed. Those of our departments most
resembling England in the nature and distribution of
their crops, are those also which attain, upon the whole,
the best returns ; and if in some parts they are below
the English average, it is because the proportion of ex-
hausting crops there is still too great, notwithstanding
the progress made by means of the ameliorating crops
during the last fifty years.

67

CHAPTER V.

THE GROSS PRODUCE.

WE now come to value the total production of the two
agricultures. This valuation is no easy task, especially
when it becomes a question of comparison.

Even the best statistics contain repetitions. Thus, in
the statistics for France, animal products figure three
times — first, as return from meadows and pastures, then
as return from live animals, and, lastly, return from
slaughtered animals. These three form but one : it is
the return from slaughtered animals that must be taken,
adding to it the value of the milk for the cows, that of
the wool for the sheep, and the cost of the horses reared
up to the age when they are usually sold — say three years
old ; all the rest is but a series of means of production,
by which we arrive at the real produce — namely, that
which serves for human consumption, whether upon the
farm itself, or beyond it. It is no less incorrect to take
into account the quantity of grain necessary for renewing
seed. Seed is not a product, but a capital ; the land does
not give it until after it has received it. Lastly, it is out of
the question to include, as do some statistics, the value of
straw and manure. Manure, with one important excep-
tion, which I shall mention by-and-by, is evidently a mean
of production ; and as for straw, it constitutes a product

68 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

only in so far as it is used beyond the farm — for example,
as food for horses employed in other ways.

Everything consumed on the farm itself as a mean of
production — such as the food of working animals, and
even of animals generally, litter, manure, seed — all ought
to figure in the means of production, and not as products.
That only is really a product which may be sold or given
in wages. In this respect English statistics are much
better compiled than ours ; * for, economical notions being
more diffused in England than with us, they keep distinct
what ought to be kept separate, and the real products —
the exportable commodities — are reckoned apart from the
means of production. It behoves us more especially to
do the same, since, the means of production being a larger
item with our neighbours than with us, the comparison
would act still more disadvantageously for us were we
to include these in the estimate.

This first difficulty being removed, we encounter others.
French proprietors complain of errors and omissions in the
official statistics ; these imperfections no doubt exist, but
they are not of such great importance as is believed. I
have already pointed them out, and attempted to rectify
them. They are not the most serious difficulty ; it is
the difference of prices which is the real stumbling-block.
Nothing is more variable than prices, whether from year
to year on the same spot, or in different districts of the
same territory : much more is this the case when the
question involves the placing in juxtaposition countries
so dissimilar. In France, anomalies are numerous ;
country prices are not those of the general market ; Pro-
vence prices are not those of Normandy ; the prices of
1850 are not those of 1847. It is precisely the same on

* That is, facts, so far as known, are better weighed and applied; but, as before
observed, we have n<J official agricultural statistics. — T.

THE GEOSS PRODUCE. 69

the other side of the Channel ; and when, to escape this
difficulty, recourse is had to averages, it is found that the
general average of the United Kingdom is not the same
as the general average of France.

Notwithstanding these difficulties, it is not absolutely
impossible to form at least an approximate idea of the
aggregate values annually accruing from agriculture in
the two countries. Deducting what are only means of
production, supplying as far as possible the omissions in
official statistics, and carrying back prices to the average
of years anterior to 1848, we find that the annual value
of the produce of French agriculture, before 1848, was
about five milliards, divided nearly as follows : —

ANIMAL PRODUCTS.

Francs.

Meat (1 milliard of kilog., at 80 c.), . . 800,000,000

Wool, hides, tallow, offal, . . . 300,000,000

Milk (1 milliard of litres, at 10 c.), . . 100,000,000

Poultry and eggs, .... 200,000,000

400,000 horses, asses, and mules, 3 years old, . 80,000,000

Silk, honey, wax, and other produce, . . 120,000,000

Total, 1,600,000,000

VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.

Wheat (70,000,000 of hectolitres at 16 fr.), . 1,100,000,000
Other cereals (40,000,000 hectolitres at 10 fr.), . 400,000,000

Potatoes (50,000,000 hectolitres at 2 fr.), . 100,000,000 *

Wine and brandy, .... 500,000,000

Beer and cider, ..... 100,000,000

Hay, straw, and oats, for non-agricultural horses, 300,000,000
Flax and hemp, ..... 150,000,000

Sugar, madder, tobacco, oils, fruit, and vegetables, 500,000,000
Wood, ...... 250,000,000

Total, . ... 3,400,000,000

Say, on an average, for the fifty millions of hectares

* The total production is one hundred millions of hectolitres, but I have sup-
posed the half consumed by cattle. I have also cut off five millions of hectolitres
of inferior cereals, as maize and buckwheat, for the consumption of fowls and
other animals ; it ought to amount to considerably more.

70 EURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

of our soil — deducting three millions of hectares occu-
pied by roads, rivers, towns, &c. — a gross production of
100 francs per hectare (32s. per acre), cultivated and
uncultivated lands together. The minimum is to be found
upon the uncultivated lands and forest grounds, which,
taking the one with the other, probably yield from 15 to
20 francs : the maximum is in the gardens, the most
esteemed vineyards, the lands bearing flax, hops, mulberry,
tobacco, and madder, the gross produce of which rises
as high as 1000, 2000, 3000 francs, and even more ; but
striking out these two extremes, we find for the greater
portion of the cultivated land — say about thirty-two
millions of hectares — the general average of 100 francs
per hectare.

Dividing France into two equal portions, north and
south, we find an average gross production of 120 francs
for the northern division, and 80 for the southern.

This disproportion is the more to be regretted, since
the southern region ought to be the richest. In some
localities, as in the environs of Orange and Avignon, the
vineyards of Cognac and Bordeaux, the districts pro-
ducing oil, silk, &c., the returns are magnificent ; but
the landes and the mountains cover a fourth of the
soil, and in the greater portion of the remainder farming
languishes without capital and without intelligence. The
north surpasses the south for the same reason which
makes England superior to us — namely, because good
farming is there more general.

If we compare the departments one with the other, the
most productive prove to be always those of the Nord,
Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Oise, and Seine-Inferieure, where
the average gross production is 200 francs per hectare.
The department of the Nord produces at least 300 francs;
but this is the only one so high. On the other hand,

THE GROSS PRODUCE. 71

those which produce the least are the Landes, Lozere,
Hautes and Basses Alpes, and especially Corsica. The
average gross product of these departments may be about
30 francs, and in Corsica 10 at most. The rest of France
varies between these two extremes.

A gross total of five milliards of francs had also
been attained as the production of the United Kingdom
previous to 1848. This amount was apportioned as
follows : 3,250,000,000 for England proper, 250,000,000
for Wales, 1,000,000,000 for Ireland, and 500,000,000 for
Scotland. Divided by the whole area in hectares, this
return gives the following result : —

Francs.

England, 250

Ireland, Lowlands of Scotland, and Wales, . 125

Highlands of Scotland, . . . . 12

General average, . . . . 165

All English statistics represent this as still higher.
M'Culloch, the most moderate in his valuations,
makes the total produce five milliards and a half ;
others, as Mr Spackman, £250,000,000, or more than
six milliards. I have assumed the lowest estimate, and
it ought to be further reduced, on account of the differ-
ence in prices. It has been already shown, that for milk
English prices were double ours, for butcher-meat the
difference was 25 to 30 per cent, for cereals 20 per cent.
In Scotland and Ireland the difference was not so great,
since both countries sold to England. In the aggregate,
in order to establish an exact comparison, and to bring
the prices of the United Kingdom to the prices of similar
articles in France, we must reduce the five milliards by
a fifth. We have thus a total of four milliards, which
appears to represent pretty exactly the value of British
production compared to ours. This result, still so

72 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

enormous in comparison, was obtained with a small
number of productions : the following shows how they
are divided : —

ANIMAL PRODUCE.

Francs.

Meat (1,700,000,000 of kilog. at 80 c.), . 1,360,000,000

Wool, hides, tallow, offal, . . . 300,000,000

Milk (two milliards of litres at 10 c.), . . 200,000,000

300,000 horses above 3 years at 400 fr. each, 120,000,000

Poultry, ..... 20,000,000

Total animal produce, ... 2 milliards

VEGETABLE PRODUCE.

Wheat (45,000,000 of hectolitres at 16 fr.), . 720,000,000

Barley (20,000,000 of hectolitres at 8 fr.), . 160,000,000

Oats (15,000,000 of hectolitres at 6 fr.), . 90,000,000

Potatoes (200,000,000 of hectolitres at 2 fr.), . 400,000,000

Hay and oats for non-agricultural horses, . 400,000,000

Flax, hemp, vegetables, and fruits, . . 170,000,000

Wood, 60,000,000

Total vegetable produce, . . 2 milliards

The above I believe to be as near the truth as can be
ascertained by means of observations so general in their
character.

The most striking fact which these figures disclose,
besides the disproportion of the results, is the agreement
between the vegetable and animal products : whilst in
France the vegetable product forms four -sixths of the
whole, and the animal two-sixths only, — a state of things
which at once shows an exhausting system of cultiva-
tion, or at least a stationary one, — in the British Isles the
one is equal to the other, which betokens an improving

* The total production of barley is probably thirty millions of hectolitres, but
two-thirds only enter into human consumption, the other third being consumed
by cattle. I have also taken, as for human consumption, only about a sixth of
the production of oats, which ought to be not far short of ninety millions of
hectolitres, and of potatoes I have estimated one-half. (The consumption of
barley by cattle is very much less than the proportion here stated,— certainly not
above one-tenth the entire produce ; while tha^ of oats by man may be taken at
one-fourth at least, instead of one-sixth.— J. D.)

THE GROSS PRODUCE.

73

cultivation. Wood, the lowest item of production, figures
on the one side for 250,000,000, and on the other for
60,000,000 only.

But we must not omit to notice that there are two
portions of the United Kingdom which, from different
causes, show results very much inferior to those of Eng-
land proper — Scotland, on account of the irreclaimable
sterility of the greater portion of her soil ; and Ireland,
owing to peculiar social and political circumstances. I
shall refer to these two portions by-and-by in some detail ;
in the mean time let us examine England separately,
without including Wales, where the soil is scarcely bet-
ter than in Scotland, and the history of which, in some
respects, bears a resemblance to that of Ireland.

England herself produces five-eighths of these four
milliards — that is to say, 2,600,000,000 francs — divided
as follows : —

OF THE ANIMAL PRODUCE.

Francs.

Meat (1,100,000,000 of kilog.), ... 880,000,000

Wool, hides, tallow, offal, . . . 200,000,000

Milk (1,500,000,000 of litres), . . . 150,000,000

200,000 horses at 400 fr., . . . 80,000,000

Poultry, ..... 15,000,000

Total, ..... 1,325,000,000

OF THE VEGETABLE PRODUCE.

Wheat (38,000,000 of hectolitres), . . 600,000,000
Barley (15,000,000 of hectolitres for human con-
sumption), ..... 120,000,000
Potatoes (65,000,000 of hectolitres for human con-
sumption), ..... 130,000,000
Hay and oats for non-agricultural horses, . 300,000,000
Flax, hemp, vegetables, and fruits, . . 85,000,000
Wood, 40,000,000

Total, 1,275,000,000

Distributed per hectare over the whole area of the

74 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

United Kingdom, the total gross produce thus reduced
gives the following results :—

England, .... 200 francs per hectare.
Lowlands of Scotland, Ireland, and

Wales, .... 100 „

Highlands of Scotland, . . 10 „ „

General average, 135 francs per hectare.

These tables suggest a host of reflections. Whilst
France, taken as a whole, produces 100 francs per
hectare, England proper produces 200. The animal
produce alone of an English farm is equal to at least
the total produce of a French farm of equal area — all
the vegetable production being additional. Taking only
the three principal kinds of domestic animals — sheep,
oxen, and pigs — and not taking poultry into account,
the English obtain from these four times more than we do
in butcher-meat, milk, and wool. Among the vegetable
products, whilst the French soil does not produce quite
one hectolitre and a half of wheat per hectare, the English
soil produces three ; and it gives, besides, five times more
potatoes for human consumption. It produces neither
rye, maize, nor buckwheat, but abundantly makes up
for this in oats and barley; and this it requires to do,
for, less fortunate than we, it has to obtain from one of
these crops the national beverage. "We are forced," says
Arthur Young, "to have recourse to our best land for
our beer ; the climate of the French gives them a great
superiority in this respect, since the most barren soils are
available for the cultivation of the vine."

Here the animal product becomes sensibly superior to
the vegetable. We shall again find at least a similar
productiveness in Wales and in Scotland. Ireland alone
exhibits, like France, a reverse proportion.

THE GEOSS PRODUCE. 75

This superiority in production is shown besides by two
facts, which serve to prove the statistical figures. The
first is, the condition of the population ; the second, the
selling price of the land.

By the census of 1841, the total population of the
United Kingdom was twenty-seven millions of souls, and
that of France thirty-four. Thus, while the United
Kingdom maintained nearly one head per hectare, France
maintained one only per hectare and a half. Supposing
the rate of consumption in both countries to be the same
— which it should be in the aggregate, for if the English
population consume more than the French, the Irish con-
sume less — we arrive at a result nearly equal to that
obtained by a comparison of the production of both agri-
cultures. The difference is slightly in favour of the
United Kingdom ; but this is again adjusted by the im-
portation of bread-stuffs.

If we divide the two populations into regions, the com-
parison gives us detailed results, which only confirm those
of the aggregate.

In 1841, England proper, even including Wales, main-
tained a population of four to 3 hectares, which we find
to be the case in those departments of France where
production is as high. Scotland, as a whole, maintained
only one head for every 3 hectares, and our central
region one to 2. Ireland counted one head per hec-
tare, and our south-west region one to 2, which indi-
cates for Ireland a production equal to double ; but
the unfortunate Irish being not nearly so well fed as our
people, the account becomes readjusted.

With respect to the average value of the land, which
is usually estimated by its productiveness, that of Eng-
land proper was worth £40 per acre, or 2500 francs per

76 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

hectare; and the rest of the United Kingdom, exclusive
of the Highlands of Scotland, about one-half of this
figure, or 1250 francs. The Highlands of Scotland, with
their uncultivated lands, were worth, at most, £2 per acre.
Deducting 20 per cent from these prices, we obtain for
England an average of £32, for the Highlands 32s., and
£16 for the rest of the United Kingdom.

The cultivated lands of the northern half of France
may be worth, on an average, £24 per acre, and those
of the southern half £16. Valuing the eight million
hectares of uncultivated lands at £2, and the eight mil-
lions of forest grounds at £10, we find a general average
of £16 per acre.

Thus a comparative examination of agricultural pro-
ducts, the number of the population, and the money value
of the land, all combine to prove, upon the most mode-
rate estimates, that, previously to 1848, the product of
British agriculture, taken as a whole, was to the product
of French agriculture over an equal surface as one hun-
dred and thirty-five to one hundred ; and if we com-
pare England alone with the whole of France, the former
produced at least twice as much as the latter. This de-
monstration appears to me to amount almost to proof.

To be very exact, there must be added to these pro-
ducts one which is very difficult to estimate, but which
is not among the least important : this is the unexhausted
fertility, the surplus accumulations of manures, and im-
provements of all sorts, which the crops have annually
left in the ground. It is in order not to lose sight of
this that most compilers of statistics have been led to
include forage, straw, and manure among the products ;
but such a mode of reckoning is evidently erroneous,
since the crops annually absorb the greater portion of
the vigour thus communicated to the soil. That which

THE GROSS PRODUCE. 77

remains is the only real product, but how is this to be
measured \ One element alone may indicate it with some
degree of certainty — namely, the increased value of the
soil ; no doubt, this increase may be brought about by
other means, but the steadiest and most active is the
increase of fertility resulting from good husbandry.
With our neighbours it may be reckoned, on an average,
at one per cent on the value of the land — say 4s. to 5s.
per acre for the three kingdoms, and 7s. for England
proper. In France, it may probably be one -half per
cent on an average — say 2s. per acre; in our best-culti-
vated departments, it reaches, perhaps, the English aver-
age, but in others it is almost nothing.

Although this estimate is, and can be, only hypotheti-
cal, it may suffice to explain the superior productiveness
of the land in England, notwithstanding the natural in-
feriority of both soil and climate. Artificial fertility, there,
compensates for these drawbacks, and has already con-
stituted a landed capital very superior to ours, and
which continues to increase.

Three sorts of capital conduce to the development of
agricultural wealth : 1st, Sunk capital, which is formed
in course of time by outlays of all kinds for bringing the
land into good condition ; 2d, Working capital, consist-
ing of animals, implements, and seeds ; 3d, Intellectual
capital, or agricultural skill, which is improved by experi-
ence and thought. These three capitals are much more
diffused in England than in France, — and why7? We
shall inquire into this presently, and it will surprise us
to find that the superiority of the English is not more
marked than it is. Arthur Young, when travelling
through our poorer districts in 1790, exclaimed, in his
characteristic language, "It does, indeed, try one's pa-
tience to behold a country so lovely, and so favoured by

78 RUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

Providence, treated so shamefully by men ! " He might
speak differently now, or, at least, he could speak thus only
of the most backward portions of our territory. We could
show him whole provinces almost as well cultivated as
his own dear England, and everywhere the elements of
progress ready to spring up. If the greater number
still only vegetate, it is owing to the absence of favour-
able circumstances.

Unfortunately, before arriving at a full explication of
the facts, we require to enter into some further statistics
of detail — dry, no doubt, but necessary nevertheless ; the
next chapter will finish what we have to say on this
subject.

79

CHAPTER VI.

BENTS, PROFITS, AND WAGES.

To give the finishing touch to this picture, we have now
to inquire how the gross production, previously 4;o 1848,
was distributed ; that is to say, after deducting taxes and
accessory expenses, what portion of this five milliards
(£200,000,000) of nominal value came to the proprietors
of the land, constituting the rent ; what remuneration
the farmer got for his trouble and use of capital, or, in
other words, the profit; and how much of it was paid
for manual labour, properly so called, or wages. When
we have completed a similar inquiry for France, our com-
parison between the two agricultures will be complete.

First of all, the portion contributed to the general
expenses of the country, or taxes.

Many errors have been diffused, and are still credited
in France, respecting the system of taxation which exists
in England. It is commonly believed that land in Eng-
land is almost free of imposts, and that the whole public
revenue is composed of indirect taxes. This is a great
mistake, for nowhere does land bear such heavy bur-
dens as in England. Only it is not the State which
collects what the land pays directly; at least land con-
tributed hardly anything to the public treasury before
the imposition of the income-tax. The only impost paid
directly to the State was a trifling tax, which proprietors

80 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

for the most part have redeemed — the land-tax ; but if
indirect taxes constitute nearly the whole revenue of the
State, there are direct imposts which no less exist under
the form of local taxes.

These burdens are three in number : the poor's rates,
the parish and county rates — equivalent to our communal
and departmental revenues — and Church tithes. Taxa-
tion for the poor, in spite of all endeavours to reduce
it, amounted previously to 1848 to six millions sterling
for England alone. Parish and county rates, for roads,
bridges, police, prisons, &c., exceed, still for England
alone, four millions sterling — together ten millions, of
which more than two-thirds is paid by rural property.
Add to this the unredeemed portion of the land-tax,
amounting to one million sterling for England ; and,
finally, the third charge — namely, tithes — at one time
variable and arbitrary in their rating, but now com-
muted to almost a fixed charge, amounting to at least
seven millions sterling ; and we have altogether a sum
of fifteen millions, which, for England and Wales, con-
taining fifteen millions of hectares, makes an average of
25 francs per hectare, or 8s. per acre.

This average gives but an imperfect idea of the bur-
dens upon certain parts of the soil in England, for a
portion of the tithes having been redeemed, as well as a
portion of the land-tax, and the poor's rate being very
unequally distributed — since, not being centralised, it
varies with the fluctuations of pauperism in different
localities — the consequence is, that certain districts are
much below, and others much above the average. It is
no uncommon thing to find lands in England paying as
much as 50 francs per hectare (16s. per acre) for all
kinds of taxes.

Ireland and Scotland are less burdened, particularly

RENTS, PROFITS, AND WAGES. 81

Scotland ; most of the English taxes are unknown there.
Scotland pays about £500,000, and Ireland £1,500,000
of direct taxes/""

In France the assessment on land, exclusive of house
property, amounts in principal and additional per-cen-
tages, and including payments in kind for roads, to a
total of two hundred and fifty millions, or 5 francs per
hectare ; this impost, therefore, is one-fifth in nominal
value, and in reduced value one-fourth, of what it is in
England.

To these figures must be added the income-tax, which
resembles our personal and movable property contribu-
tion, and absorbs about three per cent more out of the
net income of the proprietors, and one and a half per cent
of that of the farmers. The tax upon house property, of
which the landed proprietors bear their share, is pro-
portionate to that chargeable upon the land properly so
called. Lastly, the indirect taxes : these, besides that they
materially reduce the proprietors' revenue by increasing
the price of all commodities, bear heavily upon certain
agricultural products, especially barley, used in the
manufacture of beer, which pays an excise of no less
than five millions sterling : the question of reducing this
(the malt) tax has been recently agitated, but nothing is
yet decided. Our impost upon beverages produces, as is
well known, four millions sterling.

Landed property in England, to be sure, is partly free
from a charge which greatly affects the land in France ;
this is the tax upon successions, transferences, and mort-
gages. But this exemption, which applies only to land
that is freehold, and lands subject to manorial rights, or

* This, however, seems exclusive of tithes or taxes for the support of the
Church in both countries. We are not aware that there are very many local
taxes exigible in England which are not well known in Scotland, though the rate
may not be so high.— T.

F

82 KURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

copyholds, has just been considerably reduced by recent
legislation : it loses, besides, much of its importance
when we consider the expenses of all kinds to which
English property is exposed owing to the want of a good
system of registration.

Here, then, is a first result of the great amount of pro-
duce obtained from the land in England — the possibility
of increasing taxation. I shall not stop to point out the
great benefit resulting from it to the country in general,
and to agriculture itself, which is the first to reap advan^
tage from the outlay of its own money. It is evident
that, if French landed property could pay much more
in taxes, the aspect of our fields would soon change ; they
would be covered with roads, bridges, aqueducts, and
works of enterprise and skill, which as yet they are with-
out, for lack of those funds which are abundant with our
neighbours.

After taxes come the expenses accessory to cultivation ;
such as the cost of artificial manures, the keeping up of
implements of husbandry, renewals of seed, breeding-
stock, &c. : it is as much as a French farmer can do to
devote to these remunerating expenditures 4 or 5 francs
per hectare, whereas in the United Kingdom they cannot,
even previous to 1848, be estimated at less on an average
than 25 francs per hectare, and for England proper 50
francs at least. This, we may remark, is eight or ten
times more than in France, even making the reduction
of twenty per cent. Such is the second effect of this
superior production — the more that is produced, the
greater the resources available for increasing the produc-
tion ; and wealth multiplies of its own accord.

Notwithstanding this portion set apart for taxes and
accessory expenses, the remainder of the gross proceeds,
when divided among those who, by their capital, intelli-

RENTS, PROFITS, AND WAGES. 83

gence, and labour, have co-operated to realise it, is found
to be greater for each in England than it is in France.

In the first place, we take the rent paid to the pro-
prietor of the land, or the return upon capital invested.
The notion of rent is not so clearly defined in France as
it is in England ; it is confounded with the farmer's profit
and return for working capital when the proprietor directs
the cultivation himself, and even with wages properly
so called, when he cultivates his property with his own
hands. The average rent of land in France may, how-
ever, be reckoned at 30 francs per hectare — that is to
say, the net return on capital sunk, after deducting all
return for working capital, wages, and profit ; say a total
of fifteen hundred millions on our fifty millions of
hectares, cultivated and uncultivated together.

Owing to the system of cultivation carried on in Eng-
land, which almost always discriminates between pro-
prietorship and tenancy, it is more correctly known what,
previously to 1848, was the rent from landed property
in the different parts of the United Kingdom.

We find the minimum rent in the extreme north of
Scotland — Sutherlandshire and the adjacent islands —
where it is as low as 1.25 francs per hectare of nominal,
or 1 franc of comparative value (4d. per acre). The whole
of the Highlands, containing, as we have seen, nearly four
millions of hectares, do not yield on an average more
than 3 francs per hectare to the proprietors (Is. per acre).
The maximum is obtained from meadow-lands in the
environs of London and Edinburgh, which let as high as
£30 per acre; rents of £8, £5, and £3 per acre are
not uncommon in the Lothians, and in the neighbour-
hood of large towns in England. All the centre of the
island, including Leicestershire and the counties sur-
rounding it, gives an average of 30s. per acre (100 francs

84 BURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

per hectare), and is beyond comparison the richest part
of the three kingdoms. As we recede from the heart of
the country, the rent of land declines : in the south-
Sussex, Surrey, and Hampshire — it falls to 1 5s. per acre ;
in the north — Cumberland and Westmoreland — to 10s. ;
and in the west, and the poorest parts of Wales, to 3s.
The average for the whole of England is 24s. per acre
(75 francs per hectare).

In the Lowlands of Scotland, the million of hectares
upon the two firths of Forth and Tay are rented at
nearly as much as Leicestershire and the counties adjoin-
ing it ; but in like manner, as we recede from these fa-
voured lands, rent falls, and the average of the entire
Lowlands becomes equal to that of its English neigh-
bours, the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland,
and the Principality of Wales. *

In Ireland, we find in County Meath, in Leinster, and
in the adjoining counties of Louth and Dublin, another
million of hectares where the rent is as high as the centre
of England, but at the same time we find a much lower
average in the mountains on the west, and in the whole
of Connaught.

In review of the whole, and adopting the same classi-
fication as when estimating the gross production, we have
the following result : —

Average rent per hectare.

England, . . 75 francs, or, per acre, 24s.

Lowlands of Scotland and Wales, 36 „ „ 12s.

Highlands of Scotland, . 3 „ „ Is.

Three-fourths of Ireland, . 50 „ „ 16s.

North-west of Ireland, . 20 „ „ 6s. 6d.

General average, . 50 „ „ 16s.

But we have to reduce these figures 20 per cent,

* What are properly understood by the Lowlands of Scotland yield a higher
average rent by 3s. to 4s. per acre than the districts to which they are above com-
pared.—T.

KENTS, PROFITS, AND WAGES. 85

according to the basis of calculation already adopted,
making them as follows : —

England, , . . . 60 francs, or 20s.

Lowlands of Scotland and Wales, . 30 „ „ 10s.

Highlands of Scotland, . . 2.40 „ „ lOd.

Three-fourths of Ireland, . . 40 „„ 13s.

North-west of Ireland, . . 15 „„ 5s.

General average, 40 francs, or 13s. per acre.

In France, in the department of the Nord, rent attains
an average of 100 francs per hectare, making it equal,
and even superior, to the best English counties. In the
departments adjoining, it still amounts to 80 francs, from
'which it gradually declines until we reach the departments
of Lozere, and of the Higher and Lower Alps, where it falls
to 1 0 francs. In the island of Corsica, like the Highlands
of Scotland, it does not exceed 3 francs.

In the second place, as to the farmer's profit. This, in
England, is usually estimated at half the rent, say 25
francs per hectare for the whole of the United Kingdom ;
or in reduced value, 20 francs. This sum divides itself
into two parts, the return upon capital employed, and the
profit properly so called, or remuneration for agricultural
skill. The return for capital being reckoned at 5 per cent,
the portion for profit should be the same, which makes the
return upon capital employed 10 per cent. The average
working capital for the three kingdoms should therefore
be 250 francs per hectare, or 200 francs (65s. per acre) in
reduced value. As this capital belongs almost entirely to
the farmers, it is they who get nearly the whole of this
portion of the gross production. In England proper, the
average income of the farmers may be 40 francs per
hectare (13s. per acre), implying a working capital of
400 francs, or 320 in reduced value.

In France the corresponding profit amounts at most
to 1 0 francs per hectare ; that is to say, half the United

86 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

Kingdom average, and one-third of that of England
proper. Only the north of Scotland and west of Ireland
come below the French average : the rest, generally speak-
ing, is higher. In France it is as difficult to distinguish
the profit as the rent. One-fourth of the soil only is
rented, and in the remaining three-fourths, profit is con-
founded either with rent or wages. Upon the whole,
however, we may consider the working capital with us to
be 1 00 francs per hectare. This is one of the most striking
signs of our inferiority ; for in agriculture, as in all kinds
of industry, the working capital is one of the chief agents
of production.

The farmers of England proper, upon an equal surface,
enjoy a revenue at least equal to our French proprietors.
The farmer of two hundred and fifty acres, for example,
has a net income equal to 3000 francs (£120), while a
proprietor with us, of a like extent, and under average
circumstances, would realise no more. Farmers in the
best parts of England make 50, 60, up to 100 francs per
hectare (15s. to 80s. per acre), and there are some whose
total incomes amount to from £500 to £1000. Hence
the importance, in a social point of view, of that class,
which is as firmly established upon the soil as pro-
perty itself. These are the gentlemen farmers ; they live
for the most part in a quiet comfortable style, have their
newspapers and periodicals, and produce occasionally
upon their table a bottle of claret or port. When visit-
ing the country in England, and provided with a few
letters of introduction, one meets with a hospitable recep-
tion from these kind and simple families, many of whom
have occupied the same land for several generations. The
most perfect order reigns in their domestic economy;
everything in their houses is conducted with that habitual
regularity which indicates long usage. Comfort has

RENTS, PROFITS, AND WAGES. 87

gradually been built up by the industry of successive
generations, especially since the days of Arthur Young,
and they enjoy it as an honourable and laboriously ac-
quired possession. None of them ever dream of becoming
proprietors, for they are better off as they are : to have
£100 of income as a proprietor, a capital of at least £3000
is necessary, whilst £1000 is sufficient to produce the
same income as a farmer.

Lastly, we come to wages. Here the advantage appears
to be on the side of France, inasmuch as we appropriate
to the payment of wages a larger portion of our raw
products than does the United Kingdom. This question
of wages, however, is very intricate, and when closely ex-
amined, the advantage again is in favour of our neighbours,
at least in respect to three-fourths of the country. Only
their superiority in this particular, previous to 1848, was
less marked than in the other parts of their rural system ;
it was in fact here that the weakest part of their system
lay. The evil in some parts of the country was serious
and deeply seated, and threatened to become general.

Upon examination into the distribution of wages pre-
vious to 1848, whether in France or in the different parts
of the United Kingdom — leaving Scotland out of the
question for the present, on account of the peculiar phe-
nomena she presents — we find that in England a fourth
only of the gross production was appropriated to payment
of wages — say equal to 50 francs per hectare, or there-
abouts— whilst in France and Ireland one-half was thus
disposed of — say also 50 francs per hectare, or the
equivalent. But let us look at the other side of the
picture — the number of labourers required on both sides.
In England this number had been reduced to the lowest
point ; in France it was much larger, and in Ireland
much greater still. The following may be taken as the

88 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

approximate number of the rural population in the three
countries : —

England, 4,000,000, out of a population of 16,000,000
France, 20,000,000, „ „ 35,000,000

Ireland, 5,000,000, „ „ 8,000,000

Hence it follows that the rural population in England
formed a fourth only of the whole community, in France
four-sevenths, and in Ireland two-thirds : distributed over
the surface of the soil, the proportions were — England,
thirty head to one hundred hectares ; France, forty head ;
Ireland, sixty.

These figures explain everything. Although England
expended in wages only the equivalent of 50 fraucs per
hectare, whilst France and Ireland paid as much, the
effective wage would be considerably more in England
than in France, and in France than in Ireland, for this
simple reason, that it was divided among a smaller number
of hands.

With these data before us, we can now find the mea-
sure of the organisation of labour in the three countries.
In England, thirty persons suffice to cultivate one hundred
hectares, so as to produce equal to 200 francs per hectare,
whilst in France forty are necessary for obtaining an
average production of 100 francs, and in Ireland 60 ;
hence it follows that labour in England was much more
productive than in France, and in France than in Ireland.

These general data are confirmed by facts of detail. For
instance, the average wage of a farm labourer in England
before 1848 was 9s. to 10s. a-week, or 2 francs per work-
ing day ; and in reduced value, 1.60 francs. In the richest
districts it rose to 12s., or 2.50 francs per working day, or
2 francs reduced value. In the poorer districts it was as
low as 8s., or a little more than 1.50 francs per day, equal
to 1.25 francs reduced value.

RENTS, PROFITS, AND WAGES. 89

In the Lowlands of Scotland, and in Wales, the average
rate of wages was 8s. a-week, or 1.25 francs reduced
value per working day. In the Highlands of Scotland,
and in three-fourths of Ireland, the average was 6s. a-week,
or 1 franc reduced value per working day. In the west
of Ireland, the average fell to 4s., say 70 centimes per
day.*

In France, the average farming wage is 1.25 francs to
1.50 francs per working day ; but in certain districts it
is as high as the English, and in others again as low as in
Ireland.

Thus, owing to the reduction of manual labour — one of
the bases of their agricultural system — the English were
enabled, although in a less proportion, to raise their rate
of wages at the time when rents, profits, taxes, and other
expenses took a start.

In addition to the annual sum paid in wages, amount-
ing, in England, to £28,000,000 of nominal value, the
labouring classes there possess another great resource in
the poor's-rate, which is nothing more nor less than a
supplementary wage, and goes to increase the amount
annually paid to them by £6,000,000.

Finally, it is only necessary to enter a labourer's cottage
in England, and to compare it with one such as our cultiva-
tors mostly inhabit, to perceive a difference in the general
comforts of the two people. Although the French peasant
is frequently proprietor of the land, and thus adds a little
rent and a little profit to his wage, he does not live so
well as the English farm-labourer. He is not so well
clothed, less comfortably lodged, and not so well fed : he
eats more bread, but it is generally made of rye, with the

* The wages here stated are, upon the whole, rather under the mark, both as
regards England and Scotland ; but at the higher rate they all the better turn to
establish the author's argument. — J. D.

90 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

addition of maize, buckwheat, and even chestnuts, while
the bread of the English peasant is wheaten, with some-
times a slight addition of barley and oats ; he sometimes
drinks wine or cider, while the English peasant has only
beer ; but he has rarely meat, and the English peasant
has it often, or at least pork.

Notwithstanding these advantages, the question of
wages, even in England, was a heart-burning subject
previously to 1848. There is no doubt that the race, the
climate, and the habits of the English farm-labourers, are
productive of more wants than with us. Wages in England
are lowest in the southern part of the island, comprising the
counties of Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall ; the rate there
was equivalent to 1.25 francs per day, — and although on a
par mostly with our wages in France, this was generally
considered insufficient. In the parts of Ireland and Scot-
land where wages fell below the French average, the misery
produced was iu finitely greater than with us upon the
same rate. The equivalent of 20 sous (lOd.) a-day, with
which many of our peasants feel contented, caused a great
outcry ; at 70 centimes (7d.), as in the Hebrides and Con-
naught, existence appeared absolutely impossible.

Alas ! I know parts of France where the people still live
upon that rate, and that without much complaint. Cer-
tainly this poverty, in itself sufficiently distressing, is not
aggravated by the harshness of a hyperborean climate, and,
what is still worse, by the feeling of excessive inequality.
Seventy centimes a-day is anywhere a scanty wage ; but
it must be especially intolerable in a country where the
current rate of labourers' wages is in some places 2.50
francs, and that of mechanics on an average still more.

According to what has been above stated, the gross
production of France and that of England proper may be
divided nearly as follows : —

RENTS, PROFITS, AND WAGES. 91

FRANCE.

Proprietor's rent, ... 30 francs per hectare.

Profit of the cultivator, . . 10 „ „

Taxes, .... 5 „ „

Accessory expenses, ... 5 „ „

Wages, .... 50 „„

Total, ... 100
ENGLAND.

Nominal Value. Reduced by 20 per cent.

Proprietor's rent, . 75 francs per hectare. . 60

Profit of the farmer, . 40 „' „ . 32

Taxes, . 25 * „ „ . 20

Accessory expenses, . 50 „ „ . 40

Wages, . . 60 „ 48

Total, . 250 „ „ . 200

All the recipient parts, with the exception of wages, re-
ceive then a larger share in England than in France, and
that even at the reduced value : rent is double, profit
more than treble, taxes quadruple ; wages, even although
equal, or nearly so, in absolute amount, are relatively a
little higher. The rest of the United Kingdom showed
less satisfactory results, but these almost always superior
to ours.

Such are the facts, or at least such they were, previously
to 1848. The changes that have since taken place, both
in France and in the United Kingdom, have been consi-
derable, especially with our neighbours, where a revolution
more legitimate, more rational, and above all, more fruit-
ful, than our revolution of 1 848, has been peaceably accom-
plished, while we are still labouring to regain the position
from which we precipitated ourselves. During the last
five years we have experienced a state of things not unlike
what took place in France and in England between 1790
and 1800. This period has been distressingly barren in
results for us, but largely productive for them. While

92 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

we were vociferously propounding a multitude of ques-
tions, without settling any, they were quietly working out
theirs, and now we both come forth from the trial, they
strengthened and we weakened.

Before entering upon the subject of the respective crises
which have further increased the distance we have shown
as already existing between us, it is important to examine
into the causes of the superiority in English agriculture up
to 1847. These causes originate in the history and entire
organisation of the two countries. The agricultural con-
dition of a people is not an isolated fact, but part of a
great whole. The responsibility of the imperfect state of
our agriculture does not attach altogether to our cultiva-
tors ; its ulterior progress depends not solely upon them,
or, rather, it is not by fixing their attention on the soil
that they will altogether be able to avail themselves of
the phenomena there presented, but by endeavouring
again to rise to the general laws which govern the eco-
nomical development of communities.

Hitherto they have had little taste for such studies ;
they reject them almost unanimously, as practically use-
less and dangerous : I believe them to be mistaken, and
I hope to prove it to them. Practically, there can be no
good agricultural without a good economical condition ;
the one is the effect, the other the cause.

93

CHAPTER VII.

CONSTITUTION OF PKOPEBTY.

THE superiority of English agriculture is pretty gener-
ally attributed to large property ; this opinion is true in
certain respects, but too much importance must not be
attached to it.

In the first place, property in England is not so much
concentrated as is commonly imagined. There are no doubt
in that country immense territorial fortunes ; but these
fortunes, although they strike the attention of a foreigner,
and even of the natives themselves, are not the only ones.
In addition to the immense possessions of the nobility,
properly so called, are the more modest domains of the
gentry. On the 19th Feb. 1850, Mr Disraeli stated,
without contradiction, in the House of Commons, that in
the three kingdoms it was reckoned that there were
250,000 landed proprietors ; now, as the whole extent of
the cultivated land is twenty millions of hectares, this
gives an average of eighty hectares to each family, and,
including the uncultivated land, it gives one hundred and
twenty to each. The same orator, in estimating, as we
do in France, the net revenue of the landed proprietary
at sixty millions sterling, found that these 250,000
divisions gave an average rental of £240, or equal to
£190 in reduced value.

Like all averages, it is true that this gives but an

94 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

imperfect idea of the facts. Among these 250,000 pro-
prietors, a certain number, at most 2000, possess among
them one-third of the land and total revenue, and of
these 2000 there are 50 having princely fortunes. Some
of the English dukes possess entire counties, and have a
revenue of millions (of francs). The other members of
the peerage, the baronets of England, Scotland, and Ire-
land, and the large proprietors who do not form part of
the noblesse, follow in their train. Allotting to these
2000 families, 10,000,000 hectares, and 500,000,000
francs of revenue, gives 12,500 acres, and £10,000 of
income to each family.

But the larger the possessions of the aristocracy, the
more does it reduce those of the second-rate proprietors.
Still these latter own two-thirds of the soil, and play a
part twofold more important in the constitution of
English property. Their average holding is reduced to
about 200 acres, and their income from land to £160 ;
applying the reduction of 20 per cent to this, it amounts
to only £130. As there must necessarily exist a great
difference among them, it may be concluded that proper-
ties yielding £50 to £100 of rent are not so uncommon
in England as one might suppose ; in fact, this is appa-
rent when looking into the subject more closely.

Another erroneous impression — which, to a certain
extent, however, is true, though exaggerated — is, that
landed property in England does not change hands.
Now, although English property is not so easily trans-
ferred as with us, it is far from being entirely fixed.
Here again a particular fact has been unduly generalised.
Certain lands possess entails or other rights, but most are
free. One need only run the eye down the immense
columns of advertisements in the daily newspapers, or
go for an instant into one of the estate agency offices, so

CONSTITUTION OF PROPERTY. 95

numerous in London and other large towns, to be con-
vinced that properties of fifty to five hundred acres — that
is, twenty to two hundred hectares — are not rare in Eng-
land, and in fact are sold every day.

These newspaper advertisements usually run as fol-
lows : " For sale, a property of so many acres in extent, let
to a substantial tenant, with an elegant and comfortable
residence, a good trouting stream, beautiful lawn, kitchen
and flower gardens, close to a railway and town, in a
picturesque country, &c." In the offices they also show a
plan of the land, and a tolerably well-executed view of the
house and offices. It is always a pretty building, almost
new, beautifully kept, with exterior decorations in bad
enough taste, but the interior arrangements simple and
commodious ; standing upon a lawn, more or less exten-
sive, with clumps of trees upon each side, and cows graz-
ing in front. There are two hundred thousand resi-
dences of this description scattered over the verdant
surface of the British Isles.

Notwithstanding the strong desire in England for the
possession of land, which gives a man the title of land-
lord at once, its value is not proportionably higher
than in France. The cost is generally thirty times the
rent ; that it is to say, yielding about 3 per cent upon
the outlay. As soon as a man has made a little money
in business, and has a few thousand pounds to invest
in a country house, he has ten estates, varying in value
from £4000 to £40,000, to choose among. In a country
where the acre of land is worth on an average £40, it
only requires fifty acres to constitute a property of
£4000, and only seven hundred and fifty for a value of
£40,000, including house and offices.

In France the land is certainly much more divided.
Everybody knows the celebrated number of eleven and

96 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

one-half millions of land assessments, which seems to indi-
cate a like number of proprietors ; but since the inquiry
instituted by M. Passey, it is also well known how far
this figure is deceptive. Not only does it often happen
that a single tax -payer pays several assessments, thus
destroying what this number would otherwise seem to
indicate, but the house property of towns figures in the
number of assessments, which reduces the actual number
of landed properties to five or six millions at most.

The assessment, however, has its particular value, and
as in England, in order to arrive at the most general
state of property, we exclude those vast possessions of
some great lords which would otherwise give an unduly
high average, so must we in France put in their true
place that multitude of small proprietary which so
greatly lowers the average. Upon eleven and one-half
million of assessments, five and one-half millions are
below five francs, two millions are from five to ten
francs, three millions ten to fifty francs, six hundred
thousand from fifty to one hundred — five hundred thou-
sand only are above one hundred francs ; it is this half
million which constitutes the bulk of the landed property.
The eleven millions of assessments below one hundred
francs may be set down as appertaining to about one-third
of the total surface, or eighteen million hectares (forty-
five million acres), the other two-thirds, or thirty-two
millions of hectares, belong to four hundred thousand
proprietors, deducting those who are only urban pro-
prietors, and this for each property gives an average of
eighty hectares (two hundred acres).

Thus in cutting off, on the one side, the very large pro-
perties, and on the other the very small ones, occupying
in each country a third of the soil, the average in France
would be the same as the English average for the remain-

CONSTITUTION OF PROPERTY. 97

ing two-thirds. Under this apparent similarity there
lies an inequality, inasmuch as the revenue per hectare is
much higher in England than with us ; but, all things
taken into account, the real difference is not what is sup-
posed. In France there are about one hundred thousand
landed proprietors who pay upwards of 300 francs of
direct taxes, and whose fortunes average those of the
mass of the English proprietors. Of these, fifty thou-
sand pay 500 francs and upwards. Estates of five hun-
dred, one thousand, and two thousand hectares are fre-
quently to be met with, and territorial fortunes of 25,000
to 100,000 francs and upwards of rent are not altogether
unknown. We may have probably about one thousand
large proprietors, who for extent of domain rival the
second grade of English landlords, by far the most
numerous of the class. It is true, we have propor-
tionably fewer of them than our neighbours, and im-
mediately following our chateaued gentry swarm the
host of small proprietors, whilst the English gentry
have at their back the immense fiefs of the aristocracy.
To this extent, but only to this extent, it is correct to
say that property is more concentrated in England than
it is in France.

This concentration is favoured by the law of succes-
sion, which, in default of will, transmits real property
to the oldest son ; whilst in France, real property comes
to be equally divided among the children. But these
two laws, so opposed in principle, are not so different
in their practical effects. The parent in either country
may devise his property as he chooses, and this is fre-
quently done ; besides, other common and more urgent
reasons induce a deviation from that appropriation which
is provided by law.

In France, dowries to married daughters reconstitute

G

98 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

in part what the law of succession destroys. In England,
if real property is not divided, movable is ; and in a
country where personal property is so considerable, this
division cannot fail, through sales and purchases, to ex-
ercise an influence upon the partition of fixed property.
The more rapid increase of population with our neigh-
bours, is, in its turn, another element which distributes
property. In fact, properties are being constantly di-
vided in England, and every day new country residences
are constructed for new country gentlemen ; at the same
time, many properties are being reconstituted in France,
and the assessment returns show that the increase in the
number of the large is greater than that of the small.

Just as concentration of property in England is very
much overrated, so the influence which large property
exercises over agriculture is also exaggerated. This in-
fluence bears a relative proportion to the actual con-
centration, but both have their limits ; large property
does not always make large farming. The largest pro-
perties may be subdivided into small farms. It is of little
consequence whether ten thousand hectares are in the
possession of one man, if, for example, he divides them
into two hundred farms of fifty hectares each. We shall
presently see, in treating of farming properly so called,
that this is in fact commonly the case ; the influence of
large property is therefore nearly null. Let us admit,
however, that upon the whole, large properties are favour-
able to large farming, and that on this account it has
a direct influence upon a portion of the English soil ; is
this action as beneficial as some legislators believe ? and
are all other systems as injurious as they affirm \ That
is the question.

In the United Kingdom we have seen that, in a certain
sense, there are two descriptions of properties — the large

CONSTITUTION OF PROPEKTY. 99

and the middle sized. The large do not occupy more
than a third of the land, and a portion of that third being
divided into small farms, it follows that the action of
large properties is not felt, except to the extent of about
a fourth. Is this fourth the best cultivated ? I do not
believe it. The immense properties of the English aris-
tocracy are principally found in the less fertile regions.
The Duke of Sutherland, who is the largest proprietor in
Great Britain, possesses in one compact estate nearly
750,000 acres in the north of Scotland ; but these lands
are worth only 30s. per acre. Another nobleman — the
Marquess of Breadalbane — possesses in another part of
the same country almost as much of a similar value. In
England the extensive properties of the Duke of North-
umberland are situated, for the most part, in the county
of that name, one of the most mountainous and least
productive ; those of the Duke of Devonshire, in Derby-
shire, and so on. It is especially in such lands that large
properties should be ; there only can they produce good
effects.

The richest parts of the British soil — the counties of
Lancaster, Leicester, Worcester, Warwick, and Lincoln —
are composed of large and middling sized properties. In
Lancashire, one of the richest of all, even in an agricul-
tural point of view, middling and almost small proper-
ties predominate. Upon the whole, it may be asserted,
especially if Ireland is not included, that the best culti-
vated land in the three kingdoms is not that which be-
longs to the great proprietors. There are, doubtless, strik-
ing exceptions ; but such is the rule, generally speaking.

We find also, not exactly in England, but in an
English possession — the island of Jersey and its depen-
dencies— a country wholly composed of small proprietary.
The Norman laws of succession, which provide for an

100 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

equal division of lands among the children, continue there
in full force. " The inevitable effect of this law," says
David Low, "acting for the last nine hundred years
within the narrow limits of this small island, has been to
reduce the whole land into small holdings. There is
scarcely to be found in the whole island a single property
of forty acres ; many vary from five to fifteen, and most
of them are less than fifteen." Is the agriculture there
poorer? Certainly not. The land so divided is culti-
vated like a garden. It is farmed on an average at from
£4 to £5 per acre, and in the environs of St Heliers as
high as £8 to £12. In spite of these enormous rents,
the farmers live in a state of comparative comfort upon
an exten t of ground which, elsewhere, would not suffice to
maintain the poorest labourer.

In France, also, there are two descriptions of properties
—the middle-sized and the small. It is generally found
that farming is farther advanced where the small pre-
dominates. Such are the departments of the Nord and
the Bas Rhin, and almost all the rich districts of the
other departments. It is under this subdivision of pro-
perty that most progress manifests itself with us. It is
a feature in the national character. The same fact is
observed in other countries — in Belgium, in Ehenish
Germany, in Northern Italy, and even in Norway.

Everywhere else, except in England — that is to say,
in Spain, in Germany — very large properties have done
more harm than good to agriculture. The feudal lord
lives far from his domains ; he knows them only by the
revenue he draws, and which, before it reaches his hands,
passes through a host of servants and stewards, more
alive to their own than to their master's interests. The
land, impoverished by greedy hands, never receiving that
care which would restore and increase its fertility, aban-

CONSTITUTION OF PROPERTY. 101

cloned to tenants as poor as they are ignorant, languishes
in a state of neglect, or gives only those scanty produc-
tions which it cannot deny. In England the case is dif-
ferent. Many noblemen think it no disgrace to manage
their own properties, and to devote to the improvement
of the land the greater portion of what they draw from
it. But the essential evil of very large properties is not
altogether destroyed ; for although many landlords admir-
ably fulfil their duties, how many of them neglect their
inheritance !

Is it right, then, to extol the large-property system to
the disparagement of others, as has been done, — to wish to
extend it everywhere, and to proscribe the small 1 Evi-
dently not. In viewing the question merely in an agri-
cultural aspect, the only one to be considered at present,
general results argue more in favour of small properties
than of large. Besides, it is no easy matter to change
the condition of property in a country. This condition
owes its origin to an accumulation of ancient circum-
stances essentially necessary, and which are not to be
done away with at pleasure. To assert that large pro-
perties in England are the sole cause of agricultural pro-
gress, and for this reason to wish to impose that system
upon countries which reject it, is manifestly wrong in
itself; and to lay down as a rule that progress in farm-
ing cannot go on, except upon the condition of an im-
practicable social revolution, is fortunately erroneous.

I do not the less admit that the state of property
in England is more favourable to agriculture than in
France; I wish only to contend against the exaggera-
tion of this view.

The question has been little understood. What is of
consequence to cultivation is, not that the property should
be large, but that it should be rich, and these are two

102 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

very different things. Kich is a relative term. A man
may be poor with a large property, and rich with a small
one. In the hands of one thousand proprietors, who
have only ten hectares each, and who lay out 1000 francs
per hectare, the land will be twice as productive as in
the hands of a man who himself possesses the whole ten
thousand hectares, and lays out only 500 francs. Some-
times it is the large property which is rich, sometimes
the small, sometimes the middle-sized ; all depends upon
circumstances. The best constitution of property is that
which attracts to the soil most capital, either owing to
the owners being richer relatively to the extent of the
land they possess, or because they are induced to lay
out upon it a larger proportion of their income. Now,
there is no doubt that, in the present state of things,
our French proprietors are not in general so rich as the
English proprietors, and are consequently less disposed
to make advances to the soil. It is our smallest pro-
prietors who are most liberal to their lands, and this is
one of the reasons why small properties are looked on
with such favour among us.

In England, on the contrary, if it is not altogether the
very large proprietary, it is at least the best half of the
middle-sized, who can be, and in fact who are, the most
generous towards the soil. The best cultivated and most
productive lands are those whose owners enjoy about
£1000 a-year of income. Among this class we find
both capital, too often wanting with the smaller pro-
prietors, and a taste for agricultural improvements, not
always to be found among the very large proprietors,
owing to their want of acquaintance with rural affairs.

When this love of country pursuits is found in a large
proprietor, it is perfection. All England must remember
with gratitude the great services rendered to the cause

CONSTITUTION OF PROPERTY. 103

of national agriculture by the Duke of Bedford, the Duke
of Portland, Lord Leicester, Lord Spencer, Lord Yar-
borough, and many others. When the will to do good
is united to the power which high rank and fortune give,
astonishing results may be effected. The Bedford family,
among others, has bestowed upon its country magnificent
agricultural works. It has reclaimed entire counties
from the sea ; other portions of country, formerly no-
thing but extensive moors, have been rendered rich and
productive. The representative of this noble house enjoys
£100,000 or 2,500,000 francs of income from landed
estates ; and he is worthy, by the use he makes of it, to
succeed to his great agricultural ancestor, whose statue
adorns one of the squares in London.

It is doubtless a matter of regret that we have not
this element among us, and the causes which have
destroyed our very large properties are to be regretted
still more than that destruction itself ; but we must learn
to resign ourselves to what cannot now be repaired, and
endeavour to guard against an increase of the evil. The
advantages of large property may be partly replaced by
the State carrying out a good administration of the local
imposts, and by a spirit of combination. This has already
begun to work in many parts. Even in England, where
the aristocracy have done so much in every respect for
national glory and prosperity, they, as a class, are not
those who have done most ; and, however striking their
services, these ought not to detract from those more
numerous and more efficacious services rendered by the
honourable body of gentry.

In France, where habits of economy are more general
than in England, an average income of 25,000 francs
(£1000) is not necessary. To keep up a moderate
property with us, an income of 5000 to 6000 francs

104 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

is sufficient. Upon this income the family of a coun-
try proprietor can live comfortably, as society with us
is at present constituted, and save every year for pro-
ductive outlays ; with less than this, difficulties arise,
unless economy is proportionately increased. With re-
spect to small property, as the possessor is at the same
time the cultivator, it prospers under much humbler con-
ditions. A peasant family may live very -well in an
ordinary way with an income of 1200 francs ; and pro-
vided they possess some few hundreds of francs over and
above this sum, the land does not suffer, but rather im-
proves, in their hands ; for nowhere is it the object of
more assiduous care, and nowhere does it more liberally
repay the attention bestowed upon it.

It is not necessary — and this is one chief source of
error into which the advocates for exclusively large pro-
perties fall — that the income of the possessor of the land
should come to him entirely from the land itself. A con-
siderable portion of this income may be derived from
any other source — from some occupation or business in
the town, or a salaried post in the country. In this
case, the smaller the country property in proportion to
the income, the more chance it has of benefiting by in-
fusion of capital. In almost every case properties suffer
neglect owing to their being too large for the income of
the possessor, but especially when he is in debt : in this
case, the greater the extent of the property, the worse its
condition ; it is nothing then but a false show— a fatal
delusion.

The great bane of property is debt — not the debt con-
tracted for the purpose of making improvements, for that
is almost always remunerative, but that which trenches
upon income, and leaves the nominal proprietor without
resources for keeping the property in good order. This

CONSTITUTION OF PROPERTY. 105

is the real evil with French property ; not so much its
subdivision. In many cases a still greater division might
be the remedy for this evil. The majority of our large
proprietors would be gainers if they held less land, and
had more money. Those who have less than 5000 to
6000 francs of net revenue would almost all benefit by
renouncing land altogether ; and among the small pro-
prietors there is also a large number who would do well
no longer to attempt a problem which they will never be
able to solve. That this liquidation, if it took place,
would be profitable to the large, the middle-sized, or the
small properties, it is impossible to say beforehand, and
in reality it signifies very little.

The debt on land in England is less injurious than in
France ; not that it is less, for it is on the contrary more,
being estimated at as much as half the total value of the
land ; but because it is borne by richer families. After the
payment of interest on their debt, the English proprietors
have a larger net revenue than ours, and their very
large movable property contributes, together with the
greater 'value of their land, to place them in a much
more advantageous position. Nevertheless, public atten-
tion on the other side of the Channel has been drawn
to the evils of mortgage debt — it is now being seriously
considered — and if ever measures be taken to diminish
the burden, the revolution which will grow out of it will
be rather unfavourable than otherwise to large property.
It is, in fact, the larger properties which are most bur-
dened ; and a liquidation, by bringing commercial and
manufacturing fortunes to be invested more largely in
land, would to that extent diminish the present extent
of exclusively territorial fortunes. This revolution has
already begun in Ireland, and progresses rapidly in con-
sequence of a special Act of Parliament.

106 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

I admit that primogeniture has something to do with the
superiority in wealth of English proprietors, inasmuch as
it prevents the forced division of lands ; but the law of
entail, which is also put forward as favourable to cultiva-
tion, has only bad effects, because it places an obstacle in
the way of free disposal of land. It is no doubt hard
when a property goes out of the hands of one who has
inherited it ; and in France the mobility of property,
particularly with the fiscal laws, which press hard upon
it at every change, is one of its greatest drawbacks ;
but what is grievous is the cause which obliges the pro-
prietor to sell, not the sale itself. When a proprietor
gets into debt and becomes poor, it is desirable for the
common good that his property should pass as soon as
possible into other hands ; it will never otherwise do
any good. In this case, the French law, which places few
obstacles in the way of sale, is preferable to the English.

As to successions, it is different. The compulsory
division of landed property is a real evil, and the time is
coming, I hope, when an economical spirit will correct
the abuse of the system. The English, on their part, will
probably be induced, as rural wealth increases, to do
away with entails ; practically they have already greatly
mitigated their bad effects ; and it is noways impossible
for them to get free of them altogether, if they really desire
it.* Such as they are, the advantages and defects of the
two legislations are pretty equally balanced ; the source
of the superiority of the English system, however real, is
not very obvious. The chief cause of agricultural pro-
gress does not lie here.

This question was worthy of being put in its true light ;

* The English law allows an entail only for the benefit of one or more persons
living, and one unborn ; when the latter attains majority, the entail ceases, unless
it be renewed.

CONSTITUTION OF PROPERTY. 107

it has been obscured by too many passions and prejudices,
which have nothing in common with rural economy. If
ever there be a question in France of giving more lati-
tude to the head of a family as regards the testamen-
tary disposal of his property, or of giving facilities in the
way of preserving real property intact in the case of suc-
cessions db intestat, it will be well to keep large property
out of the question, for such considerations do not apply
to it. It is not the law which has reduced large property
in France, but the Eevolution ; and not only is all arti-
ficial retrogression impossible, but in the course which
things have taken it would be of very doubtful utility.

108

CHAPTER VIII.

CONSTITUTION OF FARMING.

THE second cause of the agricultural prosperity of Eng-
land is generally attributed to large farming ; but here,
again, ideas on the subject are much exaggerated.

The soil of Britain is not more largely farmed than
largely held. No doubt there are very large farms, just
as there are very large estates ; but these form by no
means the majority. There is a multitude of farms under
the middle size, which would pass for such even in
France ; and the number of small tenants is infinitely
greater than that of small proprietors. It is reckoned
that there are not less than two hundred thousand far-
mers in England alone, which gives an average of sixty
hectares (150 acres) for each farm. In certain parts, such
as the plains of Wiltshire, Dorset, Lincoln, and York,
farms of several hundreds, and even thousands, of hectares
are not uncommon ; but in other parts, again, as the
manufacturing districts, those of ten and twelve hectares
are the most common. In Cheshire many are below ten
acres, or four hectares. Of these two hundred thousand
farmers, about one-half cultivate their farms themselves,
with the assistance of their families. In Scotland the
number of farmers exceeds fifty thousand, and in Ire-
land seven hundred thousand.

In France we have the equivalent of Ireland in our

CONSTITUTION OF FARMING. 109

five or six millions of small holdings below seven or eight
hectares ; but we have, at the same time, the equivalent
of Great Britain in the four or five hundred thousand
averaging fifty to sixty. And we are not altogether
without our farms of several hundreds of hectares ; some
such are to be found, principally in the neighbourhood
of Paris, which exhibit the best examples of large farm-
ing. It is only the immense farms which we have not
got, and these are not very numerous in England ; they
are to be met with only in the most sterile parts, such as
in the wild districts of the Highlands, or in the chalky
plains of the south, both equally suited for sheep pastures.
It is not, then, exactly in extent of the farms that English
farming is superior to ours ; in this respect we are even
more on a par than in respect to property.

The real superiority of this constitution of agriculture
—as regards Great Britain at least, for Ireland requires a
separate examination — lies in these two important points :
first, the almost universal system of leases, which makes
agriculture a special occupation ; and, secondly, the num-
ber of monied men who fearlessly embark in farming.

The advantages which leases possess over other modes
of working the soil, and particularly over the metayage,
are observable in those parts of France where the system
is found. It is the great principle of the division of
labour applied to agriculture. It raises up a particular
class of men, early educated to farming, and who devote
their whole life to it. These men are not exactly labour-
ers, but are in comparatively superior circumstances, and
are more intelligent. With them farming is a profession,
with all the chances of gain and loss ; and if the chances
of loss are sufficient to keep their attention awakened,
the chances of gain also suffice to excite their emulation.
England has many examples of fortunes made by farm-

110 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

ing ; these examples induce very many to become farmers
as a money-making profession ; while at the same time it
is one of the most agreeable, the most honourable, as well
as most healthy professions in which the mind and body
can be engaged.

The advocates exclusively for large property pretend
that it was the means of bringing about the lease system :
this is a mistake ; leases are not found always in connec-
tion with large property. In Eussia, in Spain, and in
Hungary, there are large proprietors who have on their
estates metayers, peasants paying rent in labour (pay sans
de corvee), but no farmers ; in France, in the depart-
ments about Paris, it is middle-sized properties which
prevail, and there there are farmers. The lease system
consorts better with large property than with any other,
but it is compatible with all grades of property, even
with small.

It is said that long leases are necessary to make farm-
ing pay, and that large properties can alone afford to
grant them ; this also is a mistake. Long leases are no
doubt advantageous, but they are not necessary. In
England they are almost unknown, or rather it happens
pretty frequently that they have no lease at all. Three-
fourths of the farms are held upon what is called tenancy
at will ; that is to say, on either side six months' notice
to quit may be given. I do not say that this is the best
contract ; I know that it is practicable only in certain
cases. I know, also, that at present the tendency in
England is to leases, and long leases too ; but I say, and
this cannot be denied, that the agricultural prosperity of
that country has arisen through farmers who, for the
most part, had only annual holdings.

We already know what the working capital of these
farmers is. Before 1848, £8 per acre, or 500 francs per

CONSTITUTION OF FARMING. Ill

hectare, was reckoned the capital necessary for a good
farmer. Many, doubtless, had not so much, but others
again had more. All make advances to the land with
implicit confidence. In that country, where manufactures
and commerce offer such inducements for the employ-
ment of capital, many people prefer to embark their
money in agriculture. While our farmers are sparing to
the last degree, considering that what is saved is gain, in
England they try who can put most money into the land.
This confidence belongs in some measure to large farming.
Large farming has especially been the originating cause
of large outlay; it is large farming, too, which every
day gives the most striking examples of enterprise as ap-
plied to the working of the soil ; but middling and small
farming follow closely upon large. The small farmer,
who has only a few hundred pounds of patrimony, does
not hesitate to embark it any more than the great capi-
talist, who has ten times or a hundred times as much.
Both launch out together, and generally upon the faith of
an ordinary annual lease, expending sums which would
seem enormous with us, and which proprietors alone
would here undertake. When long leases are required,
it is in order that a man may more securely make those
advances which the land is constantly demanding.

To large farming is generally attributed the substitu-
tion of horses for oxen and machinery for out-door
manual labour. The same is said of large outlays for
manures and fertilisers, the expense of making and main-
taining roads and fences, levelling, subsoil ploughing,
draining, irrigation, &c. But this again is quite a mis-
take. Improvements — that is to say, the useful employ-
ment of capital — are a sign of rich and intelligent, rather
than of large farming. Small and middling farmers un-
derstand the benefit of these quite as well as the great,

112 EURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

whether in England, or wherever farming is as far
advanced ; they are unknown only where the farmers
are poor or ignorant. Now, if farming in England is
liberal, it is no less intelligent and skilful.

The English farmers, even the smallest among them,
have every facility for becoming well informed with
regard to the latest improvements. It is a very common
thing for them to send their children as pupils to those
among themselves who are distinguished for their ability,
and they willingly pay boards which would frighten our
farmers. They hold frequent meetings for the purpose
of mutually communicating their ideas and experiences.
Those competitions of animals and implements, which the
government of France is obliged to institute at the na-
tional expense, have long been established by private
subscription in many places throughout the United
Kingdom. The first noblemen, headed by princes of the
blood, and even the husband of the Queen, consider it
an honour to preside at these competitions and agricul-
tural meetings, to take part in the discussions, and to
contend for the prizes. A host of magazines, devoted
entirely to agriculture, detail their proceedings ; even the
principal newspapers carefully chronicle all the news
which may interest the chief of all industries. As
poverty is not an attribute of agriculture in that
country, no more is ignorance.

Besides the local societies, which have been long estab-
lished over the whole of England, there has existed since
1835 a central Society of Agriculture, which has received
the title, very rarely bestowed, of Royal. Although re-
ceiving no aid from the Government, it disposes of con-
siderable sums, which it owes to voluntary subscriptions.
It is composed of life members and annual subscribers,
scattered over the whole kingdom. Among its life mem-

CONSTITUTION OF FARMING. 113

bers figure almost all the aristocracy and the principal
country gentlemen ; the annual subscribers consist of
the small proprietors and common farmers. The Society
numbers no less than five thousand members for England
alone — for Scotland and Ireland have their own societies
— about one thousand being life members, and four
thousand annual subscribers. The ordinary amount of
annual subscription is £1, or 25 francs ; a life subscrip-
tion £10 ; and £50 for what is called a Governor.

With these funds, which are increased by some addi-
tional resources, the Society possesses an annual revenue
of £10,000, or 250,000 francs. This it applies to fur-
thering the progress of national agriculture : it holds
weekly meetings, at which the agricultural questions of
the day are discussed ; it publishes an excellent collec-
tion of all that it considers worthy of notice ; it pays
professors for instructing in those sciences relating to
agriculture, and, among the rest, a chemist whose special
duty is to furnish analyses of earths and manures. The
Society holds every year — and this is the principal ob-
ject of its foundation — a great meeting for competition
in cattle and farming implements, to which the whole of
England is invited. By all these means, this Society
exerts a powerful and useful influence.

In France, farming is not a branch of industry, pro-
perly speaking ; there are few real farmers among us, and
most of our cultivators, whether they be proprietors,
farmers, or metayers, have but an insufficient capital.
This is the real misfortune with us. The blame may,
with some appearance of reason, be laid upon the small
proprietary. With us, a cultivator, having a little money,
generally prefers to be a proprietor rather than a farmer.
The reverse is the case in England. Formerly there were
many small proprietors in that country, who formed an

H

114 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

important class in the State ; they were called yeomen,
to distinguish them from the landed gentry, who were
called squires. These yeomen have almost disappeared,
but not by any violent revolution. The change has taken
place voluntarily and imperceptibly. They have sold
their small properties to become farmers, because they
found it more profitable ; and as most of them have
succeeded, those remaining will most likely shortly follow
the example.

Why do not many of our small proprietors do the
same ? — it is because they do not see their immediate ad-
vantage in it. The English yeomen, too, were a long
time in making up their minds to the change. It re-
quires favourable circumstances, which are not yet very
generally apparent ; and something more than the wish is
needed in order to bring about agricultural revolutions.
Likewise it is not so much the extension of the lease
system, properly so called, as the want of capital to lay
out on the land that is wanted. The superior advan-
tage of the lease is apparent only where proprietors who
farm with their own hands have not a sufficient capital.
Where farming is the profession of proprietors who have
all the requisites, the effect they produce is quite as bene-
ficial as in the case of farmers. Proprietors have a direct,
permanent, and hereditary interest in the improvement
of the land, only they require a double capital, which
is not often to be met with ; — first, a capital as proprie-
tors; and, secondly, another as cultivators. When there
is this twofold condition, added to inherited experience,
and that energy which is stimulated by a family name,
there is no mode of farming which can compete with
it, while there is no more desirable and better stamp
of men for a State than these ; and this is not to be
overlooked.

CONSTITUTION OF FARMING. 115

The whole secret lies in these two words, Capital and
Skill. Large farming, without skill and without capital, is
not so useful as small farming, which possesses both, and
vice versd. There may be striking instances of capital and
skill combined with large farming, and others where they
are found with small ; these differences decide the matter.

A time will certainly arrive when a goodly number of
the small and even middling class of French proprietors
will find it their interest to give up, more or less, being
proprietors, and turn their attention to farming. Capital
invested in land yields at the most two or three per cent,
and when laid out in farming it ought to yield eight or
ten, if judiciously employed : the result is evident. A
host of small and middling proprietors will then disap-
pear, who are now very badly off; but this revolution
will never be general, nor is it necessary that it should.
Small farming, like small property, is more in conformity
with our national character. Capital with us being
more distributed than it is in England, it is expedient
that the farms should be smaller, so as to correspond
with the working capital. Many of our proprietors would
rather sell a portion of their properties than part with
them altogether ; and even supposing the latter done,
very few would realise enough to be able to work a large
farm advantageously.

The extent of farms, besides, is determined by other
causes, such as the nature of the soil, the climate, and
the kinds of crops prevailing. France, on this account,
is still destined in a greater degree than England to be a
country of small farming. Many branches of her agri-
culture require a great amount of manual labour, which
renders it necessary to have a greater division of fields of
operation. The great resource of pasture is less generally
within our reach. Almost everywhere the soil of France

116 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

may be made to respond to the labour of man, and almost
everywhere it is for the advantage of the community
that manual labour should be actively bestowed upon it.
I know parts of our country where small farming is the
bane of the district ; I know others where it is of inestim-
able benefit, and for which the large system could never
compensate.

Let us suppose ourselves in the centre of France, in
the Limousin mountains ; we there find a soil poor and
granitic, and a climate rainy and cold. Cereals there
thrive badly, and do not pay the expense of cultivation;
crops destined for industrial purposes are out of the ques-
tion ; it is rye which predominates, and that gives only
a poor produce. Grasses and roots, on the contrary,
thrive well. Irrigation is rendered easy by the abun-
dance of streams, the fertilising properties of the water,
and the slope of the lands ; the breeding and fattening of
cattle may be carried on under favourable circumstances.
The soil and climate are nearly those of a large part of
England. Everything in this quarter calls for large
farming, but unfortunately, owing to circumstances
foreign to the question of agriculture, it is the small
which prevails, and there it is necessarily rather unpro-
ductive. Cereals exhaust the soil, for which insufficient
manuring does not make up. The manual labour be-
stowed on the land is excessive, considering the re-
sults; cattle, badly fed and worn out by work, give no
profit ; rent is almost nothing, and wages miserable.

On the other hand, let us suppose ourselves in the
rich plains of Flanders, on the banks of the Ehine, the
Garonne, the Charente, or the Ehone ; we there meet
again with small farming, but, unlike the other, it is rich
and productive. Every method for increasing the fruit-
fulness of the land and making the most of labour is

CONSTITUTION OF FARMING. 117

there known and practised, even among the smallest
farmers. Notwithstanding the active properties of the
soil, the people are constantly renewing and adding to
its fertility by means of large quantities of manure col-
lected at considerable expense ; the breed of animals is
superior, and the harvests magnificent. In one district
we find wheat and maize ; in another, tobacco, flax, rape,
and madder; then again, the vine, olive, plum, and mul-
berry, which to yield their abundant treasures require
a people of industrious habits.- Is it not also to small
farming that we owe most of the market-garden pro-
duce obtained by means of large expenditure around
Paris'?

We have seen that even in England small farming has
not altogether been discarded, yet everything appears
tending to proscribe its limits : it has no grounds of sup-
port, as in France, from a small proprietary and division
of capital ; the theories of agriculturists and the general
system of farming are opposed to it. It has decreased
since the days of Arthur Young, and the progress made
by modern agriculture has been brought about by totally
different means. Still it persists, and everything leads to
the belief that in some parts, at least, it will maintain its
ground. The manufacture of cheese, for example, which
is quite a domestic industry, is well adapted to it : ten
or twelve cows suffice to give profitable employment to
a family in the country without extra assistance. There
is nothing so delightful as the interior of these humble
cottages, so clean and orderly ; the very air about them
breathes peace, industry, and happiness ; and it is pleasing
to think that they are not likely to be done away.

Even under circumstances most favourable to its de-
velopment, the very nature of large farming prescribes
bounds to it. The very large English farms, unless to a

118 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

great extent in pasture, are subject to manifest drawbacks.
When cereals form a part of the cultivation, the distance
to be traversed by men and horses, even with the improved
means invented in the present day, becomes a serious loss
of time and power. It is a difficult matter for the farmer
to give his attention to different parts of the farm at
the same time. I have seen farms of this description be-
longing to noblemen — home-farms, as they are called —
and managed by stewards, which make a great appear-
ance, but where the waste is proportionately great. The
owners take a hereditary pride in these gigantic estab-
lishments, emblems of wealth and power ; but in most
cases they would be great gainers by letting them to
real farmers.

If the necessity for employing every day a larger
capital in farming, in order to increase the production
required to meet the greater consumption, tends to dimi-
nish the number of small farms, it cannot fail to have a
like effect upon the largest sized. They talk now in
England of a working capital of £16 per acre, and it is
probably not too much for the new methods every day
suggested by the progress of agriculture. Now, if many
cultivators who farm their own land find it difficult to
command such a sum, it is no less rare, even in England,
to find those who enter into large farming operations
possessed of a capital of ten or fifteen thousand pounds.
It is probable, then, that the number of large and small
farms will become reduced at the same time, and that the
middle-sized (150 to 300 acres), now the most common,
will increase. This, in fact, appears to be the size best
suited for the kind of farming most generally adopted,
but that, properly speaking, is not large farming.*

* In general, it will be found that the best and most liberal description of
farming in England is in occupations above three or four hundred acres. — J. P.

CONSTITUTION OF FARMING. 1 j 1)

It is probable that in France, also, a similar revolution
will take place, as the possibility of applying a larger capital
to farming increases. Small farms will be entirely given
up where they give no prospect of paying, and others
will be formed anew where indications are given of profit-
able results. Finally, the average extent may, without
inconvenience, be much less than in England ; a radical
change in farming is as little to be desired as it is in
property. But again, this is not the real question : we
have to inquire, not so much why farming and property
are not larger, but why they are more profitable and more
intelligent in England than in France \

120

CHAPTER IX.

COUNTEY LIFE.

IN my opinion, this agricultural wealth is owing to
three principal causes. That which first presents itself,
and which may be considered the origin of the two others,
is the taste of the wealthier and more influential part of
the nation for a country life.

This predilection is not of yesterday's birth, but dates
from the earliest history, and is a part of the national
character. Both Saxons and Normans are children of
the forest. Combined with a spirit of individual inde-
pendence, those barbarous races, of which the English
nation is composed, had all instinctively a turn for soli-
tary life. It was not so, however, with the Latin people.
Wherever the Eoman spirit was preserved — in Italy,
Spain, and, to a certain extent, in France — a predilec-
tion for town life was early manifested. The Eoman
fields were abandoned to the slaves ; all who aspired to
distinction resorted to the city. The name alone of
peasant, milieus, was a term of contempt, and the name
of city was associated with elegance and politeness,
urbanitas. In the modern Latin communities these pre-
judices still prevail. In our own day we still look upon
the country as a sort of exile, and it is still more so with
the Italians and Spaniards. The desire of all is to live in
town, for there intellectual enjoyment, refinement, society,

COUNTRY LIFE. 121

and the means of making money, are to be found. Among
the Germans, and especially in England, the manners of
the people are different. The Englishman is less sociable
than the Frenchman ; he still retains something of the
wild race from which he is descended ; he has a repug-
nance to being shut up within the walls of towns ; the
open air is his natural element.

When the barbarian tribes poured in from all sides
upon the Eoman Empire, they spread themselves over
the country, where each chief, and almost every soldier,
set about securing his own position. From this inherent
disposition the feudal system took its rise, and in no
country is this system more strongly marked than in
England. The first care of the conquerors was to secure
to themselves a great extent of land, where they could
live without constraint, as in their native forests, adding
to the pleasures of the chase that wealth which was derived
from the cultivation of the land. The barbarian kings
differed from their vassals only in the extent of their
domains. Even in France the kings of the two earliest
races were just large proprietors, living on extensive farms,
as proud of the number of their cattle and the extent of
their crops as of the host of armed men who marched at
their command. The greatest of them all, Charlemagne,
was no less remarkable for the administration of his coun-
try possessions than as chief of an immense empire.

This tendency, which is common among all northern
races, was much more prevalent in England, when that
country was less populous, less civilised, and not so much
under the influence of Roman domination. As there
was no learning among the people, there w^as nobody
to contend for a town life ; and the towns being only
wretched villages, giving no inducement for pillage, rural
possessions alone were envied. The only wealth of these

122 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

tribes was the land, and all they had to contend for was
its use. The song of the Welsh bards, while sheltering
themselves among their mountains against the attack of
the Saxons, was, "Never shall we yield to our enemies
the fertile lands watered by the Wye." The Saxons,
in their turn, fought in defence of their lands against
the Normans, and the first result of the great conquest
of the eleventh century was a division of the land among
the victorious invaders.

The paramount importance attached by the Normans to
possession of the soil is exhibited in that extraordinary
relic which shows the mind of the conquerors ; it is
unique of its kind, found only in England, and has exer-
cised a great influence on the subsequent development of
the country. I mean that general survey of properties,
executed about the year 1080, by order of William the
Conqueror, and called by the dispossessed Saxons Dooms-
day Book, because it established for ever the almost entire
dispossession of their race. This book, still preserved
in the Exchequer, is the starting-point of English pro-
perty, and to this day continues to be the great authority
on rights of tenure, no title being strictly legal except that
which may be traced back to this first source. No nation
can boast of the possession of a record so ancient, so de-
tailed, or so authentic. About fifteen years had elapsed
after the battle of Hastings when Doomsday Book was
commenced. The new proprietors had been for some
years settled on their estates, and most of them were
already engaged in agriculture. They reared a great
number of horses and cattle ; an old record of the time,
making mention of one of them, says, Multum agricul-
tures deditus ac in jumentorum et pecorum midtitudine
plurimum delectatus. The work ordered by William had
for its object not only the registration of the names of

COUNTRY LIFE. 123

the possessors, but to set forth in detail the number
of measures of land, or hydes, as they were then called,
the number of domestic animals, ploughs, &c. The in-
quiry lasted six years, and proves a pretty fair advance-
ment in agriculture. The record includes all the country
actually subdued to the Norman rule ; that is to say, the
whole of England as far as north of York. The Nor-
thumberland mountains (and Durham) alone were ex-
cepted.

During the middle ages the whole history of England
is taken up with contentions between the barons and
the Crown, respecting the possession of their lands. At
one time (in 1101) they obtained from Henry I. an edict
thus worded, " I concede in fee simple to all knights who
defend themselves with helmet and sword the free pos-
session of the lands cultivated by their seignorial ploughs,
in order that they may provide themselves with arms and
horses for our service and the defence of the kingdom."
A century afterwards (in 1215), they took advantage of
John's weakness, and forced him to sign the Magna
Charta, confirming their right of property, and enabling
them to defend it in the sovereign assemblies. Forced
to seek support from the entire population, in order to
overcome the opposition of the sovereign, they took care
at the same time to stipulate for certain rights for the
commons, and thus it is that the origin of English politi-
cal liberty is mixed up with the rights of feudal property.

From the days of King John until now it is always
among the rural population that the true national cha-
racter— the fighting people — is to be found ; the towns
show nothing of it. The sovereigns themselves, yield-
ing to the national feeling, seek less than elsewhere
to diminish the power of the feudal lords. Notwith-
standing the absolute power enjoyed by Henry VIIL

RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

when he suppressed the convents he felt himself obliged
to distribute among the nobles a portion of the spoil
taken from the monks. This accounts for the immense
properties owned by some families. When his daughter
Elizabeth beheld these same nobles leave their country
mansions to flock to her court, she herself recommended
them to return to their lands, where they would enjoy
more consequence. "You see," said she, "these ships
accumulated in the port of London ; they have no state-
liness here with their sails loose, their holds empty, and
all huddled together without order ; but see them with
their sails filled and spread over the wide ocean, each will
then be free, powerful, and majestic." A picturesque and
true comparison this, but one which Elizabeth's contem-
porary, Henry IV., and his grandson Louis XIV., could
never have made.

During the revolution of the seventeenth and the poli-
tical agitation of the eighteenth century, the country
aristocracy continued to maintain its ascendancy : it was
they who established the authority of 1688, who kept the
house of Hanover upon the throne, and who sustained
the contest against the French Eevolution. Until the
Keform Bill gave a greater representation to the towns,
which had become rich and more populous, the two
Houses of Parliament were entirely composed of this
party ; at this moment they are still labouring energe-
tically to maintain their threatened supremacy, and to
hold the new reformers in check. All the great and
glorious incidents in the national history are connected
with this class, — hence its popularity. A country life is
sought after, not only for itself — for its absence of re-
straint, its comfort, quiet occupation, and domestic hap-
piness, those cherished penates of the English — but in
addition it gives consideration, influence, power, every-

COUNTRY LIFE. 125

thing that a man can desire after his first wants are
satisfied.

There are certain privileges attached to landed pro-
perty. The wealthiest proprietor in a county is usually
lord-lieutenant, which, although more an honorary title
than anything else, invests its possessor with somewhat
of a regal consequence in the county ; the wealthiest
after the lord-lieutenant are justices of the peace. These
are the principal, and almost the only, administrators
of justice in the county, the representatives of public
authority. In France, public officers are almost all
strangers to the department where they are employed ;
they are bound by no ties to local interests. In Eng-
land, on the other hand, the landed proprietors are the
functionaries in their own district ; and although nomi-
nated by the Crown, they hold office from the fact alone
of their being proprietors. There is probably no instance
of a commission of justice of the peace being refused to
a wealthy and influential landed proprietor.

It is easy to understand how such a system gives con-
sequence to a person residing on his own property. In
France, when a proprietor is ambitious of playing a part,
he must come away from his estates ; in England he
must remain upon them. Therefore everybody in that
commercial and manufacturing country desires to become
a landed proprietor : those who make fortunes buy land,
and those who strive for riches aspire only to follow the
same course. The rage in this respect goes so far, that
when a man has had the misfortune to be born in a
town, he tries to conceal it as much as possible. Every-
body would be born in the country, because a country
life is the mark of an aristocratic origin ; and when a
man happens not to have been born there, he wishes
at least to die there, that his children may inherit the

126 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

prestige. Look at a list of the House of Lords in the
official publications ; it is their country residences, and
not their town addresses, which follow their names. The
Duke of Norfolk is put down as residing at Arundel
Castle, in the county of Sussex ; the Duke of Devonshire
at Chatsworth, in Derbyshire ; the Duke of Portland at
Welbeck Abbey, in Nottinghamshire, and so on. Every
Englishman is familiar with the names, at least, of the
residences of the nobility, which are as famous even as
the names of the illustrious families who possess them.
Independently of the magnificence there displayed by
their possessors, some of them are connected with the
glory of the nation. The name of the Duke of Marl-
borough is inseparable from that of Blenheim, a magnifi-
cent mansion given by England to the conqueror of Louis
XIV. ; and a like origin associates the manor of Strath-
fieldsaye with the remembrance of the Duke of Welling-
ton's victories.

It is the same with the members of the House of Com-
mons as with the Lords. All those who have country
houses take care to have them indicated as their habitual
residences. Everybody knows the name of Sir Kobert
Peel's country-seat — Drayton Manor. Appearances in
this respect are quite consistent with fact, for members
of both Houses are scarcely more than visitors in London
during the sitting of Parliament ; they pass the rest of
their time in the country, or in travelling. Show and
splendour are reserved for the country ; and it is there
more especially that an interchange of visits, fetes, and
pleasure-parties, takes place.

The national literature, as expressive of manners and
customs, contains throughout marks of this distinc-
tive trait in the English character. England is the
country of descriptive poetry ; almost all their poets have

COUNTRY LIFE. 127

lived in the country, and sung of it. Even when English
poetry took ours for its model, Pope celebrated Windsor
Forest, and wrote pastorals : if his style was not rural,
his subjects were. Before him Spenser and Shakespeare
wrote admirable rustic poetry ; the song of the lark and
nightingale still resounds, after the lapse of centuries, in
Juliet's impassioned farewell to Eomeo. Milton — the
sectarian Milton — employed his finest verse in a descrip-
tion of the first garden, and in the midst of revolutions
and business his fancy carried- him towards the ideal
fields of Paradise Lost.

But it was principally after theEevolution of 1 688, when
England, now free, began to be herself, that all her writers
became deeply impressed with the love of country life.
It was then that Gray and Thomson appeared ; the first
in his celebrated Elegies, and among others his " Country
Churchyard," the other in his poem of the Seasons, strik-
ing in delightful sounds this favourite chord of the British
lyre. The Seasons abound with admirable description ;
it is sufficient to instance the hay-making harvest and
sheep-shearing, the latter being already in Thomson's time
a great business in England; and among the pleasures
of the country, his account of trout-fishing. The angler,
at the present day, may find in this little descriptive
picture his favourite art fully detailed. The feeling
is everywhere lively and spontaneous — enthusiasm, real
and deep, for the beauties of nature and the sweets of
labour. To these Thomson joins that quiet high reli-
gious feeling which almost always accompanies a soli-
tary and laborious life, in the presence of the never-
ending wonders of the vegetable creation. It pervades
the whole poem, especially in the concluding part, where
he likens the awakening of the human soul after death
to nature after winter.

128 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

It was at the very time when desertion of the country
with us had reached its height that Thomson was cele-
brating its praises : this was in 1 730. The nobles, attracted
to court by Eichelieu and Louis XIV., at last gave up all
thoughts about their paternal estates in the orgies of the
Eegency. Agriculture, enfeebled by the extravagances of
Versailles, gradually lost all vitality; and French litera-
ture/"" having other topics to occupy it, could only afford
to the cultivation of our land this terrible description of La
Bruyere, which will ever remain as a cry of remorse from
the Great Age : " We behold throughout the country a
set of ferocious-looking creatures, both male and female,
dark, livid, and scorched with the sun, attached to the
land which they dig and grub with an untiring pertina-
city : their voice has a resemblance to that of man, and
when they rise on their feet, they exhibit a human counte-
nance ; they are, in fact, men. At night they retire to
dens, where they live upon black bread, water, and roots.
They save other men the labour of sowing and reaping,
and certainly do not deserve to be without that bread
which they themselves have sown."

In the Henriade, which made its appearance about the
same time as the Seasons, it is mentioned that there was
not even grass for the horses. This total neglect of na-
ture continued up to the time when English ideas began
to find general favour in literature and society ; that is to
say, the years which preceded the Eevolution of 1789.

The English novels of the eighteenth century in some
way interest all in favour of a country life. While France
was busy with the stories of Voltaire, and the romances
of the younger Crebillon, England was reading the Vicar
of Wakefield, Tom Jones, and Clarissa. Goldsmith, de-
scribing Mr Primrose, says, "The hero of this piece unites

* We must except Fontaine, who had an ardent love of the country.

COUNTRY LIFE. 129

in himself the three greatest characters on earth : he is a
priest, a husbandman, and the father of a family." This
sentence embraces a set of ideas peculiar to Protestant
and agricultural England. The whole romance is only a
commentary upon it; it is a picture of the interior of a
poor country clergyman's family. The Protestant minis-
ter, with a wife and children, has other duties than the
Catholic priest; he must support his family, and this
necessity obliges him to combine temporal work with
his spiritual occupations. The farm which Mr Prim-
rose rented was only twenty acres, but it satisfied his
ambition ; he cultivates it with care, assisted by his son
Moses, while his wife, who had not her match for goose-
berry wine, prepares the simple repast of the household.
On Sunday, when the weather is fine, the family, after
Divine service, go and seat themselves under a shady bank
of hawthorn and honeysuckle; the table-cloth is spread
upon a heap of hay, and they dine happily in the open
air; while two blackbirds in opposite hedges answer to
each other's notes, and the tame robin comes and pecks
the crumbs from the fair hands of the vicar's daughters.
It is in the midst of one of these happy scenes that the
hunted stag is run down, and the lord of the manor upon
his horse makes his appearance.

In other novels, the heroes are all represented as living
in the country. Among others, Mr Western is a type of
the squire — great hunters and drinkers, according to all
accounts. As we approach our own time, the love of
natural scenery becomes more and more general, and is
taken up by the arts. Poets sing only of the beauties of
English landscape, painters represent only farm scenes.
The lakes, with their wild scenery, give inspiration to a
special school. The more war rages on the Continent, so
does the natural love of contrast in man turn the mind

130 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

of the nation all the more to the peace and security of
rural life. When revolutions disturb the world, it is then
especially that the mind seeks to breathe the freshness of
natural scenery. England enjoys long draughts of this
happiness ; a common feeling of disapprobation and
security leads her back to conservative ideas and agri-
cultural habits.

Among others, hear what Coleridge says of this national
felicity, defended by the ocean : —

ft 0 Albion ! 0 my mother isle !
Thy valleys, fair as Eden's bowers,
Glitter green with sunny showers ;
Thy grassy uplands' gentle swells

Echo to the bleat of flocks ;
(Those grassy hills, those glittering dells,

Proudly ramparted with rocks),
And ocean, mid its uproar wild,
Speaks safety to his island- child.'

A traveller in England, forty years ago, facetiously re-
marked, " I would not advise the cottages there to attack
the mansions, for as the latter are twenty to one, the
former would soon be overwhelmed." With still greater
truth might the same remark be made at the present day,
for the wealthier habitations have gone on increasing.
The same individual remarked, that in England the poor
are swept like a heap of rubbish into a corner. The ex-
pression, though harsh, conveys a true picture of the
appearance of the country in England, for poverty ap-
pears to have been all swept into the towns. Just as
elsewhere great attention is paid to the handsome parts
of large cities, so in England it is the country from whence
everything that may offend the eye is removed, that the
mind may have only peace and contentment to dwell
upon.

In travelling through England, one cannot help being
constantly impressed with the contrast between town and

COUNTRY LIFE. 131

country, so different is it from what one meets with in
France and the Continent generally. The largest towns,
like Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, or Leeds, are in-
habited only by workmen and shopkeepers, and the parts
of the town occupied by their dwellings have a poor
and melancholy appearance. Few or no ornamental
buildings ; little or no luxury ; nothing to be heard but
the noise of trades, and nothing but busy people to be
seen. The stranger as well as the inhabitant hastens to
get out of the smoke and dirt, to breathe beyond it a
purer air, and to escape the sight of that incessant work
which does not always keep away misery. In London,
even, the people think more of business than pleasure ;
and this is the reason why our good Parisians find them-
selves so much out of their element there ; they do not
meet with congenial tastes in London.

I never experienced this difference so much as in going
from Chats worth to Sheffield. Chats worth is one of the
finest of those princely residences of the English aristo-
cracy, where such kingly luxury is displayed. This
splendid palace is surrounded with a finely -timbered
park of several leagues in circumference, stocked with
deer, sheep, and cattle, all grazing together. Fountains,
artificial cascades, and ornamental basins, almost rival the
celebrated decorations of Versailles and St Cloud ; an
immense conservatory constructed with iron and glass,
and which gave the idea for the Great Exhibition building,
contains quite a forest of tropical trees ; an entire village
of handsome cottages, picturesquely situated, has been
built by the proprietor for his workmen and labourers ;
the river Derwent, winding beautifully through the park,
seems almost as if it were designed by art ; and encom-
passing this scene, already so grand, are the Derbyshire
mountains, forming a magnificent horizon to the whole :

132 KURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

everything there has an air of wealth, luxury, and power.
Once beyond the barren ridge which separates you from
the country of York, and arrived at the neighbouring
town, everything changes. Nothing but blazing fur-
naces, hammers, and anvils, chimneys vomiting thick
smoke, a population of blacksmiths moving about like
spectres amidst flames : one may compare it to the infer-
nal regions at the gate of paradise.

The Duke of Devonshire's mansion is a specimen, on a
large scale, of all the residences of country gentlemen in
England. Every proprietor of any consideration has his
park ; the park — the forest, on a small scale — is the sign
of feudal possession, the necessary appendage to the man-
sion. The number of parks in England is enormous, vary-
ing in size from many thousand to only a few acres. The
largest, the oldest, those which alone deserve the name
of parks, are laid down on all the maps. Within the
bounds of the park, even those of the most modest pre-
tensions, game of all kinds is preserved, and cattle grazed.
The proprietor enjoys quite a pastoral scene from his own
windows, and can take rides along his own avenues, or
enjoy his shooting at a few paces from his own door.
Here he lives in the bosom of his family, far from the
tumult of life, imitating the life of the nobleman, as the
farmer does that of the independent gentleman.

The passion of the English for country sports is weU
known. Those country gentlemen who cannot afford to
have a pack of hounds of their own, unite to keep one by
subscription. The hunting-days are advertised before-
hand in the newspapers, and subscribers assemble on
horseback at the appointed place. At certain seasons,
fashion attracts thousands of these red-coated hunters to
particular parts of England or Scotland to enjoy this
sport, which involves actual danger. Sometimes it is the

COUNTRY LIFE. 133

fox they hunt at Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire; at
other times they shoot grouse on the most inaccessible
of the Highland mountains. All England is taken up
with these amusements ; the newspapers publish the
names of the best shots and the most skilful riders, also
the number of head of game killed. When the shoot-
ing season begins, Parliament breaks up. Women even
prefer these amusements to all others : give a young
English girl her choice between a ride on horseback and
a soiree or a ball, there is no doubt about which she will
prefer ; and there is nothing delights her more than a
gallop across the country.

When a man has not the good fortune to possess a
country place of his own, he will at least have it in ap-
pearance. Every town has its public park, which is just
a large grass field with fine trees in it. In London, cows
and sheep are to be seen quietly grazing in the Green Park,
or Hyde Park, amidst the incessant noise of carriages
passing along Piccadilly. The man constantly occupied
in business may at least see, in passing, a corner of Eden.
It is the desire of all to have their place of residence as
far as possible from the heart of the town, so as to be
nearer the fields ; and in the summer all escape as soon
as they can, to visit a friend at his farm, or to make a few
days' tour in some pretty part of the country. Wherever
the scenery is at all picturesque, there the people flock to
enjoy that quiet happiness peculiar to the English. The
favourite trip is into Scotland, where one may breathe
the pure air of the heather hills, and picture to himself
the roving life of the caterans, as described by Sir Walter
Scott.

The English sovereigns show the first example for
this universal predilection, living as they do as little as
possible in town. The fancy farm of Trianon was but a

134 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

shortlived amusement to Louis XVI. and Marie Antoin-
ette, but Queen Victoria and Prince Albert take a real
pleasure in farming. The Prince has a farm at Windsor,
where the finest cattle in the three kingdoms are bred and
fattened. His produce generally gains the first prizes at
the agricultural shows. At Osborne, where she spends the
greatest part of the year, the Queen herself takes great inte-
rest in her poultry-yard ; and the newspapers have lately
announced a cure which her Majesty has discovered for a
particular disease among turkeys. We may laugh at
this, but our neighbours take it very seriously, and they
have good reason for doing so too. Happy and wise
among nations is the people which loves to see its princes
engaged in useful relaxations !

The beneficial effects produced upon the land by the
habitual residence of families at their country places
may easily be conceived. While, in France, field-labour
goes to pay for town luxury, in England town-work pays
for the luxury of the country. Almost everything which
the most industrious nation in the world can produce
is there consumed, to the benefit of farming. The more
a proprietor lives on his property, the more disposed is
he to keep it in good order. Pride is the great stimulus.
A man does not like to let his neighbours see buildings
in ruins, bad roads, defective harness, ill-conditioned
cattle, neglected fields : he therefore lays out his pride
productively, just as elsewhere it is spent in folly from
the force of example. In England, a man has his pretty
country place just as in Paris they have their fine hotels
and rich furniture.

Taxation itself, which, in France, has an exhausting
influence upon the land, has quite a different effect in
England. All direct taxes are spent upon the spot where
they are collected. The poor-rate and tithes are scarcely

COUNTRY LIFE. 135

paid by the fanner before they are again returned to him
in exchange for his produce. Other taxes in the same
way go to pay for works of local benefit. Half the indi-
rect taxation being absorbed in payment of the public
debt, which belongs for the most part to the landed pro-
prietors, it also in a great measure comes back to the
country residents. While a third, at least, of the French
budget finds its way to Paris, and another third to the
provincial towns, three-fourths of the public expenditure
in England is expended in the country, and, with the
incomes of proprietors and farmers, contributes to dif-
fuse there abundance and life.

We, alas ! are far from such a state of things ; let us
hope that it will be brought about by degrees. Of late,
everything seems tending towards it. The overcrowd-
ing of the wealthy class in the towns, the uncertainty of
the careers they there come to pursue, the feverish air they
breathe, all tend to cause disappointed ambition and tired
hopes to revert to country life. Those who have enough
to keep them comfortably in the country are coming to
the conclusion, that the safest and best course is to reside
there ; and those who do not see this, are very nearly being
forced to it by the constantly increasing difficulty of find-
ing an opening in the town. Besides which, there is a
new element at work tending to effect an entire change
in country life : improved means of communication, and
especially the extension of railways, by shortening dis-
tances, make a constant residence in the country compa-
tible with the pleasures of society, and prevent it inter-
fering with a man's public importance, cultivation of
mind, or the amusements of town life. This will be the
beginning of a healthy revolution in favour of our deserted
fields. We shall probably never be so rural in our habits
as the English ; our towns will never, like theirs, become

136 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

simply workshops of commerce and manufactures ; but
provided we have a majority of the wealthier class again
inhabiting our deserted manors, the change will be a
beneficial one.

As to taxes, it will be no less difficult to divert the
current which carries these towards Paris and the large
towns ; but if anything can mitigate this perpetual drain,
it is a residence of the influential proprietors on their
estates, where they would protect their own interests a
little more, if they were in the habit of looking more
closely into them.

137

CHAPTER X.

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

THE second cause of progress forms really only a part of
the first, although its action is different. This is the good
public feeling of the English, which, for more than a cen-
tury and a half, has preserved them at once from the
power of despotism and from revolutionary disorders —
both so fatal to every kind of labour. Nothing like the
latter half of Louis XIV/s reign, the entire reign of Louis
XV., and the miseries of the Eevolution, has afflicted this
favoured nation. The eighteenth century, so disastrous
to us from beginning to end, was for her a period of con-
tinuous advancement ; and when we began our not unin-
terrupted course, she was three quarters of a century in
advance.

Two hundred years ago, France, in agriculture as in
everything else, was the farthest advanced of the two.
The twelve years which elapsed from the peace of Vervins
to the death of Henry IV., formed perhaps the brightest
of those short periods of prosperity which appear at dis-
tant intervals, brief and rare, in the dark and bloody
course of our history. The annalist has few events to
chronicle during those years, apparently so blank ; they
are not remarkable for either wars or passages of histori-
cal note. Bat the popularity of Henry IV., the only king
the nation ever loved, sufficiently shows what they were.

138 RURAL ECONOMY OP ENGLAND.

To be sure, Sully was not without his faults. His pride,
cupidity, and avarice would have rendered him unbear-
able, had he lived in our day ; even for his own time, he
was excessively prejudiced : he hated commerce and
manufactures, then beginning to dawn ; but fortunately
he failed in his efforts to prevent the introduction of
silk into France. Still, with all his faults, he was right
in one thing — he understood the importance of agricul-
ture, if he mistook that of commerce ; and his encour-
agement sufficed to provoke an agricultural expansion,
surprising for that period.

Oliver de Serres, a contemporaneous writer, has left us
an admirable work, testifying to the general movement
which then took place. The Theatre d' Agriculture ap-
peared in 1600 : its author was a noble Protestant, lord
of Pradel, in Vivarais, who lived a retired life upon his
own estates during the period of religious and political
convulsions. His work, which he dedicated to Henry
IV., is both the best and oldest treatise on agriculture
which exists in any modern language. His name is
one of the glories of France : succeeding times forgot
Jiim ; and when, fifty years ago, he was again brought
to light, after another general peace gave an impetus to
labour, it was truly a resurrection. This is the way we
reward our great men. All the good systems of agricul-
ture were known in Oliver's time ; he gives directions
which might be adopted by our agriculturists at the
present day : production made rapid progress in the
course of a few years, "to the great profit of your people"
he says, addressing the king in his dedication, " dwelling
safely under their fig-tree, cultivating their land, and who,
under shelter of your majesty, have justice and peace
dwelling with them!'

The fatal genius which rules our destinies did not long

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 139

permit this beneficial quiet. The assassination of Henry
IV. again plunged France into chaos ; but the results of
this short period of hope were experienced throughout
the whole century, and the greatness of Eichelieu and
Louis XIV. was in a measure due to the good seed
sown at that time. All historical records testify to our
country districts being then inhabited by a numerous
nobility, whose interests were bound up with those of
the rural population ; the fatal separation which lost all,
did not take place until a subsequent period.

Civilisation, during the middle ages, proceeded always
from south to north. Agriculture, like the arts, flourished
first in Italy. Provence and Languedoc were in early
times the best cultivated parts of France, as being nearest
to the sun. Oliver de Serres was born on the confines
of these two provinces. Great Britain, situated much
farther off, did not receive the impulse till later. After
Elizabeth's reign, that country was still in a barbarous
state. Guichardin, in his time, estimated the popu-
lation of England proper at two millions only, — others
call it four ; now it is sixteen. Three-fourths of the
land lay uncultivated. Bands of desperadoes devas-
tated the country. The nation, convulsed, sought to
be at rest ; but it was necessary that it should pass
through a long series of revolutions before settling
clown ; and meantime agriculture, like other things, suf-
fered. During the whole of the seventeenth century,
France sold corn to Great Britain.

After 1688 everything changed. Clouds gathered
over France, now exhausted by the follies of Louis XIV.
England, on the contrary, revived and renewed in youth,
took a start which was never to be arrested. Instead of
advancing, the population of France fell off, while that
of England rapidly increased. Boisguillebert, Vauban,

140 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

and all records of the time, prove the progressive decline
of French agriculture. England, on the contrary, which,
under the Stuarts, did not produce enough for its own
wants, became a hundred years later the granary of
Europe. Although she had to feed twice the amount of
population, and this population living much better than
before, she sold to foreigners five hundred thousand to
one million quarters of corn, which is enormous, consider-
ing the means of transport at that period. It is calcu-
lated that during the last half of the eighteenth century
England sold to her neighbours, and especially to France,
one milliard of francs (£40,000,000) worth of cereals.

What a prosperous state of things this for her, and
for us how much the reverse during that fatal period !
In the first place, the terrible War of the Succession, the
cruel defeats of Blenheim, Kamillies, and Malplaquet, the
very existence of France jeopardised, and saved as if by
miracle at Denain ; then the Seven Years' War, more dis-
astrous still, the defeat of Kosbach, the loss of our fleets
and colonies, the ministry of Lord Chatham raising upon
our ruins the glory of his own country ; the credit of the
British nation founded upon a long series of success, ours
destroyed by the extortions of tyrants, and the mad Mis-
sissippi Scheme. The English people, happy and proud of
their government, becoming more and more attached to it,
and confidently applying themselves to labour, under pro-
tection of its laws and its victories ; ours, ruined, humili-
ated, oppressed, renouncing useful occupations, the pro-
fits of which were absorbed by the exchequer, and feel-
ing only hatred and contempt for its rulers.

Agriculture, like manufactures, requires especially secu-
rity and freedom. Of all the evils which can come upon
it. none is more fatal than a bad government. Eevolu-
tions and wars afford it some respite, but bad government

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 141

leaves it none. We have sufficiently authentic evidence to
prove into what a state French agriculture had fallen, a
century ago, under the deleterious influence of a detested
regime, in the articles Grains and Fermiers (Corn and
Farmers) of the Encyclopedic, written about 1750, by the
founder of political economy, Dr Quesnay. Our whole
territory (Corsica and a part of Lorraine did not then
belong to France) was estimated by Quesnay at a hun-
dred millions of arpents of fifty-one ares* which is con-
firmed by our present land registry. Out of these one
hundred millions of arpents, he estimated the arable land
at only thirty-six millions, or forty-five millions of acres,
of which eight million acres were under what he calls
large farming, and thirty-seven in small. By large farm-
ing he means that of farmers who used horses for tillage,
and who followed the triennial rotation — wheat, oats, and
fallow ; and by small that of the metayers, who employed
cattle, and followed the biennial rotation, wheat and fal-
low. This division ought to be quite correct, for it still
corresponds with the existing state of things. France
continues still divided into two distinct regions ; the one
in the north, where the lease system prevails, tillage by
horses, and triennial rotation more or less modified ; the
other in the south, where small holdings predominate,
labour by cattle, and biennial rotation. Only, since
1750 the first has gained ground, and the latter has
declined.

Quesnay estimates the average produce in corn of an
arpent, under large farming, at five setiers of 156 litres,
deducting seed, and at two and a-half setiers that of the
small — say seventeen bushels per acre for the one, and
eight and a half for the other, — or altogether, for the

* 40.466 ares = 4840 square yards, or 1 English acre ; 51 ares = about lj acres
English.

142 RUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

million hectares of wheat sown under the large cultiva-
tion, and seven and a half millions of the small, seventy
millions of hectolitres (twenty-four million quarters for
twenty-one million acres). Under the name of corn is
included, in addition to wheat, inferior grain, such as
rye and barley ; the same confusion is still common in
many parts of France. As rye was more generally culti-
vated at that period than wheat, these seventy millions
of hectolitres may be thus approximatively apportioned—
twenty-five millions wheat, and forty-five of rye and barley.
Quesnay adds to this, for the breadth of oats, seven
millions of setiers, or about eleven millions of hectolitres.
At the present day the production of wheat has almost
tripled, that of rye and barley remains the same, and
oats have quadrupled: in 1750, potatoes were scarcely
known ; the valuable addition which they furnish for the
food of cattle and men was then entirely wanting.
Few dry vegetables were cultivated, and many other
products, which are at this day a source of wealth, did
not then exist.

According to Quesnay, the number of horned cattle
was five millions, or just half of what we have now.
As to quality, they were much inferior. The number
slaughtered for human food was four to five hundred
thousand annually, now it is ten times that number ;
and the cattle of that period, having to seek their own
subsistence on the arid wastes, bare fallows, and swampy
meadows, could not be compared in weight to those
of the present day, which are fed on sound grass, or
stall-fed upon roots and artificial fodder. The cattle in
some of the mountainous regions, where the old system
still prevails of feeding them on the coarse natural pas-
ture, may give an idea of all the cattle of that period.
Sheep were certainly neither more numerous nor propor-

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 143

tionately better. The number of pigs might have been
proportioned to the population. As to horses, we know
that Turgot, when he wished in 1776 to reorganise the
Posts, could not procure the six thousand draught-horses
he required. Quesnay makes only a passing remark about
the vine ; Beausobre estimates the annual production of
wine in 1 764 at thirteen million hectolitres''" (343,000,000
gallons), or a third of our present production. Upon the
whole, reckoning the production then at the price of the
present day, we find the total amount to be 1,250,000,000
francs (£50,000,000) at most, as the value of French agri-
culture in 1750.

The population also, although it was not more than
sixteen to eighteen million souls, had reached a degree
of wretchedness beyond all belief. The condition of
the masses was frightful ; and the upper classes suffered
scarcely less amidst the general poverty. Vauban, in
his Dime royale, gives a picture of French society which
makes one shudder. According to the calculation of
Quesnay, the net revenue of the landed proprietors
amounted to 76,000,000 of Hvres for the corn-lands,
and, including the vineyards and other productions, the
amount may be doubled : the livre then was about the
value of a franc now. The farms were let for large
cultivation at 5 livres per arpent, and for small at 20
and 30 sous — say, for the first, 3s. 6d., and the latter 9d.
to Is. per acre. Dupre de Saint-Maur, who was a con-
temporary of Quesnay, even says that in Berry, part of
Champagne, Maine, and Poitou, the farms let at only 15
sous per arpent, or 6d. per acre, and at this rent the
farmers had great difficulty in making a livelihood.

A frightful testimony, among many others, to this
general destitution is found in the Memoirs of the Mar-

* Hectolitre = 26 § wine gallons.

144 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

quis d'Argenson, who thus wrote in 1739, five years
before his appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs to
Louis XV. : " The real evil — that which undermines the
kingdom, and cannot fail to bring ruin upon it — is, that
at Versailles they shut their eyes too much to the dis-
tressing state of things in the provinces. In my own
day I have observed a gradual decrease of wealth and
population in France. We have the present certainty
that misery has become general to an unheard-of degree.
While I write, in the midst of profound peace, with indi-
cations, if not of an abundant, at least of an average
harvest, men are dying around us, like flies, of want,
and eating grass. The provinces of Maine, Angoumois,
Touraine, Haut-Poitou, P^rigord, Orleanais, Berry, are
the most wretched, and the distress is advancing towards
Versailles. The Duke of Orleans lately laid before the
Council a piece of bread, which we got for him, made
of ferns : in placing it upon the king's table, he said,
' Sire, here is what your subjects live upon!"

This is the abyss from which France has had to rise,
and therefore it is not to be wondered at that, after a
century of endeavours, her wounds should not have been
completely healed. During this century, agricultural
production has quadrupled, population has doubled, rents
have risen from 150,000,000 to 1,500,000,000 francs, or in
the proportion of one to ten. This is enormous progress ;
and if our starting-point had not been so low, it would
have sufficed, and been more than enough, to have enabled
us to keep our proper position. No other nation except
England has made as great progress in so short a time ;
and, besides, circumstances during that time were not
always favourable. About fifty years out of the hundred
were disturbed by horrible revolutions and bloody wars.
We had no really good times, excepting the reign of

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 145

Louis XVI., the Consulate, and the thirty-two years of
constitutional monarchy.

The regenerative movement began to be felt after the
peace of 1763, through the preaching of economists in
favour of free trade in grain. Quesnay's articles in the
Encydop6die point out both the wide extent of the evil
and the remedy for it. All the after-progress of national
agriculture was anticipated in these two articles. It
required some time before the new doctrine spread and
took root. Meanwhile old notions disappeared. On
the accession of Louis XVL, hopes of a better state of
things began to dawn. Turgot was the first to extend
a helping hand to the tottering fabric. Considerable re-
forms had already been made previously to 1789 ; free
scope had been given to labour, and free trade in corn
proclaimed. The Constituent Assembly, in its first
deliberations, finished what had been so well begun. The
nation breathed at last. If France of 1789 had known
where to stop, as England did in 1688, its general pros-
perity from that time would no doubt have prodigiously
increased.

The lamentable bouleversement which followed those
days of hope repressed the growing progress. After an
ordeal of ten years, the Consulate afforded some respite to
the country, and the movement, suspended during the
revolutionary storms, again broke forth with a power not
to be repressed. The happy days of the peace of Vervins
returned. But a fresh evil unfortunately arose again to
retard this advance : the fatal wars of the Empire be-
gan, capital again became dispersed, population was once
more decimated upon fields of battle ; it seemed as if the
great principles sown under Louis XVL were never to
arrive at maturity. France had only got a sight of peace
and liberty to see them vanish. It is really only since

K

146 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

1815 that the labouring power of the nation has been
allowed to develop without hindrance, and what the re-
sult has been is well known.

We must go back to the reign of Charles I. to find in
England a condition corresponding to the state in which
France was a hundred years later. A marked advance
took place from 1750. Representative government was
established, and agricultural prosperity increased under
it. That country, which produced hardly two millions
of quarters of wheat under the Stuarts, was already
reaping double in 1750, and was destined to increase
progressively to thirteen, which it now produces. Meat,
beer, wool, every agricultural commodity, followed the
same movement. But besides this, while the rest of
Europe was languishing under oppression, liberty and
security were shedding their genial rays over the fields of
Britain. With the opening of the eighteenth century,
Thomson celebrates these sacred blessings as the founda-
tion of all the rest. " Liberty," he says, " reigns here in the
humblest cottage, and brings with it plenty/' Elsewhere
he exclaims, addressing England, " Thy fields abound in
riches, the possession of which is secure to the contented
labourer." For a hundred and sixty years the noble in-
stitutions which give liberty and protection to persons
and property have existed without interruption, and for
a hundred and sixty years prosperity has followed in
their train.

At the end of the eighteenth century, when the revolu-
tionary wars began, English agriculture was farther
advanced than ours at the present day. This is proved
by many documents ; among others the investigations of
Pitt, at the time he established the income-tax, and the
researches of Arthur Young and Sir John Sinclair. In

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

1798, Pitt estimated the total revenue from land in Eng-
land and Wales at £25,000,000, and the income of the
farmers at £18,000,000. This gives an average of
13s. 6d. per acre for rent, and 10s. for profit. It is very
doubtful, taking even the richest half of France, that a
similar result could be obtained at the present day. A
labourer's wages at that time were, on an average, 7s. 3d.
per week, or 15d. per working day ; and in many places
they were as high as 9s. and 10s., or 20d. per day. It is
again doubtful, taking still the best half of France,
whether agricultural wages are at this moment as high,
and the price of provisions then in England was rather
below than above what it is now in France. The value
of house property amounted, according to Dr Beeke, to
£200,000,000 ; that of land, according to the same
author, to £600,000,000, or equal to £16 per acre, and
at that estimate they were giving an average return of
four per cent.

Such were the fruits of an age of free and unimpeded
development, notwithstanding some casual disasters, such
as the American War. In the half-century which fol-
lowed, from 1800 to 1850, the population has again
doubled, and agricultural production has made almost
an equal progress, in spite of the frightful struggle which
occupied the first fifteen years. Not only did constitu-
tional England succeed at last in conquering that des-
potic power and genius, which was armed with the whole
strength of a nation greatly more numerous and more
warlike than herself, but the steady increase of her inter-
nal wealth was not sensibly retarded by the violence of
the struggle. Never were enclosure bills, for turning
uncultivated lands to account, more numerous than dur-
ing the war with France. It was then that the Norfolk

148 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

rotation made its greatest conquests, the doctrines of
Bakewell and Arthur Young received a more general
application, and large proprietors, such as the Duke
of Bedford, Lord Leicester, and many others, were so
greatly benefited by their large estates.

Scotland and Ireland did not share an equal prosperity
in 1798, because they were less well governed. Pitt
estimated the wealth of Scotland at an eighth of that of
England. As the Highlands ought to be taken at
scarcely anything in this calculation, this wou]d give an
average for the Lowlands of 7s. for the rent, and 4s. for
profit per acre ; but in fact Scotland has not enjoyed
much order and liberty except for the last fifty years.
When treating of Ireland, we shall be better able to
judge of the consequences due to the absence of liberty
and security.

It is perfectly evident, then, that both in France and
England agricultural development has followed in the
train of good government. The rural change which took
place in France between 1760 and 1848, had already
taken place in England between 1650 and 1800; the
producing causes in both cases were the same. The dif-
ference between England under the Stuarts and in the
time of Pitt, is the same as that of France under Louis
XV. and Louis Philippe. But this does not apply to
France and England alone. In ancient as well as in
modern times, agricultural prosperity came and went
with the mode of government. Eepublican Eome culti-
vated its fields admirably; enslaved Eome neglected
them. Spain, during the middle ages, did wonders in
cultivation, while the Spain of Philip II. ceased to work.
Switzerland and Holland fertilise rugged mountains and
hopeless marshes ; the Sicilian starves on the most fertile

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 149

soil. As Montesquieu remarks, in his Esprit des Lois,
" It is not fertility, but liberty, which cultivates a
country."

Liberty has been all the more influential in England,
owing to its not having been accompanied by those dis-
orders which have too often tarnished and disgraced it
elsewhere. Notwithstanding those apparent agitations
which, with the most sober-minded people, the exercise
of political rights always involves, the basis of English
society remained tranquil. Changes which time brings
about, and which constitute the life of nations, have
been effected imperceptibly, and without any of those
violent shocks which are always destructive to capital :
even the event of 1688 had the least possible of a revolu-
tionary character. This national moderation is usually
ascribed to aristocratic influence. No doubt aristocracy
had its weight in the matter, but so far only as its influ-
ence in society extends. For a long time past the British
Government has seemed to be more aristocratic than it
really was, but now even the appearance diminishes
daily.

The true ballast of the body politic — the salt of society,
that which holds it together — is the country feeling.
This feeling, no doubt, is of an aristocratic kind,
but it is not aristocracy itself ; both may exist inde-
pendently. British aristocracy has made common cause
with the country feeling, and this is what constitutes its
strength ; French aristocracy holds itself aloof from it,
and herein lies its weakness. In England, the country
life of the upper classes has, in the first place, produced
energetic and high-minded habits, out of which the con-
stitution has taken its rise ; and then, owing to these very
habits, liberty has been prevented from running into

150 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

excesses. This liberal and conservative element has been
wanting to us in France. In our own day, as formerly,
absenteeism has effected, even in a political point of view,
nearly all the mischief; and this is the reason why these
two apparently distinct causes of prosperity — liberty
without revolutions, and the country feeling — are really
but one.

lol

CHAPTER XL

MARKETS.

I COME now to the more immediate, the most effective
of the causes which have contributed to the advancement
of British agriculture ; namely, the simultaneous develop-
ment of the greatest industrial power, and the richest
commerce in the world. These are really only part and
parcel of those just mentioned, for industry and commerce,
like agriculture itself, are the offspring of liberty, order,
and peace ; and these prime conditions originating for the
most part with the rural portion of the nation, the whole
may be said to proceed from this common source. But
just as the consequences of liberty and peace are to be
distinguished in their effects from those belonging to rural
life, properly so called, so may those which proceed from
industrial and commercial development be considered
apart; and the latter are the most active. If it were
possible for a nation to be largely engaged in manufactures
and commerce without possessing either security or
liberty, this of itself would be sufficient to cause great
agricultural prosperity ; arid if it were possible for a nation
to possess liberty and peace without becoming, from that
sole fact alone, large manufacturers and traders, liberty
and peace would not be sufficient, even with the aid of
rural habits, to produce an equal amount of prosperity.
Some minds, judging more from appearances than

152 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

reality, have looked upon commerce and manufactures as
enemies and rivals to agriculture. This fatal error is re-
markably current in France ; it cannot be too much com-
bated, as nothing is more hurtful to agricultural interests.
In reality, the distinction between agriculture and manu-
factures is false : to bring the land into cultivation is also a
manufacture, and the transport, the sale, and the purchase
of agricultural produce is also a trade. Only this kind
of manufacture and commerce, being altogether of prime
necessity, can dispense a little more with skill and
capital than the others ; but then they remain in a state
of infancy; and when these two powerful aids are sup-
plied, they become a hundred times more fruitful. Even
admitting the distinction which usage puts between the
terms, there can be no profitable agriculture without pro-
fitable manufactures. This is in some measure a mathe-
matical axiom, for commerce and manufactures can alone
abundantly provide agriculture with the two most power-
ful agents of production which exist — namely, markets
and capital.

From the reign of Queen Anne, England visibly takes
the lead of France in manufactures and commerce — that
is to say, in everything ; for this advance supposes and
includes all others. After the American War, when the
nation, afflicted at the loss of its principal colony, sought
compensation for the loss by falling back on' its own
resources, the start it took was unrivalled ; it was then
that Adam Smith appeared, and immortalised himself in
a work which showed the causes of the wealth and great-
ness of nations. Then appeared the great inventors,
Arkwright and Watt, who seem, as it were, the instruments
for practically carrying out Adam Smith's theories ; then
William Pitt arose, to bring the same spirit into the
administration of public affairs ; finally, Arthur Young

MARKETS. 153

and Bakewell made their appearance, only to apply the
new ideas to agriculture.

The system of Arthur Young is very simple ; it is
comprehended in one word, the meaning of which was
fixed by Adam Smith — Markets. Up to that time the
English farmers had, like all those of the Continent,
worked with little view to a market. Most agricultural
productions were consumed on the spot by the producers
themselves, and although in England more was sold for
consumption beyond the farm than anywhere else, it was
not export which regulated production. Arthur Young
was the first who made the English agriculturists under-
stand the increasing importance of a market ; that is to
say, the sale of agricultural produce to a population not
contributing to produce it. This non-agricultural popu-
lation, which up to that time was inconsiderable, began
to develop, and since then its increase has been immense,
owing to the expansion of manufactures and commerce.

Everybody knows what enormous progress the em-
ployment of steam, as a motive power, has effected in
British manufactures and commerce during the last fifty
years. The principal seat of this amazing activity is in
the north-west of England, the county of Lancaster, and
its neighbour, the West Riding of Yorkshire. There Man-
chester works cotton, Leeds wool, Sheffield iron, and the
port of Liverpool, with its constant current of exports
and imports, feeds an indefatigable production ; there an
incessant excavation goes on of that subterranean world,
appropriately called by the English their Black Indies —
an immense reservoir of coal which covers several coun-
ties with its ramifications, and throws up in all direc-
tions its inexhaustible treasures. The quantity of coal
annually raised is estimated at forty millions of tons;
this, at 10s. per ton, is equal to twenty millions ster-

154 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

ling, which indicates a gigantic manufacturing production,
since coal is the material of first importance in all manu-
factures.

Under this impulse, the population of Great Britain,
from ten millions in 1801, has risen to twenty in 1851 ;
that of Lancashire and the West Riding has tripled ;
there is perhaps no other place in the world where the
population is more dense. France can show nothing
like it : its total population during the same period has
increased not more than a fourth ; from twenty-seven
millions she has reached thirty-six, and her most populous
departments, those of the Rhone and the Nord, after the
Seine, which forms an exception, as well as London, count
only two of a population to the hectare.

The more populous the country, the less proportion
does the agricultural population bear to the whole mass
of the people. Towards the end of the last century, the
return of the number of agriculturists in England, as
compared to the total population, might be about the
same as it is at present with us — that is to say, about
sixty per cent.

Since then, as population increased, this proportion has
become reduced ; not that the rural population has de-
creased, for it has, on the contrary, slightly increased, but
because the manufacturing population has increased in a
far greater ratio. In 1800, it was reckoned that there
were about nine hundred thousand agricultural families
in Great Britain ; now there may probably be a million.
In 1811, the number of non-agricultural families had
already reached one million six hundred thousand ; in
1821, two millions; in 1841, two and a half millions;
now it may be put down at five millions. In general,
the rural population amounts to a fourth of the whole ;
but in particular parts it is much less. In Middlesex

MARKETS. 155

there are two cultivators of the land for every hundred
of the population ; in Lancashire, six ; in the West Riding,
ten ; in Warwick and Staffordshire, fourteen.

In no part of France, not even in the department of
the Seine, do we find such a disproportion. For an urban
population, what is Paris with its million of souls, com-
pared to the gigantic metropolis of the British empire,
which reckons not less than two and a half millions of
inhabitants 1 What is Lyons, even with its appendage
St Etienne, compared to that- mass of manufacturing
towns grouped around Liverpool and Manchester, and
which form in the aggregate a population of three mil-
lions of souls'? One-third of the English nation is con-
gregated on these two points — London in the south, and
the manufacturing towns of Lancashire and the West
Riding in the north.

These human ant-hills are as rich as they are numerous.
Many workmen in England receive from 4s. to 8s. a-day ;
the average wage may be reckoned at 2s. 6d. What be-
comes of the immense amount of wages paid to this mass
of workmen every year? It goes, in the first place, to
pay for bread, meat, beer, milk, butter, cheese, which are
directly supplied by agriculture, and woollen and linen
clothing, which it indirectly furnishes. There exists,
consequently, a constant demand for productions which
agriculture can hardly satisfy, and which is for her, in
some measure, an unlimited source of profit. The power
of these outlets is felt over the whole country ; if the
farmer has not a manufacturing town beside him to take
off his produce, he has a port ; and should he be distant
from both, he brings himself into connection with them
by canal, or by one or more lines of railway.

These improved modes of transit not only serve to
carry off, rapidly and at a moderate expense, what the

156 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

farmer has to sell, but they bring him in the same way
what he requires — among other things, manures and
improvers, such as guano, bones, rags, lime, gypsum,
soot, oil-cake, &c., all heavy and bulky articles, which
could not easily be conveyed otherwise, and the abun-
dance of which supposes a very active industrial de-
velopment. Among these are also iron and coal, which
are every day more and more used in agriculture, and
which, to a certain extent, represent industry itself.
Something more productive still than coal, iron, and
animal and mineral substances, namely, the spirit of specu-
lation, travels along with them from the manufacturing
centres, where it rises, to the fields, where it finds fresh
elements to work upon, and brings with it capital : a
fruitful interchange, which enriches manufactures by
agriculture, and agriculture by manufactures.

Notwithstanding the great facility of transport by
steamers and railroads, a sensible difference exists in the
gross and net agricultural produce between counties
which are exclusively agricultural and those which are
at the same time manufacturing.

The manufacturing districts par excellence, commenc-
ing with Warwickshire in the south, and ending with the
West Riding of Yorkshire, are those in which rents,
profits, and agricultural wages rise highest. There the
average rent is 30s. per acre, and a country labourer's
wages 12s. a- week; whilst in the district exclusively
agricultural lying to the south of London, the average
rent is not more than 20s. per acre, and wages 8s. a- week.
The intermediate counties approach more or less to these
two extremes, according as they are more or less manu-
facturing, and everywhere the rate of land and wages is
a sure criterion of the development of local industry.

It is pretty generally believed that pauperism prevails

MARKETS.

more in the manufacturing than in other districts. This
is quite a mistake. It is shown, from a table published
by Mr Caird in his excellent letters upon English agri-
culture, that in the West Hiding, Lancashire, Cheshire,
Stafford, and Warwick, the poor's -rate is about Is. in
the pound, to 3s. or 4s. a-head, and the number of poor
three to four per cent of the population ; whilst in the
agricultural counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Bucks, Bedford,
Berks, Sussex, Hants, Wilts, Dorset, &c., it exceeds 2s. in
the pound, or 10s. a-head, and the number of paupers is
thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and even sixteen per cent of the
population. The cause of this difference is easily under-
stood ; the number of paupers and the cost of their main-
tenance increases as the rate of wages becomes lower.
Although the working population be three or four times
more dense in the manufacturing than in other parts of
the country, its condition there is better, because it pro-
duces more.

What has hitherto appeared to us as a series of pro-
blems, is now, if I mistake not, found to be perfectly
explained.

In the first place, as to the organisation of farming.
What characterises English rural economy, is, we know,
not so much large farming properly so called, as the rais-
ing of farming into a business of itself, and the amount
of capital at the disposal of professional farmers. These
two features are both due to the immense opening found
in the non-agricultural population.

If we transport ourselves to France, to the most back-
ward departments of the centre and south, where the
metayer system predominates, what do we there find ?
A thinly-scattered population, at the most not exceeding
on an average one-third that of the English — one head
only, in place of three, to five acres — and that population

158 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

almost entirely agricultural ; few or no large towns,
little or no manufactures, trade confined to the limited
wants of the inhabitants ; the centres of consumption
distant, means of communication costly and difficult,
and expenses of transport equal to the entire value of
the produce. The cultivator has little or nothing to
dispose of. Why does he work ? To feed himself and
his master with the produce of his labour. The master
divides the produce with him, and consumes his por-
tion : if it is wheat and wine, master and mdtayer eat
wheat and drink wine ; if it is rye, buckwheat, potatoes,
these they consume together. Wool and flax are shared
in like manner, and serve to make the coarse stuffs with
which both clothe themselves : should there happen to
remain over a few lean sheep, some ill-fed pigs, or some
calves, reared with difficulty by overworked cows, whose
milk is disputed with their offspring, these are sold to
pay taxes.

Great fault has been found with this system ; how-
ever, it is the only one possible where markets are
wanting. In such a country agriculture can be neither
a profession, a speculation, nor an industry. To specu-
late there must be the means of selling, and that is im-
possible where there is no one to buy. When I say no one,
it is to strengthen the hypothesis, for such an extreme
case is rarely met with. There are always in France,
even in the most retired districts, some buyers, though
limited in number. It is sometimes a tenth, sometimes
a fifth, sometimes a fourth of the population who earn a
livelihood otherwise than by agriculture ; and as the
number of consumers increases, the condition of the cul-
tivator improves, unless he himself pays the incomes of
these consumers under the form of judicial expenses or
usurious interest for money, which some of them at least

MARKETS. 159

do ; but a tenth, fifth, or even the fourth of a population
is not enough to furnish a sufficient market, especially if
this population is not itself a producing one — that is to
say, engaged in trade or manufactures.

In this state of things, as there is no interchange, the
cultivator is obliged to produce those articles which are
most necessary for life — that is to say, cereals : if the soil
yields little, so much the worse for him ; but he has no
choice — he must produce corn or die of hunger. Now on
bad land there is no more expensive cultivation than this ;
even on good, if care is not taken, it soon becomes burthen-
some ; but under these conditions of farming no one
thinks of taking account of the expense. The labour
is not for profit, but for life : cost what it may, corn
must be had, or at all events rye. As long as the popu-
lation is scanty, the evil is not overwhelming, because
there is no want of land : long fallows enable the land
to produce something ; but as soon as the population
begins to increase, the soil ceases to be sufficient for
the purpose ; and a time soon arrives when the popula-
tion suffers severely for want of food.

Let us now take the most populous and most indus-
trious part of France — the north-west ; still we do not
find there a population quite analogous to that of the
English, — two head only per five acres, in place of three.
It is double, however, that which we have anywhere else,
and one-half of this population give their attention to
commerce, manufactures, and the liberal professions. The
country, properly speaking, is not more thickly populated
than the centre and south of France ; but we there find,
in addition, numerous wealthy manufacturing towns—
and among them is the largest and most opulent of all,
Paris. A large trade is there carried on in agricultural
commodities : corn, wine, cattle, wool, fowls, eggs, milk, &c.,

160 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

are directed from all parts to the towns, where they
are paid for by manufactured goods. Consequently the
lease becomes possible, and in fact introduces itself. This
is the true cause of the lease ; its existence is a sure
indication of an economical condition, where the sale of
commodities is the rule, and where, consequently, farming
may become a specific branch of industry.

This industry begins as soon as a regular market for
it is opened — that is to say, as soon as the industrial
and commercial populations exceed a certain proportion,
whether it be immediately on the spot, or at a sufficiently
moderate distance, with easy means of communication,
so that the expenses of transit do not absorb the profits :
it becomes more and more flourishing as the market be-
comes greater and more approachable — that is, the nearer
its vicinity to large towns or great centres of manufacture.
In that case the market suffices to create profits which
rapidly increase capital, farming becomes more and more
prosperous, and progresses towards its maximum. This
is the case in the departments nearest to Paris. About
one-half of France is more or less in this position, the
other half possesses only uncertain markets : nothing is
easier than to distinguish the two at a glance, — in the
one the lease prevails, in the other the metayer system.

In England, the half without markets has long ceased
to exist ; in all parts the rural population finds itself near
another community ; everywhere the outlet for its pro-
duce is as large as in the best parts of France, and in
some places much greater. This makes the difference
between the two agricultures. Take those parts of both
France and England where the outlet is equal, and of
as long standing, because time must be reckoned in the
comparison, and you will most certainly find a similar
agricultural development, whatever be the conditions

MARKETS. 161

otherwise of property and farming. Every other con-
sideration depends upon this.

As soon as the producer finds a large sale for his com-
modities, his attention is naturally directed to questions
to which hitherto he had not paid any attention ; for
instance, what produce brings the highest price relatively
to its cost of production ? By what means is the cost of
production to be reduced, in order to increase the net
profit ifln this consists the whole agricultural revolution.
The first consequence is the abandonment of those crops
wThich, in a given situation, are not profitable, throwing
the attention of the producer upon those which pay
best ; the second is the discovery of methods for econo-
mising labour, thereby rendering it more productive//

Why does the English farmer, for example, give a
preference to the production of meat ? It is not only
because the animals maintain, by means of their manure,
the fertility of the land, but also because meat is an article
very much in demand, and which sells with the greatest
facility throughout England. If our French producers
could all at once furnish as much meat, the price would
fall below the expenses of production, because the de-
mand is not great enough. Our population at present is
not rich enough to pay for meat ; we must wait until
manufactures and commerce have made sufficient progress
to furnish the means of exchange. In proportion as we
make progress in these the demand will increase, and
our producers will then set themselves to supply it ; it
would be madness to expect them to do it sooner. With-
out Arkwright and Watt, Bakewell would have been im-
possible ; the latter appeared just at the moment when
the impetus given to industrial production rapidly in-
creased the demand for meat. We do not require to go
so far as England to see that the production of this food

L

162 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

becomes abundant as soon as there is a sufficient market
for it. The parts of the country where it is most largely
produced with us are those where it is dearest — that is
to say, most in demand ; it is cheapest in the south, and
the south hardly produces any. In 1770 meat sold in
England at 3d. per Ib. ; the price now, after all that has
been done to increase the production of every kind of
cattle, is 6d., or just double. These figures speak volumes.

With respect to milk, is it surprising that milch cows
should be so numerous, when milk sells currently in
most parts of England at 2d. or 3d. per quart \ The
working classes in England consume a great deal of
milk. Near manufacturing towns, the average produce
of a milch cow is valued at £20, and it is not uncommon
for some to yield as much as £40. Butter, which in
1770 sold for 6d. per Ib., now sells for Is., — it also has
doubled. Put our farmers in a similar position, and see
if they will not have as good and as well-kept cows.
Look what the proximity of Paris has done for the pro-
ducers of Gournay and Isigny.

The cultivation of wheat in place of rye is another
consequence of the same principle. In the districts of
France furthest from markets, the suppression of the
rye crop is quite impossible ; for, in the first place, the
mdtayer must have food. He must be near a market to
do otherwise than grow rye, even should the land be
unsuitable for cereals and most favourable for other
crops, because there must be the opportunity for selling
the new produce in order to buy corn. The substitu-
tion of wheat for rye presents the same difficulties, for it
requires disbursements for lime and other expenses ; and
why make the change, if wheat is in little demand, or not
wanted at all \ Wherever the demand for wheat is on
the increase — that is, where there is a population which

MARKETS. 163

will pay dear enough for its bread — the transition takes
place even in France. It has already taken place every-
where in England, because the working classes earn suffi-
cient to pay for white bread.

The employment of horses in place of cattle, the use
of machinery to economise manual labour, are all owing
to this. The grand economical principle of division of
labour is practised under every form. The farmer with
no market for his produce seeks, above all, to curtail his
expenses, because he lacks the means of replenishing his
purse ; the farmer who is sure of a good market does not
shrink from useful expenditure.

The owner of property in this respect is no better off
than the farmer. Where small property is found to be
unremunerative, the absence of a market is chiefly the
cause. A man with a small capital has no inducement to
become farmer, when the chance of profit is small and
uncertain. His object also is to live so that the least
possible demand may be made upon his purse ; and
what better method of securing his subsistence, when
opportunities of interchange are wanting, than to invest
his little all in a piece of land and to work it himself ?
It was so in England before the great markets were
opened. The yeoman did not find it profitable to turn
farmer until the great industrial movement took place.
Arthur Young was the theorist, not the actual promoter
of this revolution : it was Watt and Arkwright who
effected it.

The same causes which enhance profits raise rents.
We have, to a certain extent, seen this to be the case,
when, in the reign of Louis XVL, trade in agricultural
produce became free. We have seen rents rise gradually
from 3 francs per hectare to 30 francs, according as in-
dustrial and commercial wealth progressed. We see it at

164 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

this day reach 100 francs and upwards, in the depart-
ments where a non-agricultural population abounds, and
fall to 1 0 in those where it is wanting. If we had every-
where the same outlets as in England, no doubt our
average rent would very soon be equal to that of our
neighbour ; that is to say, double what it is now. Only
double the rent, and, even without changing the actual
condition of property, many of our poor proprietors
would become, by this means alone, rich proprietors. We
should immediately have the exact equivalent of the
English gentry.

There are, moreover, two kinds of property : the fixed,
called in England real property, and the movable or
personal property. The income from real property for
the three kingdoms is estimated at £120,000,000 sterling,
or three milliards of francs. Land, properly so called,
figures for only half of this : the rest is from house pro-
perty, mines, quarries, canals, railways, fisheries, &c. The
value of house property alone is nearly as much as the
land itself. In Great Britain, the income from land is
£46,000,000 sterling, while that of houses is £40,000,000.
The income from personal property may, at the same
time, be valued at £80,000,000 sterling, or two milliards
of francs, deducting interest paid to mortgagees, already
included as income from properties mortgaged. It fol-
lows, therefore, that the rent of land, so high relatively,
does not amount to a third of the income of English
proprietors.

We see now how they come to be, on an average,
richer than ours. In the first place, they are propor-
tionately much less numerous ; and then, again, (and this
is the main reason), they have a much larger revenue to
be divided among them. With us the income from land,
which, to begin with, is proportionately less than the

MARKETS. 165

whole rents of land in England, is not very much less
than the half of the income from all capital, both fixed
and personal together. Small as the distribution of
other wealth is in other hands, very little of it is found
in the hands of 'our landed proprietors. In England, on
the contrary, there are few landed proprietors who, in
addition to the income from their land, have not an
equally large, and oftentimes larger income, from houses,
railway shares, government stocks, &c. Many of them
are proprietors of coal-pits which have yielded them, and
every day bring them in, immense sums. Others have
property upon which are constructed manufactories,
dwelling-houses, canals, or railways, and from which
they have profited by a rise in value.

It is well known that the Marquess of Westminster, the
Duke of Bedford, and others, own a great part of the land
upon which London stands, and which is let upon long
leases. And it is the same with almost all the English
towns. Since the year 1800, 1,500,000 new houses have
been built in England alone, 6000 miles of railway have
been opened, and an enormous number of coal-pits and
mines have been set to work. Here are millions annually,
the greater part of which goes into the pockets of the
landed proprietors ; and it is not the great proprietors
only who partake in this good fortune, the middling and
smaller ones have also their share.

Lastly, there is another means which causes a large
portion of the capital created by manufactures to flow
towards landed property — and that is, the acquisition of
estates by wealthy traders. These acquisitions, more
numerous than we in France suppose, add greatly to the
average wealth of property, and contribute to make its
possessors more liberal towards the soil. The new pro-
prietors bring into the administration of their country

166 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

estates an amount of resources and speculative boldness,
which to the same extent is rarely found among the
others ; as witness one example among a thousand. Mr
Marshall, the son of a rich Leeds manufacturer, pur-
chased, some years ago, 1000 acres of land, at Patrington,
near the mouth of the Humber, in the East Eiding of
Yorkshire. The enormous expense to which he went in
rebuilding offices, erecting steam-engines, draining, liming,
&c., is well known throughout England.

Such things take place in France every day, but, no
doubt, of a less striking character, because industrial pur-
suits are less productive, though the features and cir-
cumstances are the same. "What fortunes have been made
during the last fifty years on the lands about Paris, and
other towns of France ! What large indemnities have
already been paid for railways, canals, mines, manufac-
tories ! What doubling of rents, caused by the opening
of new means of communication, or the development of
neighbouring large hives of industry ! Finally, what
quantities of land every day pass from insolvent and
poor hands into wealthy ones ! It is the natural progres-
sive movement of society, a movement which is acceler-
ated when not hindered by any political catastrophe.

Keduced to these limits, the agricultural question is
nothing more than one of general prosperity. If French
society, retarded by all the obstacles which itself origin-
ated, could ever have fifty years before it such as those
which have elapsed from 1815 and 1848, it would no
doubt regain in agriculture, as in everything else, the
distance which separates it from its rival. The greatest
difficulties are passed. We, as well as the English, make
use of those powerful means which nowadays increase
the power of labour, and which, applied to almost a new

MARKETS. 167

field, are capable of advancing to an infinite extent the
progress of wealth. Nowhere are railways capable of
producing a more thorough and profitable revolution
than with us. In England these wonderful roads con-
nect only parts already connected by other means of
communication, and whose productions are similar in
character. With us their effect will be to unite regions,
all differing in climate and productions, which have as
yet only imperfect communication one with the other.
It is impossible to predict what may result from such a
radical change.

It is of consequence, then, that our proprietors and
cultivators apprehend clearly the only means of enrich-
ing themselves, lest they hinder their own prosperity.
Their opposition would not arrest the course of things,
bat would render it slow and tedious. All jealousy
between agricultural and industrial and commercial
interests, will only damage both. If you wish to en-
courage agriculture, develop manufactures and commerce,
which multiply consumers ; improve especially the means
of communication, which bring consumers and producers
nearer to each other ; the rest will necessarily follow.
Commerce and manufactures bear the same relation to
agriculture as the cultivation of forage crops and multi-
plication of animals do to cereal production. At first
they seem opposed to each other, but fundamentally there
is such a strong connecting link between them that the
one cannot make any considerable progress without the
other.

Markets — this is the greatest and most pressing re-
quirement of our agriculture. The proceedings to be
adopted in order to augment production do not come
till afterwards. I have pointed out the principal methods

168 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

followed in England, and will shortly point out others.
Our agriculture may there find useful examples ; but I
am far from giving them as models for imitation. Every-
where each soil and climate has its requirements and
resources. The south of France, for example, has scarcely
anything to borrow from English methods ; its agricul-
tural future is nevertheless magnificent. There is only
one law which admits of no exception, and which every-
where produces the same results — that is, the law of
markets.

169

CHAPTER XII.

THE CUSTOMS EEFOKM.

WE have now reviewed the principal causes of the origin
of English agricultural wealth. Its principle lies in the
predilection of the rich for a country life. Besides the
direct advantages arising from this to the land itself,
these inclinations have produced political liberty, and
preserved it from the impure contact of revolutions.
Liberty without revolutions has produced an immense
industrial and commercial development, and these again
have produced great agricultural prosperity : the fruitful
impulse reverts to its starting-point. It remains now to
give an account of a recent event, which appears con-
trary to these premises, but which nevertheless is only
a consequence of it : I mean the customs reform of Sir
Eobert Peel, and the crisis which followed it.

In the midst of its grandeur and wealth, England is
constantly exposed to a great peril — the consequence
even of its wealth — and that is excess of population. It
is now half a century since Malthus, one of its illustrious
sons, raised the cry of alarm for the future. Since then,
the country has had several sad warnings in the riot-
ings caused by scarcity. However rapid may be the
development of agriculture, it has difficulty in keeping
up with the still more rapid advance of population. A
rise in the price of food is the certain effect of this accu-

170 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

mulation of people. We shall now see how useful this
rise has been, inasmuch as it has stimulated agriculture ;
but there is a point where it becomes hurtful, and that is
when it reaches a scarcity price. Then the suffering of
an important portion of the population reacts upon all
the rest, and the whole social machine works distressingly.
Under the state of production which we have pointed
out, and with a population of twenty-eight millions, the
equal distribution of food obtained from agriculture in
the three kingdoms gives the following results : —

Meat, 60 kilogrammes per head,
Wheat, 1| hectolitres,
Barley and oats, 1 hectolitre,
Milk, 72 litres,
Potatoes, 7 hectolitres,
Beer, 1 hectolitre,

130 Ib.

bushels.

16 gallons.
16 bushels.
22 gallons.

Total value, 130 francs, according to English prices ; or 105
with the reduction of twenty per cent.

In France, a similar distribution gives : —

Meat, 28 kilogrammes, j

Fowls and eggs=6 kilogrammes of meat, >
Wheat, 2 hectolitres, . . . 5£ bushels.

Rye and other grain, 1£ hectolitres, . 4| „

Milk, 30 litres, . . . 7 gallons.

Potatoes, 3 hectolitres, ... 8^ bushels.

Vegetables and fruits, value, . . 8 francs.

Wine, 1 hectolitre, .... 22 gallons.

Beer and cider, £ hectolitre, . . « 11 „

Total value, 105 francs.

The average alimentation, therefore, is as nearly as pos-
sible the same in both countries. The British Isles have
the advantage in meat, milk, and potatoes ; which France
makes up for in cereals, vegetables, fruits, and quantity
as well as quality of beverage. In point of require-
ments, the situation of both populations should make it
the same ; but, from some cause or other, the English con-
sume more than the French. England proper takes to

THE CUSTOMS REFORM. 171

herself almost all the meat, and nearly all the wheat, of
the two islands, leaving to the great majority of the
Scotch and Irish population only barley, oats, and pota-
toes ; and yet, in spite of the greatly superior production
of the English lands, and notwithstanding the large im-
portation of cattle and corn from Scotland and Ireland,
the demand for alimentary substances in England is such,
that prices there are generally a good deal above what
they are in France ; and they would have been higher,
had not foreign importations kept them down.

Under these circumstances, the question of a supply of
provisions has always been one of primary importance
with English statesmen. In a country where population
is so condensed that about a third of the people are
reduced to the strict necessaries of life, and the other two-
thirds, although the best off of any in the world, still do
not consider that they have enough, the least deficiency
in the harvest is apt to cause serious embarrassment.
This has at different times happened, especially during
the height of the war with France. Corn then rose to
extreme prices — £4, £5, and up to £6 per quarter.
Since 1815, the progress in farming and importation has
gradually brought the price of wheat back to something
under 60s. the quarter, and in 1835 it even fell to 40s. ;
but since 1837 the tendency has been to rise, and it has
already several times passed the rate of 70s. per quarter.

It was at this price when the blight took place, which
threatened the existence of one of the chief articles of
the national food; I mean the potato disease. This
blight, which produced a grievous famine in Ireland,
had even in England disastrous effects ; and it was
shortly followed by serious apprehensions for the corn
crops, — fears which were too truly realised in the bad
years of 1845 and 1846.

1*72 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

Other reasons called the attention of provident minds
to the price of food. The whole framework of British
wealth and power rests upon the exportation of its manu-
factures. Until lately, English industry had few rivals,
but other nations have gradually been making progress
in manufactures, and English productions are not the
only ones which now appear in the European and Ameri-
can markets. English merchants cannot, then, sustain
a universal competition, except by cheapness ; and this
cheapness is not possible, excepting when wages are mo-
derate. Now, the English workmen, although the best
paid in the world, are not, or at least were not, in 1848,
satisfied with their wages. The storm which raged on
the Continent in 1848-9 began to be felt in England,
and was exhibited in expressions of discontent.

This, then, was the manner in which the problem to
be solved presented itself; a terrible problem, carrying
with it the life and death of a large number of people,
and perhaps also the life and death of a great nation.
On the one hand, scarcity already devastating one portion
of the British territory, and threatening to extend itself
over the rest — the price of food consequently threaten-
ing to rise to an unlimited height ; on the other, the neces-
sity, notwithstanding the probable rise in the price of food,
for keeping wages at such a rate as to allow and facilitate
the exportation of manufactured goods ; — and, to complete
the difficulty, a strong desire among the labouring classes
for an increase of comforts, at the very time perhaps when
food was to fail them, and when death from famine had
begun in Ireland. It was then that the eminent indivi-
dual intrusted with the helm during that difficult period,
at once decided upon the bold and liberal measure which
saved all.

For a long time previously, English legislation upon

THE CUSTOMS REFORM. 173

grain had in view to keep the price as nearly as possible
at 56s. per quarter, by means of an ingenious but com-
plicated system, more efficacious in appearance than in
reality — the Sliding Scale. A popular agitation, well
known under the name of the League, had been organised
to defeat this legislation, and had made considerable pro-
gress. Sir Eobert Peel, then Prime Minister, felt that
the time had now come for adopting a wider and more
radical measure. He therefore decided upon doing that
which he had himself previously opposed — namely, to
abolish entirely the duties levied upon the importation
of articles of food ; and what is still more to be ad-
mired than the resolution itself, is, that in the two
Houses, composed mostly of landed proprietors, a majo-
rity was found for carrying it into law.

The disturbance occasioned by this reform has been
great, no doubt, but nothing in comparison with the
calamities which it avoided. The urgency of the case
was immediately shown by the immense quantity of
grain and flour imported, amounting, during the single
year of 1849, to —

13 million hectolitres of wheat, . = 4| million quarters.
6 „ „ Indian corn, =2 „

4 „ „ barley, . = 1£ „

4 „ „ oats, . = 1| „

3 „ „ wheat flour, = 1 „

besides butter, cheese, meat, lard, fowls, and as many as
four million dozen of eggs. This alone saved England
from the scarcity which threatened it, and from which it
was found impossible to save Ireland. For the future,
supplies are certain, since the English consumer has the
whole world from which to supply himself. The price
of articles of food fell immediately more than twenty
per cent. In this way the necessity for a nominal rise
in wages was obviated, and the prosperity of the lower

174 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

classes increased one-fifth ; and exportation, which is the
fortune of England, having remained in a flourishing
state, the demand for labour increased, while the num-
ber of poor receiving public aid diminished.

One great interest, however, seemed likely to suffer
from this crisis — namely, that of farming and landed
property. Noisy reclamations were not wanting from
that quarter, and doubts were for some time entertained
respecting the future of this reform. Now the question
is settled, and henceforth the reform is accepted even by
those who combated it with the greatest acrimony. Its
effects have been seen, and the exaggerations of the first
moment have disappeared.

In the first place, people saw that agriculture, properly
speaking, had not so much to do with the question as
income from property. The high price of food serves
more than anything else to cause a rise in rent, and,
provided rent falls in proportion to the fall in prices,
the farmer, properly speaking, becomes almost a disin-
terested party. This simple distinction has sufficed to
separate the farmer's interest in the question from that
of the proprietor. Lower your rents ! was the cry against
property from all quarters, and farming will not suffer.
The argument was all the more powerful, because for
fifty years past high prices had raised rents, and even
after a considerable reduction they would still be above
those of 1800. In the impassioned language of the
moment, they called this reduction a partial restitution
of what had been unduly levied by the proprietors upon
the subsistence of the public for the last fifty years.

In the second place, it was argued that that which
occasions the prosperity of landed property is industrial
and commercial wealth. Now, if the price of food rises,
or if it be only maintained at the established price — that

THE CUSTOMS REFORM. 175

is to say, much higher than anywhere else — wages must
rise in order to satisfy the new wants of the working
population. English manufactures will no longer be able
to sustain a foreign competition ; exports will fall off ; and
the distress of manufactures and commerce will react
upon agriculture, which will no longer be able to sell its
productions. A fall will then become inevitable ; but it
will be a terrible fall, produced by poverty. Popular
outbreaks of the worst kind will again take place, and no
resistance can oppose a starving population. Better give
in beforehand, when times are quiet, when a judicious
concession may not only prevent interference with manu-
facturing production, but will add to its activity. In-
crease of population and wealth will soon return to agri-
culture more than it has lost, by increasing at once the
number and the means of consumers.

To these arguments supported by facts, the conviction
gradually arose that the evil was not altogether uni-
versal and irremediable ; that a good number of pro-
prietors and farmers had been only slightly injured ;
and that the rest had means of making up the loss in
price by increased production. From that moment the
cause of reform was secured, for the English nation is
instinctively a nation of economists, — they all very well
understand the advantages of cheapness when it is pos-
sible. There have been, and no doubt will still be, many
individual cases of suffering ; but, upon the whole, as is
now admitted, this check, which appeared likely to be
so fatal to English farming, will, on the contrary, open
out for it a new path ; and, in addition to the immense
advantage of dissipating all fear concerning the national
supply of food, and the no less great advantage of re-
moving all cause of inferiority for English manufactures
in the markets of the world, there must be added that of

176 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

a notable increase in agricultural production. What a
rise in price did formerly, a fall will have effected at the
present day. This apparent contradiction is not one in
reality, for they will have had both a similar beginning-
wealth.

England may be divided into two nearly equal bands
by a line running from north to south. The western
division being very much more wet and rainy than
the eastern, the cultivation of grasses there predomi-
nates ; in the eastern half, on the contrary, it is the
cereals. The fall having been less, and not so general
upon animal as upon cereal productions, the crisis has
been less felt in the western than in the other division ;
and it may be said that in many quarters it has not been
felt at all. The eastern half, in its turn, divides itself
into two distinct regions ; the one to the north, where
light soils predominate, and where the Norfolk rotation
reigns ; the other in the south, where argillaceous or
calcareous-clay lands prevail, and where the cultivation
of roots has made less progress. In the first, cereals not
being yet the chief production, the crisis, though real, has
been endurable ; in the second, where cereals hold the
first rank, it has been severe.

Many proprietors of the west and north have been
able to preserve their rents intact, others have managed
to limit their reductions to ten and fifteen per cent. In
the south-east, and in the clay districts in general — that
is to say, over about a fourth of England — the reduction,
to be efficacious, required twenty to twenty-five per cent,
and in some places farmers have entirely abandoned their
farms. These descriptions of land were already the most
indifferently cultivated, the least productive of the Brit-
ish soil, and those which gave over an equal surface the
lowest rents, the lowest wages, and lowest profits.

THE CUSTOMS REFORM. 177

Under such a trial, the industrious spirit of our neigh-
bours was set to work. The causes which, since the intro-
duction of the Norfolk rotation, had occasioned a relative
inferiority in clay lands, once looked upon as the most
fertile, were carefully studied, and new systems have
arisen to effect a remedy. Besides the proprietors and
farmers interested, a new class of men took up the ques-
tion. These were the partisans of free trade. They under-
took to prove that, even under the worst circumstances,
the agriculture of the country could survive and prosper.
Commercial men purchased land for the express purpose,
in the most severely tried districts, in order to make all
sorts of experiments. The first results were not satisfac-
tory ; but by degrees the new principles developed them-
selves, and it may now be affirmed that clay lands are
destined to resume their ancient position. The English
rarely fail in what they undertake, because they carry
along with them a perseverance which nothing discou-
rages.

In addition, the means adopted for transforming the
strong lands, seemed applicable, to a certain extent, to
the others ; and the improvements which necessity forced
upon some points, tend more or less to become general-
ised.' The entire soil will thus profit from the remedy,
without having equally suffered from the evil.

Meantime the working classes have derived all the
profit they looked for in the lowering of prices, and are
content with it. What is no less worthy of admiration in
England than the spirit of concession in the one class, is
the expression of patience in the other. At one time it
was thought that wages would fall. Public opinion pro-
tected them, and they have been maintained. The labour-
ing classes have profited, therefore, by the whole fall in
the price of necessaries. It was also thought that the

M

178 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

demand for manual labour would fall off.* Everything,
indeed, betokens that in certain quarters it will be reduced,
but in others it will be increased. Upon the whole, it
will remain at least equal to what it was before.

Public opinion demands other improvements in favour
of the poorer classes. It is desired that the laws respecting
settlement in the matter of poor-rates should be revised, in
order that labourers may easily remove from those places
where wages are low, to where they are higher, without
forfeiting their claim to public relief. It is also required
that the proprietors should take a parental charge of their
labourers, and watch over their education and morality,
as well as their personal comforts ; and the highest noble-
men consider it an honour to fulfil this duty. Many of
them build healthy and commodious cottages, which they
let at reasonable rents. Prince Albert, who desires to be
the first always in setting a good example, exhibited in
his own name at the Great Exhibition a model of such
buildings. A small garden is generally attached, where
the tenant may grow fresh vegetables. These are what
are called allotments. On all large estates the pro-
prietor builds churches and schools, and gives encourage-
ment to associations which have for their object the good
of the community.

Thus the great war of classes has been prevented ; and,
without other shocks than those which were absolutely
unavoidable, England has made a great step, even in an
agricultural point of view. This is the reason why Eng-
land went into mourning when Sir Kobert Peel died ; the
great citizen had been understood.

* Since the above was written, circumstances have changed. After having
remained low for several years, prices have begun again to rise, and now (January
1854) they are higher than they were previous to the reform ; but this rise, being
partly the effect of the bad harvest of 1853, and having nothing artificial about it,
is not attended with the same inconvenient effects.

THE CUSTOMS REFORM. 179

I shall not stop to point out the difference between the
English crisis of 1848 and the French one of the same
period. The rural interest is that which suffered most
with us also ; but it did not suffer alone — all were
shaken at once. We witnessed a sudden fall in food
— not, as in England, because it was too high, but be-
cause, industrial and commercial occupations being at a
stand-still, the non-agricultural classes had not the where-
withal to buy food. Consumption, in all branches, in
place of increasing, as with our neighbours, was reduced
to bare necessaries ; and in a country where the ordinary
quantity of meat and corn was scarcely sufficient, both
were found to exceed the resources of an impoverished
population. Farming and property, dismayed, found no
support from capital as in England, since much of it had
been swept away, and the remainder in alarm was sent out
of the country or secreted. Happily, by peculiar favour of
Providence, the fruits of the earth were abundant during
that trial ; for if the least doubt had arisen as to supplies,
in the midst of general disorder, we should have seen the
horrors of famine associated, as formerly, with the horrors
of civil war.

Returning confidence begins to repair in part these
disasters. France once again shows, what she has so
often shown, especially after the anarchy of '93 and
the two invasions, that she cannot do herself an irrepar-
able injury. The more resources she exhibits, in spite of
the immense losses she has sustained, the more one is
struck with the progress she ought to have realised in the
last five years, had she not violently put a stop to her
own progress. The receipts from indirect taxation, which
is one of the most certain signs of public prosperity, were
eight hundred and twenty-five million francs in 1847, and
have recovered slowly, after an enormous falling off, to

180 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

eight hundred and ten millions in 1852. These would
have reached, in the present year, nine hundred and fifty
millions, or one milliard, if the impetus which they had
received previous to 1848 had been sustained ; and all
branches of public wealth would have responded to this
brilliant sign of prosperity.

Finally, if I have found it necessary to relate what has
taken place in England since 1847, it must not be con-
cluded that a similar revolution appears to me desirable,
or even possible, in France. We are in all respects diffe-
rently circumstanced. To establish cheapness of food
cannot be a question with us, for that we already have ;
since England, after all her efforts, has not been able to
come below our highest current rates ; and over half the
country our prices are only too low. The rich and fully
populated parts of the country must not be confounded
with those which are not so. The requirements of the
one are not at all those of the other. We do not re-
semble the England of 1846, but the England of 1800.
With us it is not production which fails consumption,
but, in the half of France at least, it is consumption
which falls short of production. Instead of seeing every-
where corn at 56s. per quarter, and meat at 6d. per lb.,
we have whole districts where the producer scarcely ob-
tains half of these prices for his commodities. It is not
a fall, but a rise that they there require. The time is
still distant when they will suffer from the excess of
demand for their agricultural produce, and from high
prices.

But neither must it be imagined that the sliding-scale
for corn, and exorbitant duties upon foreign cattle, could
do any good to France. In fact, these duties have hither-
to had no effect in raising prices : they have rather con-
tributed to lower them by arresting the expansion of

THE CUSTOMS REFORM.

181

commerce. French agriculture, which considered itself
protected, was not, and could not, be so : its own prices
gave it only too much protection from foreign competi-
tion. It is not, then, upon custom-house regulations,
but upon the increase of foreign consumption, through
the improvement of communication and reciprocity,
and in some respects upon exportation, that it should
rely for a better market for its products. Every other
plan is chimerical, and, what is more, hurtful to its inte-
rests. The same freedom of trade which tends to lower
prices of food in England, because they are too high,
would have rather the contrary effect in France, because
they are habitually too low with us, at least in a great
many quarters.

182

CHAPTER XIII.

HIGH FAEMING.

AMONG the innovations in agriculture which the last
crisis produced, by far the most important — that which
will remain as the most useful effect of that great disturb-
ance— is the process of putting the land into good condi-
tion, known by the name of drainage. The draining away
of superabundant water, especially upon stiff soils, has
always been the chief difficulty in English agriculture.
Hitherto the means employed for getting rid of it were
imperfect. Now, however, the problem is completely
solved. " Take this flower -pot," said the President of a
meeting in France lately ; " what is the meaning of this
small hole at the bottom \ — to renew the water. And
why to renew the water \ — because it gives life or death :
life, when it is made only to pass through the bed of
earth, for it leaves with the soil its productive principles,
and renders soluble the nutritive properties destined to
nourish the plant ; death, on the other hand, when it re-
mains in the jpt, for it soon becomes putrid, and rots the
roots, and also prevents new water from penetrating."
The theory of drainage is exactly described in this figure.
The new invention consists in employing cylindrical
tiles of burnt clay to carry off the water, instead of open
ditches, or trenches filled with stones or faggots, — me-
thods known even to the ancients. These tiles are several

HIGH FARMING. 183

decimetres* long, and placed end to end at the bottom
of trenches, which are then filled in with earth. It is
difficult at first to understand, without having seen the
effect of these tiles, how the water can get into them
and so escape ; but as soon as one sees a drained field,
not the smallest doubt of the fact can remain. The
tiles perform the office of the small hole always open
at the bottom of the flower-pot. They attract the water,
which comes to them from all parts, and carry it out
either into drain-pits, or main-drains, where the inclina-
tion of the land admits of it. These tiles are often made
by machinery, which renders their manufacture in-
expensive. They are made of various dimensions, and
laid in the trenches at a greater or less depth, and more
or less apart, according to the nature of the soil, and the
quantity of water to be drained off. The total cost for
purchase and laying amounts to about £4 an acre. It
is now generally considered that this outlay is money in-
vested at 10 per cent, and the farmers scarcely ever refuse
to add to their lease 5 per cent per annum upon the pro-
prietors' outlay for draining.

There is something magical in the effect of draining.
Both meadow and arable lands are equally benefited by
it. In the meadows, marsh plants disappear ; the hay pro-
duced is at once more abundant and of better quality.t
On the arable lands, even the most clayey, corn and roots
shoot more vigorously, and are healthier, and less seed is
required for a larger crop. The climate itself gains sensibly
by it. The health of the inhabitants is improved ; and in

* The decimetre equal to nearly four inches.

+ Experience has shown, for some time past, the danger of draining grass-
land in the drier parts of England. I mention this exceptional fact here, in
order to put upon their guard those who are seeking to introduce drainage
into .France. One cannot be too cautious where an agricultural innovation is
concerned.

184 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

all parts where drainage has been vigorously carried out,
the mists of the foggy isle seem less thick and heavy.
Drainage was thought of for the first time ten years ago,
and a million of hectares at least are already drained ;
everything promises that, in ten years hence, almost the
whole of England will be so. It is as if the island were
once more rising out of the sea.

The second improvement, of a general kind, which will
date from the last few years, is a large increase in the
employment of machines, and particularly of steam.
Previously to 1848, very few farms possessed a steam-
engine. Now, one may safely say that, in ten years hence,
the exceptions will be those without them. Smoking
chimneys are to be seen in all parts of the country.
These steam-engines are used for thrashing corn, cutting
fodder and roots, grinding cereals and oilcake. They are
also employed to raise and distribute water, to churn
butter, &c. Their heat is no less available than their
power, and serves to prepare food both for men and
cattle. Some movable steam-engines go from farm to
farm like a labourer, to do heavy work. Small portable
railways have been invented for conveying manure to
the fields, and carrying back the crops. Machines for
mowing and tedding hay, reaping, and digging, are now
under trial. Some have even undertaken to plough by
steam, and do not despair of success. The great desire
at present is to find means for turning up the soil
to a depth hitherto unheard of, in order to give greater
vigour to the arable bed. Everywhere mechanical genius
is making exertions to carry into agriculture the wonders
it has elsewhere realised.

These new processes are only new applications of old
principles ; but there is one which is at variance with all
habits, and which encounters more opposition. I have

HIGH FARMING. 185

already remarked how much the pasturage of cattle was
held in repute by the English farmer. The new school
does away with this mode of feeding, and introduces
permanent stall-feeding (stabulation). But this improved
stabulation differs as much from the imperfect system
practised upon the Continent, as the cultivated pasture
differs from the coarser pastures of our poor districts.
Nothing is bolder, more ingenious, more characteristic of
the spirit of enterprise among the English than the pre-
sent system of stabulation, such as has been first prac-
tised in clay districts by the inventors, and which tends
to extend itself everywhere.

Suppose a cattle-house, thoroughly aired,, usually con-
structed of open planking, with mats of straw, which are
raised or lowered at pleasure for the purpose of sheltering
the animals, in case of need, from the wind, sun, or rain.
The cattle, usually of the short-horned Durham breed, are
there shut up loose in boxes, where they remain till ready
for the shambles. The flooring under them is pierced
with holes, to allow their evacuations to fall into a
trench below. Beside them is a stone trough, with abun-
dance of water ; and others contain an unlimited quantity
of food. This food is sometimes composed of chopped
roots, bruised beans, crushed oilcake ; sometimes a mix-
ture of chopped hay and straw and bruised barley ; the
whole more or less boiled in large boilers, heated by the
steam-engine, and fermented some hours in closed vats.
This extraordinary food, the appearance of which con-
founds a French agriculturist, fattens the cattle with great
rapidity. Milch cows even may be submitted to this
seclusion. Examples of this stall-feeding are found even
in the counties most renowned for their dairies, those of
Cheshire and Gloucestershire. The animals are there
fed on green meat, and the strictest attention is paid

186 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

to ventilation, and having the sheds thoroughly lighted
and clean, warm in winter, and cool in summer, protected
from variations in temperature, and from all that might
disturb or annoy the cows, which there live in a con-
stant state of ease and quiet very favourable to the
secretion of milk.

The manure which accumulates in the trench is not
mixed with any kind of litter ; it has been thought much
more profitable to make the cattle eat the straw. This
manure is very rich, owing to the quantity of oily sub-
stances contained in the food of the animals, a portion of
which is not assimilated by digestion, notwithstanding all
the means used for that purpose. This manure is taken
out every three months, when required for use. In the
mean time, it is neither washed by rain nor dried by the
sun, as is too often the case with the manure-heap ex-
posed in the farmyards. A light sprinkling of earth or
other absorbent hinders or retards the disengagement of
ammonia, and its consequent dissipation in the atmo-
sphere. In entering these sheds, the absence of smell is
remarkable. The manure in this way preserves all the
fertilising elements which escape elsewhere and poison
the air, in place of fertilising the soil. Sometimes it is
employed in a solid state for cereals, sometimes diluted
with water, and applied in a liquid state to meadow-
land.

Pigs, like oxen, are fed indoors, and upon perforated
flooring : their food is similar. Sheep alone are still fed
out of doors, but they also are immured as much as may
be. No bad effect upon the health of one or other has
yet been perceived from this strict confinement ; pro-
vided they enjoy constant pure air in their prison, and
have the necessary space to move about — that is to say,
a yard square for a sheep or a pig, and two to three

HIGH FARMING. 187

yards square for a bullock — it is said that they thrive
excellently. Exercise in the open air, hitherto con-
sidered necessary, is now looked upon as a loss, which
shows itself by a diminution in weight.

One cannot help feeling sorry to see these poor ani-
mals, whose congeners still cover the immense pastures
of Great Britain, thus deprived of their liberty, and pre-
vented from moving about, and in thinking that the day
may perhaps come when all the English cattle which now
enjoy the green pastures will be shut up in melancholy
cloisters, which they will leave only for the slaughter-
house. These manufactories of meat, milk, and manure,
where the living animal is absolutely treated as a machine,
have something about them revolting, like a butcher's
stall ; and after a visit to one of these stalled prisons,
where the process of making the staple food of the English
is so grossly carried on, one takes a loathing at meat for
several days. But the great voice of necessity speaks out.
Every energy must be used to feed that population which
unceasingly multiplies, and whose wants increase in a
greater ratio than their numbers. The cost of producing
meat must be lowered as much as possible, in order to
obtain a profit with the new scale of prices.

Adieu, then, to the pastoral scenes of which England
was so proud, and which poetry and painting vied with
each other to celebrate. Two only chances remain to
them ; and these are, that some new discovery may be
made for raising the produce of pasturage to the same
height as that which stabulation now gives, or that
further experience may show some detriment to the cattle
from this confinement. Already complaints are made
about the quality of the meat so abundantly produced
in this way ; it is said that the oilcake gives it a bad
taste, and that the excess of fat on the Durham cattle

188 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

and Dishley sheep renders the meat neither very agree-
able nor so nourishing. It is possible that this is an
evil in the new system, and that pasturage, surpassed
in quantity, maintains its position for the quality of its
produce ; it is possible, also, that some new disease may
suddenly develop itself among these inert and unnaturally
fattened races, and oblige a new infusion of more energetic
blood. In any case we may depend upon this, that the
old-fashioned pasturing will not be given up without a
struggle ; if it is destined to disappear, it will be because
of there being no other alternative. The most likely
result is the adoption of a mixed system, partaking of
the advantages of both methods. *

"While by means of the improved pasture farmers suc-
ceeded in keeping at most one head of large cattle or
its equivalent to one hectare in cultivation, which was
already much more than could be done in France, it is
now maintained that by stabulation they will be able to
keep two, and even three, and so increase considerably the
production of cereals. In that case, all the land becomes
arable ; and the Norfolk rotation may be applied over the
whole extent of the property, in place of being confined to
a half. Such are the changes which take place in things
human ; agriculture is subject to them like all else.
Hitherto it was the use of the pasture-land which, by
increasing the number of cattle, and reducing the breadth
of cereals, swelled the average return of the corn-land.
Now the reduction or abolition of pasturage, while it
further increases the number of cattle, supplies fresh
means for increasing the fertility of the soil, and conse-
quently the production of corn for human consumption.

* We believe this last conjecture is that most likely to be realised. Box-feed
ing and soiling is not gaining so rapidly in favour as to cause us any anxiety,
either as to the desertion of our pastures, or the comfort and health of our
stock.— J. D.

HIGH FARMING. 189

We have already noticed that, in the present state of
things, a farm of 175 acres, taken in average condition,
would have 75 in grass and natural pasture, 20 in roots
and pulse crops, 20 in barley and oats, 40 in artificial
grasses, and 20 in wheat. By the new system, pushed to
its greatest extent, the natural meadows would disappear,
and the 175 acres would be thus divided, 35 in roots
or pulse crops, 35 in barley and oats, 70 in artificial
grasses, and 35 in wheat. The proportion of improv-
ing crops to exhausting, which in the first case was
135 to 30, would in the second be only 105 to 70 ; but
this difference, it is said, would be more than compensated
by the additional quantity of manure, since, instead of
feeding 70 head of cattle, 150 or their equivalent might
be kept, and not an atom of manure would be lost.

Can the extension of roots, pulse crops, and artificial
grasses, at the expense of natural pasture, really give, as
is affirmed, two or three times more food for cattle 1
This question is already, in many respects, proved by
facts. All these crops are improved together, and, with
the aid of draining and machinery, carried to their
maximum. The cultivation o'f turnips in drills, called the
Northumberland system, nearly doubles their produce ;
the rutabagas, or swedes, which are substituted for
English turnips on clay lands, give a better result ; and
a still larger increase is obtained from the artificial mea-
dows since two new methods have been introduced for
rendering vegetation more active : the first is the use
of a particular kind of rye-grass, called Italian rye-grass ;
the second an improved method for distributing liquid
manure.

The Italian rye-grass is a plant remarkable for its rapid
growth. It lasts only two years ; but under favourable
circumstances it may lie cut as many as eight times in one

190 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

season. The hay it gives is hard, but, consumed in the
green state, it is excellent. It thrives even in the coldest
districts, notwithstanding its name and origin ; and it is
fast coming into general use both in England and Scot-
land. If it realises the expectations formed of it, it
would seem to be superior to lucerne.

As to the mode of distributing the liquid manure, it is
certainly the most original and curious part of the system.
It was invented by Mr Huxtable of Dorsetshire, the prin-
cipal promoter of the new agricultural revolution. It
is as follows : The evacuations of the cattle, after
falling into trenches running under the stalls, pass
through pipes into a reservoir, where they are mixed
with water and fertilising substances ; from thence other
pipes branch off underground to the extremities of the
property. At distances of every fifty or sixty yards are
placed vertical pipes rising from the conducting-pipe to
the surface of the ground, the orifice of which is closed
by a cap. When it is desired to manure a part of the
land, the cap is removed from one of the vertical pipes,
and a gutta-percha tube fitted on ; a pump put in motion
by the steam-engine drives the liquid through the pipes,
and the man who holds the movable tube waters around
him as from a fire-engine. A man and a boy are able to
manure in this way five acres a-day.

The expense of the pipes and pumps amounts to about
80s. per acre where earthenware pipes are employed, and
£4 where they are made of cast iron. The construction
of reservoirs and setting up a steam-engine constitute a
separate expense, and ought not to be included in the
estimate, since both the one and the other are hence-
forth indispensable in every well-ordered farm. The
laying of the pipes becomes then an economy rather than
an expense. The outlay for first cost and keeping up is

HIGH FARMING. 191

very soon regained by the saving in manual labour and
time, and the results obtained are splendid. Vegetation
very quickly takes up the enriching properties thus
divided and distributed in showers. The effect of the
application is in some degree immediate ; and it may be
constantly exhausted, since it can be constantly renewed.

This ingenious invention is evidently destined to meet
with the greatest success. Mr Huxtable began upon
sixty acres ; but now there are farms, particularly in
Ayrshire, where these pipes extend over five hundred. It
has the merit of being adapted to all systems of cultiva-
tion, and may be the means even of preventing the doing
away with pasturage : it is capable of application in
all climates, and may be carried on in hot countries,
where it would effect much greater wonders. It appears
capable of a still wider application than drainage, and it
can hardly be too strongly recommended to the attention
of French farmers.

Owing to this increased quantity of manure, enhanced
still further by all the artificial manures which the ima-
gination has been able to discover, the return from cereals
may be increased in the same proportion as animal pro-
duction. Upon lands cultivated under the new methods,
the average return amounts to forty-four bushels per
acre of wheat, fifty-five bushels per acre of barley, and
sixty-six bushels per acre of oats : as the extent of wheat-
sown land is at the same time much increased, the total
production is more than doubled. These are not mere
speculations, but facts realised in many parts of the
United Kingdom. In every county there is one farm at
least where some rich proprietor is not afraid to make
these trials, and the body of farmers observe, study, and,
according to the extent of their resources, copy what is
successful.

192 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

The whole of the system can only be advantageously
practised in the districts most favourable to the produc-
tion of cereals — that is to say, in the south-east, where
the crisis told the most severely. In the west and north,
cereals are being almost entirely given up. Division of
labour thus makes a fresh step : the cultivation of cereals
becomes extended upon the lands most adapted for them,
and is diminished on those least favourable to their pro-
duction. Upon the whole, it does not appear that the
proportion of corn-sown lands ought sensibly to change.
In those districts where the attention of farmers is being
more and more directed to the feeding of cattle, the re-
sults obtained solely by means of stabulation and the use
of liquid manure, if not better, are at least more certain.
I will quote but one example — the farm of Cunning
Park, in Ayrshire. This farm, which is only fifty acres
in extent, was, previously to the crisis, in the average
condition of England. The rent did not exceed 25s. per
acre, and the gross produce £4 per acre ; now the gross
produce reaches £24 per acre, and the net at least £8.
Nevertheless, Cunning Park produces only milk and
butter ; but as a result of the new methods, it now
supports forty-eight in place of ten cows, and each of
these cows is much more productive.

Such are the general features of the present agricultural
revolution — high farming, as it is called. I must, however,
point out one more circumstance which may serve still
further to characterise the system — the war waged against
hedges and game.

When pasturage was the leading feature in English
farming, large hedges had their use, but as stabulation
increased that use diminished ; they may, moreover, be
replaced by low hedges or other enclosures. Farmers
now find them only inconveniences ; they take up a

HIGH FARMING. 193

great deal of room, their shade and their roots are both
hurtful to the crops, and they give shelter to a host of
birds, which devour the seed. The majority of pro-
prietors are still opposed to their destruction ; first, be-
cause the prunings and thinnings of the hedgerow trees
bring them in an income, and then because these hedges
contribute greatly to the beauty of the landscape. But
some have already cleared them away, and the rest will
have to yield, at least to a certain extent; for the public,
impressed with the importance . of the question, declares
itself more and more every day in favour of the farmer.
A similar fate is evidently reserved for the game, the
increase of which has hitherto been favoured by the
severity of the Game Laws, to the great injury of. crops.
Opinion, so favourable in England to large property, and
at the same time so exacting with regard to it, begins
to make it a matter of duty with landlords to sacrifice
their pleasure to the new necessities of production.

While assisting in this peaceable contest, the issue of
which cannot be doubted, one cannot help feeling that
abuses of the same nature wrere one cause of the French
Eevolution. In order to preserve themselves from the
ravages of the seignioral hares and rabbits, our farmers
found no better method than to demolish the chateaus,
and kill or drive out their proprietors. English farmers
exhibit more patience and moderation, and they are no
less successful in attaining their end without violence.
Their only weapon is the obstinate representation of their
grievances. They quietly calculate how many acres of
land are thrown out of cultivation by large hedges — how
many hares it takes to consume the food of one sheep.
It is a common and frequent saying among them, that
they are obliged to pay three rents — the first to the
proprietor, the second to his hedges, and the third to his

N

194 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

game. In some districts they have clubbed together to
purchase the right of shooting, and have then set about
exterminating the hares, which pays better than killing
the landlords.

All these works of drainage, construction of buildings
for stabulation, erection of steam-engines, &c., involve
great outlays. The expense to the proprietor may be
estimated at about £8 per acre, and that of the farmer
£4. On the strong lands it must necessarily be more,
but on the light much less. This fruitful outlay accom-
plished and well executed, of course rents and profits rise
beyond their former figure, and that even in places where
they have been the least affected by the fall ; it also pro-
duces an adequate return upon the new capital put into
the soil. The land will then produce at least one-third
more of alimentary substances. The gross average pro-
duction, which was equal before to £3 per acre, will then
be £4, 10s., while the average rent will probably rise to
30s., and the farmer's profit to 18s. per acre.

The only question is this, Are proprietors and farmers
in a condition to furnish the required capital? The
question is one involving no less an amount than four or
five hundred millions sterling. For any other country
than the United Kingdom such an undertaking would be
impossible ; for her even it is an arduous one, but only
arduous. The nation which, in the course of a quarter
of a century, has spent £240,000,000 upon railways
alone, may well employ twice that amount in renewing
its agriculture.

The Government felt the necessity for setting the
example. In 1846, at the time when it was thought
desirable to bring about lower prices, it allowed itself to
depart from its established principle of non-interference

HIGH FARMING. 195

with private enterprise, and proposed to the proprietors
to lend them £3,000,000 for draining, to be secured on
mortgage, redeemable by payment of interest for twenty-
two years at the rate of 6^ per cent per annum — a prin-
ciple very like our General Land Loan Association (So-
ci&te general de credit fonder). This first loan having
succeeded, Government made others, and a great num-
ber of proprietors in the three kingdoms have availed
themselves of the advance. Private capital has followed
the impulse. The suffering proprietors who were possessed
of personal property, or had securities upon which they
could borrow, passed through the crisis with credit ; but
those who were already embarrassed, struggled sorely.
About a tenth of the English proprietors found them-
selves in this latter position, and for these, economists and
agricultural authorities discovered no better remedy than
to help them to the sale or division of their real property.
To do this at the present day is a difficult and expen-
sive proceeding, owing to the uncertainty of titles. A
class of lawyers live by the examination of titles, and the
confusion which there reigns. It was proposed to adopt
a system of registration like ours, in order to regulate
and facilitate transfers : the ideas promulgated upon
this subject are of the most radical kind. They go the
length of requiring that landed property should be trans-
ferred as easily as the funds or other movable property,
and demand no less than that a book should be opened
for the registration of real property, legal extracts from
which shall constitute titles, and these to be transferable
by endorsation. Everybody must admit that we are far
from holding antiquated ideas upon the fixity of pro-
perty, and those who propose this reform are not
visionaries, but serious writers, and justly respected.

196 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

The subject is even under the consideration of Govern-
ment.

For the farmers, leases of twenty-one years are asked,
which will allow them to make the necessary advances,
with a certainty of reimbursing themselves. At the same
time it is proposed to do away with the farms of too
limited extent where the tenants have not sufficient
capital, and to effect a subdivision of the too large for
the same reason. Those farmers who have not sufficient
capital drop off like the involved proprietors ; such as
remain close the ranks as in a combat, and in a short
time all will disappear.

All this, no doubt, constitutes an immense revolution.
Agriculture changes from a natural, and becomes more
and more a manufacturing process ; each field will
henceforth be a kind of machine, worked in every sense
by the hand of man, pierced below by all kinds of canals,
some for carrying off water, others for bringing manure,
and — who can tell \ — perhaps also to convey hot or cold
air as required, for effecting the most rapid changes on
its surface ; the steam-engine sends forth its columns of
smoke over the green landscapes celebrated by Thom-
son. The peculiar charm of the English fields threatens
to disappear with the green fields and hedges ; the feudal
character is weakened by the destruction of the game ;
parks themselves are attacked as depriving the plough
of too much space. At the same time, property is un-
dergoing a change ; it is being divided, and in part pass-
ing into new hands ; while the farmer, with long leases,
becomes more and more enfranchised from the authority
of his landlord.

There is involved in all this more than an agricultural
question — the whole body of English society is affected

HIGH FARMING. 197

by it. It must not be supposed that the English make
no revolutions ; on the contrary, they revolutionise to a
great extent ; they are always at it, but in their own
quiet way : thus they attempt only what is possible and
really useful ; and one may be sure that at the close
there will be complete satisfaction without the entire
destruction of the past.

198

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SOUTHEEN COUNTIES.

TAKING a rapid glance separately at each of the divisions
of the United Kingdom, will only confirm what a preli-
minary examination of the whole system of English rural
economy has already shown us.

England proper is divided into forty counties, the ave-
rage area of which is about half that of one of our French
departments, but they are very unequal in size. But-
land is scarcely larger than one of our cantons, while
York alone is equal to two of our largest departments.
They are commonly divided into five groups — southern,
eastern, midland, western, and northern. I begin with
the southern, the poorest of the five, because it is the first
which presents itself to those arriving from France. This
group contains seven counties.

Landing at Dover, we enter the county of Kent.
French travellers are led to judge of England by the
country they pass through between Dover and London.
Kent, indeed, presents the ordinary features of English
landscape, and may give to a foreigner a general idea
of the rest of the island ; but in reality it has a character
peculiar to itself; and the English, more alive than we
are to the differences, may truly say that it forms an ex-
ception to all the other counties. The exceptional points
are everywhere visible, in the crops, the extent of the

THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. 199

farms, and even the laws which govern it. Kent once
formed a distinct kingdom of itself, and in a country so
tenacious of old customs, some remains of them are still
found there.

Geologically speaking, Kent belongs to the great clay
basin of which London is the centre. Such land, in the
present state of British agriculture, being the worst culti-
vated and the least productive, this county may be con-
sidered in arrear of the greater part of the kingdom ; still
it is not so far behind as the .neighbouring counties of
Surrey and Sussex, although the clay of these is not of
such a refractory nature, and notwithstanding the benefit
they must derive from the impulse which is given to
industry by the great commerce of the Thames and the
neighbourhood of the capital. The subsoil is calcareous.
A line of chalk hills runs along the coast, forming those
white cliffs from which the island received its name of
Albion.

In 1847, the rent of land in Kent was nearly equal
to the average; that is to say, 20s. to 25s. per acre, tak-
ing arable and uncultivated lands together. This is high,
no doubt, compared to the average of rents in France,
but nothing as compared to the central and northern
parts of the island. English agriculturists disapprove
of the mode of cultivation still practised in Kent, but it
was formerly considered one of the best cultivated coun-
ties in the country. It has retained most of its ancient
methods of tillage, which have been discarded by the
wealthy and skilful farmers of the north. It may be said
that the agricultural revolution commenced by Arthur
Young has not reached this quarter, and that it follows
more the old English system than the modern. The
rich grass-cultivation, the pride and peculiar feature of
Britain, is, there little adopted. The wet lands by the

200 EURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

banks of the rivers form almost the only natural mea-
dows, excepting, however, the celebrated Komney marsh,
one of the richest pastures in the kingdom, situated upon
the coast, and covering an area of about forty thousand
acres. There the fine race of sheep, known as the New
Kent, takes its rise, which combines with a high quality
of mutton the advantage of a wool superior to other
English breeds.

With the exception of this valuable breed of sheep,
there is nothing remarkable in the stock of Kent : the
great national types are not to be found there. The crops
even are not what they ought to be, although for some time
past improved methods of tillage have been spreading.
The agricultural crisis fell severely upon Kent, and induced
new efforts. Drainage is extending, and appears destined
to alter the character of the clay lands ; but, generally
speaking, the old system prevails. Everybody must have
remarked, in passing, the heavy plough of the district,
drawn by four horses, when two would suffice, — and all
the rest is just in keeping.

While the entire island devotes itself to two or three
main crops, Kent remains faithful to those special produc-
tions which have acquired for it the name of the garden
of England. It grows half the hops produced in the king-
dom. In the Isle of Thanet, all kinds of seeds are pro-
duced for the supply of the London seedsmen ; while
those parts nearest to the capital are occupied by kitchen
gardens on a large scale. There are to be seen orchards,
and whole fields of vegetables. The number of villa resi-
dences belonging to the wealthier inhabitants of London
is also considerable. The extent of the farms varies a good
deal, but small and middling farming prevails. Many
are not more than ten to fifteen acres, few exceed two
hundred acres. The reasons for this are many ; but the

THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. 201

chief cause is to be found in the peculiar laws which relate
to land in this part of the country.

In Kent, the fixed property of the head of a family
dying intestate, does not by law descend absolutely to
the oldest son, as is the case in the rest of England.
Lands, except such as come under a special act of the
legislature, are held in gavdkind ; that is to say, divided
in equal portions among the sons of the father dying
without a will, and, in default of male children, among his
daughters. This is supposed to have been the common
practice in England before the Norman conquest, but it
now exists only in Kent and a few other localities. This
ancient custom, more than anything else, has tended to
the subdivision of land ; and in this respect, as well as in
some other particulars, Kent resembles more a province
of France than an English county. It is true that the
national feeling is against this dispensation of the law,
which is not the case with us. Most parents take care to
provide for the oldest son by will ; others desire to have
their property placed by special law upon the footing of
equal right. The number of yeomen, or proprietors who
cultivate their own lands, is still considerable in Kent;
but this class, found only there and in certain mountain-
ous districts, begins to disappear before the new constitu-
tion of property and farming.

Kent is among the most populous counties in England ;
it contains about five hundred and fifty thousand inha-
bitants'* upon an area of one million acres, or more than
one head to two acres, which is about the same popula-
tion as our department of the Bas-Khin. Fortunately
this population is not solely dependent upon its agricul-
ture for subsistence. If industry, properly speaking, is
rather inactive, commerce at least is flourishing, owing

* By the last census, six hundred thousand.

202 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

to the numerous ports upon its coast. The condition
also of the people appears to be better in Kent than in
the neighbouring counties. The average wage of a
working man is about 12s. a- week, or 2s. per working
day.

Upon the whole, Kent does not exhibit any striking
feature, either good or bad, to the observer. In general
appearance, as well as from its situation, it forms a sort
of transition between the north-west of France and Eng-
land. Greatly superior as an agricultural country to the
average of our departments, it is, upon the whole, in-
ferior to our best, such as the departments of the Nord
and Seine Inferieure. Travellers generally pass rapidly
through it in order to get to London ; we shall therefore
linger upon it no longer. Everywhere else but in Eng-
land, a district which had arrived at this point of pro-
duction and population would be worthy of more minute
observation, but here it is nothing out of the common.
Even the scenery, which the English talk so much about,
is pretty without being very remarkable. In nothing is
it beyond the average, whether in picturesque beauty or
agricultural richness.

To the south-west of Kent lies the ancient kingdom of
the southern Saxons, now the county of Sussex. The
average rent of land here falls to 18s. per acre. Wages
also are lower than in Kent, the average being 10s. per
week, or Is. 8d. per working day.

The area of Sussex is nearly equal to that of Kent.
The population is only three hundred thousand,* or a
little less than one to three acres. What is called the
Weald occupies about half its area, and is perhaps the
most backward part of the whole of England in point of
agriculture ; this is mostly attributable to the extremely

* By last census, three hundred and thirty thousand.

THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. 203

argillaceous nature of its soil. In former times this part
of the country was covered with dense forests, as indicated
by its name, which signifies wood. It was here that the
once extensive forest of Andraswald grew, where Sige-
bert king of Wessex was slain by a swine-herd. The
Weald is still famed at the present day for the number
of fine trees which it produces. It is divided into farms
of from fifty to two hundred acres, rented at from 5s. to
15s. per acre, but even at these rates most of the far-
mers cannot make it pay. Generally speaking, they are
men without capital, and as ignorant as they are poor ;
before the low prices, they had scarcely anything to live
upon, and now they are extremely ill off. Wherever
rents are high in England, farmers are better off than
where they are low ; poverty and inferiority seem to
league themselves together in the one case, and success
with wealth in the other.

Improved implements are little known in the Weald ;
thrashing with the flail is still practised there. This is
the only part of England, too, where they still employ
oxen for tillage. These animals, which are strong and
of a large size, are a contrast to the other national
breeds ; and the cows, as is the case with all working
races, are bad milkers. In passing through the Weald,
one might fancy they were in one of our second-rate
provinces.

The Duke of Eichmond, who is one of the largest
landed proprietors in England, and who pays a good deal
of attention to agriculture, has his principal seat — Good-
wood— in Sussex. He was one of the leaders of the
crusade against Free Trade.

It is evident that the Weald cannot remain in its pre-
sent state. To use the expression of Sir Kobert Peel, no-
where is a large infusion of capital more necessary : but

204 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

this capital is not easily found ; it does not exist, cer-
tainly, on the spot. The proprietors themselves, not
being wealthy, are scarcely better able than their tenants
to make advances. The money must come from other
quarters, by a change either in the farming or the pro-
perty, although such crises are always to be lamented. If
the large system of farming is to be introduced — and in
the existing state of ideas and capital in England, it is
difficult to see how the resistance of the soil can be other-
wise overcome — what is to become of that population of
small tenant-farmers which for generations have gone on
increasing under shelter of the old system \ These un-
fortunates, who have cultivated their native soil for gene-
rations past, will be forced to emigrate. Such is the
decree of modern fate : whoever does not know how to
produce enough, is rejected as a burden on the com-
munity.

Several successful attempts demonstrate what the land
of Sussex may become in the hands of men of ability
and capital. Among these, as foreshadowing its future,
is the farm of Hove, near Brighton, tenanted by Mr
Rigden, containing about 740 acres, and let for £1300,
which makes the rent equal to 35s. per acre. The taxes
amount to £150, insurances £100 ; altogether about
£1550. The annual working expenses are £3000, divided
as follows : wages, £1700 ; tradesmen's accounts, £350 ;
cost of manure and seeds, £950; total annual expenses,
£6 per acre. Besides this, Mr Rigden expended on
entering the farm £12,000, or about £16 per acre, to
bring it into condition. This capital, according to the
recognised rule in such cases in England, ought to give
a return of ten per cent. Mr Rigden should, therefore,
in order to be recompensed, obtain a gross return of
about £7, 12s. per acre, or a total of £5600. This is

THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. 205

a specimen of large English farming in all its mag-
nificence.

The following is the rotation followed : forty acres in
permanent pasture ; of the remaining seven hundred, half
is in grain, and the other half in forage crops. The three
hundred and fifty acres of grain are thus divided : wheat,
two hundred and fifty ; barley forty, and sixty in oats. Of
the three hundred and fifty acres in forage crops, twenty
are in beetroot ; twelve, turnips ; forty-two, swedes ; six,
carrots ; fifty, potatoes ; ten, cabbages ; and the remainder
in clover, rye-grass, lucerne, sainfoin, and vetches. This
proportion differs a little from that usually followed in
England, inasmuch as it gives a greater breadth to wheat
and a less to turnips ; but this is owing to the nature of
the soil, which is more suitable for wheat than barley,
and for roots than green crops.

Mr Eigden has sold every year, even after the reduc-
tion in prices, more than £2400 worth of wheat and
barley. The stock he keeps is as follows : three hundred
and fifty Southdowns, of the best breed ; twenty tups ;
twenty-one milch cows ; twenty-eight farm-horses, and
a small number of pigs. He does not fatten sheep, but
sells annually about two hundred and fifty lambs of six
months, and about a hundred ewes of four years old, which
he replaces from his younger stock. This branch of his
farming brings him in about £500. On account of the
high reputation of his stock, his young lambs fetch 20s.
a-piece, and the ewes and rams more than double that
price. His milch cows give an average of nearly twelve
quarts of milk per day ; this milk sells at Brighton for 2d.
per quart, making the return from each cow about £35
a-year. Taking into account the sale of calves and fattened
cows, this department brings in some £700 or £800. In
addition, Mr Eigden must sell about £2000 worth of

206 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

straw, hay, and potatoes. For his hay and straw the
vicinity of Brighton insures a market, owing to the num-
ber of horses which are there during the bathing season.
Of his twenty-eight farm-horses, seven are almost con-
stantly employed carrying produce to market and bring-
ing back manure.

Mr Bigden's example has hitherto had few imitators ;
everybody, indeed, has not £12,000 to invest in a farm,
especially in a district like Sussex, where agriculture has
suffered for a length of time. Nevertheless a beginning
has been made, and it may be confidently asserted that
in the course of a few years the transformation will be
in full play. Two railways — one from Dover to Brighton,
and the other from Tunbridge to Hastings — cross the
Weald, while other two lines skirt it, the Dover and
London, and Dover and Chichester. Its situation brings
it close to the two great markets of London and Brighton,
and under such circumstances it is scarcely possible for
it to escape the influence of the revolution now going on
in agriculture.

Next the Weald, the county of Sussex presents one
of the most primitive and prosperous districts of Great
Britain — what are called the Southdowns. The soil of
these hills is poor and arid, and resists all attempts at
cultivation. This very sterility has proved their fortune.
From time immemorial they have been covered with
flocks of sheep, that feed upon the short but sapid
grass, which is manured by their excretions. We have
already noticed that the sheep are the stock of the breed
called Southdowns, now the most esteemed. The chief
amusement of the wealthier classes of the English who
flock to Brighton in the season, is riding over these
immense downs, where there is nothing to interfere with
them — no trees, and very little heath or shrubs, but one

THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. 207

uninterrupted green carpet of fine close grass. Under
this apparent neglect, however, and leaving of the land
to itself, this desolate-looking country, inhabited only by
sheep, is nevertheless the field of a skilful and lucrative
kind of farming.

Kents in Surrey should be pretty much the same
as in Sussex, for the soil naturally is not better. The
southern portion of the county touches the Weald, and
partakes of all its disadvantages. On the west is an-
other kind of barrenness, consisting of unsound moors,
which farming has not yet everywhere ventured upon,
because it would not pay the expense of cultivation. As
for the north and east, London occupies the whole of
this with its environs and immense dependencies ; all
the right bank of the Thames at London, occupied by
the borough of Southwark, is part of the county of
Surrey.

Surrey, therefore, is of no importance as an agricul-
tural county ; its large population is more urban than
rural. It is, besides, of no great extent, having an area of
only about 450,000 acres, about equal to one of our
arrondissements. It is, however, the county most visited
by foreigners, owing to its vicinity to London, and the
number of fine residences, regal and other, which it con-
tains. Kew, Richmond, Hampton Court, Twickenham,
Claremont, and Weybridge, are all within it ; and Wind-
sor, the Versailles of England, is quite close. The beauty
of Surrey has always been celebrated, and not without
reason. A few miles above London, the Thames is
neither more nor less than a park river, whose clear
waters, covered with swans, wind through green mea-
dows and under the shade of magnificent trees ; its
banks are studded with mansions and parks, interspersed
with elegant villas and pretty cottages ; well-kept roads,

208 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

running throughout this enchanting country, disclose its
beauties at every turn.

Every nation has its peculiar taste in gardening. The
Italian gardens are works of art, where sculpture and
architecture subject even the trees to ornamental effect ;
French gardens consist of long alleys cut in deep woods,
and elegant parterres where verdant shrubs and flowers
mingle their colours and forms. English gardens have
nothing of this ; they are entirely rural. The taste of
the people is pastoral ; they are essentially agriculturists
and sportsmen even more than naval. Properly speaking,
they have no woods, but trees scattered here and there
over large grass fields ; and instead of footpaths, they
have roads : nothing artificial, or having the appearance
of arrangement — real country, brought to perfection by
the freshness of the turf, the beauty of the trees and
flocks, depth of horizons, and happy distribution of water
— the useful and pleasurable, in fact, united ; art aspir-
ing no further than to separate nature from its rough-
ness and decay, in order to leave it adorned with all
its loveliness and fruitfulness. Such is the appearance
which the county of Surrey presents. The undulating
character of the country (as the English, who like to
apply sea terms to things on the land, call it) adds
beauty to its perspectives. Thomson thus sung more
than a century ago : —

" Say shall we ascend,
While radiant Summer opens all its pride,
Thy hill, delightful Shene ! Here let us sweep
The boundless landscape.

Heavens ! what a goodly prospect spreads around,
Of hills, and dales, and woods, and lawns, and spires,
And glittering towns and gilded streams, till all
The stretching landscape into smoke decays !
Happy BRITANNIA ! where the Queen of Arts,
Inspiring vigour, liberty abroad

THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. 209

Walks, unconfin'd, even to thy farthest cots,
And scatters plenty with unsparing hand.

Unmatch'd thy guardian oaks ; thy valleys float
With golden waves ; and on thy mountains flocks
Bleat numberless ; while, roving round their sides,
Bellow the blackening herds in lusty droves."

Every Englishman who enters Surrey cannot fail to
respond to these lines. It is not the soil, however,
which has done these wonders, because, naturally arid
in the high, and marshy in the low grounds, it has
been brought to its present state only by dint of
labour.

Even the commons, which are here and there to be
met with, covered with their furze and broom and heather,
contribute by their wildness to give an agreeable variety
to the view. Everything in England has its charm for
the English ; and so, in fact, has the uncultivated land in
the midst of the cultivated. These commons are inter-
sected by numerous paths, and filled with people wan-
dering about ; they are, as it were, souvenirs of the
ancient state of the country, — a kind of prelude to those
immense Highland moors so dear to tourists and poets.
The young Amazons of the neighbouring villas there gal-
lop their horses with the same freedom as if they were
riding over an American savannah, and a foreigner
cannot but admire that ingenuity which can turn the
poverty of the soil into a source of pleasure and luxury.

Every part of this suburb of London has its historical
recollections. The greatest men of England — statesmen,
poets, and warriors — have resided there. Even we
Frenchmen begin to stock it with sacred spots ; the
greatest wrecks of our civil discords have there sought
refuge. In a small chapel in one of those quiet coun-
try villages — Weybridge — repose the mortal remains
of King Louis Philippe, not far from Twickenham,

o

210 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

where he spent part of his youth, and close to Clare-
mont, where he died, after wearing a crown between
two revolutions. The whole modern history of England
and France agrees in this, that here is always storm,
there always peace.

Hampshire comes next to Sussex, continuing along the
south coast. People arriving in England from France,
and disembarking at Southampton, make acquaintance
first with Hampshire, as those landing at Brighton do
with Sussex, and with Kent when they land at Dover.
This county is considered to be one of the most agree-
able as a residence, on account of its mild and healthy
climate. The Isle of Wight, for which the wealthier
class of the English have such a predilection, and where
the Queen has her favourite residence, belongs to Hamp-
shire.

Generally speaking, the soil is bad, especially towards
the north. There was formerly an immense moor here,
known as Bagshot Heath — the Sologne of England.
Several portions of it have been cleared, and others
planted with pine trees; but for the most part it re-
mains in its original state, and what has been cultivated
has not paid the expense. Moors again make their ap-
pearance towards the south, where there is a large forest,
called the New Forest, made by William the Conqueror,
who, it is said, destroyed towns and villages, and inter-
dicted population over an immense space, that he might
have it for a hunting-ground. It is this open and
desert space which was then called, and still retains, the
name of Forest, from the old French word fors, without,
derived from the Latin. The ground, left in a state of
nature, gradually became covered with brushwood, and
then with large trees ; this is the origin of most of the
existing forests. The New Forest covers sixty-five thou-

THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. 211

sand acres, and belongs to the Crown. Remains of other
forests in the county are still to be met with.

The character of Hampshire, then, is a country of
ancient forests and heather. The heather supplies food
for a race of smaU but excellent sheep, known as Bagshot
sheep. The oak forests, similar to those described in the
novel of Ivanhoe, provide food in like manner for herds
of swine, which furnish excellent bacon, that of Hamp-
shire having still the highest reputation. This county,
although to a certain extent modified by cultivation, still
retains much of its original aspect ; there are plenty of
fine trees in it, and large tracts of heather and wood are
to be met with. The New Forest is famous for its wild
scenery. Eents there are low enough, the average being
1 5s. per acre ; but this low average is caused by the
quantity of inferior land producing nothing but woods
or bad pasture. The population, more numerous cer-
tainly than might be supposed, considering the nature
of the land, amounts to about one head for every three
acres. It is true, a portion of their means of livelihood
comes from extraneous sources, and that more so even
than in Kent. The ports of Southampton and Ports-
mouth, the one commercial, the other military, are places
of great activity.

In the poorer districts, single farms contain as much
as one thousand, two thousand, and three thousand acres.
In the southern part of the county they are less, rang-
ing from about one hundred to five hundred acres. The
large farms are almost entirely devoted to sheep, and
the race has been greatly increased in number, though
not improved in the quality of the meat. The race of
pigs is no longer that tall, active, and strong race of for-
mer days, but one that fattens better and more quickly.

The New Forest, with Windsor Forest in Berkshire,

212 KUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

and some few others, are all that remain of the ancient
forests of England. The existence of the New Forest
is threatened just now on the score of its harbouring
poachers and depredators, and also that the ground it
occupies might be advantageously parcelled out and sold,
either for farms or parks. In England the prejudice
against clearing land is not so great as it is in France,
there not being the same need for wood for fuel ; and
the advance in population has been so rapid that it is very
necessary to look about for means for its support. It is
perfectly evident to everybody, that it is for the general
interest to render the land as productive as possible ; and
to keep that in wood which might be producing some-
thing better, is submitting every year to a very consider-
able sacrifice. On the other hand, considerable impor-
tance is still attached to the royal forests from consi-
derations connected with the navy. It is contended that
they alone are capable of furnishing the oak necessary
for building ships of war, those moving bulwarks of
England ; but even that reason has lost much of its
force, for it has been shown that it is much cheaper to
import foreign wood for naval purposes, than to produce
it in the State forests.

The New Forest, therefore, is no longer defended, ex-
cept by the residents in the neighbourhood, who enjoy
those privileges everywhere attaching to public domains,
and by those who take delight in grand natural scenery.
These considerations will probably be insufficient to with-
stand the expression of public opinion, which aims at its
being broken up.

Moreover, it is to be observed, that the destruction of
forests does not imply that of the large trees : far from
it. If England has less wood than most other countries,
she possesses more fine trees. Most of her counties

THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. 213

present the aspect of a well -wooded country; but the
trees are scattered among the hedgerows, in the parks,
and along the roads. They are not packed together, and,
with the exception of a few patches of coppice here and
there, do not undergo those regular cuttings which, with
all our eight millions of hectares of wood, make it with
us a rare sight to see a solitary tree. At the same time,
lands which are unfit for anything else are planted. The
art and taste for plantations are now widely extended in
England, and give promise to be a future great source of
wealth, on account of the variety and choice of the means
and the intelligence and care which are brought to bear
upon this as well as all other cultivation.

It is the forest properly so called which the English
suppress ; that is to say, those large tracts abandoned to
natural wood, or where, perchance, wood may not grow
at all. Their object is, not to confound land fit for grow-
ing corn with those lands which are inferior and con-
demned to comparative sterility, simply because, in times
past, there happened to be a wood in that particular spot.
To grow corn on corn lands, and timber upon land not
suited for cultivation, and everywhere else to make use
of trees as shelter and screens, as well as for ornamental
purposes, — to have, in fact, a sufficiency without having
too many of them, but to respect them and defend them
from the hatchet ; — this is the system, and I think it a
good one.

Strathfieldsaye, presented by the nation to the Duke
of Wellington, lies in the north of Hampshire. This,
again, is one of those stiff clay-soils so difficult to work.
The Duke laid out the whole rental upon improvements
of all kinds. He spent large sums in draining, marling,
and farm-offices, — and to very little profit. Such an out-
lay upon a less rebellious soil should have given ten times

2U RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

the result ; but the old soldier persevered in this struggle,
as he did in former days upon fields of battle. He be-
longed to that class of large proprietors, more numer-
ous in England than elsewhere, who consider it a point of
honour, as well as duty, to be stronger than their land.
He was much beloved by his tenants and neighbours,
who benefited by his liberality. The Duke caused com-
modious and comfortable cottages to be erected for his
labourers, with about two perches of garden ground
attached to each. These he let at the rate of Is. per
week, payment for which he took in labour.

Dorset is the next county to Hampshire, following the
coast line. Here the aspect of the country changes.
In place of the wooded hills and dales of Hampshire,
we find extensive calcareous downs — bare, without trees
or shelter of any kind ;' possessing a scanty popula-
tion of about one to three acres ; few habitations ; very
few gentlemen's seats ; very extensive farms ; in point
of agricultural wealth, rather inferior to Hampshire, but
having a higher average of rent. This county being
dull and uninteresting, there is nothing to take attention
off production, which being obtained without much labour,
a larger return comes to the proprietors.

Most of the county is in pasture. Agricultural occupa-
tions are principally the rearing of sheep for the butcher,
and the care of milch cows for the production of butter.
Upon this poor and dried-up soil, greatly resembling the
Downs of Sussex, any other system of culture would pro-
bably be attended with difficulty. Turned to account in
this way, it can afford an average rent of about 20s. per
acre. Dorsetshire, being little engaged in either manu-
factures or commerce, and having scarcely anything but
its agriculture to depend upon, is one of the parts of
England where wages are lowest, although the population

THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. 215

is by no means dense. Labourers' wages do not exceed
7s. 6d. per week ; a rate considered quite insufficient in
England.

Mr Huxtable, one of the boldest pioneers of English
agriculture, resides in this county. This gentleman was
one of the first to assert the opinion, as he did in a
pamphlet, that, even at the low prices, English farmers
could retrieve themselves if they kept up their cou-
rage. One can imagine the storm raised by such an
assertion. Mr Huxtable was treated as a public enemy,
although himself a farmer, as well as rector of the
parish of Sutton Waldron. He has two farms, upon
which he puts his theories to the formidable proof of a
practical demonstration. The one, situated a mile from
Sutton Waldron, and the least important of the two,
is that upon which the distribution of liquid manure
by means of subterranean pipes was first practised. The
other, containing two hundred and eighty acres, lies
upon a bare calcareous hill, much exposed, and rising
abruptly for several hundred feet. It was at one time
almost in a state of nature, but is now admirably
cultivated. Here are to be seen all the new methods
carried out in some measure from their source. Mr
Huxtable's farm-offices are particularly worthy of notice,
from the great economy of their construction. Gene-
rally speaking, the English care less for show in their
farm-offices than we do : they sacrifice nothing to appear-
ance ; all they seek is utility. Mr Huxtable's cattle-sheds
are constructed with hurdles of broom and branches of
trees, roofed with straw; but nothing which may contri-
bute to the health and comfort of the animals has been
neglected.

The remaining two southern counties are mountainous,
and of granite formation. Devonshire, which comes next

216 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

to Dorset, contains about one million six hundred and
fifty thousand acres. Famous for the beauty of its
scenery and the mildness of its climate, it is no less worthy
of attention in an agricultural point of view; for in this
respect great progress has been made during the last five-
and-twenty years. In mountainous parts as well as in
clay districts, and in general whenever the land requires
much labour upon a confined space, the fields of operation
become naturally much divided. Small farms abound in
Devonshire, say of from ten to fifty acres ; but these poor
farmers are not those who have contributed much to the
rapid advance in farming. It is upon the larger farms of
five to six hundred acres that improvements have been
carried on, which have changed the face of the country.
The small farmers profit subsequently by the examples
set them.

In no part of England has irrigation been carried to a
greater extent than in Devonshire. The streams which
run through granitic soils are particularly fertilising, and
the land there lies very favourably for such works. It
may be said that there is not a stream in all the county,
however small, which is not collected and turned to
account. The new breed of cattle is justly reckoned
one of the handsomest and most productive in great
Britain. It is below the average size ; but, for symmetry
and the excellence of its beef, there is no breed superior.
The cows do not give much milk, but the quality of the
butter made from it is celebrated. It is, in fact, butter
and cream alone which the numerous dairies of Devon-
shire supply. Cereal cultivation is very limited, the soil
being more suitable for green crops. The country is
covered with apple trees, from which a great deal of cider
is made. The grass fields and orchards give this part of
England very much the appearance of Normandy.

THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES. 217

Eents in the neighbourhood of Exeter rise to 80s. per
acre, the average for the rest of the county being 20s.

Cornwall, the most southern of the English counties,
occupies the extremity of that long narrow peninsula
running between the Bristol and English Channels, and is
covered with a mass of barren mountains. As, however,
from its insular position the climate is equable and mild,
especially on its western side, agriculture is more ad-
vanced and productive than one might have expected.
The population numbers about two to five acres, which is
very large for such an ungrateful soil. The tin and copper
mines of Cornwall employ a considerable number of
people ; and another occupation — that of fishing — also
gives employment to a number of hands. Agriculture
holds only a third place among the occupations and re-
sources of the county. The good effects produced upon
farming from proximity to industrial occupations, are
everywhere observable in this naturally wild and retired
part of the country. The ordinary rent of these inferior
lands is from 20s. to 25s. per acre.

218

CHAPTER XV.

THE EASTERN COUNTIES.

WE now cross the Thames and enter the eastern district.
Middlesex is the first county which meets us ; but, properly
speaking, it has no agricultural importance, for, besides
being one of the smallest — containing only about one
hundred and eighty thousand acres — it is almost entirely
occupied by the immense metropolis of the British empire.
Beyond the town properly so called, all that is not in
villas or gardens is under grass, either natural or artifi-
cial ; the hay from which is sold in London, or goes to
supply the dairies of the capital. Proximity to such a
large population affords enormous supplies of manure, by
which the fertility of the soil is renewed as it becomes
exhausted by incessant production. It is admitted, how-
ever, that farming in the neighbourhood of London is not
altogether what it might be. High as rents for arable land
are — averaging 40s. per acre — they do not exceed, nor
even reach, the rate paid in some other parts of England.
The state of agriculture which prevails in the surround-
ing counties makes itself felt up to the very gates of the
greatest existing centre of consumption. Farms in this
part of the environs of London average one hundred
acres in extent. There are some of three and four hun-
dred, but a great number are below one hundred. Among
the most skilfully managed is one at Willesden, only three

THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 219

or four miles distant from Eegent's Park. It consists of
one hundred acres entirely in grass, of which sixty is
natural meadow, and forty Italian rye-grass. It is let
at about £3 per acre ; the tenant, besides, paying tithes
and other taxes, amounting to about 15s. per acre more.

Immediately to the north of London is the small county
of Hertford, which, like Surrey on the south, is filled with
villas and gardens. It possesses one of the most curious
and remarkable establishments in England, namely, the
laboratory of agricultural chemistry belonging to Mr
Lawes of Rothhampstead Park, near St Albans, — the
only establishment of the kind now existing, since that
established at great expense by the Agricultural Institute
of Versailles was destroyed. A private individual has
established, and supports at his own expense, a costly en-
terprise, which elsewhere governments have declined to
undertake, and which will be of immense utility to the
whole country. All England looks to the results of ex-
periments there carried on, and it has already furnished
valuable information respecting the different kinds of
manures best suited to the various kinds of crops and soils.
Mr Lawes' laboratory is upon the scale of a regular manu-
factory : a steam-engine of ten-horse power; a cast-iron
stove eight feet long ; enormous furnaces ; everything, in
fact, fitted for carrying on his experiments. The entire
carcasses of cattle are there reduced to ashes for the pur-
pose of exact analysis. M. Pay en, who is a good judge
in such matters, has seen these arrangements, and ex-
pressed his admiration of them in a report which has been
published. A piece of ground of twelve or fifteen acres,
divided into twenty-eight compartments, serves as a field
for trying experiments with the different manures.

Any one who has with a little attention followed the
movement in agriculture at the present day, must be satis-

220 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

fied that the time is approaching when further progress can
only be made by means of what is properly called Science.
All that expense can do has been nearly done already.
The world still advances, population goes on increasing,
and the comforts of life are more generally diffused.
What was sufficient for yesterday is not enough for to-
day ; and what is enough for to-day will not satisfy the
wants of to-morrow. We must continue unceasingly to
draw new treasures from our common Mother Earth. We
should have nothing but famine, depopulation, and death
before us, had not God, who daily gives us so many new
wants to satisfy, supplied us at the same time with a
powerful' mean for warding these evils off. This exhaust-
less mean is Science. Science, which fills the world with
its wonders ; which has supplied the electric telegraph,
enabling us to communicate instantaneously from one end
of the earth to the other ; which has given us steam, and,
perhaps ere long, heated air, to transport vast multitudes
of men and merchandise by land and sea ; which in the
workshops of industry produces so many wonderful
changes in inert matter; but which has scarcely as yet
been tried on agriculture. Nothing serves better to show
the progress making in agricultural chemistry in England,
than a quarter of an hour's conversation with the first
farmer one meets. Most of them are already familiar
with the technical terms. They talk of ammonia and
phosphates like professed chemists, and are quite alive to
the unlimited field of production this study may open
up. Cheap publications upon the subject abound, and
lecturers paid by subscription hold forth throughout the
country. In London there is a thriving school of chem-
istry and geology as applied to agriculture, under the
direction of Mr Nesbit.

After these two counties comes the ancient kingdom

THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 221

of the East Saxons, now the county of Essex, containing,
like Sussex and Kent, about one million of acres, and
in point of history very similar to these. Notwith-
standing its proximity to London, however, we shall not
find it in a better condition. It almost all rests upon
the clay ; owing to which, as in similar districts of Sus-
sex, the system of farming is that which has cereals for
its object. From the same cause, also, there is a greater
division of property and farming than in three-fourths of
England. The generality of farms are from one hundred
to three hundred acres, and many are cultivated by their
own proprietors. Formerly the agriculture of the county
owed a relative prosperity to these different circumstances.
At the beginning of the present century rents averaged
20s. per acre, and rose gradually to 25s. ; but since
strong lands lost favour, this was followed by a down-
ward movement, which reduced them nearly to their
former figure.

This falling off in the return produced the ordinary
consequences ; properties, generally speaking, have been
mortgaged to the extent of more than half their value.
The English do not fail to attribute this to their too
great division. Whatever be the cause, the evil was real,
and it left the proprietors defenceless against the crisis.
The result has been a pretty large number of forced
sales, which has lowered the average value of the land
by one-fourth, or probably a third.

Fortunately for Essex, it possesses, like its neighbours,
one of those energetic individuals who anticipate the
future while seeking by every means to escape from the
difficulties of the present. In one of the worst parts of
the county, near Kelvedon, is situated the famous farm
of Tiptree Hall, belonging to Mr Mechi, a cutler in the
City, who is devoted to agriculture.

222 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

All our agriculturists who have visited London have
been to see Mr Mechi's farm : it is now very generally
known even in France. All that the inventive spirit of
the English could imagine to make the soil produce to
its utmost extent, and especially to overcome the resist-
ance of clay lands, is directly employed by that indefati-
gable inventor. It must not be supposed, however, that
Tiptree Hall presents the true state of English agriculture ;
it is not even that which is likely to prevail over the
greater portion of the country, for some of its principal
features are there wanting entirely. But it is one of the
most complete resumes of the vigorous efforts making for
some time past to improve stiff land, and at the same
time affords a striking example of the social and political
character of the revolution now going on in agriculture.
It was a movement essentially of an aristocratic character
which, since the time of Arthur Young, has so greatly
advanced English agriculture : that which promises at
the present day to cause another stride, and of which Mr
Mechi is one of the most active agents, is, I will not say
democratic, but urban (bourgeois).

Mr Mechi's farm, which is his own property, contains
one hundred and seventy acres, the average size of both
property and farming in the county ; but in one respect it
does not keep to the average, and that is in the disburse-
ment account. Mr Mechi purposely chose his farm upon
marshy land which had hitherto resisted all kinds of
culture ; and he has taken care to leave all around a
specimen of the land as it was, to show its former state.
Everything had to be made ; first, the soil, which Mr
Mechi relieved of the stagnant water by thorough-drain-
ing, and then turned it up to the depth of two feet, and
transformed it by means of the most powerful fertilisers.
Mr Mechi has built an unpretending house upon the pro-

THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 223

perty, with barns and stables, which make no great show
outwardly, but the internal arrangements are most com-
plete, according to the new system. In the centre of
the property is a steam-engine, the soul, as it were, of
this large body. There he feeds, in addition to working
horses, one hundred horned cattle, one hundred and fifty
sheep, and two hundred pigs, or equal to about one head
of cattle per acre; and these animals, entirely stall-fed,
grow and fatten almost perceptibly. There is scarcely
any natural pasture on the farm — one-half is in wheat
and barley, the other half in roots and artificial fodder.
Owing to the immense quantity of manure from the
animals, and the no less enormous amount of extra man-
ures which Mr Mechi purchases every year, the crops
obtained are magnificent, while at the same time the
land, instead of becoming exhausted, is constantly in-
creasing in richness.

Mr Mechi visited Paris with the Lord Mayor of Lon-
don. He speaks French, and one cannot confer upon
him a greater pleasure than to go and see his farm. Both
the man and the place are curiosities. It is said that he
sinks a good deal of money on his experiments, and I
can easily believe it ; but I prefer this extravagance to
most others. In his position, a Parisian who had made
money would have an elegant villa with a Gothic sum-
merhouse, Swiss cottage, and all sorts of ostentatious
and often useless absurdities. I would ask, which of the
two is the best ?

If in Essex we see at Mr Mechi's a specimen of the
revolution now going on, in the adjoining counties of
Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedford, and Northampton, we witness
the results of the agricultural and social revolution which
took place about sixty years ago. At the close of the
last century, the lands in this district were in a more

224 RUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

miserable and neglected state than those in the south at
the present day, and their poor and sandy character
seemed to offer far fewer resources to the cultivator. It
was never thought possible to turn the greater part of
them to better account than as large rabbit-warrens ;
but now they rank among the richest and best. What
mercantile adventure, moderate-sized farming, permanent
stabulation, drainage, and steam, have done in our day
for stiff lands, large property, large farming, and the four-
course rotation accomplished then for light soils.

Arthur Young was born in the county of Suffolk, and,
like all great men, made his appearance just at the proper
time. He came when, an impetus having been given
to the industrial arts, it became necessary to think
about increasing the production of food with a dimin-
ished number of hands, in order to supply the wants of
the new population which was about to crowd the
workshops. At the same time the revolutionary state
of France fostered the aristocratic feeling in England.
Money in those days was not so plentiful as now, and large
amounts of capital were confined to a few hands. Every-
thing tended to favour large property and large farming,
and the lands most free for the purpose were just those
best suited for carrying on large operations. Hence the
great success of Young's system, which up to the present
day has acted like a second charter for the English.

Suffolk has not herself profited most by the example
which she set. No man is a prophet in his own country ;
and the ill success of Arthur Young as a farmer militated
against his authority as a reformer in his own neighbour-
hood. Besides, a large portion of the county partakes
of the clayey nature of the neighbouring soils to the
south ; in the north alone light soils are to be found, at
least to any extent. It is to Arthur Young especially

THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 225

that Suffolk owes its fame as being the seat of the
largest manufacture of agricultural implements in Eng-
land. There are to be found the celebrated establishments
of Messrs Eansomes of Ipswich, Garrett of Leiston, &c.
These immense factories testify to the extensive use
among English farmers of the heaviest and most costly
machines. A similar trace of M. Mathieu of Dombasle
remains in the department where he lived ; the recollec-
tion of that great agriculturist, who in some respects
resembled Arthur Young, is preserved more particularly
by a manufactory of implements.

Norfolk has been the true theatre of the success of
Arthur Young. The north and west of this county
forms an immense sandy plain of 750,000 acres, where
there is no obstacle to large property and large farm-
ing, and where everything favours horse-tillage, cultiva-
tion of roots, the use of machines — in one word, the
four-course rotation. By means of this system, steadily
pursued for sixty years, these inferior lands, producing
scarcely 5s. per acre in 1780, now return, on an average,
25s. per acre, or five times their former net production ;
and the gross production has risen in at least an equal
proportion.

A large part of the credit due to this wonderful
transformation belongs to an extensive proprietor in
the county, the friend and disciple of Arthur Young —
Mr Coke, who, in acknowledgment of his services to agri-
culture, was created Earl of Leicester. He died a few years
ago, at an age not far short of a hundred. Mr Coke had
a large property in the west of the county, called Holkham,
containing about thirty thousand acres. This immense
estate, which is now worth at least £1,200,000, was worth
at most £300,000 in 1776, when Mr Coke inherited it.
It was then in the occupation of a great number of small

p

226 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

farmers, who paid their rents very badly, although these
were very low ; and ultimately a great many of them
abandoned their farms altogether, because they could not
make a livelihood out of them. It was then that Mr
Coke decided upon farming a portion of these sandy
wastes himself ; the rest he put into very large farms,
and, by offering leases of twenty-one years, held out an
inducement to farmers of intelligence and capital to take
them. It is estimated that in the course of fifty years
Mr Coke expended £400,000 in improvements of all sorts,
which caused the farmers to lay out about as much more
— an excellent investment on the part of both, since they
have all made money by it.

Any one who wishes to get an idea of this period in
the history of English agriculture ought to visit Hoik-
ham. The farm which Lord Leicester personally directed
lies in the park belonging to the mansion. Its extent is
1800 acres, 500 of which are in permanent pasture ; the
rest is arable, laid out exactly for the four-course rotation.
The farm maintains 250 large cattle, 2500 southdown
sheep, and 150 pigs. An equally profitable visit may
also be paid to Castleacre, a farm of 1500 acres, and
several others in this district also deservingly famous.
It will be found that the same principles are everywhere
applied upon as large a scale, and followed by similar
results. The whole of this land formerly grew only rye ;
now it does not produce a particle of this grain, but
instead are to be seen the finest wheat crops and the best
cattle in the world. The present Earl of Leicester is a
worthy representative of his father.

The agricultural amelioration of Bedfordshire has been
no less complete and rapid than that of Norfolk. Less
than a century ago, three-fourths of the county consisted
of nothing but waste commons. These unproductive

THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 227

lands have been gradually divided, enclosed, and culti-
vated, and, owing to the four-course system, now rank
equal to the full average of English lands. As in Norfolk,
we here also find an influential and energetic promoter
of the revolution — the celebrated Duke of Bedford —
who, like Lord Leicester, has realised an enormous for-
tune. A visit to Woburn, the seat of the Bedford family,
with the farms belonging to it, is the necessary sequel
of a visit to Holkham. Besides the galleries of his-
torical paintings, adorned with • portraits by Van Dyke,
which at every step revive recollections of illustrious
members of the house of Russell, princes, and great
men of their time, there are other galleries filled with
models of ploughs, representations of animals of differ-
ent breeds, samples of agricultural produce — in fact, a
complete agricultural museum. Of these trophies the
Bedford family is no less proud than of the others.

The conduct of the present Duke towards his tenantry
presents another model for imitation. He caused all his
rents to be revised after the crisis, and offered new terms
to his tenants, such as they willingly accepted ; he built
for his labourers excellent cottages, with small gar-
dens attached, schools for their children, churches, &c.
These benevolent acts do not ultimately involve any
sacrifice ; all that is necessary is the advance of money.
In fact, the rent of his property has not been sensibly
diminished, but will even be increased in consequence of
the extensive works in draining, farm-offices, and other
substantial improvements which he has effected. The
assistance afforded by the Duke to his tenants has been
more apparent than real. In giving them the option
of a lease at a fixed or a grain rent, he restored their
confidence and excited emulation. An English farmer
is capable of any effort, when he feels confident that

3 r

OF THE

I UNI\

UNIVERSITY

228 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

he is under a good landlord, who does not tie him down
too strictly, and who will help him at a pinch. Again,
the clean and comfortable cottages provided for his
labourers are not given them for nothing ; they pay a
good rent ; and it is quite understood that a proprietor
who builds a village should get a return of at least three
per cent for his money.

The Duke has likewise cut down all his large hedges ;
and he was one of the first to give up the greater part of
his shootings. With him everything is subordinate to
utility. In the middle of his park, adjoining his home
farm, is a factory which employs a hundred workmen,
who are engaged in the manufacture of all that is
necessary for the construction of the numerous works
constantly in train upon some part or other of his exten-
sive domain. From the windows of his mansion he views
the chimneys of his steam-engine and factory smoking
opposite to each other, not far from the last herds of deer
which still bound over the lawns, but which are every day
giving place to sheep.

In Northamptonshire, adjoining Bedford, rents, during
the last sixty years, have tripled from the same causes.
The Bedford family holds considerable property in this
county ; and Lord Spencer is another large proprietor,
who, as an agriculturist, deserves equal celebrity with Mr
Coke and the Duke Francis.

Of the ten counties which compose the eastern region,
the three last, Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Lincoln,
form a division by themselves — the fens. In looking
at the map of England, we observe a large bay running
into the land to the north of Norfolk, called the Wash.
All round this muddy bay the land is flat, low, and con-
stantly being covered by the sea. These marsh-lands, at
one time uninhabitable, now rank among the richest mea-

THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 229

dow land in England. Situated opposite to Holland,
they have, like that country, been reclaimed by means
of dykes. The area of these three counties is about
2,500,000 acres ; of which the fens, properly speaking,
occupy about a third, and are formed by the rivers Ouse,
Nen, Cam, Witham, and Welland.

The draining, commenced by the Komans, was carried
on during the middle ages by the monks who had estab-
lished themselves on the islands rising here and there out
of the inundated land. The English are slow in making
mention of services rendered by the ancient monasteries ;
but it is nevertheless certain that in their island, as else-
where, the only monuments of any value which remain
from the most remote periods are due to the Catholic
religion. Agriculture, in particular, owes its first success
to the religious orders. At the time of the Keformation,
the lands belonging to the monastic orders were bestowed
upon powerful families, who have continued what the
monks had begun. The residences of many of the nobi-
lity still retain the names of the abbeys which they have
replaced — such as Woburn Abbey, Welbeck Abbey, &c.
Before the monks were driven out, they had made pretty
considerable progress in the reclamation of land ; and, in
addition to their canals and cultivation, the fine cathedrals
of Peterborough and Ely remain to mark their passage.
These churches still continue to be the leading features
of that part of the country.

At the commencement of the seventeenth century, one
of the Earls of Bedford put himself at the head of a com-
pany for continuing the works, to which a concession of
one hundred thousand acres was granted. From that
time the undertaking has gone on without interruption.
Windmills . and steam-engines, erected at great expense,
are continually pumping off the water ; these, with

230 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

immense ditches and indestructible dykes, are the
means employed for effecting the object. The lands
reclaimed are already intersected with roads and rail-
roads ; towns have been built, and farms laid out upon
them. These once submerged and unproductive lands
are let at a rent of 25s. to 30s. per acre. Cereal and
root crops are occasionally to be seen ; but the most part
is in grass, upon which are fattened short-horned cattle,
and sheep of a cross between the old Lincolnshire and the
Dishley.

All the north of Cambridgeshire forms part of the
fen district. The average rent there has doubled within
the last forty years. Population has rapidly increased,
owing either to the improved climate, or because the
progress of draining has produced a demand for labour.
The southern part of the county is not in such a satisfac-
tory state ; it more resembles Hertfordshire, of which it
forms in a manner the continuation. Clay soils predo-
minate, and consequently the crisis there was pretty
severe ; moreover, the inhabitants live in constant dread
of fires. The farm buildings being all constructed of
wood, and roofed with straw, a fire makes great havoc.
The least discontent among the labouring population is
shown in incendiary acts, the authors of which almost
always escape the vigilance of the police. This evil
appears also in other parts of England, but nowhere to
such an extent as in Cambridgeshire. Assurance com-
panies sometimes altogether refuse to insure steadings
which have been burnt several times. The blaze of these
fires reflects the bad condition of the labouring classes
in those counties which are only agricultural: of these,
Cambridgeshire is one ; the poor there amount to a tenth
of the population.

Between Cambridge and Bedford lies the small county

THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 231

of Huntingdon, having an area of not quite two hundred
and fifty thousand acres, and a population of only sixty
thousand. Small though it be, it plays a great part in
English history, as being the country of Cromwell. In
an agricultural point of view, nothing recommends it
specially to our attention.

If Norfolk has long held the first rank among the
English counties for agricultural development, Lincoln-
shire, which a century ago was more waste and sterile,
now disputes the palm. Lincolnshire contains about
1,800,000 acres, and may be divided into three very
distinct agricultural districts : fens in the south and east,
wolds or plains in the north, and moors in the west.

The fen district goes by the name of Holland, which,
in fact, it much resembles. The advancing dykes, which
gain more and more from the sea every day, are the
same, the meadows are the same, and the flocks nearly
similar ; the appearance of the country, too, is the same,
— low and wet. In some parts the high price of grain
gave encouragement to the cultivation of cereals ; but
these now give way on all hands to grass, which is better
suited to the soil. Kent there rises to an average of 30s.
per acre. The wolds are dry and bare uplands, with a
calcareous subsoil, which the four-course system has
entirely transformed. They are let at an average of no
less than 25s. per acre. The breeding of cattle is there
carried on to some extent ; and, excepting in winter, the
animals have rarely any other feeding than that which
the marsh ground usually attached to each wold farm
supplies. The Norfolk rotation is there modified, inas-
much as the clover crop holds possession of the land two
years, and wheat comes only once in five. But this
modification, which had been adopted for the purpose of
saving manual labour, has rather fallen into disfavour,

232 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

because it allows more time for weeds to root themselves
in the land. That part of the county called Lincoln
Heath was at one time perhaps even more barren than
the wolds, but now the change there also is not less
great.

Lincolnshire, like Norfolk, Bedford, and Northampton,
owes the important changes which have taken place there
to a wealthy proprietor — Lord Yarborough. Lord Yar-
borough's property extends to about "thirty thousand
acres, yielding a rental of £30,000, which, a century ago,
brought in probably not a tenth of that sum. To give
an idea of the state of this part of the country, now so
populous and cultivated, it is said that near to Lincoln
a tower or lighthouse was erected not more than a hun-
dred years ago, for the purpose of guiding travellers who
might lose their way at night in these desert moors.

Large farming, as well as large property, flourishes in
the wolds of Lincolnshire. We find there farms of a
thousand, fifteen hundred, and even two thousand five
hundred acres. Such farms grow from two to five hun-
dred acres of turnips, a like extent of barley or oats, as
much clover, and an equal quantity of wheat. The farm
buildings are kept in excellent order ; and the farmers,
who are almost all wealthy, live in a liberal style. Some
of them have fine houses, numerous servants, and keep
their hunters and superb harness-horses. Like Norfolk,
it is the perfection of large property and large farming.
I do not speak of one farm only, but of all. In the
more naturally fertile parts of the county, again, one
meets with middling -sized, and even small farming,
which is rather remarkable, so close to the more brilliant
model of the large.

233

CHAPTER XVI.

THE WESTEEN COUNTIES.

IF the southern region is the zone of cereals, and the east
the chief domain of the four-course system, the charac-
teristic of the west is grass, that primitive wealth of the
English soil. The rural prosperity of this region is of old
standing. At one time the entire agricultural wealth of
the island was confined to two zones, — grass in the west
and part of the central districts, and corn-lands in the
south-east ; the remainder was nothing but heaths, marshes,
and uncultivated mountains. Later, however, these corn-
lands have been surpassed by the light soils worked
on the quadrennial rotation ; but the grass -lands have
maintained their old superiority. The rain which falls
in the west of England is three times more than in the
east; and some influence upon vegetation seems to be
caused by the saline particles which the sea breezes from
the west deposit on that side of the island. A similar effect
is observable upon our western coasts. From time imme-
morial, whole counties there form but one immense prairie
covered with flocks, and successive generations of cattle
have continued to deposit an amount of manure, which
still goes on increasing. These prairies, like the coal, are
gifts of Providence. The whole rural economy of Eng-
land owes its origin to them, for their existence has
taught English farmers the importance of cattle. The

234 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

perfection of the art has been to imitate in other quarters
what in the west has been so bountifully bestowed.

Nowadays, the grass country in its turn begins to lag
behind ; the very fact of its prolonged and easy success
has sent it to sleep, while all around progresses. Agri-
culturists of the present day are not very favourable to
what is called old grass ; human art can do little for it,
and where there is any great extent of it, agricultural
science, so called, has made little advance. The grass-
land farmers of the present day do just as their fathers
did before them ; the spur of necessity has not touched
them, and modern improvements make their way among
them with difficulty. The skilful stabulation of the
Huxtables and Mechis, the art of drainage, the assi-
duous search after new manures, the ingenious invention
of implements, the selection of seeds, all that feverish
activity which characterises the new school, is to them
unknown. The school of Arthur Young himself has not
produced any thorough modification of their system.
The two revolutions, which at the interval of half a
century have agitated the agricultural world, have passed
over almost without touching them. They rest upon
their old superiority, obtained and preserved hitherto
without exertion.

But will it be always so ? This may reasonably be
doubted ; for not only does the improved system of agri-
culture produce, in general, a larger gross return, but in
some parts it gives a greater net result. In the mean
time, rents of grass-land are still, upon the whole, the
highest. In the United Kingdom there are many
millions of acres — probably one-fourth of the whole
surface — in old grass. Nowhere else is found a like
extent of lands giving such a revenue. In certain privi-
leged parts of the north and south of France, in some

THE WESTERN COUNTIES. 235

parts of Belgium, Italy, or Spain, higher rents may be
shown, but only for small tracts.

The average of rents in England, as in France, amounts
to about one-third of the gross production. This propor-
tion, however, varies considerably, according to the mode
of farming. In parts where expenses are high, rents fall
to one-fourth, or even to one-fifth, of the gross return ;
but, on the other hand, where they are low, the rent con-
stitutes one-half, and upwards. This is the case with
grass-lands, for the amount of. manual labour bestowed
upon them amounts to scarcely anything ; all that has
to be done is in a manner to reap. The capital required
is small, and the chances of loss small also ; the whole is
nearly sure profit. Thus we see rents given of as much
as £8 per acre.

Grass-lands may be turned to account in three ways —
namely, for breeding stock, fattening, and the production
of milk. In England, as well as in France, it is found
that breeding is the least profitable of the three. To
this only the poorest pastures are devoted ; and the
same system of bringing young stock, bred in the moun-
tain districts, to the more fertile country to be fattened,
is adopted equally in England and in France. But new
notions are opposed to these migrations of the cattle ;
and wherever such ideas find favour, fattening and breed-
ing are combined, for the basis of the system consists in
providing abundance of food during tender age. As yet,
however, the plan is but very partially adopted ; the
general facts point at distinction in the occupations.
Fattening is looked upon as the most lucrative and certain
where the pastures are of a better kind ; and, in fact, we
know, from the experience of our Normandy graziers, how
simple and advantageous this system is. But it is
the milk which carries the day both in England and in

236 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

France. The graziers of the west make cheese, which,
for the most part, is very much esteemed.

The western districts are among those which form an
exception to the common rule in England, property and
farming being there generally divided. For a few large
estates to be met with, there are a great many small
ones, some of which are worked by the proprietors them-
selves. We have already found this division in Kent,
Sussex, and Devonshire ; we shall meet with it again.
The cause differs according to locality : in Kent, it is due
to the diversity of the crops ; in Sussex, it is owing to
the stiffness of the soil ; in Devonshire, the mountainous
character of the country is the cause ; while in the grass-
lands the nature of the prevailing occupation prohibits
its being carried on upon a large scale. English economists
find that this division has been carried too far ; and they
are probably right, for the general condition of the popu-
lation is not good, notwithstanding the high value of the
produce, and wages are rather low.

The western region contains six counties. In that of
Somerset, the portion which adjoins Devonshire is, like it,
rugged and mountainous, and contains one of the most
desolate and uncultivated districts in the island — the
granitic moorland, called Exmoor Forest, rivalling Dart-
moor in wildness : its extent is about twenty thousand
acres, abandoned to a kind of half- wild sheep, and forming
a refuge for the shyest kinds of game, such as deer. As a
set-off to this, the vale of Taunton, bordering on Exmoor,
is celebrated for its beauty and fertility ; and all the
country about Gloucester, near which is Bath, famous for
its mineral waters, and the populous seaport of Bristol,
abounds in excellent pasture. Nowhere in England,
unless perhaps in Leicestershire, and always excepting
Middlesex, are rents so high as in Somersetshire ; the

THE WESTERN COUNTIES. 237

average is 30s., and it rises to double, and even treble in
the Vale.

A country uniting so many advantages, so near to
London, and with such outlets as Bath and Bristol for
its produce, favoured besides by nature with that beauti-
ful grass vegetation which produces such high rents, might
be supposed to be in a very flourishing condition. The
working classes suffer, however, and the manifest cause
of it is over-population. It is just this over-population
which, by provoking an undue competition for the farms,
has caused at once high rents and the too great division
of land. Since 1801, the population of Somerset has
risen from 280,000 to 444,000, while the land has not
proportionately increased in richness ; the balance being
thus destroyed, a remedy can only be effected by an
increased production of the land, or a reduction in popu-
lation.

Gloucestershire, which adjoins Somerset, divides itself
into two parts — what are called the Cots wolds, or high
grounds, and the Vale, or valleys of the Severn and Avon.
These two agricultural districts require to be considered
separately.

The Cotswolds form a series of table-lands from five
hundred to six hundred feet above the level of the sea,
intersected with shallow valleys. The character of the
soil is poor, and the climate cold. At one time they were
almost entirely devoted to sheep pastures, but cultiva-
tion has gradually extended itself over this naturally
unproductive soil, and by means of the Norfolk rotation,
and the purchase of extra manure, remarkable results
have been obtained. The average rent now reaches
16s. per acre. The farms are extensive, and farmers
in general well off. Paring and burning is much prac-
tised, and is better understood than in France. In place

238 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

of sowing corn for the first crop, they begin with turnips,
and these are eaten off by sheep ; then comes barley
with grass seeds ; the third year clover, and the fourth
wheat. The chief stock of the Cotswolds is sheep.
The old breed of the county — become, by modern im-
provements, one of the best in England — rivals the Dishley
and Southdowns. Upon the whole, the agriculture of
the Cotswolds may be held up as a model for light and
poor soils.

The Agricultural College of Cirencester is situated in
the Cotswolds. It was built by subscription upon pro-
perty belonging to Lord Bathurst, and rented specially
for the purpose. The first men in the county are mem-
bers of this large establishment, which in many respects
resembles our Institution of National Agriculture. Like
ours, it had obstacles and difficulties to contend with,
such as all young institutions encounter ; but English
perseverance is not so easily put down, and it is now in
a flourishing condition.

In this neighbourhood resided Lord Ducie, one of the
large landed proprietors of England interested in agri-
cultural improvements. After the death of this skilful
agriculturist, a sale of his stock took place on the 24th
of August last year, at which was witnessed one of those
sights to be seen only in England. Nearly three thou-
sand amateurs assembled at Tortworth Court farm, where
sixty-two head of short-horned cattle realised the sum of
£9371, or 234,000 francs, equal to an average of £159
each. One cow alone, three years old, with her calf of
six months, brought 1010 guineas; — it is true, she was a
descendant of Charles Collings' celebrated " Duchess."

The Yale of Gloucester has been endowed by nature
differently from the Cotswolds ; but human industry has
done less for it. The average of rents there reaches 29s.

THE WESTERN COUNTIES. 239

per acre. The land is almost entirely under grass, and
it holds an ancient and deserved reputation for its cheeses.
Notwithstanding these advantages, it is admitted that
the system of agriculture might be improved, and the
production easily increased. Draining is little resorted
to, and the use of supplementary manures is not very
common. This backwardness is usually attributed to
the too great division of property and farming. The
crisis, which in general did not affect grass districts, was
severely felt in the Vale of Gloucester. The general
fall in prices affected cheese as well. The small farmers,
already poor, and reduced by competition to the bare
necessaries of life, were unable to stand such a fall.
Proprietors, on the other hand, needing all their incomes,
found it difficult to lower their rents, or to make advances
for improvements in order to increase production. Such
is the unfortunate involvement of affairs, from which,
however, escape must be found.

Under this accidental poverty lies a large amount of
real wealth, for the gross produce is still there. No actual
distress meets the eye. One seldom sees a more charming
country than those refreshing valleys of the Severn and
Avon, with their ever-green verdure, their luxuriant
hedgerows, and thousands of grazing cattle. It seems as
if comfort and happiness should never fail in such a
country.

Among the six western counties, three form the grass
district, the other three belong to the mountainous region
which separates England from Wales. The small county
of Monmouth, the most southerly of the three, situated
between the sea and the mountains, presents the greatest
variety of aspects : towards the west and north, we have
the rugged wildness of the Alps ; while the east and
south, bordering on the Wye, is a perfect garden. Culti-

240 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

vation by oxen is still sometimes to be seen there, but
this is becoming more rare in England every day. On
the coast, rents rise very high, and fall in proportion as
they near the mountains. Although the population is
greater than the natural resources of the country might
lead one to suppose, still they are throughout in a
flourishing condition, a considerable amount of labour
being absorbed by the coal and iron mines.

Herefordshire exhibits fewer contrasts than Monmouth ;
it has less of mountain and plain, but the county gene-
rally is hilly. The average rent is somewhat higher than
in Monmouth. As to Salop, the last and largest of the
three frontier counties, one part of it is just a con-
tinuation of Hereford, the other is a transition between
the hilly country and the more flat county of Chester ;
its numerous iron-mines and potteries rival those in the
neighbouring county of Stafford.

The chief agricultural occupation of this district is the
breeding of that fine race of white-faced red cattle known
by the name of Herefords. These cattle, which the graziers
of the midland counties, who purchase them for fattening,
esteem most highly, fatten more readily than any other
breed when put upon good pasture ; and their beef is
better than the Durham, but slower in forming. If, as
appears to be the case, the breeding of short-horns is
increasing in parts of the country where they have not
hitherto been reared, the most profitable occupation of
the Welsh frontier will be threatened, and the Hereford-
shire breeders will also be forced to turn their attention
to fattening.

Lastly comes the county of Chester, the richest of the
six. Cheshire cheese has a fame out of England wider
even than that of Gloucester. The county contains
seven hundred thousand acres, one-half of which is under

THE WESTERN COUNTIES. 241

grass. The number of milcli cows it maintains is above
one hundred thousand, each of which gives from two
hundred to four hundred pounds of cheese, and fifteen
to twenty pounds of butter. The rent of grass-land
exceeds in general 30s. ; but as arable land is lower,
the general average of the county is 26s. to 28s., the
farmer paying tithes and taxes. Property is less divided
than in Gloucester and Somerset, but farming is quite as
much so. There are scarcely more than one or two farms
of four hundred acres, the majority being not more than
seventy, and a large number in the cheese districts are
under twelve.

This agricultural condition is not attended with the
same inconvenience here as it is in Gloucester and Somer-
set, either because there is not a corresponding division
of property, or more probably owing to the neighbour-
hood of the manufacturing districts, which offer immense
outlets. A labourer's average wage is 12s. per week, or
2s. per working day. Drainage is general, and the use
of supplementary manures frequent.

This ancient and prosperous rural economy has not
prevented the spirit of innovation from finding its way
into Cheshire. Mr Littledale's farm on the Mersey,
opposite to Liverpool, is already famous for its admirable
stabulation. The cows on this farm never go out,
which appears monstrous to the graziers in the neighbour-
hood : in summer they are fed on clover, Italian rye-
grass, and green vetches ; in winter, on corn, chopped
hay, turnips, and beetroot. It is asserted that by this
means eighty-three milch cows and fifteen working
horses are easily kept upon eighty acres.

The Marquess of Westminster, a very extensive pro-
prietor, and whose magnificent residence is the ornament
of the county, is a great encourager of draining ; he has

Q

242 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

tile- works, which make a million of drain-tiles in the year,
and these he gives gratuitously to his farmers.

The most successful manure for these grass-lands is
bone-dust. Farmers willingly pay the proprietors seven per
cent of the expense for laying this powerful manure upon
the soil ; upon every four acres it gives them, they say,
sufficient extra food for an additional cow. Agricultural
chemistry explains perfectly how this wonderful effect is
produced. The phosphates are taken out of the soil by
the constant carrying away of the milk, and require to
be renewed. One to two tons of ground bones are used
to the acre, the effect of which is immediate, and lasts
from fifteen to twenty years. These bones come from
Manchester, where they have already undergone a process
which deprives them of their gelatine for glue. Thus,
industry and agriculture render each other mutual assist-
ance, and the third sister, science, brings them near, and
unites them — modern divinities, which go hand in hand,
like the ancient sisters. We obtain like results with ani-
mal charcoal after it has been used in the sugar-refineries.

The Cheshire cheeses weigh from fifty to one hundred
pounds each ; the largest are considered the best : some
smaller are made in the shape of pine-apples, but they are
not so much appreciated. It takes about four quarts of
milk to produce one pound of cheese. The red colour,
which distinguishes them, is produced with annotto, and
they are sometimes kept as much as three years before
being sold for consumption. The cooler for the milk, the
salting -tub, the large and powerful presses, the store
filled with these huge shapes, the well-kept utensils of
wood and iron, — everything in these dairies wears an air
of comfort. The city of Chester, which is one of the most
curious towns in England, from the singularity of its con-
struction, carries on a considerable annual trade in cheeses.

THE WESTERN COUNTIES. 243

Among the productions of rural industry, this, in my
opinion, is one of the most interesting ; besides furnish-
ing the mass of the population in all countries with a
wholesome, palatable, and nourishing food, easily carried
and easily procured, cut in any quantity which may be
needed, and requiring no preparation, I cannot forget that
it was the manufacture of cheese which enabled Holland
and Switzerland, two of the noblest nations of modern
Europe, to establish their independence. There is more
connection than is generally supposed between a nation's
political history and its rural economy. This industry
passed into England from Holland, along with turnip
cultivation, and the latter of these gifts is worth nearly
as much as the other.

The trade in cheese appears likely to be greatly
extended in the present day. In the producing countries,
especially in Holland, the rise in price shows the increased
demand ; wherever the condition of the labourer improves,
the first addition he makes to his piece of bread is a
morsel of cheese. The European colonies in the New
World offer, besides, an almost unlimited market, and it
is principally for these new colonies that the Dutch
cheeses are purchased. France also makes excellent
cheeses, but not as yet in sufficient quantity, especially
for exportation. Nothing, however, is more simple than
to imitate the most esteemed qualities of Dutch, Swiss,
and English cheeses ; it only requires a little attention
and a certain amount of capital. France, besides, has
certain kinds of her own which compare advantageously
with the best of the foreign kinds ; among others, for
example, is the ewe-mi]k cheese of the Eoquefort moun-
tains, which has nothing analogous in Europe, and which
may become one of our most valuable sources of wealth,
as it is already one of the oldest.

244

CHAPTER XVII.

THE MIDLAND COUNTIES.

PURSUING our tour of agricultural inspection through
England, we arrive at the central districts. The first
counties west of London are Buckingham, Berks, and
Oxford, none of which present any remarkable feature,
nor is their agricultural condition either above or below
the average.

Buckinghamshire has an area of four hundred and
seventy thousand acres, with a population of only one
hundred and sixty thousand, which, in England, indicates
a country exclusively agricultural. The division of the
land among the various crops is about equal, and this is
the case also in respect to the farms, which are of all sizes —
large, small, and middling : the extent of hill and level
country is about the same, and strong arid light soils
divide the county between them. The valley of Ayles-
bury is reckoned one of the most fertile in the kingdom.
The farms there are larger, and rents double what they
are in the rest of the county. Its pastures are devoted
to the fattening of sheep and of oxen, and the feeding of
milch cows, in the proportion of about one-third to each
of these kinds of stock. A particularly fine kind of
white duck is bred by the small farmers about Aylesbury ;
these, and John Hampden's name, are the pride of Buck-
inghamshire.

THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 245

Berkshire adjoins Surrey higher up the Thames. In
the east its soil is of the same sandy and poor description
as in Surrey and Hants. In this quarter are Windsor
Forest and tracts of uncultivated heath ; the rest is com-
posed of calcareous hills or downs, of the same nature as
those of Sussex and Dorset, and a valley famed for its
fertility, called the White Horse Vale, from the fact of
one of the chalk hills in it having been cut in the form of
a horse. The chief occupation in this valley is the
making of cheese, which is sold under the name of Glou-
cester. The chalk hills pasture sheep similar to the south-
clowns, and natives of the same kind of country. The
fattening of pigs is carried on to a great extent about
Farringdon, the Berkshire breed being one of the best in
England. We here find few large farms, but a great
number of small ; a few yeomen even remain, who culti-
vate their own land.

The most celebrated farm in Berkshire is that of Mr
Pusey, the present President of the Royal Agricultural
Society of England. This farm contains about three
hundred and seventy acres. All branches of farming
there are equally well managed ; but what is particularly
worthy of admiration, is the breeding and fattening of
sheep. The flock consists of eight hundred head, one-
half of which is composed of breeding ewes. In winter
they are fed with roots, and during summer upon irri-
gated meadows. These meadows are the most striking
feature in Mr Pusey's farming. Mr Pusey engaged an
experienced irrigator from Devonshire, and laid out about
£5, 10s. per acre upon the work. The production of
these meadows appears to be enormous, as Mr Pusey pro-
fesses to feed, during the five summer months, seventy-
three fine southdowns upon two acres. These sheep are
put upon the meadows in pens, and as the grass is eaten

246 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

down the pens are shifted; before putting the sheep on
the water is stopped off, and let on again when they are
removed. Mr Pusey asserts that, fed in this way, and
finished off upon corn and oilcake in sheds, they are
fattened at a year old, and sold at a high price for the
butcher. Notwithstanding these great results, and those
which he obtains in other branches of his farming, the
general opinion is that Mr Pusey does not realise any
profit ; however, he not the less does good service to agri-
culture. It is acknowledged by all that he has succeeded
in fattening four times the number of sheep, and dou-
bling the produce of cereals upon his farm : this will lead
others to attempt like results by more economical means,
and probably with success.

The average rent of Oxfordshire is the same as in
Bucks and Berks, and it presents similar fluctuations, ac-
cording to the nature of the district. Perhaps in no other
part of Great Britain is. such diversity of soil to be found.
The rent of light soils is, on an average, as high as 30s.
per acre ; but the Oxford clay being quite as stiff as the
London basin, clay soils scarcely reach 8s. The old three-
year course is still followed up on these clay lands—
namely, wheat, oats, fallow. Upon the light soils it is
the Norfolk rotation, which is, as usual, successful.

The worst part of the county is the west. Here,
among other large properties, is Blenheim, belonging to
the Duke of Marlborough. This estate, presented by the
nation to the conqueror of Louis XIV., is justly reckoned
one of the finest places in England. The park alone con-
tains upwards of twenty-five hundred acres, and the re-
mainder of the property is considerably more. During the
last crisis, almost all the tenants threw up their farms,
because the Duke refused to make any concessions, and
he was therefore obliged to employ agents to carry on the

THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 247

farming upon his own account. The Duke's conduct was
severely censured in England, where public opinion re-
quires landlords to be very lenient towards their tenants.
It is more than probable, too, that the experiment has not,
in a pecuniary point of view, succeeded. All along the
Thames and other rivers there are excellent meadows,
which furnish the means for supplying butter to the
London market. Between Oxford and Buckingham rises
another ridge of calcareous hills or downs, called the
Chiltern Hills.

Upon the whole, whoever wishes to see an epitome of
the agriculture and soil of England should visit Oxford
and the counties adjoining it. Other attractions than
these, however, take the traveller to this part of the
country. Oxford is one of the most interesting towns
in the three kingdoms, and Blenheim, with its magni-
ficent collection of paintings, is also deserving of a visit.
The county affords an example of every kind of crop,
every sort of land, all grades of rent, and every method
of cultivation, and the average of the whole agrees with
the general average. We may add that Oxford is now
only a few hours by rail from London. Manufacturing
and commercial England alone are unrepresented there,
the vicinity of London and Bristol supplying only im-
perfectly their absence.

Wiltshire is divided into two very distinct parts, north
and south. These two districts differ as well in agricul-
tural production s as in geological formation. The northern
portion, consisting of verdant valleys, through which flow
the tributaries of the Avon, is a country of grass and
dairies. The southern, composed of extensive calcareous
downs like Dorset, is a region of cereals and sheep :
here we have the famous Salisbury Plain, containing the
Druidical remains of Stonehenge. In the north rents rise

248 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

to 80s. and upwards, and fall to 15s. in the south. In
the north the farms upon the whole are small, say from
fifty to two hundred and fifty acres ; but in the south
they are immense — some of two thousand and three
thousand acres, but mostly about one thousand. The
small farmers in the north are, generally speaking, men
of no capital, cultivating the land with their own hands,
with the aid of their families. In the south they are, for
the most part, wealthy men of enterprise ; and yet the
crisis did not affect the prosperity of the north, while the
southern part of the county was one of the districts where
it was most felt.

The reason of this is, that cereals were too extensively
cultivated there. Salisbury Plain presents to the eye the
appearance of a deserted country, where a few farms, at
great distances from each other, are hid from view in
hollows, and where fields of corn, without a tree or fence,
extend as far as the eye can reach. These immense tracts
were formerly used only for sheep-pastures, but the high
price of corn caused them gradually to be converted into
arable land ; and this transformation, although profitable
at first, was not in every case judicious. Ricardo had
them in view, when he says that it is the good land that
is first cultivated for corn, then the middling, and finally
the bad, and that, the demand increasing always with the
population, it is the most expensively raised article which
regulates the price of the market. This axiom, however
true at the time, and in the country where it was pro-
pounded, has since been disproved in more than one in-
stance. England is about to show the reverse by aban-
doning the cultivation of cereals upon bad and middling
land successively, and this south Wiltshire can vouch for.
To produce at the dearest rate, even when an accidental
state of the market admits of its paying, is a wrong

THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 249

principle in rural as well as in industrial economy ; the
more prudent plan is not to venture upon it.

It would appear that an excessive and mistaken appli-
cation of large farming has been practised in this part of
the country. Large farming is beneficial when it reduces
thj3 expenses of production, but is useless when it increases
them. There is a limit to everything. The Weald of
Sussex and South Wiltshire are the two parts of England
which suffer the most ; in the one the cause of the evil
is the smallness of the farms, . and in the latter it is
because they are too large. The best system is univer-
sally that which, in any given situation, pays at once the
best rent, the best profit, and the best wages. Now this
is not what Wiltshire does at present with its immode-
rately-sized farms, for proprietors, farmers, and labourers
all complain. In no part of England are wages lower
and poverty more rife. It is evident that one of the first
remedies is to divide these large farms, for they require
too great a capital ; and in the second place, probably
a reduction in the breadth of corn, and adoption of a
system more suited to the nature of the soil.

We observe quite another state of things in the mid-
land counties, properly so called — Warwick, Worcester,
Eutland, Leicester, and Stafford. Situated between the
grass country of the west and the four -course system
of the east, this district presents a happy association
of both systems ; it is the richest farming district in
England.

Beginning with Warwick, we at once see the chief
cause of this great rural prosperity. Hitherto we have
had under our observation only those parts of the country
exclusively agricultural, or at least little industrial, where
outlets abound, no doubt, to a greater extent than in
three-fourths of our France, owing to the proximity of

250 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

London, and the numerous ports upon the coasts, but
where the great stimulus of manufactures is almost en-
tirely wanting. In entering Warwickshire we come into
a manufacturing district ; and Birmingham, with its
dependencies, first presents itself. During the last fifty
years the population of the county has more than
doubled ; at present it is little short of one per acre.
Four-fifths of this population are manufacturing, from
whence it follows that an acre is required to produce
food sufficient for one person, and that a farmer who
brings his produce to market finds four consumers to bid
for it ; and these consumers,- all in the receipt of high
wages, have the wherewithal to pay good prices for their
purchases. How is it possible that agriculture should
not prosper under such circumstances \

It must not be supposed that the soil of Warwickshire
is good throughout. All the northern part of the county
was at one time an immense moor, covered with wood
and heather ; now half the land is under grass, the
remainder being arable, and, as far as practicable, cul-
tivated upon the Norfolk system. Only one-fourth
of the soil produces cereals for human consumption,
and the fertility of this fourth, as well as of the rest
of the land, is continually increasing, not only from
the manure derived from an immense number of cattle,
but by additional manure obtained in the manufacturing
towns, and transported at a moderate cost by the canals
and railways which traverse the country. But it must
not be supposed that the system of large farming is that
which prevails in Warwickshire and in the other manu-
facturing counties : the average of the farms is one hun-
dred and fifty acres, and the majority are under this size.
Nor is it long leases which have much influence on the
progress of agriculture, for in general the farms are held

THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 251

from year to year. Nevertheless the farmers go to con-
siderable expense for improvements ; and although rents
have doubled since 1770, they do not complain of their
landlords. When both are making profit, everything
goes on smoothly. Wages in their turn participate in
this prosperity, the rate being on an average 20d. per
working day.

A Warwickshire farmer commonly cultivates one hun-
dred and fifty acres, for which he pays a rent of £240,
besides taxes, which amount to £60 ; he gives good wages,
and, without much care or trouble, makes an income of
£120. Of course, he is not such a great man as the
wealthy Norfolk or Lincolnshire farmer ; but in the eyes
of us Frenchmen, who prefer moderate riches, such a con-
dition is more satisfactory, inasmuch as it provides for a
larger number more equally. The land, in the aggregate,
is more productive ; both the gross and net produce are
higher, and a denser population enjoys at least an equal
amount of moderate comfort. A tour through this smiling
county is very pleasant. Kenilworth and Warwick,
with their historical associations, and the delightful
banks of the Avon, are additional attractions to such an
excursion, which may be crowned by the wide field of
interest afforded by the manufactures of Birmingham ;
and that nothing may be wanting, the shade of the
great Shakespeare attends you through this, his native
county.

In the present state of our fields, there is probably no
part of France which will bear comparison with War-
wickshire : we have nothing nearly so well dressed by
the hand of man. The English are acquainted, moreover,
with all the good things they possess, while we do not know
ours. There is no English landscape fresher or more
fertile than the rest which is not immediately known to

252 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

all, at least by name. With us, on the contrary, what
numbers of smiling valleys, fertile plains, and beautiful
hills display their unknown beauties to the sun without
a single curious eye to visit them ! Our neighbours
are justly proud of the magnificent mansions they can
show ; in this respect, however, we are not so much
inferior to them as people suppose : our fields have not
always been so deserted by the wealthy families as dur-
ing the last hundred years ; and previously to 1789 we
were fully as rich as the English in fine country residences.
After all the demolitions, effected as much by revolu-
tionary fury as by a barbarous speculation, we could
still show a tolerable number of chateaus of the last three
centuries to oppose to the most celebrated English man-
sions ; only, while ours are in a state of ruin, theirs,
preserved with religious care, and enlarged every gene-
ration, respected by all as national heirlooms, remain in
good repair. Even their ruins, when these are to be met
with, which is not often, are kept with care. They even
go so far as to build imitations of them when they have
not got them, and the taste for what is called the Tudor,
or pointed and turreted style of architecture, is carried to
a ridiculous extent.

What I have remarked in respect to Warwickshire
applies equally to the neighbouring counties of Worcester
and Leicester. The valley of the Avon runs into Wor-
cestershire, carrying along with it the same beauty and
fruitfulness. Leicestershire, perhaps, is even richer still.
Grass husbandry succeeds well on lands situated upon
the lias, and there is a great deal of such land in Leices-
tershire. The small town of Melton Mowbray, which
is greatly resorted to in the hunting season, owes its
popularity to the nature of the country ; the ground is
slightly undulating, with full and sluggish rivers wind-

THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 253

ing through rich pastures intersected with hedges, mak-
ing it peculiarly favourable for this sport. The county
is famous for its Stilton cheese, and for the farm of
Dishley Grange, once occupied by Bakewell, from whence
emanated the great principle of the transformation in
breeds of domestic animals, one of the most valuable
conquests of human genius.

Notwithstanding its traditional prosperity, Leicester-
shire did not altogether escape the effects of the crisis.
Like most grass countries, its. very success had sent it
to sleep, and, as is generally the case with such coun-
tries, it had permitted too great an invasion of small
proprietorship and farming. When the fall came, both
small proprietors and small farmers found themselves in
difficulties. Some changes among the occupants became
necessary, and these very soon took place. The small
county of Rutland, containing only ninety-five thousand
acres, is very similar to Leicestershire.

Staffordshire affords probably the most striking ex-
ample in England, with Lancashire, of the influence
which the vicinity of manufactures exercises on agricul-
ture. The mountains which run through it, naturally
barren and wild, rise to a thousand feet and more above
the level of the sea. The manufacturing districts are
situated exactly in the least fertile parts, and are divided
into two classes : the potteries in the north, towards
Lancashire, and the iron works in the south, extending
all the way to Birmingham. Owing to the extraordinary
progress which these manufactures are making every day,
the population of the county exceeds six hundred thou-
sand, upon an area of seven hundred and thirty thousand
acres. With such a mass of population the land must
be stubborn indeed which cannot be forced to produce.
The annual produce of the potteries alone is estimated

254 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

by English statistics at two millions sterling, and the
iron-founderies produce six hundred thousand tons annu-
ally. All this wealth reacts upon agriculture.

Large property predominates in Staffordshire, as is the
case in all countries not naturally fertile. The Duke of
Sutherland, descendant of the lords of Stafford, the Earl
of Litchfield, Lords Willoughby, Talbot, and Hatherton,
the Marquess of Anglesea, and Sir Eobert Peel, are the
largest proprietors in the county. Generally speaking,
the farms are let from year to year, and this is preferred
by the farmers — a proof of the good understanding exist-
ing between landlord and tenant. The effects of the crisis
here have quite passed away : the landlords at the time
had to make but trifling concessions, for the farms in
general were let at moderate rents, and the tenants suffi-
ciently well off to stand a temporary reduction of pro-
fits. Wages are 20d. per working day, and the poor-
rate— the infallible sign of the condition of the working
classes — is not at all high. It frequently happens that
there is not a single pauper on the estates of Lord Hath-
erton. For the whole county, the average of poor is only
four per cent of the population, whilst in Wiltshire it
amounts to sixteen per cent. It is the Norfolk rotation,
again, which causes this prosperity. Wherever this sys-
tem coexists with large property and manufactures,
English agriculture reaches its climax. Staffordshire
partakes of the advantages arising from irrigation,
which has transformed the sterile slopes of the hills into
excellent grass-lands.

The principal farms in the county are those of Lord
Hatherton, at Teddesley, containing seventeen hundred
acres ; the Duke of Sutherland's, at Trentham ; and
Drayton Manor, the residence of Sir Eobert Peel. It is

THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 255

curious to witness how Sir Eobert Peel, himself a large
proprietor, settled, in his own concerns, the question he
so boldly brought forward upon public grounds. Every
one may remember the letter which he wrote to his
tenants on 24th December 1849. The views he then
stated have been fulfilled. Sir Kobert caused all his
lands to be drained at his own expense, under the direc-
tion of Mr Parkes, upon condition that his tenants paid
him four per cent on the outlay. These terms they
accepted. All their rents were revised, but few reduced,
as in general they were moderate enough ; and it is suf-
ficient to state that the farmers to whom leases were
offered refused them. They preferred yearly tenancy,
upon which terms their farms had been held by their
families for generations.

The estates of Sir Eobert Peel are a model of good
management. The excellent state of the buildings, the
goodness of the roads, the levellings and drainage, the con-
struction of good cottages with gardens for the labourers
• — all bespeak the wealth and liberality of the master.
The farmers, on their part, having the utmost confidence
in their landlord, do not hesitate to lay out money on
the land, which yields them an excellent return. Every-
where the most improved implements, the choicest seeds,
the most productive methods ; everywhere also the best
crops and the best cattle : even the day-labourers work
with additional energy, confident that a sort of provi-
dence anticipates their wants. Here, as at the Duke of
Bedford's, the Duke of Portland's, and Lord Hatherton's,
may be seen the ideal of the large proprietor of England,
who considers himself as having at least as many duties
as rights, and who employs advantageously for his de-
pendants, as well as for the good of the land, which

256 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

brings forth fruit under his hands for the greater good
of the community, that fortune, which in a manner is
only intrusted to his care.

To the north of the green plains of Leicester the moun-
tains which compose the two counties of Nottingham and
Derby take their rise. Properly speaking, the mountain-
ous district is confined to Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire
being rather what may be called a hilly country, though
partaking of the character of the Derbyshire mountains.
In former times Sherwood Forest, made famous by the
exploits of Eobin Hood, covered the greater part of these
hills. The forest has now disappeared before the pro-
gress of the plough, but the sterility of the soil still
remains. By a good fortune peculiar to England, the
very barrenness of the old forest has proved advantage-
ous in one respect : it has continued in the possession of
a few noblemen, who, for their own enjoyment, have laid
it out in fine parks and extensive estates. The district
goes by the name of the Dukery, because the number of
ducal residences it contains is greater than in any other
part of England. The Dukes of Newcastle and Port-
land, and Earls Manvers and Scarborough, have all
splendid residences there. In a remote corner of the
forest, not far from the oaks still shown as those which
afforded protection to Robin Hood, stands the half-ruined
Abbey of Newstead, the scene of Lord Byron's boyhood.
Any one who has visited this secluded spot can better
understand how, amid ruins haunted by the spirits of
the dispossessed monks, and the silent woods conjuring
up stories of bold outlaws, that melancholy genius which
sprung out of it was formed.

The Duke of Portland, the largest proprietor in this
part of England, is also one of the greatest agriculturists
in the country. During his long and honourable career

THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 257

(for he is now upwards of eighty), the Duke has unceas-
ingly employed the influence of his name and wealth for
the improvement of agriculture. Through his instru-
mentality the environs of the small town of Mansfield
have been quite regenerated ; in place of the moors which
once covered them, a rich cultivation now exists. The
most striking work of the Duke's is an extensive system
of irrigation close to Mansfield, effected by means of
a small stream, diverted so as to form a wide canal
which waters four hundred acres. This undertaking
cost £40,000, and the gross return is estimated at £10
or £11 per acre. These meadows yield two hay crops
annually, and during the rest of the year they afford
good pasture for southdown sheep. Nothing gives more
the idea of power than Clipstone farm, to which these
irrigated lands belong, and which contains altogether
not less than two thousand five hundred acres. The
immense paved court, where a herd of Scotch cattle of
the Angus breed is kept in the open air the whole year
amidst ricks of hay, is a magnificent and striking sight.

The properties of the Dukes of Newcastle and Port-
land are also distinguished by another kind of cultiva-
tion— namely, nurseries and plantations of all kinds of
trees. I have already mentioned that some noblemen
had set about planting regular forests in parts where the
attempt to improve the land had not been attended with
success. By this it will be ascertained how far these forests,
sown and planted by man, composed of selected plants,
freed from all parasitical vegetation, carefully thinned,
and, in fact, cultivated with every care, will be found
superior to those natural forests which have grown up
of themselves.

Owing to these well-directed efforts, the inferior lands
of Nottinghamshire have reached an average rent of 26s.

li

258 RUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

It is true that the no less beneficial influence of manu-
factures has to be added to that produced by large pro-
perty in the hands of men devoted to the public good.
The town of Nottingham, with its suburbs, has a popu-
lation of about one hundred thousand, and is the seat of
numerous manufactures. The population of the county
has doubled within the last fifty years, and during the
same period rents have tripled. These two facts are every-
where observable, the last being a result of the former.
The Trent valley, the natural fertility of which forms an
exception to the rest of the county, is of extraordinary
richness.

Derbyshire, one of the most picturesque counties in
England, is visited by crowds during the summer. The
charming village of Matlock is the headquarters of
tourists. It is famous for its mineral waters, and its
situation reminds one of the prettiest valleys in the
Pyrenees. From this quarter are made all kinds of
excursions, sometimes to the tops of the neighbouring
mountains or into the deep dales ; but the most inte-
resting is that to Chatsworth, the magnificent residence
of the Duke of Devonshire. The roads through his im-
mense park are, with great liberality, thrown open to
all, and used as freely as the Queen's highway. These
large properties are not altogether profit ; for, however
wealthy may be the proprietor, the keeping up of that
beautiful palace, with its gardens and magnificent park,
all which the public enjoy more than the owner himself, is
attended with great expense. The saying, Noblesse oblige,
applies to the English more than to any other people. In
England, titles and wealth command great respect, but the
necessity of keeping them up sometimes ends in ruining
the possessors. One can foresee that a time will come
when no private fortune will be able to stand the expense

THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 259

of keeping up Chatsworth ; and then the consequence will
be, that this Versailles of England will either disappear
altogether, or it will become national property, which it is,
in fact, already, considering the use that is made of it.

The Duke of Devonshire is, besides, proprietor of a
large part of the county. The Duke of Kutland has also
extensive property there, a part of which consists of the
High Peak mountains, separating Derbyshire from York-
shire, and which form the dorsal fin of England. Culti-
vation, of course, is completely. checked upon these high
lands, which are covered with barren moors as far as the
eye can reach ; but these waste grounds subserve another
object of luxury ; they are enclosed with walls to the
extent of many square leagues, and stocked with all
kinds of game.

The lower mountains, of which three-fourths of the
county consist, are covered with pasture. Wheat there
thrives badly ; the only cereal which succeeds is oats.
It is a rearing country, as such countries generally are ;
there are bred short-horned cattle and Dishley sheep,
which are sold to the low -country farmers : cheese is
made to a considerable extent, which, without having the
reputation of that produced in the rich valleys of the
west, meets a ready market. This county much resem-
bles the mountainous districts in the middle of France, as
Auvergne and Limousin, both in appearance and in the
occupation of its inhabitants. Unfortunately, if the means
employed be the same, the results are widely different ; for
while rents in the middle of France scarcely reach 5s. per
acre, they are on an average nearly 20s. on the Derbyshire
hills ; but it must also be added, that while our central
departments have no outlets for their produce, roads and
railways run through Derbyshire in all directions. Loco-
motives are to be seen dashing along the sides of steep

260 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

rocks which one would have thought goats only could
have reached. The working of the mineral wealth of the
county encourages this movement.

Though Derbyshire is a country of large property, the
farms are principally of middling and small size. The
Duke of Kutland's estates, in particular, are laid out in
small farms. Altogether this high land, naturally so un-
productive, is one of the most prosperous parts of England.
Manufactures and agriculture are there equally balanced.
To these two sources of wealth, that expenditure which
the ducal residences involves has to be added, and also the
money spent by tourists and those who attend the baths
at Matlock. We find here large property and small
farming harmoniously combined ; both have their ad-
vantages; the first moderates rents and increases useful
expenditure, while the second secures a larger gross pro-
duction. The population of the county is large, num-
bering nearly one for every two acres, and no class
appears to be ill off; not even since the fall in prices.
The average rate of wages, that criterion of prosperity,
is 2s. per day.

261

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE NOKTHEKN COUNTIES.

THE northern region, the last to come under our notice
before quitting England proper, commences with Lanca-
shire and the West Eiding of Yorkshire. Here every-
thing is on a large scale. Lancashire has an area of
1,200,000 acres, and a population of upwards of 2,000,000,
which is nearly two per acre ! The southern part of the
county is the chief seat of manufactures, and the most
densely peopled ; the seaport town of Liverpool, and the
manufacturing city of Manchester, cover it with their
ramifications.

If this is the most productive district in the world, it is
also the dullest. Let any one fancy an immense morass,
shut in between the sea on one side and mountains on the
other ; stiff clay land, with an impervious subsoil every-
where hostile to farming ; add to this a most gloomy
climate, continual rain, a constant cold sea- wind, besides a
thick smoke, shutting out what little light penetrates the
foggy atmosphere ; and, lastly, the ground, the inhabi-
tants, and their dwellings completely covered with a
coating of black dust — fancy all this, and some idea may
be formed of this strange county, where the air and the
earth seem only one mixture of coal and water ! Such,
however, is the influence upon production of an inex-
haustible outlet, that these fields, so gloomy and forsaken,

262 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

are rented at an average of 30s.; and in the immediate
environs of Liverpool and Manchester arable land lets as
high as £4 per acre. There are not many soils in the
most sun-favoured lands which can boast such rents. At
the sight of such wonders one is almost tempted, with
the Latin poet, to exclaim, " Hail, Saturnian land, the
fruitful mother of harvests and of men ! "

" Salve, magna parens fruguin, saturnia tellus,
Magna virfrm ! "

At one time Lancashire was a country of large property
and large farming ; the same ccfndition of property still
remains, but farming has become more divided with the
increase of population. And still, in the midst of this
dense population, there is room for a number of noble-
men's parks : such are Knowsley, belonging to Lord
Derby ; Croxteth, to Lord Sefton ; Childwall Abbey, to
the Marquess of Salisbury, &c. These parks take away
large tracts from farming, properly so called, and begin
to excite murmurs among the Manchester school. An
association has been formed, under the auspices of the
celebrated Cobden, for the purpose of purchasing large
properties, and cutting them up into small lots. This
society numbers many thousand adherents, and a very
large amount of subscriptions.

This populous district is the seat of democratic and
bourgeois opinions — I might almost say of a revolutionary
spirit, if such an expression were compatible with the
moderation always maintained by the English in their
most violent agitations. They there talk in the most
unceremonious way of the necessity for a change in pro-
perty as well as in political influence : if such language
were held on the Continent, it would most certainly indi-
cate approaching disorders. Fortunately, the English are
well aware that it is better to be patient, and progress

THE NORTHERN COUNTIES. 263

gradually. Meantime, large property remains mistress
of the land, and has hitherto been wonderfully benefited
by the manufacturing activity which prevails around it.

The Lancashire proprietors have less reason than any
to complain of the effect which low prices may have upon
rents. It is true that Manchester and Liverpool promul-
gated the opinions which ended in Free Trade ; but
before agitating a possible reduction in the income
derivable from landed property, the vicinity of these
indefatigable workshops had already increased it con-
siderably. Even supposing a reduction of ten or twenty
per cent to have taken place, the Lancashire proprietors
would still be gainers. The late Premier, Lord Derby
— he who at one time appeared likely to revoke the
measure of 1846, but who ended by confirming it — is,
in fact, the largest proprietor in Lancashire, where his
ancestral name is still cherished. Before yielding, as
minister, to the force of public opinion, he had made up
his mind as a proprietor. He succeeded in averting any
reduction in his rents, by using the great antidote, that
universal remedy — drainage. A body of nearly one
hundred labourers, under a special agent, has been em-
ployed to drain his lands. The farmers are required
simply to cart the draining-tiles ; and upon completion of
the work, pay, in addition to their rents, five per cent on
the outlay. Such is the effect of draining upon these clay
lands, and under that damp climate, that every one profits
by it ; even Lord Derby himself has benefited malgrS lui.

In a report upon the agriculture of Lancashire, a farm
of 155 acres is mentioned, where the yearly quantity
of extra manure purchased is two thousand tons. Such
manurings ought certainly to produce good harvests.
Koots and potatoes, especially, give remarkable results.
In some parts, two crops of potatoes are obtained in the

264 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

year ; upon others, Swedish turnips give forty tons per
acre. The manure employed costs 5s. to 6s. per ton.

The plan adopted tor bringing the moss-land into cul-
tivation is worth describing. First of all, deep trenches
are cut at a distance of thirty feet apart, in which the
tiles are placed ; after that, vegetation on the surface is
burnt, and the ground broken up by several cross-plough-
ings. When the whole is well pulverised, marl is carried
by means of a movable railway, and spread over the
land at the rate of 100 to 150 tons per acre. During this
operation, it frequently happens that the ground is so soft
that it is necessary to put planks under the feet of both
men and horses, to prevent their sinking. The land then re-
ceives a manuring of nightsoil and cinders, and is planted
with potatoes ; after this crop, which is usually a good
one, the Norfolk rotation follows. The whole — draining,
marling, making roads, and building farm-offices — costs
£10 to £12 per acre. In this way many thousands of
acres have been reclaimed, and among them a portion of
Chat Moss, between Liverpool and Manchester.

In the south of Lancashire the average wage is 13s.
per week. This is the highest which has hitherto come
under our notice. The practice generally, in regard to
leases, is to give seven years ; but to wealthy and clever
farmers, landlords now offer longer periods.

North of Lancashire are the five counties next to
Scotland — York, Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland,
and Westmoreland. The most southern and least moun-
tainous of the five is York, the largest county in England,
and much exceeding in size any of the others, containing
as it does 3,800,000 acres. It has been divided into three
parts, called Hidings, each of which is still larger than an
ordinary county : strictly speaking, the city of York
forms a distinct district in the middle of the other three.

THE NORTHERN COUNTIES. 265

The "West Eiding is the appendant to Lancashire, and,
like the latter, one of the greatest manufacturing dis-
tricts in the world. It contains the great and well-known
manufacturing towns of Leeds and Sheffield, the one
as famous for its woollens, and the other for its hard-
ware, as the towns of Lancashire are for their cottons.
Near these immense marts of British manufactures, with
the less important, though not less busy, towns which
surround them, agriculture must necessarily flourish.
Eents are as high as in Lancashire, and wages even
higher, the latter reaching 2s. 6d. per working day. The
land is nearly all in grass ; and, like all districts where the
population is great, dairy farming and the fattening of
cattle are the chief occupations. Many farms are below
twenty acres, and these, for the most part, are cultivated
by the journeymen weavers, who thus add the produce of
their farm to that of their loom. Among the most pro-
ductive crops, Italian rye-grass has lately been conspi-
cuous. Mr Caird makes out that forty tons of green
fodder per acre — worth, at present prices, £48 — may,
with good management, be obtained from this rye-grass.

The East Eiding is quite different from the West —
without manufactures, no large towns, no small farms,
and no superabundant population ; nowhere perhaps is
property less divided. After crossing the Humber, the
quiet of an exclusively agricultural country succeeds to
the bustle of a manufacturing one. These contrasts are
frequent in England. The wolds of the East Eiding
are a continuation of those of Lincoln. Large farming
there reigns supreme, and has been the means of in-
creasing the production three-fold within the last fifty
years.

The mountainous region begins again in the North
Eiding. It contains some fertile valleys, but the whole is

266 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

avast table-land (plateau) of not less than 400,000 acres,
which rises 1000 to 1500 feet above the level of the sea ;
these are called the Yorkshire Moors. Human ingenuity
has discovered a way of turning them to good account.
Both hill and valley are almost entirely in pasture ; and
the stock reared upon them, horses, oxen, and sheep,
are all held in great repute. The best English carriage-
horses are bred in the North Riding ; they belong originally
to the valley of Cleveland, but the breed now extends be-
yond its native valley. The sheep of the Yorkshire
mountains are a distinct race, improved after Bakewell's
principle, and these supply the principal markets of
the north. As to cattle, the North Hiding nowadays
furnishes the largest quantity of the short-horned breed.
This breed took its rise on the southern bank of the
Tees, which river divides Yorkshire from the county of
Durham ; but since the death of the brothers Collins it
has crossed to the northern side, where the finest speci-
mens are now to be found. There are at most some half-
dozen breeders, who to a certain extent have a monopoly,
and who spare neither pains nor expense to keep up and
improve the stock : it is not uncommon to see their bulls
fetching £200 to £400 ; and they let them out for the
season at. corresponding prices.

The county of Durham is only half the size of
the North Eiding. Its population, however, is nearly
double ; this is as much as to say that it is not exclu-
sively agricultural. Its principal wealth consists in coal
mines, the inexhaustible produce of which is exported from
Newcastle and the neighbouring ports. The two largest
proprietors in the county are Lords Durham and London-
derry, who, during the last thirty years, have made enor-
mous sums by their coal. One may judge of the capital
required for the working of these mines by a single fact :

THE NORTHERN COUNTIES. 267

Lord Londonderry has constructed, at his own expense,
a harbour for the export of his coal, and also a railway to
transport it thither, costing together between £300,000
and £400,000. As yet, agriculture has only followed the
movement at a distance. Clay-lands, with their usual
difficulties, predominate, and upon them the old triennial
course is still followed. The average extent of the farms
is sixty acres, and the farmers, generally speaking com-
mon labourers who do everything for themselves, are not
rich enough to lay out much upon the land.

At the time of the low prices, these small farmers,
however economical and laborious, were not able to live.
A revolution became necessary there also ; and it has
begun. Fortunately, property was not so much divided
as farming, and most of the proprietors have been able,
in default of their tenants, to make advances to the
land. Lords Londonderry and Durham, and the Duke
of Cleveland, in a measure rival each other in generosity.
A large portion of the profits realised from coal is ex-
pended upon all kinds of improvements. Tile-drains
are being laid down in every direction, farm-offices con-
structed, and large quantities of fertilisers and manures
are imported, so that in a few years the face of the
country will be quite altered. But the whole of it does
not need remodelling ; for upon some parts — the light
soils, for instance, under the Norfolk rotation, and the
rich grass-lands — farming is already in a prosperous con-
dition. We must not forget that the breed of short-
horned cattle came out of one of the Durham valleys.

The small county of "Westmoreland is, as its name in-
dicates, the land of the west moors, and the most moun-
tainous, the most uncultivated, and thinly peopled part
of England. The population is only one to nine acres.
Agriculture flourishes in the valleys, especially in those

268 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

of Eden in the north, and Kendal in the south ; other-
wise, it is the Switzerland of England, the. land of lakes
so celebrated by the poets. From Manchester and Liver-
pool a railway runs to the banks of Windermere, the first
in order, as well as the largest and most beautiful, of all
the lakes. Emerging from the noise and smoke of the
manufacturing districts, one finds himself, as if by magic,
in a smiling solitude, where all is peaceful, fresh, and
pure; limpid waters, bracing air, and verdant soil, are
exchanged for muddy water, murky atmosphere, and a
soil black with swamps and collieries. A steamer carries
you up the long and narrow lake, which winds like a
river through charming scenery. Windermere is only
ten miles long by one broad. At its further end pas-
sengers land at Ambleside, where excellent coaches are
waiting to convey them through passes, and along the
banks of other lakes, to Keswick.

In the south-east of Cumberland rise the highest peaks
of England proper, Scafell, Helvellyn, and Skiddaw, which
are the highest in the island, with the exception of the
Caernarvonshire and Scotch mountains. The lakes which
lie at the base of these masses of rock are a continuation
of those of Westmoreland. At one time a population
of small proprietors, called Statesmen, dwelt on the bor-
ders of these lakes. Each family possessed fifty to one
hundred acres, which they had continued to cultivate
for many generations. It is supposed that this class
of people owed their origin to the necessity of defence
against the invasions of Scottish marauders. This district
being close upon the borders of Scotland, and much ex-
posed to the incursions of marauders, it is said that the
feudal lords made over portions of land to certain indi-
viduals, upon condition of personal service, as in the case
of the Highland clans. Whether this supposition be true

THE NORTHERN COUNTIES. 269

or not, it is certain that the Statesmen existed in con-
siderable numbers at the beginning of the present century.
Their mode of life is pleasingly described in the poetry
of Wordsworth, who lived much at the lakes.

One could wish that the portrait he drew were still
true, but unfortunately it is not. The Statesmen rapidly
disappeared before the large proprietary ; here and there
may still be seen their old cottages, but they are now
tenanted by farmers : on the very spot where a family of
these lairds — as they were also called — found it impos-
sible to live, with no rent to pay, a rent-paying farmer
now makes a livelihood. Debts, from one cause or another,
had accumulated upon these small properties, which at
last absorbed all the return. The predilection of the
Statesmen families for their old usages, the absence of
ready capital, and want of skill, rendered the land less
productive in their hands than in the hands of farmers
with a little money and more ability. Nothing can stop
a decay of this kind.

In the low grounds of Cumberland coal-pits again
make their appearance, the produce of which is exported
from the ports on the coast. This trade gives employ-
ment to a numerous population, whose requirements as
usual exercise an influence upon agriculture. What-
ever progress the art of farming has made during the last
half-century, it has never been able to keep pace with the
local consumption ; the consequence is, that the populous
towns are obliged to import a part of their supplies. Thus
the farmers in the neighbourhood have an unlimited
market before them, and a certainty of profit to stimulate
their energies. The breed of short-horned cattle begins to
spread among them, and their sheep are almost all either
Cheviots or black-faced ; latterly, however, they have
preferred a cross between the Cheviot and Leicester.

270 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

Netherby, a large property belonging to Sir James
Graham, occupies the north-west extremity of the county,
bordering upon Scotland, at the further end of the
Solway Firth. Its extent is thirty thousand acres in a
ring fence, and it merits the character of being one of the
best managed properties in the kingdom. Sir James is
one of the leading men in the House of Commons, and, as
a statesman, seems to be the best qualified to succeed Sir
Eobert Peel : he exhibits, too, great ability in the manage-
ment of his own affairs, and is a first-rate agriculturist.
The starting-point of his improvements was, to get rid of
the small farms, and to lay out the land in large holdings.
In 1820, the property contained three hundred and forty
farms, averaging ninety acres each ; now there are only
sixty-five. This reduction in the number of farmers admit-
ted of a selection of the best — such as, from their capital,
skill, and energy, offered the best security ; and on entry,
Sir James offered them fourteen years' leases in place of
seven. The curtailment of the number of farms rendered
a large number of buildings useless, which were conse-
quently cleared away ; and where the subdivision of fields
was too great, hedges were removed. By these means
rents were advanced as high as 30s. per acre for the best
lands, the average of the whole being 22s., although the
land generally is wet. Sir James is a great Free-trader ;
he felt bound to prove that, upon well-conducted proper-
ties, low prices should not necessarily bring about a re-
duction of rents. He made no reduction on his leases,
but extended the draining considerably at his own ex-
pense, upon the usual condition of the tenant paying five
per cent upon the outlay.

The farther we go west and north, the more necessary
and efficacious does draining become. Nowhere in Eng-
land is the benefit more observable than on the lowlands

THE NORTHERN COUNTIES. 271

of Cumberland. This is attributable to two causes — the
clayey nature of the soil and subsoil, and the great abun-
dance of rain. In London, the amount of rain which falls
during the year is twenty inches ; in Lancashire, forty ;
upon the coast of Cumberland, forty seven; and as much
as one hundred and sixty in the high valleys of the lake
district.4" To carry off all this moisture, a larger drainage
is necessary than in the rest of the island. At first the
drains were made about two feet in depth, and about
twenty yards apart, but the results were not satisfactory.
Now they are four or five feet in depth, and six to ten
yards apart, and care is taken to use only tiles of one and
a half inch interior diameter, while one inch suffices else-
where. By this means only have they succeeded in suffi-
ciently draining the land. At present there are thirty
tileworks in this part of the country.

All north of the Humber was once called Northumber-
land, but the name now applies only to the most northern
county of England. Northumberland is situated on the
eastern side of the range of the British Apennines, Cum-
berland occupying the western side, and, like the latter,
it is divided into two parts, namely, mountains on the
west, and low ground on the east. The mountainous
part is mostly sterile. The range of Cheviot hills which

* The tropical amount of rain above mentioned, which it has recently been
ascertained falls on the north-western coast of England, is confined to an ex-
tremely limited area — a few elevated spots in the mountain range, where arable
culture is scarcely known ; and hence it can have little influence as affecting the
general rule of drainage. The diameter of tiles, it may, however, be remarked,
falls of course to be regulated as much by the length of drain in a continuous line, as
by the quantity of rain falling within a given time ; and as on the east coast, where
no doubt throughout the year a comparatively limited amount of rain falls, the
quantity is often fully greater in a short space than in districts of prevalent mois-
ture, it is a mistake to suppose that tiles of a smaller diameter can be efficiently
employed in districts showing a lower average of rain. In the exercise of a false
economy, the tendency on both sides of the island is to make use of tiles of too
limited a diameter. — J. D.

272 RUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

separates England from Scotland has, nevertheless, pretty
good pasture, and on these the race of sheep which bears
their name takes its rise. The beauty of the valleys in-
tersecting these hills is much praised, especially that of
the Tyne, which follows the line of the old Pictish wall,
and debouches at Newcastle. The land there is excellent,
and lets at a high rent.

The agriculture of the lowlands of Northumberland has
a high reputation. In making an agricultural tour in Eng-
land, everybody tells you to go north, visit Northumber-
land, and, if possible, go to Scotland. As far as regards
Scotland, the advice is good, but not quite so in respect to
Northumberland. This preference is based to a certain
extent upon a predilection for the light soils, which lie
between the mountains and the coast, and upon which
the quinquennial course took its rise, known as the
Northumberland rotation : it is simply a modification of
the Norfolk — 1st, turnips; 2d, wheat or barley; 3d,
clover ; 4th, clover ; 5th, oats. It was there also that
the sowing of turnips in drills was first introduced, now
so generally adopted by all good farmers. But the clay-
lands all along the coast did not escape the crisis.
Nevertheless, large property and large farming there pre-
dominate. A considerable portion of the county belongs
to the Duke of Northumberland, and other noblemen and
wealthy gentlemen possess large estates there. The cele-
brated Chillingham Park, belonging to Lord Tankerville,
is sufficiently extensive to admit of a particular kind of
wild cattle being kept in it. The general size of farms
in the county is from two hundred and fifty to five
hundred acres ; some are one thousand, and even twenty-
five hundred. The farmers are reckoned wealthy, and
some undertake several large farms at one time.

THE NOETHERN COUNTIES. 273

However rich these farmers were, they had not all a
capital sufficient for the great extent of their farms ; and
the fall in prices, bearing upon large quantities of pro-
duce, proved disastrous for them. It is a remarkable
fact, that this is the only quarter in England where rents
have declined since 1815 : from about 15s. per acre, to
which they had attained by the end of the war, they fell
to 13s. before the crisis, and are lower since. The Duke
of Northumberland has latterly reduced his rents ten per
cent ; and another large proprietor, the Duke of Portland,
has done more, his reductions amounting, it is said, to
twenty-five per cent. At the same time, these powerful
landlords carry on, at their own expense, extensive works
of draining, &c., upon the usual terms of five per cent.
By means of these improvements, and supposing a
reduction to be made in the over-sized farms, as in Wilt-
shire, the balance will finally be adjusted. *

* The above sketch of the somewhat anomalous position of the county of Nor-
thumberland is no doubt justified by facts ; but to account in some measure for
this, it may be necessary to explain, that the nature of the soil is very various,
and, after all, it was to a very limited extent, until the system of thorough drain-
age was introduced, that turnip husbandry could be successfully practised ; and
even with this advantage, a large portion of the county is ill adapted for the most
profitable occupation, being of that poor clay description which has been found
least able to contend with low prices. Upon the dry lands on the north-eastern
border, where the farms are chiefly large, no better system of husbandry is to be
found, and rents have been well supported. — J. D.

274

CHAPTER XIX.

WALES AND THE ISLANDS.

HERE finishes our tour of England, the sovereign por-
tion of the three kingdoms — the sceptred isle, as Shake-
speare calls it :

" This royal throne of kings, this sceptred Isle,
This precious stone set iu the silver sea."

Before proceeding to Scotland and Ireland, I shall say
only a few words upon the dependencies of England —
the Principality of Wales and the Islands. Wales con-
sists of that peninsula bristling with mountains which
extends from the mouth of the Severn to that of the
Mersey, containing about five millions of acres, and
which, in many respects similar to Cumberland and
Westmoreland, in some parts even recalls to mind the
most inaccessible mountains of the Highlands of Scot-
land. Elsewhere such a country would be almost
deserted by man ; but, like most mountainous coun-
tries, it abounds with minerals, and the working of its
mines and quarries with English capital has caused a
proportionate agricultural development.

In an agricultural point of view, Wales may be divided
into three distinct regions : the good, which includes the
counties of Flint, Anglesea, Denbigh, and Pembroke ;
the middling, Glamorgan, Caermarthen, Montgomery,
and Caernarvon ; and the inferior Cardigan, Radnor,

WALES AND THE ISLANDS. 275

Brecon, and Merioneth. In Flint, the best of all the
counties, rents rise to the average of England, 25s. per
acre ; in Merioneth the most sterile, they are as low
as 5s. The general average of the Principality is
about equal to that of France, although both soil and
climate are incomparably inferior. Population also fol-
lows about the same proportion, averaging one head to
five acres. If the low grounds are equally populous
with the neighbouring English counties, the mountain-
ous parts may be classed among the most thinly in-
habited of Europe ; but even these uninhabited parts
have made pretty good progress in farming during the
last fifty years. The land is worth £10 to £15 per acre,
which is as much as in one-half of France.

Here again, as we always find, it is the live stock which
makes so ungrateful a soil available. In those districts
which are susceptible of culture, the four-course system
is being more adopted every day, and the improved
breeds of England are becoming naturalised. In the
steep and uncultivated parts of the country there is a
kind of half-wild oxen, sheep, and horses, of small size,
but docile and active, which seek their food among the
rocks and precipices. Welsh beef and mutton are greatly
esteemed ; and the island of Anglesea alone exports
thousands of these animals yearly to England. Formerly
they had to swim the Strait, which nowadays is passed
by the Menai Bridge. The small "Welsh horse's are also
in pretty good demand.

Until lately, the general condition of the Welsh popu-
lation was not very satisfactory. Although it is a long
time since it became united to England, this Princi-
pality has continued to preserve its distinct language and
peculiar character. The Welsh and Irish belong to the
Celtic race ; and as if this origin alone were not suffi-

276 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

cient to separate them entirely from the Saxons, the wild
character of their country has helped to complete their
isolation. Their ancient barbarism has stuck to them
now for a long time ; and any efforts made by England
to assimilate them have frequently, as in the case of the
Irish, resulted in quite the contrary effect.

Gavdkind was the primitive law of the country — that
is, land was equally divided among all the children ;
and thus the land became covered with small and poor
proprietors. About two centuries ago, the English Gov-
ernment considered it an act of good policy to introduce
the law of primogeniture, thereby artificially implanting
large property. But such changes, when they are not
free and natural, are always difficult to engraft; the con-
sequence has been that farming has been rather retarded
than furthered by this premature reform. It proved a
difficult matter to introduce the system of renting farms,
owing to the absence of capital and skill. The ejected
population fell into a condition of increased poverty; bad
feeling was engendered, and showed itself from time to
time in violent outbreaks. On the appearance of Chart-
ism, Wales became one of its strongholds ; and the riots
of the peasantry in 1843, known under the singular name
of Rebecca and her daughters, show that the evil con-
tinued very nearly up to our revolution.

Men with blackened faces, under a leader disguised
as a woman, called Eebecca, appeared suddenly at night
in the most remote districts, burning turnpike gates,
demolishing workhouses, and threatening proprietors and
farmers in their houses. At other times the pretended
woman-chief took the name of Miss Cromwell, eldest
daughter of Rebecca, and under this formidable appella-
tion, which recalled confused notions of old revolutions,

WALES AND THE ISLANDS. 277

distinguished herself by exploits similar to those of her
more notorious mother. England at first was amused by
these half-frightful, half-ridiculous scenes, not unlike the
insurrection of the Demoiselles in our Pyrenees some
twenty years ago. However, the terror among those who
had anything to lose became so great and so general that
it was found necessary to send in troops, and appoint a
commission of inquiry. By degrees order was restored,
partly by voluntary submission, and partly by force.
But the inquiry revealed distressing facts, which showed
real suffering among the agricultural population.

"Do you wish to know who Rebecca is?" the Welsh
peasants would reply, when interrogated respecting their
chief, — " Rebecca is misery." And in fact Rebecca with
them was only the symbolic expression of their grievances
under English rule. Invariably their answers exhibited
a vague expression of oppressed nationality. Sometimes
it was the Anglican Church, whose tithes crushed them ;
sometimes their oppressor was the English proprietor, or
the English steward, whom they looked upon as strangers
living at their expense. We recognise in these complaints
the feeble echo of those vented more loudly by their Irish
brethren. It had been better had their national customs
been respected, leaving them in possession of their small
properties, as has been done elsewhere, and to have re-
nounced the idea of introducing among them the English
system.

Fortunately, increased activity at the mines and quar-
ries at last mitigated these sufferings, by affording occu-
pation for the superabundant supply of hands. Wales
alone now supplies about one-third of all the iron pro-
duced in Great Britain, and iron is but a part of its im-
mense mineral production. Improved means of commu-

278 KURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

nication, and among these two railroads, have at last
penetrated this mass of mountains, and opened up chan-
nels for importation and export. Agriculture, as a trade,
has become practicable ; and wages, which had fallen to
the level of Ireland, have risen. No doubt, something
more remains to be done, for the remoter districts still
conceal much distress ; but assimilation of habits and
ideas is being rapidly accomplished. The Druidical
island of Anglesea, the last refuge of the Celtic religion
and nationality, is now joined to the mainland by two
bridges, one of which, the celebrated tubular bridge, a
marvel of modern art, forms part of the railroad between
London and Dublin. Throughout the country there are
visible indications of a healthy revolution. Everything
is improving, even to the coarsest and wildest races of
animals. Those half- wild sheep, with hairy wool and
straight horns, a kind of animal between the sheep and
chamois, giving at most 20 Ib. or 25 Ib. of mutton,
are gradually increasing in weight, and losing their
coarseness, either through crossing with the Scotch
breeds, or by simply improving their food ; and with
the cattle and horses it is the same — they gain in
height and breadth without losing their hardiness. One
step more remains to be taken : most of the mountain
pastures are still used as commons — that is to say, they are
entirely neglected. When this ceases to be the case, the
problem for Wales will be solved.

As compared to England, Wales is a mixture of Scot-
land and Ireland. For a long time it leaned to the
worse, or Irish side ; but now it decidedly inclines to the
good, bearing more resemblance to Scotland.

Our peninsula of Brittany, which is the counterpart
of Wales, has fewer mountains. It contains, besides, im-

WALES AND THE ISLANDS. 279

portant harbours, as Brest and Lorient, Nantes and St
Malo, which have hitherto been wanting to Wales ; * its
population is proportionately twice as numerous, and its
agricultural development greater, at least as regards
three-fourths of the country. In this respect, then, the
comparison is in our favour, the cause being found in
the difference of ruggedness between the two soils. Brit-
tany owes also part of this superiority to a crop which
I am astonished not to see more prevalent in England —
that of buckwheat. These five departments alone pro-
duce about a million and a-half quarters of this grain,
as well as an equal quantity of wheat, and it is much
used there for human consumption. This is the case
also in many parts of Europe, especially in Holland.

Although it is said, and perhaps with reason, that
buckwheat, when made the chief article of alimentation,
has a bad effect upon the brain, it is a valuable addi-
tional resource both for men and cattle ; and it is one of
those crops which succeed best upon granitic and light
and poor soils, provided the summers be wet, and the
autumns without frost. Everything indicates that the
soil and climate of a great part of England and Wales
should be very favourable to this plant ; it is, never-
theless, scarcely ever cultivated, except for pheasants,
which are very fond of it, and sometimes as a manuring
crop to be ploughed into the land, for it is one of the
best green manures known. Several English agricultural
authorities have recommended its more extensive use —
among others, Eham, in his excellent Farm Dictionary
—but with little effect hitherto. We shall some day
hear of its brilliant success from the other side of the

* Milford Haven, which is likely to be an important harbour, is only begin-
ning to be resorted to.

280 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

Channel, when some enterprising and clever practical
man there takes the matter up to try the experiment on
a large scale.

We shall then learn — what is already known in some
of our provinces, such as Brittany and part of Nor-
mandy, but scarcely out of these — all the advantages of
this crop, which occupies the land only during three
months of the year, and which consequently figures in
the first rank among catch crops, which accommodates
itself to all soils, requires little manure, has scarcely any
exhausting effect upon the land, keeps the ground per-
fectly clean by the rapidity of its growth, and which,
notwithstanding, yields on an average fifty-fold, and
may easily be raised to double that quantity. Maize
itself, although much more exhausting, does not give
more. Chemical analysis shows that the flour of buck-
wheat is at least as nourishing as that of wheat, taking
weight for weight; and we have processes of grinding
now which remove its roughness.

Among domestic animals, the goat is one which,
though little in favour owing to its capricious and de-
structive instincts, merits a better appreciation on
account of its fecundity, and one which appears to be
perfectly adapted for such districts as Wales. The last
statistics show that the number of goats is rapidly in-
creasing in Ireland, at which I am not surprised. Be-
sides throwing usually two kids, while the sheep pro-
duces (in general) only one, and being of a more hardy
constitution and less subject to disease, the goat, when
well fed, gives an abundance of extremely rich milk,
which may be made into excellent cheese. In France,
where all agricultural industries are known, although
often too very imperfectly practised, whole districts owe
their prosperity chiefly to the goat. Such is the Mount

WALES AND THE ISLANDS. 281

d'Or, near Lyons, where a goat yields as much as a cow
elsewhere. As population increases, I have no doubt
the goat will be more appreciated ; only we must learn
to treat it properly, and reclaim it from that half-wild
state which rendered it dearer to the shepherds of Theo-
critus and Virgil than to agriculturists and cultivators.
All the gifts of Providence are good when kept in their
places, and treated with skill. The goat's place is on
the barren mountains, where shrubby plants can be
cultivated for its food, unless, as at the Mount d'Or, it
is subjected to the strictest stabulation.

Civilisation tends to equalise in value soils the most
unequal in appearance. The worst may produce a great
deal, provided that only is required of them which they
are capable of producing. The constant aim of cultiva-
tors being to produce cereals, it is often the case that
lands yield no income, because the expense of raising
such crops upon them costs more than the produce is
worth. But cereals are not everything. With the vine
in France we obtain, upon soils unsuitable for corn,
results equal, or even superior, to those from lands the
most favourable to wheat. In other places the resinous
pine gives marvellous results from the driest sands ; rice
turns the marshes to account, &c. The skill of the agri-
culturist lies in discovering what is best suited to the
different soils. Virgil long ago wrote in his Georgics, —

" Nee vero terrse ferre omnes omnia possunt."

The small islands belonging to England partake of the
general prosperity of the mainland. A good report is
given of the state of agriculture in the Isle of Man,
lying midway in St George's Channel between England
and Ireland, and which was once a separate kingdom.
Although very mountainous, the population numbers
fifty thousand, upon an area of one hundred and fifty

282 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

thousand acres, half of which only is susceptible of cul-
tivation ; and still the island raises a surplus of wheat,
barley, and cattle for exportation. With agriculture the
inhabitants combine the occupations of fishing, naviga-
tion, and mining. Comfort is pretty general throughout
the island. For the most part the land belongs to small
proprietors, or yeomen, who till the land themselves.
This division of property and farming is very ancient in
the island ; and here, at all events, the English Govern-
ment has had the prudence not to interfere with it.

But the triumph of small property and farming is to
be found, as I have already had occasion to show, in the
island of Jersey, close upon our own coast. The extra-
ordinary richness of this small island, which contains
only forty thousand acres, with a population of fifty-
seven thousand, may partly be attributed to the large
sums expended there by the British Government to
maintain it against us. But France also lays out enor-
mous sums in Corsica, which has many more natural
resources than Jersey, and still it remains poor and un-
productive, notwithstanding the sum it costs us. The
population of Jersey is twelve times denser than that of
Corsica, and yet the former enjoy a greater degree of
comfort. Guernsey and Alderney almost rival Jersey,
and truly all three islands rank among the finest jewels
in the British Crown.

Nowhere is the difference which at present exists be-
tween a French district and most parts of England more
painfully striking than in comparing Jersey with the
French coast opposite to it. It lies at the entrance of
a bay, the two sides of which are formed by the depart-
ment of La Manche on one side, and that of the Cotes-
du-Nord on the other. Climate, soil, products, race of
people, all resemble each other. These two departments

WALES AND THE ISLANDS. 283

rank among the most prosperous in France : that of La
Manche standing eighth out of eighty-six, and the Cotes-
du-Nord twelfth, in point of density of population and
richness ; yet, while Jersey counts nearly three inhabi-
tants to two acres, La Manche and the C6tes-du-Nord
count less than one; and the same disproportion is ob-
servable alike in the gross and the net produce of the land.
Certainly in this instance the difference cannot be attri-
buted to large property and large farming, since the land
is much more divided in Jersey, than with us. It must
be admitted that the real cause lies somewhere else.

This small island has uninterruptedly enjoyed, for
many centuries, almost complete independence, which has
secured to it the two greatest earthly blessings — peace
and liberty. It has not known the bad government,
revolutions, or wars which have so often retarded the
progress of its French neighbours. In this respect it has
been more favoured than even England itself.

With such a history, everything should prosper. Left
to itself, the local development took the form of small
property and small farming ; though it might have taken
others, which would equally have succeeded. I believe,
however, that had they adopted other methods, these
islands would have found it difficult to support such
a large population. As they have plenty of capital,
small property and small farming become, so to say, un-
bounded in productiveness. A large empire could not
be organised quite in this way, because the condition
and circumstances of its people must necessarily be more
various. These islands have neither to govern nor to
defend themselves ; they have nothing to do but to be
happy, and they are so ; a limited and monotonous sort of
happiness no doubt, but of old standing, and worthy of
respect. They have made no figure in the arts, politics,

284* RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

or war ; their part is more humble. Industrious and
peaceful hives, they show what unfettered labour at
length produces.

Mr William Thornton, in his Plea for Peasant Pro-
prietors, lays great stress, and justly so, upon this agri-
cultural and social condition ; and Mr Mill, in his Prin-
ciples of Political Economy, agrees with Mr Thornton.
A school has lately started up in England as advocates
for small property and small farming. I rejoice to see
such ideas spreading in the country of Arthur Young.
Provided the reaction is not carried too far — and for
this the English may be trusted — it is sure to produce
good effects. Even in Jersey, if the agricultural popula-
. tion is numerous, the non-agricultural portion is numer-
ous also.

Although the soil of Jersey is- granitic and poor, the
aspect of the island is delightful ; it may be called a
forest of fruit trees, with meadows and small cultivated
fields interspersed, filled with charming habitations,
decked with virgin vines, and shady walks winding
under the trees. David Low observes that the subdivi-
sion of the land, which might seem likely to become infi-
nite in the course of a certain number of generations
in so small and populous an island, is limited by arrange-
ment among the families, so that a stop is put to it when
it becomes inconvenient. This example ought to give
new confidence to those who are afraid of seeing the soil
of France frittered into dust.

285

CHAPTER XX.

SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND exhibits one of the most striking examples of
the power of man over nature. I know of only one
country which can be compared with it in this respect, and
that is Holland. Switzerland even does not present such
great obstacles to human industry ; but what adds still
more to this marvellous rise of prosperity upon so
ungrateful a soil is, that it is all recent. The ante-
cedents of Scotland are different from those of Eng-
land. Only a century ago it was one of the poorest and
most barbarous countries in Europe ; but now, although
the last remains of its ancient poverty have not quite
disappeared, it may be said that, upon the whole, there
is not a better regulated country under the sun.

The total production during the last hundred years
has increased tenfold. Agricultural products alone have
increased in an enormous ratio. In place of the periodical
scarcities which formerly devastated the country, and
one especially, which lasted from 1693 to 1700, leaving
an indelible impression, alimentary commodities are now
produced there in such abundance as to admit of a very
large export. Scotch agriculture is at this day supe-
rior even to English, in some districts at least. It is
to the model farms of Scotland people send their sons
to be taught farming. The best books upon farming

286 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

which have appeared of late years, have been published
in Scotland ; and when an English proprietor requires a
good bailiff, he generally sends to Scotland for one.

Scotland and its adjacent islands contain a total of
nineteen millions of acres, or 7,600,000 hectares, nearly
three -fourths of which are absolutely unfit for cultiva-
tion ; this latter portion is mostly to be found in the High-
lands and Islands of the north, — as the Hebrides and
Shetlands. The two and a half million hectares of arable
land may be divided as follows :—

Hectares.

Meadows and artificial pasture, . . . 1,000,000

Oats, ...... 500,000

Barley, . . . . . 200,000

Wheat, ...... 150,000

Turnips, ...... 200,000

Clover, ...... 200,000

Potatoes, ..... 100,000

Fallows, ...... 100,000

Other crops, ..... 50,000

2,500,000*

The great country for oats is the Highlands, which
grow scarcely any other grain. In the Lowlands, the
four -year course is that now generally followed. The
average gross production of each crop being about the
same per acre as in England, the total vegetable produc-
tion destined for human food, including oats, which
forms, in fact, the chief food of the country, may be esti-
mated at £8,000,000 sterling, and the animal produc-
tion at about one -third more, which makes the whole
production £20,000,000. This, for a population of
2,600,000, gives an average of £8 each, as in England,
while it is only £5, 1 Os. in France ; and there is less

* The remark which we made as to the distribution of the soil of England
holds also here. No data exist from which any precise information can be
hazarded on the subject ; but this uncertainty, we have no doubt, will be satis-
factorily set at rest by the returns to be completed in the present year. — J. D.

SCOTLAND. 287

reason for the reduction of twenty per cent here, Scotch
and French prices being more on a par.

How comes it that Scotland has so rapidly attained
this high production, in spite of the natural infertility of
her soil and climate \

Property in Scotland is not so much divided as it is
in England, and entails are stricter and more common.
The number of proprietors is estimated at 7800, which
would give 2500 acres as the average size of properties ;
but this high average is owing to the extensive High-
land estates, some of which are of 200,000, 400,000, and
even 700,000 acres. In the Lowlands there is a much
greater subdivision, where the average falls to 500 acres.
By far the most extensive proprietor in the Lowlands is
the Duke of Buccleuch, whose Palace of Dalkeith is
situated in one of the finest farming countries. The
other great Scotch noblemen, the Dukes of Sutherland,
Atholl, and Argyll, the Marquess of Breadalbane, &c., have
the greater part of their estates in the Highlands. De-
ducting these large rentals, we find that three-fourths of
the Scotch proprietors have an average income of £400
to £500 per annum. Two-thirds of the land, producing
about one-third of the whole rental, is in the hands of
large proprietors, and about one-third, giving the remain-
ing two-thirds of income, belongs to the other category.
Small property, although not quite unknown, prevails
less in Scotland than anywhere else ; less even than in
England. Upon the whole, Scotland presents a favour-
able specimen of large property.

With farming it is rather different. The number of
farms is reckoned at about fifty-five thousand, with an
average rent of £90. This, it will be observed, is the
small, or at least the middling-sized farming, rather than
the large. The average of farms in England is just

288 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

double — that is to say, £180 of rent. In the Highlands
there are farms of many thousand acres each ; but we
find a number in the Lowlands of not more than fifty ;
and thousands of acres in the north often yield less to
the proprietor or tenant than fifty situated in the fertile
country around Edinburgh and Perth.

The usual practice of tenure in Scotland is much supe-
rior to that which exists in England. Leases, in place
of being annual, are mostly for nineteen years. This
material difference proceeds from various causes. In
the first place, the Scotch proprietors attach less im-
portance than the English to the power of influencing
the votes of their tenants, there being less of party spirit
and politics among them. Then, again, the rise of agri-
culture in Scotland being of more recent date, the old
practice of tenancy at will has not had time to establish
itself, while the preferable use of long leases has been
prevalent from the first. We have already observed that
annual leases have not interfered much with England's
agricultural prosperity ; but had the other system been
introduced, it is probable that progress there would have
been still greater than it is : this, at least, is what we
may infer, judging from what has ensued in Scotland,
where, upon long leases, notwithstanding their poverty
and ignorance at starting, a few years have produced a
class of farmers equal, if not superior, to those who have
been farming for centuries in England.

The Scotch farmers, who, generally speaking, were not
very well off a hundred years ago, are still a little inferior
to the English in point of capital. While the working
capital in England is £5 to £6 per acre, it is only £3 to
£5 in the Lowlands, and 6s. to 10s. in the Highlands.
The Scotch, however, make up for the difference by their
greater economy, and by a greater amount of personal

SCOTLAND. 289

labour. The farmers for the most part work themselves ;
their capital likewise is rapidly increasing. Besides that
saving propensity which is one of their characteristics,
they have proportionately a larger share in the distribu-
tion of the produce. The profit, which in England does
not exceed half the amount of the rent, in Scotland
reaches commonly two-thirds, and sometimes equals the
rent itself.""" This is peculiar to Scotland, and forms one
of the most striking features in its rural economy. This
proportion, so favourable to the progress of farming, may
be attributed to the system of long leases, which pre-
vents the proprietor coming in so often to participate in
the benefit arising from improvements as under annual
leases. It is but justice, also, to ascribe it to a spirit of
moderation and good sense on the part of the Scotch pro-
prietors, who, having less need for show and expense than
the English proprietors, can afford to be less exacting in
their rents. After all, and this they fortunately under-
stand, it is only laying by for the future ; for with the
farmer's prosperity the richness of the land is increased.

The superiority of the Scotch system is apparent in
other things. Thus, in England and Ireland the law
considers a lease personal property, and consequently
divisible equally among the children of the tenant when
he dies. But in Scotland it is looked upon as real
property, and as such passes intact to the heir-at-law.
Disastrous consequences have resulted from the former

* Though the average capital employed in the cultivation of land in Scotland,
from the larger proportion of inferior soil, cannot fail to be under that of Eng-
land, we believe it will be found that, upon farms of a similar description, the
amount expended by the Scotch occupier is fully equal to the English. Our
experience has rather taught us that rents, in the properly rural and best agri-
cultural districts of England, are under those of Scotland generally. M. La
vergne seems afterwards to admit this to some extent. We are not aware that
farming is more profitable in Scotland ; and if the Scotch farmer makes more
money than his neighbour of England, it is because he spends less.

T

290 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

system in Ireland, which, though not the entire cause of
agrarian outrages in that country, has no doubt been one
of their fruitful sources. The law of Scotland has not
had exactly large farming for its effect, that being rather
the exception there than the rule; but it has in some
measure put a stop to too great a division, and encou-
raged a spirit of industry. The younger sons of a farmer,
knowing that they have no title to share in their father's
lease, seek a livelihood in other ways, while the oldest
prepares himself at an early period for the heritage which
awaits him. This is a new and successful application of
the right of primogeniture in matters relating to the soil,
and it is favourable to that natural movement which, in
a society in a state of progress, diverts the surplus popu-
lation from rural occupations into other channels. With-
out this law the tendency to division might have been
dangerous to Scotland ; but there is less risk of this in
England, where manners and conventions incline rather
in the opposite direction.

In most of the Scotch leases, especially on grain farms,
the rent is not a fixed money-rate, payable under any
circumstances, but variable, wholly or in part, according
to the current value of grain ; that is to say, it is repre-
sented by a payment in kind, converted at the market
price, with a maximum and minimum limitation for
periods of scarcity or abundance. In this way the
farmer is protected against sudden fluctuations in the
value of his commodities, as well as in that of money.
This clause has been widely adopted in England since the
crisis, and is considered to be an improvement on the
principle of a fixed rent.

Finally, all gratuities or grassums are done away with,
as well as all extra expenses on entry, and indemnity to
the outgoing tenant, called in England tenant right, of

SCOTLAND. 291

which I shall speak more particularly when I come to
Ireland. Suffice it to say here, that in Scotland opinion is
unanimous in respect to avoiding all unnecessary charges
upon the incoming tenant, so that his capital may be as
little diminished as possible. The usual term for renew-
ing leases is Whitsunday, as being the most favourable
period to prepare for the crops of a new course."'5"

The theory of leases has nowhere received greater at-
tention than in Scotland, where it may be said that the
system has reached perfection.. They have been able to
dispense with this minuteness in England, for time and the
general wealth of the country rendered it unnecessary.
But in Scotland, where they had no time to lose, and
where they had to begin on small means, it was necessary
to consider beforehand what were the best conditions for
developing production. Everything is directed towards
one end, namely, the formation of farming capital. Scot-
land, and not England, is the quarter to which we must
go for models when introducing the lease system into a
country where it does not already exist, and where the
object is to convert poor and ignorant cultivators,
mdtayers, and farm-servants, into intelligent and well-
to-do farmers. Unfortunately, the Scotch system will
not please everybody, for it involves many sacrifices on
the part of the proprietors — lengthening of leases, mode-
rating of rents, payment in kind ; but it is almost
necessary to put the farmer who has no means of his
own in a position to make something ; and experience
has proved that such concessions were exceedingly wise.
Eents are already, on an average, almost as high in the
better parts of Scotland as in England ; in some parti-
cular spots they are even higher ; and the interiors of the

* The entry to the fallow, or the portion intended for green crop, being gene-
rally arranged to be given in the previous winter or early spring. — J. D.

292 liURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

farm-houses, which were at one time so poor, present a
striking appearance of comfort at the present day.

In addition to the excellent principle of leases, there is
another cause of progress which we do not find existing
to the same extent in England, and that is the superior
system of credit which prevails in Scotland.

The English have for a long period extensively availed
themselves of credits, and one of the chief elements of
their power has been the old-established practice of
banking ; but this very antiquity is the reason why the
organisation of these banks is imperfect in many respects ;
though the abundance of capital supplies to a certain
extent that wherein they are deficient. There is besides
in England a spirit of speculation and extravagance, which
might make it dangerous to give a greater extension to an
instrument so powerful for evil as well as for good. In
Scotland, on the other hand, the character of the people
is so cool, calculating, and correct, that the widest system
of credit has not only been unattended with any disad-
vantages, but productive of the most magnificent results.
Adam Smith was a Scotchman, and we find all his coun-
trymen more or less endowed with the sagacious and
decided character which belonged to that great man.
There is no country where the true value of money is
better understood than in Scotland. Banks were already
in existence in Adam Smith's time, and he has given a
careful account of their working. It is with reference to
them that he wrote the following often-quoted passage :
" The gold and silver which circulates in a country may
be compared to a highway which, although instrumental
for the conveyance of corn and hay to market, yet does
not itself produce a single grain of corn. The operations
of a well-conducted bank, by opening up, as it were, a
road in the air, allows a country to turn its roads into

SCOTLAND. 293

pastures and corn-fields, and thereby to increase the pro-
duce of its territory/'

The general principle of the Scotch banks is as follows :
There are eighteen in all, of which seven have capitals of
not less than a million sterling, having their head-offices
in the principal towns, and branches all over the country.
There is no district, however small or remote, that has not
at least one branch ; and it is reckoned that there are
four hundred of these spread over Scotland, which is
equal to one for every six thousand of the population.
If France had as many in proportion, she would have six
thousand. These banks all issue notes, payable in specie
at sight, which are received with such confidence that
everybody prefers notes to coin, even for small payments.
Money, properly speaking, has been almost entirely put
out of circulation — so much so, that the metallic circula-
tion of Scotland is supposed not to exceed £400,000 to
£500,000. Advanced as England is, it is not so far forward
either in the number of its banks or the credit they enjoy.

Euns on the banks, which frequently happen in England,
and oftener in Ireland, are unknown in Scotland. In-
dependently of habit and custom, which exert such a
powerful influence over men, and which, when a sign or
representative is universally adopted in everyday business,
naturally keeps up its value ; independently also of a
certain composure in the national character, which does
not admit of being easily alarmed, this marvellous state
of security is based upon well-grounded principles ; for
not only are all the shareholders of a bank, by the law of
England, responsible for all the obligations of that bank
to the whole extent of their fortune, but the issue of notes
by each bank has been limited by law since 1845, as it
was previously so in practice, to about one-third of its
capital, unless a disposable amount of coin is kept in its

294 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

exchequer to represent any issue in excess ; and the banks
being obliged to exchange each other's notes on presen-
tation twice a-week, they exercise upon each other a
control which renders all excess of issue impossible.

The credit of the banks being thus established, they
make the following use of it, and it is in this respect
more especially that they prove useful. They receive in
deposit any sum above £10, and notwithstanding that
these monies can be withdrawn at will, interest upon
them is allowed at the rate of 2^ or 3 per cent. Conse-
quently nobody keeps money by him ; every one has his
account at the neighbouring bank, where he pays in or
draws out according as he requires. It is incredible how
greatly this custom encourages economy in all classes of
society. Servants and labourers, as soon as they can
scrape together £10, have their banking accounts like
their masters.

These deposits do not lie idle, but are advanced by the
banks, at from 4 to 5 per cent, to those who can furnish
security. Independently too of the ordinary discount
business, any one known as a clever, industrious, and re-
spectable man, and who can offer two good sureties, may
obtain a credit according to the confidence he merits ;
this is called a Cash account. These open credits do not
amount, for the whole of Scotland, to any very large sum,
being reckoned at four to six millions sterling. Those
who have such accounts are always anxious to clear them
off as soon as possible ; and their sureties also look to its
being done, so that this class of debtors is constantly
changing. But this floating sum of four to six millions,
distributed over a community who commence with small
capitals, has produced the happiest results upon the pro-
gress of industry and agriculture ; and so judicious is the

SCOTLAND. 295

selection made by the banks of those to whom they grant
such facilities, that bad debts are rarely made.

This excellent machinery gives an incredible facility in
the transacting of business ; sales and purchases of any
importance being paid for by simple cheques, a small
issue of notes suffices for the transaction of a large
amount of business. Agriculture as well as manufac-
tures is benefited by the system. It may be said that
money is never wanting to a reasonable extent, even for
agricultural adventure. It seems to be a point of honour
not to take an undue advantage of the facilities given,
and thus this general credit is maintained. Besides, all
know each other in these small towns, where every man
has his banking account ; everybody is aware what his
neighbour is about, and if a farmer borrows from his
banker, the reason why he does so is known. These
banks occasionally lend money, but only for short
periods, on mortgage, which is just the same as our re-
demptive sale (vente d remerti). Loans on mortgage are
less requisite for farming purposes in Scotland and Eng-
land than in France, because farming in the two former
countries is more generally distinct from property ; they
exist, nevertheless, to some amount, owing to the ad-
vances proprietors are often required to make for per-
manent improvements ; and under that form, as well as
in other ways, plenty of money is to be had on good
terms. Life assurance companies also lend on mortgage
security within the United Kingdom.

Means for propagating a knowledge of the best methods
of cultivation are adopted in Scotland quite as much as
in England. The Highland and Agricultural Society of
Scotland, dating as far back as 1784, has the start by half
a century of the Royal Agricultural Society of England.

296 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

It is composed of nearly three thousand members, who
pay an annual subscription of 25s. each, or a life-payment
may be made, varying from £8 to £12, according to cir-
cumstances. The present President is the Duke of Kox-
burghe ; the Dukes of Buccleuch, Sutherland, Hamilton,
Montrose, &c., have successively filled that office. The
Vice-Presidents are Lord Aberdeen, Lord Breadalbane,
Lord Dalhousie, Lord Douglas, &c. A number of prizes,
distributed into classes, are annually given by the Society,
for the practice of agriculture and special crops, woods
and plantations, improvement of waste lands, agricultu-
ral machinery, all kinds of live stock, dairy produce, and
cottages and gardens. These competitions, which always
conclude with a dinner, where a small farmer may seat
himself beside the greatest aristocrat, are at least as
famous as those of its English rival. The Society has an
agricultural museum at Edinburgh, where may be seen
models of all the implements used in Europe, samples of
all kinds of cultivated grain, and reduced models of the
animals which have obtained prizes since the beginning
of the competitions. Mr Peter Lawson, seedsman to the
Society, has the finest establishment of the kind existing.
The unique collection of seeds which he contributed to the
Great Exhibition of 1851 was universally admired.

Special newspapers, cheap pamphlets, local meetings,
subscription lectures, diffuse, as in England, all kinds of
information on the subject of husbandry ; and as a testi-
mony to the scientific interest attached to these studies,
there has been for many years past a chair of agriculture
in the justly-esteemed University of Edinburgh, which
is at present (1853) occupied by the celebrated David
Low.

But all these encouragements, however powerful, do

SCOTLAND. 297

not sufficiently account for the rapid progress of Scotch
agriculture ; they have been the means, but are not the
first causes. The true causes are the same as those which
exist in England, and if their effect has been more rapid,
it is because they sprang up suddenly, and not by de-
grees. I allude to industrial wealth and free institutions.

If England's history as a manufacturing country is
brilliant, what shall we say of Scotland I We may judge
by a single example. The counties of Lanark and
Kenfrew, where manufactures and commerce are most
active, have increased in population in the space of a
hundred years from one hundred thousand to six hun-
dred thousand, and Glasgow alone from twenty thousand
to four hundred thousand. Clydesdale, once deserted,
now rivals Lancashire for its collieries, manufactories,
and immense shipping trade. In 1750 the germ even
of this wealth did not exist; it was English capital,
combined with the plodding and frugal genius of the
Scotch people, which in so short a time made that un-
productive district what it now is. Strong proof this of
the advantages which may accrue to a non- manufac-
turing country by being associated with one rich and
already industrial. Scotland, as long as she remained
separate from England, and dependent on her own
resources, only vegetated; but as soon as the capital and
experience of her powerful neighbour broke in upon her,
she took a start quite equal to England.

This sudden growth of manufactures has been in-
creased, as always happens, by a corresponding advance
in agriculture. In proportion as commerce and manu-
factures multiply men and augment wages, agriculture
renews its efforts to supply food for the constantly in-
creasing mass of consumers ; and in a limited country

298 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

like the Lowlands, a population such as that of Glasgow
and its dependencies causes the demand for agricultural
produce to be felt over its whole extent.

The Union besides was the great means of at once giving
value to Scotch agriculture, by opening up the immense
market of England itself for her produce ; and even now,
notwithstanding an increasing local consumption, there
is a considerable export of Scotch agricultural commo-
dities for the English markets."""

The pastures of Galloway and Forfarshire, and even
the remote Highlands, send their thousands of young
cattle to be fed and fattened on the grass-lands of the
South. Even in the markets of London, where they are
greatly appreciated for the quality of their beef, may be
seen the shaggy Highland cattle, the black cattle of
Angus, and the polled cattle of Galloway, all distinctly
recognisable in character. So with us, the red cattle
of Auvergne, the white from Charolais, the brown from
La Vendee, and the russet from Limousin, which are
sent in droves to the abattoirs of Paris, are easily
distinguished from the speckled breeds of Normandy
and Brittany. Scotland sends to England, besides,
a large portion of her wheat, reserving scarcely more
than the oats and barley. In this way, for the last
hundred years she has been a seller to England to the
value of tens of millions sterling, t

But England's best gift to Scotland, as in that is included
all the rest, is her constitution and political character.

Up to 1750 Scotland was the stronghold of feudal

* But perhaps the most valuable contribution which Scotland now makes to
the English stock markets is in the great quantity of fat cattle and sheep which
she sends to England from her eastern counties — particularly from Aberdeen,
East Lothian, Berwickshire, and Roxburgh — a great part of the former of which
are imported lean to the latter districts from the South. — J. D.

t We fear this leads to an inference which would be far from correct. Un-

SCOTLAND. 299

government ; and it was not until after the battle of
Culloden that her eyes began to be opened. A higher
sentiment rapidly succeeded, so that fifty years later no
part of Great Britain was more attached to the House of
Hanover, the personification of modern liberty. The
Scotch, so long faithful to their patriarchal traditions,
now found themselves all at once brought into contact
with English customs and laws, so highly favourable to
individual independence and order. From the first they
went even greater lengths than England. It may be said
that Scotland, in a political point of view, is an improved
edition of England.

In no part of Europe is the machinery of government
more simple ; its parallel is perhaps to be found only in
America. The system of central administration, so much
vaunted, and which in France levies a contribution upon
three-fourths for the benefit of the other fourth, and
denies all personal or local interference, is there quite
unknown. The public functionaries are few in number,
and for the most part unsalaried. None of the abuses
which custom has sanctioned in England have been set
up there. The English Church establishment, which costs
the rest of the United Kingdom eight millions sterling
of tithes, does not extend to Scotland ; parish and county
rates have been limited to strict necessities ; the poor-
rate, recently introduced, has not fallen very heavily ;
in one word, direct taxation of all kinds upon the soil
scarcely exceeds 6d., while it amounts in England to 8s.
per acre. Even the income-tax is not very rigorously

doubtedly Scotland, in many seasons, exports a considerable quantity of wheat to
England, and, in a manufactured state chiefly, a large quantity also of oats and
barley ; but there is, at the same time, an interchange of wheat as well as barley
to some amount in ordinary years ; and it is not thought, upon the whole, that
Scotland generally grows more than is sufficient for its own requirements — if
indeed even so much. — J. D.

300 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

collected.'* It yields half a million sterling, which is only
one-tenth of the amount contributed by England.

That beneficial expenditure which taxation promotes
elsewhere is, nevertheless, not neglected ; but it is England
which bears the heaviest charges, such as the cost of the
army and the maintenance of military ways. In this
respect Scotland is on a large scale what Jersey is on a
small. Spared the expense of the national defence,
which is the first care and heaviest charge of a nation,
she is free to devote all her resources to the develop-
ment of her prosperity. That spirit of order and eco-
nomy which regulates individual affairs is carried into
the public expenditure, and causes money to go much
farther. What is not done by means of taxation is
accomplished, both more speedily and at a more mode-
rate cost, by public spirit or private enterprise. Scot-
land is the cradle of economical science, and there its
lessons have found their best and most direct applica-
tion. A Scotchman trusts to his own resources, or looks
only to those whose interests are identical with his own ;
he does not waste his time in agitation and fruitless
proceedings ; having no favours to ask, he occupies
himself wholly about his own affairs, and conducts them
well, because nothing hinders or diverts his attention.
There is an absence of all those rivalries engendered
by ambition ; in private life each lives as he likes with-
out interfering with others, and, as often happens, when
any one requires the assistance of au other, matters are
easily arranged upon the principle of mutual interest.

* This must be taken as rather a partial account of the immunities of Scotland.
In some recent discussions as to the amount of burdens affecting land, we have
seen those in the principal agricultural districts of Scotland variously stated at
from five and a half to thirteen and a half per cent on the rental ; thus fully
equivalent on the average to the sum set down above as exigible from the soil in
England. (See Pamphlet by Mr Aitchison of Alderston, March 1854).— J. D.

SCOTLAND. 301

In this small country, of less than three millions of in-
habitants, the connection of interests — that fundamental
principle so indifferently comprehended elsewhere — is
apparent and felt by all. Scotland, in fact, is one family.

Is it surprising that agriculture should have profited
by such a concurrence of circumstances 1 Its progress,
especially from 1790 to 1815, was extraordinary; that
is to say, from the time when these combined causes
began powerfully to operate. England showed herself
capable, during that period, of taking off an almost inde-
finite quantity of commodities ; corn and butcher-meat
rose to enormous prices in the English markets, which,
for a new country like Scotland, could not fail to give
an immense impetus to production.

If it is true, according to Eicardo, that a small capital
brought to bear upon a virgin soil produces more at first
than a larger amount applied at a later period, this
axiom was then most fully realised ; on certain lands the
return was tenfold in the short space of a few years.
The general comfort, too, was increased to such an ex-
tent, that, according to a French traveller (Simond),
who visited Edinburgh in 1810, houses in the Old Town
were pointed out to him, inhabited by the working and
lower classes, where persons of the highest rank had
only lately resided. " A chair-porter," writes a corre-
spondent of Sir John Sinclair, " has lately quitted Lord
Drummore's house because it was no longer habitable ;
the Marquess of Douglas's is occupied by a cartwright,
and the Duke of Argyll's by a hosier at a rent of £12."

"When the fall in prices took place after the peace of
1815, this progress began to abate ; it was not possible
that it could go on at the same rate for any length of
time, but it still continues to a certain extent. Eailways
have been productive of much greater effects in Scot-

302 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

land than in England, in this respect, that they have
produced a more intimate union between the two coun-
tries. The cheapness of transport, the quickness of com-
munication, and the doing away with a necessity for
agents for the sale of produce, have all contributed to
keep up prices in opposition to other lowering tenden-
cies ; and on this account the crisis of late years has
been much less felt in Scotland than in England. But
few complaints have found their way across the Tweed ;
both proprietors and farmers have put a good face on
the matter, and, in fact, they have suffered but little.
The great economy of the one, and the wise moderation
of the other, conjoined with energy on the part of both,
prepared the way for that which was completed by the
extension of markets.

303

CHAPTER XXL

THE LOWLANDS.

THE observations I am about to make have reference
more particularly to the Lowlands, which comprise about
one-half of Scotland — the best half — yielding nine-
tenths of the whole produce of the country.

The most inferior part of this division of Scotland is
that bordering on England, and which is more or less
covered with the ramifications of the Northumberland
hills. It consists of the three counties of Dumfries,
Peebles, and Selkirk, and the mountainous part of Eox-
burghshire, containing in all about 1,200,000 acres.'*

Selkirk and Peeblesshire are quite Highland in their
character, only a tenth part being capable of cultivation.
This is the country so celebrated by Sir Walter. Scott
under the name of the Borders. The Tweed flows through
it, laving with its pure waters the residence of the great
novelist — Abbotsford. The principal scenes in the Lay
of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, and the Monastery, are
laid in its passes, where the war-cries of two neighbour-
ing and hostile people so often resounded. It was there,
among the shepherds' huts, that Sir Walter Scott, in his
youth, collected those legends which inspired his first

* This can only be said of these districts as regards the production of grain
generally. Here are very valuable pastoral districts, celebrated for the^roductioii
especially of sheep. — J. D.

304 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

song. That country, once so unsettled, now enjoys the
most perfect security. Its thin herbage, only sufficient
for sheep -pasture, is now devoted to the rearing of
these innocent animals ; and all the strife now witnessed
is that of the Cheviot against the old black-faced breed,
which gradually retreats before its rival, as the bandits
and troopers of old did before the shepherds. The ave-
rage rent may probably be 3s. to 4s. per acre, which is
pretty high simply for pasture.'* These hills are subject
to severe storms in winter, which used to bury whole
flocks ; but better provision has now been made for
their shelter. «

Abbotsford is situated at the foot of these mountains,
where the more fertile and better cultivated country
begins. Eoxburghshire, or, as it is sometimes called,
Teviotdale, contains the districts where the highest
farming flourishes, and where it was first introduced.
A Roxburghshire farmer, called Daw son, has been the
Arthur Young of Scotland ; and, more fortunate than
Arthur Young, he succeeded in carrying his theoretical
knowledge into successful practice. The farmers around
him have followed his example, and the consequence is
that we find this part of the country covered with fine
crops."

I remember stopping one day at one of these farms,
situated upon the left bank of the Tweed, opposite to
Abbotsford : the soil of it was better than the average,
and a great part was in pasture ; nevertheless it let for
16s. an acre. The farmer, with some degree of pride,
showed me his implements and his stock. He had a
water-power thrashing-machine, and next year proposed

* This average, we incline to think, is low. Measurement is not much regarded
in these mountains ; but we know some extent of land on the Cheviot border, en-
tirely devoted to the rearing of sheep, produces from 8s. to 10s. per acre. — J. D.

THE LOWLANDS. 305

to purchase a steam-engine. He had just laid in his
winter stock of oilcake for his cattle, which amounted
to fifteen tons. He took me over his fields, which lay
on the slope of the hill, and I followed him with an
admiring eye for his barley and oats, but my mind a
little abstracted, I confess, by the sight of Abbotsford,
which lay below us, its turrets reflected in the Tweed.
"If Scott were still alive," said I to myself, "this fine
fellow would no doubt be one of his heroes in the Tales
of my Landlord" Who does not remember the delight-
ful description of the farm of Charlie's Hope in Guy
Mannering, with its well-drawn characters of Dandy
Dinmont and his wife Ailie, and all the amusing inci-
dents of fox-hunts and salmon-fishing ? Charlie's Hope
was not far from where I then stood, just over in the
valley of the Liddell, behind the blue-tinted peaks on
the verge of the horizon. Dinmont is the local name
for a shearling male sheep.

A few miles further eastward, after coming down from
the Lammermoors (another name famed in poetry and
song), we enter upon the undulating country which
surrounds Edinburgh, called the Lothians, and contain-
ing also about 1,200,000 acres. The farming here is cer-
tainly not to be equalled. Eents of 30s., 60s., and even
£5 per acre, are not uncommon ; the average is 25s.,
with nearly as much in the shape of profit for the
farmer. The meadows in the neighbourhood of Edin-
burgh, which are irrigated with the sewage from
the town, show the maximum rent hitherto obtained
in Great Britain ; some let as high as £30 per
acre.*

A great part of the wheat produced in Scotland is

* These meadows are cut six or eight times during the season, and have brought,
we believe, in some instances, above £40 per annum. — J. D.

U

306 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

grown in the Lothians, which are particularly famous for
cereal crops. The soil at one time was reckoned in-
capable of bearing even rye ; only barley and oats were
cultivated, and these are still the cereals generally grown
in the rest of the country. It is mentioned that in 1727 a
field of wheat, of eight acres, about a mile from Edinburgh,
was the object of universal curiosity. Now, one-fifth of
the land, or about 250,000 acres, is in wheat, and in good
seasons this crop yields from thirty to forty-five bushels
per acre. Here again it is the Norfolk rotation more or
less modified according to local circumstances, but still
maintaining the general character of that system, which
produces this large return. Turnip cultivation, the basis
of the rotation, is nowhere better understood than in the
Lowlands. Indeed, we find in the Lothians, more than
in England, the realisation of all agricultural improve-
ments. A complete system of drainage has existed
for a long time past. Every farm, or nearly so, has
its steam-engine. Stabulation of cattle has been long
in common practice. The thrashing-machine was in-
vented, at the end of last century, by a Scotchman of the
name of Meikle, and was in use in Scotland before it
reached England. It was also a Scotchman (Bell) who in-
vented the reaping-machine, and who claims priority over
the Americans. The most successful and extensive expe-
riments, in the application of steam to cultivation, which
have yet been made in the three kingdoms, were carried
out at the Marquess of Tweeddale's, near Haddington.

In the county of Haddington alone, which contains not
quite 200,000 acres, or scarcely the extent of one of our
smallest French arrondissements, there were, in 1853,
185 steam-engines employed for agricultural purposes,
of an average power of six horses each, being nearly one
for every 1000 acres — besides eighty-one water-mills.

THE LOWLANDS. 307

In former times the lands of a farm in the Lothians,
as well as other parts of Scotland, used to be divided
into what were called in-field and out-field. The out-field
portion remained quite in a state of nature, and was used
as pasture ; the in-field, on the other hand, produced corn
crops uninterruptedly, barley and oats in succession. A
worse system can scarcely be imagined. Fallows are an
improvement on this barbarous practice, and were intro-
duced simultaneously with wheat-cultivation in 1725-50.
The principal merit of their introduction is attributed to
the sixth Earl of Haddington, who had seen their good
effects in England. Thus we see how much has been
done in a short space of time. If the point now reached
is the highest that at present exists, the starting-point was
certainly the lowest of any.

All the Lothian farms are worth visiting ; but I will
take only one as an example — that of Mr John Dickson,
a few miles out of Edinburgh, composed of what was
formerly three farms. It contains five hundred Scotch
a^res,* and is let at £5 per acre, or £2500. In size this
farm is an exception, there being few such in this part of
the Lowlands. Those around it are in general not so
large, but the methods practised are the same on all ; and
some of them are let even higher. Notwithstanding
these enormous rents, the Lothian farmers make a good
business of it. They have almost all excellent houses ;
and whatever may be the national character for frugality,
they live at least as well as many of our proprietors, even
of the higher class. Wages, as usual, profit by the gene-
ral state of prosperity ; they are paid half in money, and
the rest in kind, amounting together to from Is. 8d. to
2s. per day.

* A Scotch acre is equal to 51 ares 41 centiares = 1£ (or 1.27083) imperial
acres.

308 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

In order to make up 1,200,000 acres, I include, with
the Lothians proper, all the low country along the
coast from Berwick to Dundee, not only on the south,
but also on the north of the Firth of Forth, and also
the Carse of Gowrie near Perth. This is about one-
fifteenth of the whole area of Scotland, and less than one-
seventh of the Lowlands. We have already observed
that an equal extent is covered by the Border mountains.
The remaining seven million acres of the Lowlands
form the intermediate region, which is neither so rich
as the Lothians, nor as rugged as the Borders. Their
average rent is about 8s. per acre ; and cattle-rearing is
the chief purpose to which they are devoted.

Of these, in the first place, a portion is occupied by
that distinct district which has received the name of
Galloway — the way of the Gauls or Celts — because form-
ing, as it does, a peninsula on the south-west of Scotland,
it stretches forward, as it were, towards Wales and Ire-
land, in anticipation of the migrations of Celts which
have been always coming over from these quarters. Gal-
loway includes the whole of the counties of Wigtown and
Kirkcudbright, and a portion of those of Ayr and Dum-
fries. The surface is broken by what the English call
hills — that is to say, something between mountainous
and undulating country. The climate is extremely wet,
like that of Cumberland, which is only separated from
Galloway by a firth. The soil produces an abundant
natural grass, which is superior to that of the mountains
in the neighbourhood. There are a few grain-farms ;
but farming, properly speaking, is rather on the decline,
on account of the preference given to cattle."''" Eoots and

* We believe, as is the case in other parts of the country, it will be found that
the greater attention to the improvement and increase of stock in Galloway has
rather tended to materially improve and extend the general cultivation of the
Lmd.-J. D.

THE LOWLANDS. 309

forage crops are cultivated for the winter food of these
animals ; during summer they are turned out upon the
pastures.

The primitive race of Galloway cattle is small, without
horns, very hardy, and affording meat of the best descrip-
tion. An export of these excellent cattle began at the
time of the union of the two kingdoms, and this has
been increasing for the last 150 years; but a change,
similar to that already noticed in districts of the same
kind in England, has been going on for some time. The
Galloway farmers had confined themselves to the rearing
of stock, which they sold at two or three years old, and
which were sent chiefly to Norfolk to be fattened. But
since railroads have established more direct communica-
tion with the markets of consumption, the pastures, by
drainage and other means, have been improved, and
winter food has been increased by means of special crops,
so that cattle are now fattened on the spot. The short-
horned breed, which almost never fails where skill and
the means of fattening are combined with care in the
breeding, is being rapidly propagated, and tends to take
the place of, or at least seriously to interfere with, the
native breed. The quality of the meat will not be im-
proved, but the quantity, to which more importance is
attached, will be considerably increased. Another occu-
pation, that of dairy-farming, is on the increase in Gal-
loway, where hitherto, notwithstanding the proximity
of Ayrshire, it was little known. The farm of Baldoon,
under Mr Caird, author of the Letters upon English
Agriculture, is especially worthy of notice, and offers
one of the best models of a well-managed dairy of one
hundred cows.

At the end of the last century, Ayrshire, which
borders on Galloway, was still in a most deplorable con-

310 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

dition. " There was scarcely a road which was passable
in the whole country," says a local writer ; " everywhere
the cottages were built of mud and thatched with straw,
the fire in the centre, with an opening in the roof to
serve as a chimney, and surrounded with a dunghill,
while the land was covered with all sorts of weeds. No
green crops nor sown grasses, nor even carts, were to be
seen. The only vegetable cultivated consisted of a few
Scotch cabbages, which, with milk and oatmeal, formed
all the food of the population. Successive crops of oats
were taken off the same field as long as it continued to
produce anything beyond the seed sown, after which it
remained in a state of absolute sterility, until it was
again fit for producing another miserable crop. The
rent was usually paid in kind, under the name of half-
fruits. The cattle were famished in winter ; and when
spring arrived, could scarcely rise without assistance.
There was not a farmer with money sufficient to im-
prove this state of things, and proprietors had not the
means either." Might we not almost fancy we were
reading a description of one of our poorest and most
remote provinces, where a bad state of metayage still
reigned, and where escape from the common wretched-
ness seemed impossible ?

The Ayrshire country now ranks among the most
flourishing districts of Great Britain. It is there where
that grand innovation in English agriculture — the dis-
tribution of liquid manure by means of subterranean
pipes — was originally tried upon a large scale, and
where we find the small farm of Cunning Park, the
present wonder of the United Kingdom. This radical
change has all been effected in the space of sixty years.
To be sure, the district is close to Glasgow; this is the
great secret of it all. Like the English, the Scotch con-

THE LOWLANDS. 311

sume a great deal of milk in all its forms. The in-
creasing demand for dairy produce has created the fine
breed of Ayrshire cows — probably just our Brittany
race improved' — and has changed those ancient heaths
into profitable pastures. Dunlop cheese — almost the
only kind of Scotch cheese which has any reputation —
is made from the Ayrshire milk. In the space of a
century, the rent of land in the county has increased
tenfold. One will cease to wonder at this, when it is
stated that milk in Glasgow is sold at 3d. per quart, and
butter at Is. 2d. per Ib.

The upper part of the Clyde Valley — or, as it is called,
Clydesdale — is remarkable for another production, which
also owes its origin to the commerce and industry of
Glasgow * — namely, a breed of very powerful draught-
horses, well adapted for heavy loads, such as are required
for the traffic from the collieries in the district, and for
the trade of the port, which, after London and Liverpool, is
the most active in Great Britain.

Finally, the north part of the Lowlands, comprising
the low grounds of the counties of Forfar, Kincardine,
Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, Nairn, and Caithness, and which
remained for a long time very backward, because of the
unfavourable nature of the climate and greater distance
from markets, is, in its turn, making great progress, since
railways have reached it, and now unite Aberdeen to
London by way of Edinburgh. The two principal towns
in the district, Aberdeen and Dundee, have each a popu-
lation of about seventy thousand, and carry on several

* The Clydesdale breed of horses certainly dates earlier than the rise of the
commerce of Glasgow. It is said to owe its origin to one of the Dukes of Hamil-
ton, who, in the seventeenth century, introduced stallions from Flanders, which
were used to cross mares selected from the best Lanarkshire breed. No doubt it
has been much encouraged by an increasing demand in the immediate neigh-
bourhood.— J. D.

312 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

prosperous trades. Salmon-fishing in the rivers, and the
North-Sea herring fishery, are great sources of profit to
them. The two most southern counties, Forfar and Kin-
cardine, are the furthest advanced in agriculture, and
almost rival the county of Ayr.* Their prosperity is due,
in a great measure, to the Angus breed of polled black
cattle, which has been skilfully improved by the native
breeders upon the Bakewell principles,t and has as great
a name for its beef as the Ayrshire for milk ; nor does it
in this respect bear an unfavourable comparison with the
best of the English breeds — the Durham not excepted.

The further we go north, richness decreases ; but drain-
ing, the cultivation of turnips and forage crops, extra
manures, such as bones and guano, subsoil-ploughing,
and liming, everywhere convert frightful mosses and
barren rocks into good land. One might almost call it a
second creation. Every day this part of Scotland is ra-
pidly increasing its production of meat and milk. Oats and
barley follow the movement, although at a distance ; and
wheat dares to show itself in the gloomy and cold county
of Caithness — the most northerly of all, where at one time
myriads of sea-fowl were almost the sole occupants. J

In one of his interesting agricultural excursions, M. de
Gourcy mentions an enterprising Englishman, Mr Mactier,
who, after having realised a fortune in the East Indies,
purchased a property of twenty-two thousand acres from

* We think it will be found that the system of agriculture, in the lowlands of these
counties generally, is much superior upon the whole to that of Ayrshire. — J. D.

*f* The first to cariy these principles out in application to the Angus breed, was
the well-known Hugh Watson of Keillor, who still maintains a superiority in this
class of cattle.— J. D.

J It is evident M. Lavergne's happier experience leads him to regard with
too great asperity the influence of our northern climate ; and hence the above
fctatement scarcely conveys a correct impression of the wonderful improvements
lately effected in the North. Cereals of all descriptions, of superior quality, are
abundantly produced along the whole north-eastern coast of Scotland, and ex-
ported to some extent ; and the wheats of Ross-shire and Caithness vie with those
of the Lothians.— J. D.

•jNlVERS

OF
THE LOWLANDS. •<

the Duke of Gordon, in Aberdeenshire, which was almost
entirely in a state of nature. The price paid was nearly
£120,000; and he is laying out upon it, in improvements
of all sorts, £25 per acre, or five times its original cost.
These operations consist principally of subsoil-ploughing.
The property being covered with granite rocks, these are
blasted and removed. The ground, after being thus
cleared, is levelled, drained, and limed, and laid out in
farms of about four hundred acres each. These farms,
it is stated, are let on nineteen years' leases, at the rate
of 5 per cent on the money expended upon them.
The whole operation, when finished, will absorb between
£600,000 and £800,000. This is the scale upon which
agricultural undertakings are sometimes conducted. Eng-
lish capital readily finds its way to Scotland, because of
its being a newer country than England.

Even applying the 20 per cent reduction to the Scotch
prices, it will be seen that the gross production of the
Lowlands gives, in the aggregate, about 100 francs per
hectare, divided as follows : —

Proprietor's rent, . 30 francs per hectare, or 10s. per acre.

Farmer's profit, .25 „ „ 8s. „

Taxes,* . .3 „ „ Is. „

Incidental expenses, .17 „ „ 6s. „

Wages, . .25 „ „ 8s.

100 „ „ 33s. „

I have already stated that the average gross production
of the lands in France may also be reckoned at about
100 francs, notwithstanding our immense superiority in
both soil and climate. Eents also may be about the
same, but the remainder is very differently divided.
Owing to the superabundance of hands and limited

* Taxes in the Highlands— that is to say, in the other half of Scotland— are
very insignificant, which doubles the portion to be allotted to the Lowlands.

314 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

capital, wages with us absorb one-half, in place of a
fourth, of the gross produce; so that all that remains for
the farmers' profit and incidental expenses, or the most
productive portion, is only a third of what accrues to
these in Scotland. The profit, which in France is about
a tenth of the gross produce, and one-third of the rent,
amounts in Scotland to a fourth of the gross produce, and
four-fifths of the rent. In England the gross average
production is double, and the division proportionately
about the same, except that taxes in Scotland being very
much less, the farmers' portion profits by almost the whole
difference.

The greatest superiority of the Scotch rural economy
consists in the smallness of the number of its labourers.
In France, as we have already observed, the rural
population amounts to about sixteen per one hundred
acres, and in England to twelve ; but in the Lowlands it
is only five, for an average production at least equal to
that of France, and to one-half that of England. This
proportion is probably the lowest in Europe ; and still it
will decrease — for production continues to increase, whilst
the rural population remains stationary, or nearly so.

There were formerly in the Lowlands, as everywhere
else throughout Scotland, a great many cottiers or
crofters, — small farmers who worked a few acres after a
miserable fashion, like our metayers, under tacksmen or
middlemen — that is, stewards or bailiffs, who managed
for their masters' account. All these cottiers have dis-
appeared ; some have become workmen in the mines or
manufactories, others are farmers, only a few are common
day-labourers. The average size of farms has increased,
without being yet very great, since it does not exceed
one hundred and fifty to two hundred acres ; and the
farmers themselves form one-half of the rural population,

THE LOWLANDS. 315

while only the other half is composed of labourers and
servants. Even in the second half, servants, paid by the
year, and living in the house of the master'"" by whom
they are employed, form by far the greater number.
The day-labourers, properly so called, make rather the
exception than the rule.

It appears to me that this system is preferable to that
in England, where the number who live solely upon day-
wages is still too numerous ; and for us in France, it is
easier to imitate the Scotch than the English system.
We have, besides, an element which is wanting in Scot-
land, and which I maintain is useful to a certain extent-
small property. With this, provided it be not pushed too
far, and that the farming be healthy in other respects, a
better combination still may be attained.

For the moment, it is the Scotch system which is, in
my opinion, the better of the two, and that notwithstand-
ing the want to which I have just alluded. But if they
have not there the good element of small property, neither
have they the bad. The Scotch farmers, with more in-
telligence than any other of the same class, are careful to
undertake only what they are in a condition to do well.
In that country not only are they not ambitious to become
proprietors, when they have only capital sufficient to be
farmers, but they take care not to rent a hundred acres
when they have capital only sufficient to work fifty. They
have the sense to live rather below than above their in-
come; and such as with us would pretend to be gentle-
men, do not mind putting their hand to the plough.
They prefer in everything realities to appearances. That
unfortunate false pride which finds so many victims in
France, has disappeared before the natural good sense of
the Scotch. A trip to Scotland would be no less useful

* Or rather supported from the produce of the farm in separate houses. — J. D.

316 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

in this respect, as well as in many others, to our small
and middling proprietors, than to our large.

Scotland, moreover, has long ago experienced a revolu-
tion, which has not taken place yet in France, and which
even in England has not been carried to the same ex-
tent— namely, the doing away with commons. Nothing
can be done on a large scale, in the way of a good distri-
bution of labour and comfort, so long as an important
part of the soil remains necessarily in an uncultivated
state, serving only to foster misery and idleness. Let
portions be retained here and there for public walks,
as is the case near London. To this there can be no
objection. But there must not be too many of them.
Commons still occupy a twentieth part of our territory.
The extent in England is greatly less ; and, during the last
fifty years especially, acts for enclosure have happily
multiplied. About two millions of acres, during that time,
have been allotted, enclosed, and cultivated. But there it
requires a special act for each common ; while in Scot-
land the simple request of the parties interested is all that
is necessary. The Act authorising this is dated in 1695,
and is one of the last and best passed by the Scotch Par-
liament. It has been justly remarked that, had a like
law been passed at the same period by the English Parlia-
ment, agriculture in England would have made greater
progress.

Since 1695 the Scotch commons have successively been
added to property, especially in the Lowlands. All that
were capable of cultivation are now reclaimed ; and even
the non-arable lands are the object of an intelligent and
profitable system of working. Looking back two or three
centuries, we find nearly the same rural organisation
existing over the whole of Europe ; only, since then,
we have severally more or less emerged from our primi-

THE LOWLANDS. 317

tive barbarism. That state of commonality which still
exists among the peasantry of Eussia, once existed every-
where, and has everywhere more or less receded before
civilisation.

Population has not increased over the whole extent of
the Lowlands to the degree it has in the counties of Lanark
andKenfrew. If in some counties, as Ayr and Edinburgh,
it has trebled, in many others, even the richest, such as
Haddington and Linlithgow, which form part of the Lo-
thians, it has progressed very slowly. It has doubled, upon
the whole, however, and is now a little above one head
per five acres, or equivalent to Wales, and some depart-
ments in the centre of France — those of Haute Vienne,
Creuse, Dordogne, and Correze. This increase of popula-
tion is therefore far from being in correspondence with the
increase of wealth. Within the same period the popu-
lation of England has trebled, and that of Ireland
quadrupled.

Even upon this nice question of population, the Scotch
possess an instinctive knowledge as great as the first
economists. Wherever a permanent demand for labour
arises, there population increases to meet it. But this de-
mand does not equally arise everywhere ; and in purely
agricultural districts the tendency is rather the other way.
Thus Scotland is sheltered from those troubles and suffer-
ings which excess of population produces. She has never
any ground to fear as to her subsistence, since she freely
exports much of her agricultural produce ; and the limited
number, as well as the moderate habits of her consumers,
admit of a large part of her receipts being turned into
capital,

We shall presently see in the Highlands a much more
rigorous application of the same principle.

318

CHAPTER XXII.

THE HIGHLANDS.

THE Highlands comprise the four large counties of Argyll,
Inverness, Koss, and Sutherland, and the greater part of
Perth, Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, and Nairn. Adding to
these the Hebrides, Shetlands, and other islands, this is
at least one-half of Scotland.

I have already remarked upon the appearance presented
by these desolate regions, almost destitute of trees, and
with scarcely even heather ; — everywhere steep and naked
rocks, streams of water of all sizes, lakes, falls, foaming tor-
rents, immense mosses, perpetual snows and rain, and
violent winds from the North Sea. It seems as if rural
economy could have nothing to do with such a country.
The Highlands have had their share, however, of the
change which is being effected in Scotland. Their share,
too, has not been the least, for these mountains have been
the scene of one of the most complete revolutions of this
revolutionary age. What has taken place, has been alto-
gether exceptional in its character, and deserves a special
notice; the more so, as the legality and utility of such a
radical change has been strongly debated. The argu-
ments raised on the subject have left wrong impressions
on the minds of many, which it is important should be
rectified. The Highlands were the scene of that syste-
matic depopulation which made such a noise in Europe

THE HIGHLANDS. 319

thirty years ago. M. de Sismondi, among others, with
the most praiseworthy but short-sighted intentions, con-
tributed in no small degree to excite public animadver-
sion against this measure ; which, admitting that it was
too violently executed, has undoubtedly produced bene-
ficial results.

The Highlands, in former times, like all inaccessible
mountain countries, were the natural fastnesses of a war-
like people. They differed in all respects from the rest of
the world — costume, language, race, and manners. Gaelic
was the only language, the kilt and plaid the only dress.
Poetry and romance have immortalised this small people.
Habituated to warfare, the state of society among them
was not unlike that of the Arab tribes. Each great
family or clan yielded obedience to a hereditary chief.
The territory of each clan being looked upon almost as
common property, under rule of the chief, each individual
took what he wanted, upon the simple condition that he
paid a small fine in kind, and rendered personal military
service. Their wretched fields produced very indifferent
oats ; herds of cattle and sheep, as wild as their owners,
supplied a little wool, milk, and flesh. For the rest, the
mountaineers lived by hunting and fishing, but for the
most part by plunder. From time to time they made
predatory incursions upon the Lowlands ; and when not
united in one large body on such occasions, they sepa-
rated and pillaged, each upon his own account.

Up to the time of the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the
chieftains thought only of increasing the number of
their followers. Their importance consisted, not in the
amount of their revenues, but in the numerical strength
of their armed bands. Although the agricultural and
social state of the middle ages had long passed away
elsewhere, it was found still existing in these retreats.

320 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

All, however, became changed after the final expulsion of
the Stuarts. Ideas and requirements belonging to a new
state of society sprang up even in the most remote glens,
originating, in the first instance, with the chiefs. During
the previous half-century, the Scotch nobility had been
acquiring some insight into what was going on in other
parts of the world. Some of them had been at the
English court, others had visited the court of France.
These had blushed for their proverbial poverty, and found
only partial consolation in the consciousness of their
military power, for what they wanted in wealth, refine-
ment, and comfort. The natural course of events, which
is continually modifying human institutions, whether good
or bad, daily increased these secret feelings. Deprived
of their feudal independence, the Highland chiefs sought
to increase their revenues, in order to make another kind
of display. Although they might not have chosen habits
of luxury, which forced them to this, they would have
been led to adopt them solely by the progress of a grow-
ing civilisation.

Now, the only way by which they could increase their
means was to turn their estates to account ; and to this
two obstacles presented themselves — first, the asperity of
the soil and climate ; and secondly, the inveterate wildness
of the people. They were not long, however, in disco-
vering that one of these difficulties could be overcome;
for there is no soil so unkind that will not yield some-
thing of a net produce ; but the people were more un-
tamable than nature itself. The common vassals had not
the same stimulus for increasing their labour ; the pater-
nal hut satisfied them, and they never dreamt of any
better style of living. Wherefore, then, should they
change their habits ? By the sweat of their brow to
make the earth bring forth fruits to be reaped by others!

THE HIGHLANDS. 321

Better the proud poverty of their heather and their pris-
tine idleness.

There would have been some hope of being able to
overcome these impediments, over which time, in all feudal
countries, had triumphed, had there not been in this case
a peculiar difficulty which rendered success absolutely
impossible. Although scanty in numbers, as compared
to the extent of their country, the Highlands counting no
more than from two hundred and fifty to three hundred
thousand inhabitants upon nearly ten millions of acres,
population was still too dense for the productive powers
of the soil. However inured to fasting, the Highlanders
were decimated by famines, and it frequently happened
that they bled their half-starved cattle in order to feed
upon the blood. Although the population had been
ever so laborious, it could only have succeeded, while
remaining thus numerous, in feeding itself a little better,
without saving anything ; and if in some parts a better
culture appeared practicable, it was of no use attempting
this while the neighbouring districts were in possession of
the ancient clans ; for neither crop nor cattle could escape
the plunder which old habits sanctioned.

Thus it was that the Highland chiefs came gradually
to the conclusion that it was impossible to make any-
thing of their mountains but by depopulating them. From
that time they have not ceased endeavouring, first by
indirect means, and then openly and by force, to dimin-
ish that population which their ancestors, for purposes of
warfare, had multiplied.

The English government, with some tact, encouraged
these proceedings. They began by holding out attractions
to the chiefs to come to London, in order to wear off, by
degrees, their national feelings, and to instil into them new
ideas and habits. Then, after persuading them that the

322 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

ancient organisation of the Highlands was incompatible
with a state of peace and industry, the government aided
them in accomplishing the difficult transition. To fur-
nish an outlet for the military portion of the population,
family regiments were raised, each composed of men from
the same clan, and commanded by their hereditary chiefs
in the pay of the State. These regiments bravely main-
tained the honour of their new colours, and, in the wars of
the Empire especially, the Highlanders, well known by
their singular costume, were considered the flower of the
English army. Those families, at the same time, who
consented, were removed from their mountains to the low
country, and emigration to America was set on foot for
the most refractory.

Up to the end of the eighteenth century these measures
had been executed with forbearance ; but the great agri-
cultural revolution of Arthur Young gave a more decided
turn to the movement. More than anywhere else, the
advantage of large fields for improvement in these sterile
mountains was evident. The feudal system, in which
formerly the power of the Gaelic race consisted, was
now the very thing which caused its destruction. The
territory of a clan being considered the property of the
chief, the Highlands were divided into only a few
extensive domains. The chief of each clan now set
about hunting out his subjects. Many of these unfortu-
nate people emigrated to Canada, others sought employ-
ment in the Lowlands ; while, upon the ruins of their
cabins, large sheep-farms arose. In 1808, Lord Selkirk,
a Scotch nobleman, published the theory of this depopu-
lation. It was then, and is still, called clearing an estate.

Just at that time England and Europe were reading
with delight the works of Walter Scott. His first poem,
the Lay of the Last Minstrel, appeared in 1805, and his

THE HIGHLANDS. 323

first novel of Waverley in 1814. In these wonderful fic-
tions the old Highlander of ancient Scotland was depicted
to the life, with his tartan plaid and formidable claymore.
People's minds were all filled with visions of that land of
poesy, and imagined the shores of its lakes, its mountain
heather, its deep glens and caves, peopled with all those
loved fancies which the great novelist's imagination con-
jured up ; and at the very moment when genius threw
so much light upon the picture, what remained of these
people were being persecuted and expelled for the aggran-
disement apparently of a few rich proprietors.

On all sides an outcry was raised. The absolute right
to the land, claimed by these mere feudal chiefs, was dis-
puted. It was contended that they were nothing more than
suzerains, and that the land belonged as much to their
vassals as to themselves. In many respects this observa-
tion might be just. Taking tradition only as the rule, it
might have been received ; but in the struggle between
the present and future against the past, history must needs
be in the wrong. The utility of the thing was evident,
if the right was not completely established. Deeming it
out of the question to leave the labouring population of
the Lowlands exposed to such a dangerous neighbour-
hood, the government interposed on behalf of public
safety. Thanks to the help thus afforded, the depopula-
tion was accomplished, and by degrees the Highlands
have been gradually deprived of the greater portion of
their wild inhabitants.

Nowhere has the experiment been tested on so large a
scale as in Sutherlandshire, which forms the north-west
extremity of Great Britain. It is a wild, rugged country,
where the mosses are more numerous, and the rocks more
bare, than in the adjacent districts, and it is not even
more picturesque on account of its desolation. Situated

324 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

in the same latitude as Sweden and Norway, it is subject
to a like severity of climate, rendered still more severe
by the height of its mountains. A narrow strip of good
soil extends along the coast, especially towards the
south. There is a want of it everywhere else ; but though
it existed, the prevalence of cold and storms would be
sufficient to render cultivation almost impossible.* There,
isolated from the rest of the world, dwelt the largest and
most unmixed of the Gaelic tribes. A great chieftain,
called Mhoir-Fhear-Chattaibh, or the Great Man of the
South, in allusion to his contests with the Danish pirates
who infested the Caithness coasts to the north, was for-
merly the head of this clan. The population of the
country was not great, owing to the want of food, and
they were very badly off. Upon an area of about eight
hundred thousand acres, fifteen thousand men, women,
and children, existed in a condition little better than that
of beasts.

At the time of the military organisation of the clans,
Sutherlandshire raised the 93d regiment of the line. In
the early part of the present century, the Countess of
Sutherland, sole descendant of the Great Man of the
South, having become Marchioness of Stafford by mar-
riage with a wealthy English nobleman, undertook to

* This rugged picture, conveying an impression of general barrenness, is, it will be
seen, considerably softened by what immediately follows, when M. Lavergne
comes to treat of the improvements which have recently taken place in Suther-
land. After all, it is with the latitude of the very southern parts of Norway and
Sweden that this county ranges, and we know that the severity of its cli-
mate is much mitigated by its insular situation ; indeed, we have no reason
to think its summers are inferior, especially on the eastern coast, to those of
the Lothians, though they are undoubtedly a little shorter. There is a consi-
derable breadth of very useful land, in fine herbage, in the extensive valleys by
which the mountain ranges are intersected ; and the statistical returns, obtained
from Sutherlandshire last year, exhibit a total of up wards of twenty- two thousand
acres of arable land, nearly four thousand five hundred of which were in green
crops, and upwards of ten thousand five hundred in grain of different kinds. — J. D,

THE HIGHLANDS. 325

strike the first blow. She ordered all her vassals to quit
the interior of the country, at the same time offering to
establish them on the sea-coast, where they might become
sailors, fishermen, labourers, and even cultivators of the
soil, since the soil and climate there offered greater re-
sources. Those who refused had no alternative but emi-
gration to America. This measure was carried out
between 1810 and 1820. Only thirty years have elapsed
since the whole thing was finished. Three thousand fami-
lies were forced to quit the country of their fathers, and
were transplanted into the new villages upon the coast.
When resistance was shown, the agents of the Marchion-
ess demolished their miserable habitations, and in some
instances, in order to effect this more speedily, the
huts were set on fire.

As soon as what was going on in Sutherlandshire
became known in England and in Europe, the irritation,
which similar proceedings had already excited, reached
its height. The maledictions which rose from the burning
embers of the cottages were echoed with redoubled force,
until Lord and Lady Stafford, in 1820, felt themselves
called upon to publish a justification of their conduct ; and
this they did through their chief agent, Mr James Loch.

According to Mr Loch, the heiress of the Earls of
Sutherland had done her vassals a real service in obliging
them to leave a country where they were subjected to
nothing but misery. In place of the mud cabins in
which they were huddled together upon their native
mountains, she had prepared more commodious dwell-
ings for them under a less inclement sky. In place of
those pastures, immense no doubt, but wholly unculti-
vated, where their scanty flocks were dying of hunger,
she had provided more fertile land, which was, besides,
open to the sea. The people had not been driven out,

326 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

but only displaced for their own good. If some of them,
blinded by prejudice, had preferred emigration, the ma-
jority had gratefully accepted the change ; while those
whom it had been found necessary to expel by force
were but the exceptions.

In fact, as Mr Loch always contended, time alone
would show the wholesome results of these measures.
In 1820 the new villages were already infinitely superior
to the old ones. The Marchioness had spent consider-
able sums in opening up roads in every direction ;
throwing bridges across streams, and even arms of the
sea ; constructing inns and posting establi shments ; and in
rendering the small harbours of the coast more accessible
and safe. This country, which ten years previously was
absolutely closed, became henceforth approachable both
by sea and land ; coaches ran through it from one end
to the other, and numbers of vessels loaded and discharged
upon these formerly deserted coasts. The outlay upon
the harbour and works at Helmsdale alone amounted to
more than £16,000. This once unsafe inlet, where not a
vessel touched before 1814, became, five years afterwards,
the seat of a trade employing some thousands of tons of
shipping. At first the Marchioness's agents had to
import at considerable expense all materials required for
their works — lime from Sunderland, coal from Newcastle,
and slates from Aberdeen ; and to bring, besides, their
own engineers — masons, quarrymen, sailors, and artifi-
cers, even such as bakers, cartwrights, and joiners, for
none of these existed previously on the place. At the
time Mr Loch wrote, only a few of these strangers re-
mained : the native population had learned from them
enough to provide for their own necessities. These once
barbarous people had become, in the course of a few

THE HIGHLANDS. 327

years, clever workmen, good seamen, and hardy miners.
The Marchioness caused to be built, at her own expense,
churches and schools ; and it only required a very short
time to complete the work of regeneration.

At the same time, Mr Loch had no difficulty in prov-
ing that, in point of rural production, properly so called,
the operation was a successful one. The depopulated
lands were divided into twenty-nine large sheep-farms,
averaging twenty-five thousand acres each. Cheviot
rams and ewes of the improved breed had been im-
ported in large numbers, and were added to the native
black-faced race. The heather was burned, mosses were
drained by open ditches, and the water was collected and
distributed along the mountains by means of artificial
canals. Owing to these judicious proceedings, a fine
and close natural grass covered the highest summits,
just as in the lower valleys. This natural grass, grow-
ing upon a thin bed of soil, and which could not have
borne the tread of heavier animals, was improved, and
grew every day thicker from the manuring of the sheep.
At this time it was estimated that the number of sheep
fed upon the Sutherland mountains amounted to 118,000
cheviots, and 13,000 black-faced. The export of wool
rose to 415,000 Ib. annually, and was sold to the York-
shire manufacturers at the Inverness market ; and 30,000
sheep were delivered to the south-country farmers, to be
fattened for market. These products, already much
greater than anything formerly obtained — for that was
almost nothing — gave promise of rapid increase.

The coast farmers, in their turn, finding themselves
placed in better circumstances, had, at the instigation
and with the assistance of their masters, adopted im-
proved methods of cultivation ; and fine fields of barley

328 RUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

and wheat, turnips sown in drill, and artificial grasses,
took the place of the brambles so dear to the ancient
inhabitants.

All Mr Loch's hopes have been realised. Time has
brought all his prognostications to pass. The necessary
capital for effecting all this could never have been found
in Sutherlandshire. It required the marriage of the
heiress of the county with a very wealthy man, who was
willing to devote part of his fortune to the improvement of
his wife's patrimony. In acknowledgment of this revolu-
tion, the English government raised Sutherland to a
duchy ; and, by a great sacrifice, the Marquess of Stafford
saw the noble name of his family merged in that which
he helped to restore. The son of the Countess of Suther-
land and Marquess of Stafford now enjoys the title of
Duke of Sutherland. From these eight hundred thousand
acres this nobleman derives an income of £40,000, and
that, it is said, is only a fifth of his immense fortune. The
rest is derived from his paternal estates in the counties
of Stafford and Salop, which have also been greatly im-
proved, but in another way, owing to their different
character.

When the present Duke came into possession of his
Highland estates in 1840, he was received with marks
of attachment on all hands. The remembrance of old
struggles was effaced, the smoke of past burnings had for
ever passed away. All the farmers who had taken
leases, whether in the depopulated mountain districts of
the interior, or on the uncultivated moorlands upon the
coast, had made money ; and Mr Loch, the factor, had
become a member of Parliament. The population, which
had increased from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand,
nd were still congregated along the coast, no longer

ught of leaving it. There the bad lands, cleared of

THE HIGHLANDS. 329

underwood and stones at great expense, and thoroughly
improved by means of sea-weed and all kinds of artificial
manure, were giving a rental of as much as 30s. per acre.
Harbours, mines, fisheries, all had succeeded. From his
lofty feudal tower of Dunrobin, which overlooks this
part of the coast, the descendant of the Mhoir-Fhear-
Chattaibhs encouraged a scene of active industry, which
his ancestors never dreamt of.

In the interior of the country the old race of black-
faced sheep had almost disappeared, and were succeeded
mostly by the cheviot. Now two hundred thousand
sheep are pastured on a surface which formerly fed only
a fourth of that number. What an admirable property
this is in the sheep, of adapting itself to all sorts of
soil and climate ! The same animal, which is the chief
wealth of the Arab on the sandy deserts of Saharah,
enables us to turn to profitable account the rocks and
peat-mosses of the extreme north ! M. de Gourcy says :
— " One cannot help being surprised, in passing through
these solitary regions, to find them covered with splendid
sheep, giving every year 5 Ib. of pretty fair wool, and,
with no other food than what they find there summer and
winter, weighing alive, at three years and a half, two
hundred Ib. English." The hills serve for summer pas-
turage, and the glens or valleys for the winter. Dur-
ing the long nights even, the flocks remain exposed to all
weathers, with no other shelter than what a few birch
trees afford. The only protection they receive against
the extreme wet is an application or smearing of tar and
butter in the month of October.

As for human inhabitants, there are none. If the
sound of the bagpipe is heard among the rocks, it is no
longer the gathering-call of warlike mountaineers, but
the more peaceful amusement of a shepherd, who, in

330 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

place of war and pillage, devotes his time to the care of
sheep, and receives wages from a neighbouring farmer.
He scarcely knows anything of the warlike history of
his clan ; but, instead, can tell you if it has been a good
lambing season, and how wool is selling. This is all that
remains of an extinct race. One of these shepherds can
look after five hundred sheep. There may be four hun-
dred or five hundred such upon these eight hundred
thousand acres.

The history of Sutherlandshire is more or less that of
the whole Highlands. Wherever it has been practicable
to displace the old population, they have been succeeded
by sheep. Where the soil is a little better, and the de-
population therefore less complete, a few oats and turnips
are cultivated round the farm-houses ; and, in addition
to the sheep, we find a few horned cattle. These cattle,
well known under the name of West Highlanders, are
just the old race of the country, which, through care and
attention, have acquired a fulness of flesh and an un-
common aptitude for fattening. The cattle-stealers of
Waverley would now scarcely recognise these animals as
the progeny of the small beasts they used to drive be-
fore them on returning from their marauding excursions
— hundreds of which they used to hide in their caves.
One will now weigh as much as five or six of former days.

It was Archibald, Duke of Argyll, who, about the
middle of the last century, began to improve this breed,
which has now reached its climax. As shaggy as a bear,
and of a black or brown colour, they have still, at first
sight, a wild look, quite in keeping with the locality
from whence they come. But their leisurely gait and
quiet eye soon show that they also have lost their former
wildness, and that they have little in common with their
fierce brethren of Andalusia, trained for the fight. No

THE HIGHLANDS. 331

change has been made in their general mode of life.
Like the sheep, they never enter a shed, but live, night
and day, summer and winter, in the open air, and ob-
tain their only food upon the mountains, where the hand
of man has never scattered a seed.

The British, as a nation, are rough -mannered. They do
things harshly, and often take the wrong way of doing
them when really their ultimate object is right. The
heirs of the large Scotch fiefs evidently went too far in
employing force to reduce their vassals. It would have
been better had they trusted to time — which soon passes
— for the change to have taken place of its own accord.
Even although constraint had been necessary, it was
scarcely advisable to have exercised it towards a people
whose devotion to them amounted even to fanaticism.
With this exception, the effect of the displacement has
been beneficial, useful, and well ordered, both in an
agricultural and political point of view. This has been
abundantly proved, after fifty years' experience. The
Scotch themselves allow that, if there exists any ground
for regret, it is that the operation has not everywhere
been as complete as in Sutherlandshire. A sufficient
justification for the expulsion of their predecessors ap-
pears in the fact that, in those parts where the High-
landers still remain too numerously congregated, they
are in a state of misery, and the force of circumstances
must no doubt cause them gradually to disappear.

In his entire condemnation of what took place in the
Highlands, M. de Sismondi has fallen into several errors.
He has spoken of Sutherlandshire as a country in the
ordinary state of fertility and civilisation ; and what he
regarded as an abuse of property, has made him forget
the insufficiency of production and the danger of a state
of barbarism. When a soil and climate are not suffi-

332 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

ciently productive conveniently to maintain a human
population, is it not rather to be desired that the people
remove elsewhere \ It matters little whether a portion
of the produce is collected by the proprietor in the shape
of rent, or whether all the production goes to be divided
among those who till the ground : the proportion may
alter, but the real difficulty of the case remains. Sup-
posing the Highlanders had been recognised as proprietors
of their native soil, a change of locality would still, under
the circumstances, have been necessary for the majority.
This first question being disposed of, the second, that
of rent, next comes. ~* Is it advantageous, is it legiti-
mate, that such a country should produce a rent ? I
do not hesitate to answer that it is. Even the worst
lands make no exception to the general rule. All land,
to be really useful to the community, ought to produce
something over and above the expenses of production.
This surplus is for the support of those who do not till
the land ; that is to say, for those who give themselves
up to industrial and commercial pursuits, and to the
arts and sciences. Every country which has no net pro-
duce is condemned to barbarism. Although impelled
altogether by personal interest, the heads of the Scotch
clans have been instrumental in carrying out that great
social law which makes the payment of rent the very
principle of civilisation. Without rent there is no divi-
sion of labour ; no wealth, no comfort, no intellectual
development. Besides, we almost invariably find that
when the net produce is increased, so also is the gross.

* By rent, I mean what is generally understood in France by the term — the
net revenue of the proprietor. Another meaning for it is frequently implied,
especially in the writings of English economists, altogether ideal, invented by
Ricardo, and which has given rise to interminable discussions. I have been careful
to avoid giving it any other than its original meaning throughout this essay. See
the examination of Ricardo's theory in my Cours tf Economic Rurale.

THE HIGHLANDS. 333

The Highlands produce infinitely more than they did a
century ago — not only in respect to rent, but in every-
thing.

An old Highlander, relating in rather an odd way the
misfortunes of his race, observed : — " When I was young,
a Highland gentleman measured his importance by the
number of men he could maintain upon his land ; some
time after that, the question came to be as to the number
of cattle ; but now it is the quantity of sheep he has.
I suppose our children will be inquiring how many rats
and mice an estate can produce." This, of course, is a
joke ; but still it is not fair. It is enough, in reply, to
state, that the population of the Highlands, which was at
most three hundred thousand in 1750, is now six hun-
dred thousand ; and that the profits, as well as the wages
of this population, have increased much more than the
rents, even in the depopulated mountains. But, after all,
these mountain districts do not yield more than Is. per
acre to the proprietors. The tenants make about as
much, and the common shepherds receive about £40
a-year — ten times more, certainly, than their forefathers
ever earned.

It is just the same with the displaced population ;
they were starving in the interior of the country for
want of profitable occupation, but now they are in
prosperous circumstances on the sea-coast, where they
can always find remunerative employment. This people,
once so formidable to their neighbours, have changed
their state of lawlessness for an industrious and steady
life. There has, then, been no falling off in work and
comfort, as M. de Sismondi alleges, but a marked in-
crease in both.

A somewhat similar revolution took place in Eng-
land, according to the evidence of all historical docu-

334 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

ments, beginning with the reign of Henry VII. ; that
is to say, immediately after the Wars of the Koses,
when some degree of order and security was restored.
The feudal system, suitable enough for warlike times,
was at that period found to be incompatible with a state
of peace. No sooner did the English nobility desire to
have fewer armed men and more revenues, than they
acted — at the end of the fifteenth century — exactly as
the Scotch nobility did two hundred years later ; they
reduced, as much as possible, the number of their re-
tainers, and replaced them by sheep. During the whole
of the succeeding century, this systematic depopulation
continued, and especially after the expulsion of the
monastic orders, which produced that multitude of vaga-
bonds who infested the rural districts, and caused the
establishment of the famous poor-rate. It was only
towards the end of Elizabeth's reign that ideas on this
subject began to change; because, owing to the increase
of the industrial and commercial population, it became
necessary to provide more corn for food ; and the English
nobility had not the same excuse as those of the High-
lands at a later period, because the country which they
depopulated was infinitely more susceptible of cultiva-
tion.

Even Walter Scott, the Bard of the Clans, when, leav-
ing fiction, he turned historian, forcibly recognises the
necessity for their dispersion. In his History of Scot-
land he says, " The view which we cast upon the system
of clanship, as it existed in the time of the last genera-
tion, is like looking upon a Highland prospect, enlivened
by the tints of a beautiful summer evening. On such
an occasion, the distant hills, lakes, woods, and preci-
pices, are touched .by the brilliancy of the atmosphere

THE HIGHLANDS. 335

with a glow of beauty which is not properly their own,
and it requires an exertion to recall to our mind the
desolate, barren, and wild character which properly be-
longs to the objects we look upon. For the same reason,
it requires an effort of the understanding to remind us
that the system of society under which the Highland
clans were governed, although having much in it which
awakens both the heart and the fancy, was hostile to
liberty, and to the progress both of religious and moral
improvement, by placing the happiness, and indeed the
whole existence, of tribes at the disposal of individuals
whose power of administration was influenced by no
restraint saving their own pleasure. Like other men,
the heads of the clans were liable to be seduced into the
misuse of unlimited authority. The possession of such
power by a few men made it always possible for them to
erect the standard of civil war in a country otherwise
disposed to peace ; and their own bravery and that of
their retainers only rendered the case more dangerous,
the provocation more easily taken, and their powers of
attack and resistance more bloody and desperate. Even
in peace the power of ravaging the estates of a neigh-
bour, or of the Lowlands, by letting loose upon them
troops of banditti, kennelled like blood-hounds in some
obscure valley till their services were required, was giv-
ing to every petty chieftain the means of spreading
robbery and desolation through the country at pleasure.
With whatever sympathy, therefore, we may regard the
immediate sufferers, with whatever general regret we
may look upon the extinction, by violence, of a state of
society which was so much connected with honour,
fidelity, and the tenets of romantic chivalry, it is im-
possible, in sober sense, to wish that it should have con-

336 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

tinned, or to say that, in political wisdom, the govern-
ment of Great Britain ought to have tolerated its longer
existence." *

Kennelled like blood-hounds. Nothing was ever ex-
pressed more forcibly ; and Walter Scott here treats of
the moral and political side of the question only : he
does not touch at all upon the economy of such a system,
which is not less important.

In France we have nothing resembling these freebooter
tribes of ancient Scotland, and on the score of public
safety we have need of no similar transportation. Still
we may derive instruction from the example of the High-
lands, inasmuch as they should teach us to consider the
condition of some of the rural populations in the most
unproductive parts of our own country. May we not also
have, on some parts of our territory, a population too
dense for the powers of the soil on which they dwell,
and who, even with the most assiduous labour, find
insufficient food while they remain so numerous ? Might
it not be desirable for the general good, as well as for
the unfortunate people themselves, seeing that they form
a part of the great family, to remove a portion, and
employ them more usefully elsewhere \ Would not this
be a double gain, first to the country they leave behind,
and then to that in which they would find employment \
Would they not themselves be benefited by better wages
and greater comfort \ We may be thankful that the
employment of force in such a case could not happen
with us ; it would be the result only of a necessity freely
recognised by the parties interested ; — but may we not
prepare the minds of the people beforehand for such
an event \

A clearance once effected, everything becomes easy in

* Tales of a Grandfather, third series, chap. xxvi.

THE HIGHLANDS. 837

the Highlands. The mountains there are quite free from
wood. This nakedness is referred to several causes, espe-
cially to the sea- winds ; but all parts of this immense
surface are not equally exposed to storms : the destruc-
tion of wood is therefore to be attributed, in a great
measure, to the same cause which has so completely
stripped French Africa, and which is so rapidly destroying
every kind of vegetable earth upon our own mountains ;
namely, the unrestricted grazing of the flocks. As soon
as the population left, care was taken to apportion to
pasture and forest each their separate ground. Since the
Scotch chieftains have become large proprietors, they
have undertaken immense plantations. The late Duke
of Atholl planted fifteen thousand acres with larch.
This splendid forest, now of sixty years' growth, has
sprung up with astonishing vigour, covering with its
dark mantle the mountains north of the Tay around
Dunkeld, and is not among the least of the beauties of
that grand scenery. It is doubtful if Baden and the
Black Forest are to be compared with it. I am not sure
that the forest planted by man does not bear away the
palm from the natural forest, the larch against the fir. If
woods are out of place in the low country, where the land
is fit for producing corn, meat, or wine, they are undoubt-
edly in their proper place upon steep heights, where no-
thing else will grow. Besides their own peculiar value,
they protect the valleys from the violence of storms, regu-
late the fall of rains, and, what is not to be overlooked,
add to the grandeur of the scenery. The foaming falls
of Tay are ten times more beautiful for being clothed
with this majestic foliage.

Finally, and this perhaps is the most curious feature
in that skilful turning to account of wilderness, there is
the extraordinary profit derived from its game. Ptar-

338 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

migan, blackcock, all kinds of waterfowl, and especially
grouse, breed upon these moors in great plenty : fallow
and red deer have also been artificially propagated upon
them. Fashion has given great value to these sports.
A hill stocked with game lets for £50 for the season.
Shooting-lodges, built in the most retired spots, are let,
including the right of shooting over the adjacent hills, at
£500. What is called a forest — that is to say, several
thousands of acres, not exactly planted with trees, but
reserved for deer to the exclusion of all kinds of cattle —
brings an extravagant rent. The large Scotch proprietors,
following the example of William the Conqueror, have laid
out many of these forests upon their estates. Gentlemen
go there at great expense to enjoy the sport of shooting
the fleet monarchs of these wilds in their precipitous
retreats— expeditions which are all the more attractive
from the fatigue imposed and some little danger that
attends them, and which revive in these children of the
North the wild instincts of their forefathers.

Nothing is more fashionable than Highland sports.
The pencil of Landseer, the favourite delineator of British
sport, has described under every form its most stirring
incidents ; and that bustle which, for two or three months
in the year, awakens in the slumbering echoes of the
rocks something like the gathering of the clans, results
in handsome incomes to the proprietors.

Public opinion, which, after much hesitation, at last
approved of the expulsion of the Highlanders, has for
a long time sanctioned the Scotch deer-forests as the
valuable remains of a former state of things now properly
abolished. People, however, are beginning to murmur
against these last vestiges of ancient feudalism, contend-
ing that the deer are too few in number profitably to
occupy the vast tracts set apart for them, and that it would

THE HIGHLANDS. 339

be better to use them for feeding sheep. I can understand
such an argument when the question concerns England,
where certain wealthy proprietors still persist in keeping
waste for their shootings large tracts of land in the middle
of populous districts, that might otherwise bear crops ;
such, for example, is Cannock Chase in Staffordshire,
which contains nearly fifteen thousand acres ; but in the
Highlands of Scotland I can scarcely believe that the loss
is very great. A few thousands of sheep more or less
would be no great addition to the national food ; and then,
again, the last remains of savage nature in Great Britain
would be gone. Nothing but sheep is rather monotonous ;
nor are we called upon to give way to a mania. To rob
country life of all its poetry, is going rather too far even
in the interests of farming ; and should we not hesitate
before destroying the greatest charm which entices the
wealthy out of the towns \

The Highland fishings are no less famous than the
shooting grounds. In a country abounding everywhere
with streams, fish naturally are plentiful ; the salmon
especially has given rise to a very large trade. Shortly
after the pacification of Scotland, it was a fortune to any
one who possessed a fall upon a river. Simond mentions
a fishing on the Tay which before 1800 was rented at five
guineas a -year, and in 1810 was let for £2000. " It is
not because the fish are more plentiful," he says, " but
there is more attention paid to catching them, and there
are more consumers." So much has been done in this
way, that salmon and trout are not found in such quan-
tities as formerly. Of late, however, a new art — artificial
fish-breeding — gives fresh hopes. The present Duke of
Atholl is one of those who devote great attention to the
means for re-stocking the lakes and rivers, and numerous
experiments prove the success of the measures employed.

340 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

Everything promises that this valuable resource of the
Highlands will be preserved, and probably increased, by
human art. This is man's proper occupation in such a
country ; with pastures and forests, it is the only prac-
ticable and profitable kind of culture.

That perfect security which the Highlands now enjoy
—that dead silence of a land without inhabitants — the
rocks, crags, waterfalls, and heather, with their romantic
and poetical associations — all combine, despite the dulness
of the climate, to give a peculiar charm to a residence
among these mountains. Comfortable abodes have taken
the place of the huts of the clans. Not only have the
old chieftains built themselves castles upon the ruins of
the cottages, but wealthy Englishmen have purchased
large tracts of territory, and removed their residences
thither. There is now scarcely a desirable situation which
is not occupied by a modern mansion. The average cost
of land is about 30s. per acre, which gives a large extent
for little money. The houses stand many miles apart,
and the lands belonging to them are occupied solely by
sheep and grouse. Notwithstanding the bare and deserted
appearance of many of these houses, their interiors present
every comfort, which is always an agreeable contrast.

Capital roads, and steamboats on the lakes, give easy
access to the most remote places. The general aspect of
the country is that of a vast park of many millions of
acres, where the greatest of landscape-gardeners has end-
lessly multiplied the most sublime effects. Thousands of
tourists wander over the country during the fine season,—
if, to be sure, the summer of that country deserves the
name ; and this is another source of gain not less pro-
fitable than the others, which the " canny " Scotch take
good care to profit by.

The finest of the noble residences is Taymouth Castle,

THE HIGHLANDS. 341

belonging to Lord Breadalbane, situated at the point
where the river Tay flows out of the loch of the same
name in Perthshire. Lord Breadalbane is a descend-
ant of the chiefs of the clan Campbell, one of the most
powerful in the Highlands. His domains extend one hun-
dred English miles, or forty leagues, in length, and reach
nearly from sea to sea. The same means of clearance
were employed here as elsewhere, and the clan, properly
speaking, no longer exists ; and in place of the old
mansion a regular palace has been built, the splendour
of which astonished even the Queen when she paid a
visit to Lord Breadalbane. The finely timbered park,
through which the bounding waters of the young Tay flow,
well stocked with hares, partridges, and pheasants, and
studded with plots of flowers, combines with the natural
beauties of these wild glens those charms which the most ex-
quisite art alone can give, incompatible as they may seem.
It must have required a considerable sum of money thus
to have conquered the soil and climate. This the pastur-
ages have supplied, for they are inhabited only by sheep.
I arrived at Taymouth upon a long summer evening by
the left shore of Loch Tay, which cannot be less than six
leagues in length. Several farms appeared here and there
on the banks of this little sea, with their fields of turnips
and oats ; but on the mountains themselves no trace of man
or house was to be seen. Black-faced sheep were grazing
on the hill-sides without any one to look after them, and
as we passed they gazed at us with their little frightened
black faces ; West Highland cows, whose shadows were
thrown upon the rocks with the last rays of the sun,
filled the air with their bellowings at our approach ; and
just as we reached Kenmore Bridge, we saw under the
lofty larches, planted by the father of the present Mar-
quess, some stags, under cover of evening, coming down to

342 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

drink in the loch. These peaceful pictures are far pre-
ferable to the scenes of blood described by Sir "Walter
Scott in his Fair Maid of Perth, as having taken place on
this very spot.

The Shetlands, Hebrides, and other islands which lie
scattered along the Highland coasts, have not been visited
by civilisation to the same extent ; but regular steam
communication has now been established with them, and
in a few years we may expect to see similar proceedings
effect the same results. ' The island of Lewis, the largest
of the Hebrides, containing about three hundred and fifty
thousand acres, has been purchased by an enterprising
Englishman — Sir James Matheson — who has commenced
a series of improvements there, the starting-point of which
is the emigration, more or less voluntary, of a large por-
tion of the inhabitants.

343

CHAPTER XXIII.

IRELAND.

THE agricultural history of Ireland, until within the last
few years at least, is as lamentable as those of England
and Scotland are brilliant. What was to be the ultimate
fate of this unfortunate island was long an unanswered
question ; now, however, the problem begins to be eluci-
dated, but at what a cost !

Ireland is not wanting in natural resources. Even the
English admit that Ireland, in point of soil, is superior
to England. The conformation of the country is pecu-
liar ; mountains range along nearly the whole extent of
its coasts, the interior being a vast plain, and for the
most part highly fertile. Ireland contains eight millions
of hectares/'" Bocks, lakes, and bogs occupy about two
millions of these, and two millions more are indifferent
land. The remainder — that is to say, about half the
country — is rich land, with calcareous subsoil. What
better could be conceived? "It is the richest soil I ever
saw," says Arthur Young, speaking of counties Limerick
and Tipperary ; " and such as is applicable to every pur-

* The acreage of Ireland is reckoned at 19,944,209, exclusive of lakes, divided
as follows : —

Leiuster, ..... 4,749,584 acres.

Munster, 5,835,220 „

Ulster, . . 5,224,274 „

Connaught, ..... 4,135,131 „ — J. D. .

344 RUEAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

pose you can wish." The climate being damper and
milder than in England, extremes of heat and cold are
there almost unknown, at least as regards three-fourths
of the island. Herbaceous vegetation is luxuriant, and
it is not without reason that the clover or shamrock has
been adopted as the heraldic emblem of the Emerald Isle,
as it is called. The south-west coast enjoys a perpetual
spring, owing to the ocean-currents which set in from the
tropics. Myrtles there grow in the open air, and the
arbutus or strawberry tree is one of the commonest of
shrubs.

No country has more natural facilities for water-car-
riage, interior as well as exterior. Immense inland lakes
— as Lough Neagh, with an area of one hundred thou-
sand acres ; Lough Corrib, of fifty thousand, and others
profusely scattered over the country, — afford unexampled
means for transport. The Shannon, the finest river in the
British Isles — half river, half lake — .extends nearly across
the country from east to west, for a distance of two hun-
dred miles, and possesses this great advantage, that,
saving a few obstacles which might easily be removed,
it is navigable to its source. Other rivers, equally navi-
gable, flow in all directions from different lakes, and form
branches of a vast system, which short canals might easily
complete. The coast also is everywhere indented with bays
and harbours, one of which — Cork — could shelter all the
fleets of Europe. The nature of the country is no less
favourable to road communication. Ordinary roads and
railways are capable of being constructed with less labour
and at less expense than in Great Britain.

Notwithstanding these natural advantages, the misery
of the Irish has long been proverbial. Four large cities
—Dublin, containing 250,000 inhabitants, Cork 100,000,
Belfast 80,000, and Limerick 60,000, and situated in

* IRELAND. 345

the centre, as it were, of the four faces of the island — con-
stitute the capitals. Dublin especially may justly be
considered as one of the finest cities of Europe ; its mag-
nificence astonishes a stranger ; but the rest of the country
contains few large towns, and the fields exhibit a heart-
rending poverty, which extends to the suburbs of the large
cities. Those harbours, lakes, and rivers, which might
carry life into every part of the country, are almost desti-
tute of trade. The gross agricultural production, at least
previously to 1847, amounted scarcely to one-half that
of England upon an equal surface, and the state of the
rural population was even worse than could be charged
to this difference in. production. Let us pause, in the
first place, at this period of her history, which is more
important here than for the rest of the United Kingdom.
Let us ascertain what was the condition at that time
both of her agriculture and her rural population, and
what were the causes producing it ; after that, I shall
proceed to notice what has occurred since.

Of the four large provinces which once formed separate
kingdoms, Leinster is the richest in point of agriculture, and
in this division Dublin is situated • next comes about one-
half of Ulster, in which is Belfast ; then Munster, where
we find Cork and Limerick ; and lastly Connaught, with
part of Ulster, one of the poorest and most barren tracts
of country in the world. In 1847, the relative produc-
tiveness of county Meath in Leinster, and county Mayo
in Connaught, was as ten to one ; in the former, rents
were 30s. per acre, which is equal to the best of the
English counties; and in the latter the rate was 3s. In
Ulster, counties Armagh, Down, and Antrim, surround-
ing Belfast, and in Munster, counties Limerick and
Tipperary, the most fertile in Ireland, rival Leinster in
productiveness ; but even in the richest districts the

346 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

poverty of the cultivator was reacting upon the land.
The absence of capital was apparent almost everywhere.
In favoured parts, the natural richness of the soil, indeed,
made up for what was otherwise lacking ; but where this
resource failed, the misery was frightful.

Of the two capitals which contribute to rural produc-
tion, the principal one — sunk capital, that which con-
sists of all kinds of works, which in process of time
accumulate upon, and are incorporated with, the soil,
while bringing it into a proper state of productiveness,
including buildings, fences, roads, improvers, drainage, and
appropriations to special crops — was almost altogether
wanting. Gentlemen's parks, to be sure, were kept up with
a care equal to those in England ; but whereas in the
latter country it was often impossible to distinguish the
farm from the park, a most distressing contrast showed
itself in Ireland as soon as the bounds of the reserved
enclosure were passed. No more ditches for carrying off
the water ; no trees, hedges, and well-kept fences, nor trim
and well-defined roads ; everywhere bare and neglected
land — no further labour bestowed upon it than was
absolutely necessary ; no longer those pretty English
farm-houses covered with clematis and honeysuckle, with
their offices always convenient, and often ornamental,—
but instead, mud cabins built by the tenant himself, and
never repaired by the landlord.

The second, or working capital, consisting of cattle,
implements, seeds, and harvests stored, were not so
entirely wanting, because it is less possible to do without
them. The quantity of large cattle was not so deficient,
owing to the immense facilities for feeding them afforded
by the general and spontaneous growth of grass ; but
still the number was much less than might and ought to

IRELAND. 347

have been, and what there were, were for the most part
inferior. Pigs, reared almost always in the house of the
cultivator, gave a tolerable return; but the deficiency
in sheep was very great. Of these the proportion, as
compared to England, was as one to eight, and no know-
ledge as to the means for improving the breeds existed.
As to implements, there was an absence of the most
simple descriptions ; scarcely any ploughs or carts, spades
and panniers supplying the place of all other tilling im-
plements; and this state of matters existing, too, even
next door to the richest country in the world for agri-
cultural machinery ; no sort of advances made to the
farmers — not even sufficient provisions for food, — in con-
sequence of which most of them were obliged to borrow,
upon heavy terms, even their seed and a little flour for
bread, until harvest.

Intellectual capital or agricultural skill had made no
greater progress. The four-year course was scarcely
known, save upon a few farms, which were managed by
Englishmen or Scotchmen. Very few turnips, beans, or
artificial grasses ; even the natural grass-lands, that in-
valuable treasure peculiar to the soil and climate, were
filled with stagnant pools, and covered with weeds.
Owing to the want of the proper means for maintaining
the fertility of the land, wheat and barley were little
cultivated ; all was sacrificed to two crops, destined
chiefly for human food — namely, oats and potatoes, — and
yet both indifferently understood, inasmuch as they were
continuously taken off the same land as long as it con-
tinued to yield anything.

Imagination fails to appreciate the loss which a country
in such a state sustains. To have furnished Ireland with
the capital which she lacked in sheep alone, as compared

348 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

to England, would have required £20,000,000 sterling.
Double that amount at least would have been necessary
for other kinds of cattle, £120,000,000 for draining, and
a like sum for the construction of more comfortable dwell-
ings, fences and country roads, and for the purchase of
the most necessary implements. In all say £300,000,000,
which would still have been only £16 per acre. Certainly
a much larger sum has been absorbed by England,

The advocates for large property exclusively had some
cause for being perplexed when the question was mooted
with reference to Ireland. Large property there ruled
supreme, more so than in England, or even in Scotland.
A few small proprietors existed in the neighbourhood of
large towns, where a little trade and manufactures had
developed a citizen class ; the rest of the island was di-
vided into immense estates of from one thousand to one
hundred thousand acres,"* and the greater the extent the
more dilapidated their condition. The largest remained
in a state of nature, like the famous district of Connemara,
in Connaught, well known by the name of Martin's Estate.
Entails, much more common than in England, prevented
most of these domains from being sold. The primi-
tive law of the land was gavelkind, or equal division
among the male children, until the English imported the
right of primogeniture.

In their turn, those who considered small farming as
the universal panacea were no less perplexed, for if Ire-
land was the land of very large properties, it was also,
par excellence, the country of very small farming. There
were no fewer than 300,000 farms below five acres,
250,000 from five to fifteen, 80,000 from fifteen to thirty,

* The Irish acre is equal to 65 ares 55 centiares— rather more than 1^ im-
perial acres.

IRELAND. 349

and 50,000 only above thirty acres. The law of succes-
sion favoured this division, by causing the partition of
the leases among the children, and this was not, as in
England, a dead letter.

This combination of large property and small farming,
which in different parts of England and Scotland has
had such good effects, produced a consequence quite the
reverse in Ireland. Proprietors and cultivators seemed
determined upon ruining themselves by doing all in their
power to destroy the instrument of their common wealth
—the soil. Instead of that salutary custom adopted by
the English proprietors of residing upon their properties,
the Irish landlords were always absent, and drew their
whole rents for expenditure elsewhere. They let their
lands when they could for long periods to English specu-
lators, who were represented by agents, called middlemen.
Improvident and spendthrift as all are who get money
without knowing how — having, besides, only uncertain
and precarious incomes, because they neglected to make
seasonable advances — these landlords mostly all lived
beyond their resources, consequently their debts in the
end increased to such an extent that the bulk of their
fortune was swept away.

The middlemen in their turn, intent upon increasing
their profits without expending a shilling, having no inte-
rest, direct or personal, in the farming properly so called,
sub-let the land to an unlimited extent. The rural popu-
lation having multiplied to excess, numbering about
twenty-five to one hundred acres, whilst it is sixteen in
France, twelve in England, and five in the Lowlands of
Scotland, only too readily responded to the call, and the
consequence was an unrestrained competition among the
cultivators for possession of the land. As none of them

350 KURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

possessed more capital than his neighbour, no one had a
preference in this competition. Every father of a family
desired to become a tenant or locator upon a few patches
of land, which he might work with the assistance of his
family. Thus the cottier system, as it is called, grew up —
a system not bad in itself, unless carried to extreme ; for,
besides that it admits of dispensing with capital, when
that is not forthcoming, by substituting labour in its
stead, it has this advantage, that it does away with the
paid servant — that is to say, that class of men who live
entirely upon the demand for labour, and are subjected
to its vicissitudes. In 1847, Ireland, strictly speaking,
contained very few persons receiving wages ; those who
would otherwise have been day-labourers were small
farmers. But there must be a limit to everything, and
the division of allotments came to an end, owing to the
increasing number of competitors. The small tenants had
commenced by taking farms upon which a family could
barely exist after paying their rent. These farms then
underwent a first division, then a second and a third,
until at last it came to those 600,000 rentings below
fifteen acres — that is to say, to a point where the culti-
vator could obtain only just sufficient to keep him in life,
where the least failure of the crop began by render-
ing payment of rent impossible, and ended in being a
sentence of death for the tenant himself.

Owing to the superior quality of the soil and abun-
dance of hands, the gross produce, although equal to
only half of the English, was still pretty considerable,
and, reduced to French value, might be estimated at
800,000,000 francs, or 100 francs per hectare, (=32s.
per acre), as in France, divided as follows :—

IRELAND. 351

Wheat, . . . 60,000,000 of francs.

Barley, . . . 30,000,000 „

Oats, . . . 150,000,000 „

Potatoes, . . . 550,000,000 „

Flax and Gardens, . 50,000,000 „

540,000,000 „
Animal production, . 260,000,000* „

800,000,000 of francs.

Thus the animal productions were, as in France, equal
to half the value of the vegetable — sure indication of an
exhausting culture ; whilst both in England and Scotland
the former are superior to the latter, and the inclination
is every day further in the same direction — sign of an
ameliorating husbandry. This return of 100 francs per
hectare may be thus divided : —

. Proprietor's rent, 32 francs per hectare, 10s. Od. per acre.

Middleman's profit, 8 „ „ 2s. 8d. „

Taxes, 5 „ „ Is. 8d. „

Incidental expenses, 5 „ „ Is. 8d. „

Wages, . . 50 „ „ 16s. Od. „

100 „ „ 32s. Od. „

Distributed over the whole population of the island,
the total value of agricultural production gave 100 francs
per head, whilst the same dividend amounted to 140
francs for France, and for England and Scotland 200.
Wages in the same way averaged 80 francs per head for
the labouring rural population, whilst in France it is
125 francs, in England 160, and Scotland 200.

The result of these figures shows the inadequate pro-
duction, as compared to the whole population, and parti-
cularly to the rural portion. In France, our whole popu-
lation does not exceed twenty-six per hundred acres,

Say 10s. or 10s. 6d. per acre. In France, the average of the same production
(oxen, sheep, horses, and pigs) is 8s. 6d., and in England upwards of 30s.

352 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

but in Ireland it amounts to forty ; and our rural popu-
lation, upon an equal surface, is equivalent to only two-
thirds of the rural population of Ireland. In England
the whole population was more numerous, but then the
agricultural production was double, and the rural popu-
lation amouDted to only half that of Ireland. In Scot-
land the proportions were still more favourable.

We may notice, besides, as in favour of our country,
that the rural population of France is not entirely depen-
dent upon wages ; they partake of a considerable portion
of the rent, as proprietors of part of the soil — likewise a
portion of the profit, since they include farmers and
metayers; whilst in Ireland the peasantry not being pro-
prietors, and the farmers-general, or middlemen, belong-
ing to the urban population, the rural population was
living entirely upon that which would otherwise have
been wages. I mean here by wages all that was given
up to the small tenantry as the return for their labour,
and which, though not actually paid them in the shape
of wages, was nevertheless the real earning, since return
upon capital and agricultural skill went for nothing.

It has often been alleged that rents in Ireland were
raised to an undue extent. No doubt there is some truth
in the accusation, but it is not the rate in itself which
deserves it. We see, in fact, that the rent reached in Ire-
land, as in France, in England, and even in Scotland, to
only one-third of the gross production, besides being in
many cases merely nominal ; the actual amount collected
fell to one -fourth or one -fifth of the produce, and pro-
bably even lower. In a well-constituted state, such a
rent would scarcely have sufficed to feed the non- rural
population ; under a better system, its tendency would
have been to rise rather than to fall.

The wretched condition of the cultivators cannot be

IRELAND. 353

attributed to the small amount of wages as distributed
over the whole, for not only did this item amount in
principle to half the gross produce, while in England
and Scotland it is only a fourth, but it was frequently
higher owing to the non-payment of the rent. Nowhere,
perhaps, was the share of wages greater ; whereas, com-
pared to the rent, it should have been less rather than
more.

Finally, neither can we charge the blame to that por-
tion widen represents profit, for. this item amounted to
only one-twelfth of the gross produce, whereas in Scot-
land it reaches a fourth ; and, under a good system of
rural economy, it would have been far from adequate.

The real defect as regards the rent was the way in
which it was spent. In place of helping to make capital
on the spot, it was remitted to England or the Continent,
and there lost as far as any benefit to Ireland was con-
cerned.""" This constant drain of rent was shown in the
continual export of agricultural produce. About half the
wheat crop, a fourth of the oats, the greater portion of the
animal produce — upon the whole, about one-third of the
total rural production — was yearly transmitted from Ire-
land to England, and went to pay either rent, or, what came
to the same thing, interest upon mortgages in the hands
principally of English capitalists. A country is enriched
through its exports when it receives something in ex-
change. This is the case with Scotland ; but when, as
in Ireland, there is a constant export, and no return, it
is ruinous. That island producing just the necessary

* Many English economists, Mr M'Culloch in particular, whose authority in
these matters is great, have disputed the evil influence generally attributed to the
non-residence of proprietors. The reasons advanced in favour of this opinion are
purely theoretical. They would merit a careful examination if this were a didactic
exposition of the principles of the science ; but, as far as regards Ireland at least,
the question appears to me to be settled by the facts.

Z

354 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

amount of food for its inhabitants, whatever went out of
it created a void which was not filled up by any return.

Part of the taxes followed the same course. Direct
taxation, indeed, was not in itself heavier than the rent,
since it amounted to only 5 francs per hectare, whilst
in England it was 25. But in England this was spent
upon the spot ; whereas in Ireland, the greater part
going to pay the Anglican clergy, who were almost as
great absentees as the landed proprietors, constituted, like
the rent, a certain yearly loss. What remained behind
but ill performed the part due from taxation in every
well-governed country — namely, the increase of national
capital in roads, bridges, canals, public buildings, and
maintenance of the public peace.

The same disadvantage did not result from the middle-
man's profit, as that remained in the country, but it
scarcely ever returned to farming.

These are certainly powerful causes of impoverishment.
Still they were not sufficient to account for that state of
misery into which the greater part of Ireland had fallen,
apart from the mad multiplication of the rural popula-
tion : in this lay the root of the evil. Even with the
regular export of rent and a portion of the taxes, and in
the absence of capital, public as well as private, the rural
population would have been able to live, had they been,
as in England, less numerous by half. The enormous
number of starving beggars had upset all the principles
of production. At one time Ireland was not nearly so
populous : in 1750 the population was two millions; and
in 1800, four millions, instead of the eight millions of
1846. The whole island formed then but one immense
pasture- country, for which by nature it is best fitted, and
which is the most profitable account to which it can be
turned. When this superabundant population arose, the

IRELAND. 355

potato crop, at once the cause and effect of the excess,
was proportionately extended, and absorbed the whole
attention, labour, and manure of the country. Of all
known crops, the potato furnishes, particularly in Ire-
land, the largest quantity of human food upon a given
surface. This renders it one of the most valuable gifts
of Providence, but only on condition that it is not too
greatly extended, as then it becomes a scourge, for it
exhausts without renewing the means of production.

Experience has too well proved the danger of depending
upon one product as food for a whole nation. Besides,
the potato, by itself, constitutes a gross food, and is not
nearly so nourishing as an equal weight and bulk of
cereals and leguminous food — a sufficient reason for not
making it the staple article of human consumption. It
is liable also to casualties different from those which
befall the grain crops, and this makes it an inestimable
complement to these crops, but should prevent it being
relied upon as the sole article of food. The true place of
the potato, in a well-ordered rural economy, is as a plen-
tiful provision for cattle, and a supplement to that of
man, so that, in the event of other crops failing, this
resource might supply the deficiency. But Ireland was
not in a position to choose the best ; necessity called, and
required to be obeyed. The potato already occupied a
third of the arable land, and threatened to extend further ;
it alone formed three-fourths of the food of the peasantry,
the other fourth consisting also of an inferior food —
namely, oats.

So long as these two productions were obtainable in
any quantity, the population of small tenantry, although
badly off, yet managed to exist, and unfortunately multi-
plied. When the crop happened to fail, or only to de-
crease, scarcity decimated their numbers ; and when, on

356 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

these occasions, they were unable to pay their rent, the
landlord ordered them to be ejected, which was not very
easily done. Being only tenants at will, nothing remained
for it but an armed resistance. The agent charged to
levy the rent, and the police who came to enforce the
ejectment, were received with a discharge of fire-arms ;
and when such outrages were followed up by indictments,
witnesses could not be found to support the accusations,
nor juries to find the prisoners guilty. The dispossessed
tenants, having no means of subsistence, became thieves,
their wives and children turned beggars, and, as there
was no poor's tax — a dangerous remedy no doubt, but
sometimes necessary — there was no limit to the exten-
sion of this misery and crime. The most fertile districts
suffered severely from these troubles ; the evil reached
it^s climax in the worst parts of the island, namely, the
west.

The population of Connaught had reached nearly two
for every five acres, or equal to our rich Normandy
departments ; and the nature of the soil afforded but
an insufficient resource for the sustenance of such a
population, half the land, or two out of four millions of
acres, being incapable of cultivation. The neighbouring
counties of Donegal and Kerry were still worse off ; one-
third only of their area consisted of arable land, the rest
being either mountains or lakes. Suppose the population
of the departments of La Manche, Somme, or Calvados,
transported to the Higher or Lower Alps, and consider
what would be the consequence ! These counties having
neither busy manufactures nor populous towns, the entire
population lived by agriculture — if that could be called
agriculture which was but the short-sighted and hungry
exhaustion of the productive powers of the soil. Is it
surprising that it became impossible to collect even the

IRELAND. 357

small rent of 5s. per acre, or that famine in all its horrors
should, as it were, have taken up its abode there 1

Among the expedients set on foot for making as much
out of the land as was possible without capital, two ap-
parently offered great advantages to the landlord, but
were ultimately found to be as ruinous for him as for the
tenant : these were, partnership-tenure, and the con-acre
system.

Partnership-tenure — or, as it was also called, rundale
or ?*unrig, a word apparently of Scandinavian origin —
consisted in letting a piece of land of a given extent (for
example, one hundred, two hundred, or five hundred
acres) to a village, the inhabitants of which constituted
the partners in the concern. That portion which they
could not cultivate was common to all, the remainder
being divided annually among the different families ;
and each of these lots might again be divided among the
several members of a family, if they thought right to do
so. After the crop was gathered, the whole land was
again common property, and a new partition was made
for the following year. In the most backward districts
of France we have a good many villages somewhat upon
the same principle, only with this difference, that, in place
of farming the property, the community owns it : but,
notwithstanding this advantage, the right in common
everywhere produces similar results — namely, the im-
poverishment both of the land and of the people who
cultivate it ; and this poverty becomes greater and greater
as the population increases. We have seen a hundred
acres let in this way to one hundred co-tenants, who
lived in the greatest misery, and never succeeded in
paying any rent. This system was to be found most
prevalent in the least fertile districts, and such villages
as adopted it possessed scarcely any cattle, while the

358 RUKAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

people were almost totally ignorant of the most simple
methods of farming.

The con-acre system was scarcely any better. When,
from some cause or other, a field had accumulated a suf-
ficient amount of fertility, it was let in that state to a
tenant for a single crop at an exorbitant price, usually
payable in days' work. This person planted it with
potatoes, and took as much out of it as he could with
one crop. "Near Limerick, the ordinary rent of fields
upon the con-acre system was £30 per acre ; and at this
rate a half or even smaller parts of an acre were some-
times let. " Competition for the land, especially when
possessed of some fertility/' remarked a witness upon the
inquiry of 1833, "is so great in some parts of Ireland, -
that hardly any rent asked is not immediately promised."
In Ireland, however, more than anywhere else, to promise
and to fulfil are two different things. But the two parties
contracting did not look at the matter so closely ; each in
the mean time got what he wanted — the one, possession
of the land ; the other, the prospect of an unreasonable
rent. When accounts came to be settled between them,
they arranged as best they might.

Paring and burning, which sacrifices future prospects
for the sake of the present, was much practised ; and this
accounts for the large extent of uncultivated, though cul-
tivable, land which is found in a country where arable
land was the object of such spirited competition. Years,
in fact, of dead fallow were necessary in order to repair
the injury inflicted by one or two bad crops upon a soil
treated in this way, unless done as the starting-point of
a skilful and progressive system of farming, which never
happened in Ireland.

359

CHAPTER XXIV.

STATE OF WARFARE.

How came such an immense difference to exist be-
tween two islands close together, and to all appearance
subject to the same laws : one, and that the least fer-
tile of the two, paying rents of 25s. per acre, heavy
taxes, a considerable profit and high wages, maintain-
ing also a larger population in a greater degree of
comfort ; while the other, more fertile, with a smaller
population, paid lower rents, profits and taxes lower
still, and inadequate wages ? The cause of so strange
an anomaly is comprised in one word — the oppression of
Ireland. Having witnessed both in England and in
Scotland the beneficial effects of liberty, we now see in
Ireland the results of a contrary state. The two sides
of the same picture will thus have been presented to
our view.

To escape this responsibility, the English contend that
the Irish character has peculiar failings, which under
any circumstances would have arrested their rise as a
nation. I am willing to believe that the Celtic race has
not the same degree of energy as the Anglo-Saxon, but the
difference does not appear to me sufficient to account for
everything. More than one instance, both in ancient
and modern history, proves that the Irish possess emi-
nent qualities. If Ireland, in spite of its fearful disor-

360 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

ganisation, has produced energetic men, and great spirits of
all kinds, how much more would this have been the case
if the national strength had not been violently repressed !
That which, among an oppressed people, has not attained
beyond a transitory light, would, in a freer atmosphere,
have become a bright and lasting flame.

The English attribute an enervating influence to the
Catholic religion. This assertion may also be in some
respects well founded ; for it is true that in general
the Protestant nations of modern Europe exhibit a
steadier and more decided character than the Catholic ;
but it has not always been so, and even at the present
day it is not an absolute rule. Spain and Italy, in arrear
at the present day, preceded Holland, England, and Ger-
many, in civilisation; and I do not see that Catholic
Belgium, and to a certain extent France herself, are much
inferior to most Protestant countries.

A patent and undeniable fact, besides, replies to these
imputations. For some years past a large emigration of
Irish has been going on to America. • As soon as they
put foot upon that new soil, where they are no longer
subject to the restraint of England, but free to exercise
their characteristic activity, these demoralised, degraded,
and improvident beings become changed, and take their
position among the most industrious citizens of the United
States. Even their fanaticism, about which so much is
said, disappears when their religion is no longer perse-
cuted. When permitted to enjoy religious liberty, they
become tolerant of others, and voluntarily free themselves
from that exclusive domination of their clergy which they
so eagerly embrace upon their native soil. All the pre-
judices in the world cannot countervail this incontestible
fact, w^hich is confirmed and strengthened every day ;
for it is not a matter relating to a few individuals only,

STATE OF WARFARE. 361

but to an entire people flying from Europe, where they
slave and suffer, to rise to an independent and proud
condition on the other side of the Atlantic.

No doubt — at least so it appears to me — had Ireland
been cast in a more distant part of the ocean, in place of so
near to her powerful sister, her career would have been
a brilliant one ; or as now situated, if, instead of being
much the smaller island, she had been the larger of the
two, she would have ultimately absorbed the other, and
given her stamp to British civilisation. Neither the
national character nor the Catholic faith would have
been material obstacles to this so different a destiny.
Her whole misfortune consists in this, that, being very
near, she is the more feeble of the two, and also that
she is not near enough nor weak enough to allow herself
to be absorbed without resistance, — the worst of all con-
ditions for a people. Scotland also resisted assimilation
with England. But besides an affinity of race and creed
there, which was not the case with Ireland, the proximity
of the two countries and disproportion in population
forced her in time to yield. Ireland remains conquered
and refractory.

As a consequence of their unbending temperament,
the English will not put up with anything that does not
belong to themselves ; their disposition is exclusive ;
they have, moreover, an inveterate hatred of the Papacy,
which they look upon as irreconcilable with liberty. In
their eyes, Ireland was not only a formidable neighbour
and natural enemy ; it was odious as a nation, and anti-
pathetic to all their ideas. Unable to subdue it, England
sought to crush it.

This was England's grand excuse. It would no doubt
have been far better for both countries had England
from the first adopted a more humane policy towards

362 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

the sister isle, as she sometimes calls it ; but after all, in
attempting to incorporate this neighbouring country,
England only followed the same course that has been
pursued by other nations. Had the English entertained
a true fraternal feeling for the Irish, it would certainly
have been a fine example, though a solitary one, in times
when nations mutually sought each other's destruction.
Have we not seen in our own country, as we]l as else-
where, Catholics and Protestants unmercifully massacring
each other I Throughout history do we not find fire and
sword sweeping over whole kingdoms, in order to extin-
guish the smallest germ of a distinct nationality, and to
mould their ruins into vast empires ? Have any of the
great nations (unites nationales) been formed otherwise 1
Does not that perpetual misunderstanding still exist,
which causes contests between men and classes and
nations ; and is not the fact of being born upon opposite
sides of a river sufficient excuse for people tearing each
other to pieces \ Looking at it in this way, England's
fault was in not having done enough, since the assimilation
was not complete. Be this as it may, the state of open
warfare which for ages was the normal condition of
Ireland in its relations with England, only too well
accounts for the contrast we are about to notice in the
rural economy of the two islands.

The first result is the state of property. Most of the
Irish properties were originally confiscations, from whence
arose that evil which, although not confined to Ireland,
being found to a certain extent everywhere, took a wider
extension there, namely absenteeism.

The English invaders always looked upon Ireland as a
foreign and hostile country, which was good to possess,
but where they would rather not establish themselves.
As early as the thirteenth century, this feeling was ap-

STATE OF WARFARE. 363

parent among the Norman barons, who would not reside
upon their Irish grants. Their adopted country was Eng-
land, and there they leagued themselves around their chief
for mutual protection. After them, every renewed attempt
of England to subdue Ireland was followed by a new
importation of English and Scotch proprietors, who came
always with the same object — namely, to spoil the inhabi-
tants, and to make as much out of the land as possible,
but not to take up their abode upon it. During Eliza-
beth's reign, six hundred thousand acres were thus dis-
tributed ; under James I., six entire counties were con-
fiscated and partitioned out : one was altogether made
over to the corporations of London, and is still held by
them, whence its name Londonderry. In the reign of
Charles I., all Connaught was declared the property of
the Crown. Under Cromwell the same system of appro-
priation was applied to the other three provinces, and
there was even a proposal to sell all the Irish lands to the
Jews. The finishing -stroke to this work was under
Charles II. and William III. Every government of
England under absolute monarchy — the Tudors and
Stuarts, the Commonwealth, the Kestoration and Consti-
tutional monarchies, all had the same idea with respect
to Ireland — namely, to prevent the Irish holding land
in their own country.

Almost all property is derived from conquest, but in
time it gradually loses that character. The residence of
the conquerors among the conquered people at length
brings about a mixture of races and conformity of inte-
rests ; but in Ireland, opposition remained as lively as at
first. A new element — religion — had traced one of those
indelible lines of demarcation between the conquerors
and the conquered which keeps up a lasting hatred.
England, after she adopted Protestantism, wished to

364 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

plant it by force in Ireland ; but the more England
persevered, the more determined was Ireland to remain
Catholic. The war of nationalities now took the character
of a religious war — the most unsparing of all, as it gives
to worldly interests and feelings the excuse of a faith.
After unexampled efforts, England at last succeeded in
establishing in Ireland a Protestant community, to the ex-
tent of one-fifth of its population, the remaining four-fifths
being Catholic. The former chiefly resided in the towns,
and the latter in the country. The proprietors belonging
in general to one religion, and the farmers to another, there
could be no bond of connection between the two classes,
but everything to disunite them. Confiscations, which
had made the one masters of the soil, and reduced
the other to the condition of helots, had not been accom-
plished without frightful bloodshed. These sanguinary
recollections, continually revived by legal persecutions,
stirred up animosity to frenzy. Proprietors took good
care not to live upon their lands where they were
exposed to personal violence, and their representatives
— the middlemen — absented themselves for the same
reason. Both from a distance oppressed a people whom
they detested, and they were answered with maledictions,
and often by murders.

Besides its absolute necessity as a means of progress,
rent, in most civilised countries, is justified by the expen-
diture of that capital which, in process of time, is put into
the soil. There are few lands, whether in France or Eng-
land, the actual value of which represents anything else
than this capital. Often even their value is far from re-
presenting the total amount of money they have absorbed.
In Ireland, property had not this justification, which other-
wise might have legitimised its revolutionary origin. Kent
was not employed for the benefit of the land from which

STATE OF WARFARE. 365

it was drawn, and did not represent a return from any
capital, since the proprietor took care to lay out nothing.
It was the produce of brute force, and was, like the rest
of the Irish constitution, like the tithes imposed upon a
Catholic people for the support of a Protestant clergy,
neither more nor less than an excuse for war and op-
pression.

Strict entails, which had here a special object besides
that of aristocratic aggrandisement, helped to aggra-
vate the odious character of the rent. A few properties
had managed to change hands, and, in consequence of these
voluntary mutations, had lost the stigma attaching to their
original tenure ; but the rest traced back their origin
through regular succession to one of those inauspicious
dates, chronicled in the hearts of the Irish as the most
grievous moments of their long sufferings. As another
consequence of this state of warfare, England had stifled
every species of manufacture and commerce in Ireland ;
but she now discovers her mistake, and begins to make
amends, though tardily, and with an inclination still to the
old distrust. In times past she fell into the common mis-
take of thinking that the prosperity of her neighbours
was incompatible with her own, and therefore continued
to smother in Ireland that wealth which gives power.
England's history abounds with violent measures adopted
to this end, and she only too well succeeded. Her desire
was to make Ireland poor, and in this she succeeded. We
have witnessed, both in England and Scotland, how im-
portant to agriculture is the neighbourhood of a growing
industry and commerce ; for besides that it furnishes
markets and capital, it permits, by a fresh demand for
labour, an unlimited increase in the rural population. The
want of this, especially, has been fatal to Ireland. As
there was no other employment for the people, no other

366 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

means of subsistence except the land, upon the land fell
the whole burden of the population ; and although the
island was less populous, upon the whole, than England,
the rural districts were twofold more so, because manu-
factures, which in England engage two-thirds of the
hands, were entirely wanting.

This multiplication of the rural population was en-
couraged by the proprietors, because it increased compe-
tition, brought down wages, and raised the rent of their
lands, — a calculation as false as it was culpable, for the rent
thus extorted ended in becoming delusive. Everywhere
else, and particularly in England, proprietors are obliged
to construct, and keep in repair, the buildings which serve
as dwellings for most of the farmers. In this way
they have an interest, to a certain extent, in not multi-
plying the number beyond a certain point. In Ireland,
as each family built their own cabin, they had, or thought
they had, the opposite interest. The cultivators, in
their turn, prompted to improvidence by their very
indigence, giving themselves little concern about the fate
of their children, who could neither be bettered nor be-
come worse off, became beggars (proletaires) in the full
acceptation of the old Latin word proletarii, which vul-
garly expresses one of the most sad consequences of
human degradation.

There were also two mysterious causes of this unlimited
propagation, both proceeding from the miserable con-
dition of the people. The first is the inexplicable physio-
logical law which ordains, for all living species, that the
means of reproduction increase in proportion to the
chances of destruction. The action of this law may be
observed among the lower animals, and also in the human
race inhabiting unhealthy climates. As the chances of
death increase, births also increase ; and, whether among

STATE OF WARFARE. 367

animals or men, the strongest and best-fed races are not
those which multiply most. Indifferent as to individual
life, nature's first care is to preserve the species.

The second cause was altogether political. Ireland,
under its state of oppression, instinctively felt that it had
no other power to depend upon than numbers, and ''that
it was only in this way it could defend itself. At every
renewal of the grand struggle, England proceeded to re-
gular exterminations, but a few years sufficed to fill up
the gap. Like an army which closes the gap made in its
ranks by cannon, the Irish rapidly repaired the breaches
made among them by wars and famine. Attempts had
often been made to induce them to emigrate, but always
without success. Despoiled of all property in their native
soil, they covered it with their children, as a perpetual
protest against the invasion, and that they might at least
keep possession de facto, awaiting a period of restitution.
Population went on increasing, especially in the moun-
tains of the west, those Asturias of Ireland, which have
always been the last refuge of its nationality.

All this sufficiently shows, without pleading the influ-
ences of race and religion, how it is that the Protestant
party of the provinces of Leinster and Ulster have suffered
less than the rest of the country. In Leinster an English,
and in Ulster a Scotch colony, had established them-
selves : the first around Dublin, which is the seat of the
government ; the other round Belfast, which is but a short
distance from the coast of Scotland. These settlers en-
j oyed all kinds of privileges, while severe laws, rigorously
enforced, interdicted all lucrative employment to the
Catholics. The splendour of Dublin, its dense population,
the military force kept there, the retinue of high-salaried
functionaries, all these making it, as it were, the citadel
of England in the heart of Ireland, had the effect which

368 RURAL ECONOMY OP ENGLAND.

artificial capitals always have — namely, the enrichment
of the immediate neighbourhood at the expense of the
community at large.

As to Belfast, the linen trade, the only manufacture
worthy of the name which existed in Ireland, and which
is an agricultural as well as a manufacturing business,
flourished there without opposition on the part of the
English. The annual export of linens from Belfast was
valued at £4,000,000, and of this £1,200,000 was the
proportion paid for wages. Nothing of the kind is to be
found in other parts of the country. The most fertile
districts, such as Tipperary, were just those where con-
fiscations and devastations had been most rigorously put
in force, without succeeding, however, in driving out the
native race. The Protestants there are still called Crom-
wellians, or followers of Cromwell, as if it were only
yesterday that the frightful incursion of that bloody
tyrant had taken place.

Everybody has heard of the bands of armed ruffians
which have always existed in Ireland. They have been
named, from time to time, according to the sign they
adopted, Whiteboys, Steelboys, Defenders, Levellers,
Thrashers (their weapon being a flail), Carders (as
armed with carding-machines), Rockites (from the pre-
tended Captain Eock), and Molly Maguires (from the
name of a fanciful woman-chief, like the Eebecca of
Wales), &c. These bands signalised themselves wherever
they went by horrible atrocities, the only possible re-
venge for poor Ireland ! Close to the most peaceable
country in the world, where a soldier is never seen, and
where, without a national guard, without an army or
public force of any kind, each individual, under the sole
protection of the law, enjoys perfect security, to the
lasting credit of the nation, was to be found a country

STATE OF WARFARE. 369

profoundly troubled by a constant peasant war. When
murders, fire, and plunder were suspended for a short
time, agitation did not cease ; it continued under other
forms, summing up its grievances and its hopes in that
national cry repeated on all occasions, Ireland for the
Irish !

We must do England the justice to say, that she at
last recoiled before her work. About thirty years ago,
when more correct views in political economy began to
dawn in England, she found out. her mistake, and that a
kinder policy should be adopted, in order to gain the
attachment of the sister isle. The political emancipation
of the Catholics, in 1829, was the first decided step in
the new direction. Since that time, Ireland has taken
part in the government of the United Kingdom. There
is now no chance of a return to the old outrages. This
was a great concession, no doubt ; yet it was not enough.
From 1830 to 1847, every Ministry has looked upon
Ireland as one of its chief difficulties. All honestly
sought a remedy for its state of inveterate misery, the
growth of ages, and which seemed to require ages to
cure. Even O'Connell, speaking for Ireland, pointed out
only one way, and that would have been both impossible
and ineffectual — the Kepeal of the Union. Impossible,
inasmuch as England could never, after having done so
much to incorporate her neighbour with herself, consent
to a separation ; and ineffectual, inasmuch as Eepeal had
nothing to do with the real merits of the question — the
constitution of property and superabundance of popula-
tion. Political expedients could produce effects only in
the long-run ; a more local and immediate remedy was
required.

The Irish themselves were quite aware of this, and
pointed out very clearly what they considered a remedy;

2 A

370 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

but it was not listened to, because, under a form more or
less disguised, it virtually involved a change in property.
It was sometimes called tenant's right, sometimes fixity of
tenure, and appeared to relate only to matters which con-
cerned the landlord and tenant.

Tenant-right especially might have passed as quite
harmless in its effects. It was already practised, not only
in Ireland, in the province of Ulster, but in several
counties of England; and some agriculturists have con-
sidered it as a very equitable and proper concession. The
understanding was this, that the outgoing tenant should
have a right to compensation from the new tenant for
unexhausted improvements, such as manurings, marlings,
limings, extra dressings, &c. So far all was correct, at
least in appearance ; but the difficulty consisted in agree-
ing about the compensation. Nothing is more difficult
to estimate than unexhausted improvements ; in Ireland
especially, where nobody does improve, whether farmer or
proprietor. The real meaning of the term was the right
of the outgoing farmer to demand an indemnity for the
simple fact of his being turned out, which might be called
the right to the lease. The effects of such a principle may
be easily conceived.

Even in a farming point of view, leaving the question
of property alone, it is at all events doubtful if the cus-
tom of tenant-right would be advantageous. The agri-
cultural prosperity of Lincolnshire has been attributed
to tenant-right ; but it has been justly remarked, that
it exists also in the Weald of Sussex, the most backward
part of England, and that this may be considered as
one of the causes of its rural poverty. In Scotland,
where everything is so well arranged for the interests
of farming, the question of tenant-right has been nega-
tived. It opens a door to fraud and trickery, and

STATE OF WARFARE. 371

induces the farmer to look more to the indemnity he will
obtain in going out, than to good farming while he is in
possession. Clever and unscrupulous farmers have been
known to change from farm to farm, receiving a com-
pensation each time, and always making money by the
change.

Besides, tenant-right becomes in the long-run a charge
so heavy to the incoming tenant, that it swallows up
all his resources at once, and leaves him without the
means of meeting the most necessary expenses. In Lin-
colnshire and Nottingham, where the custom prevails, it
is reckoned that the incoming farmer nowadays has to
pay equal to £4 or £4, 10s. per acre for the tenant-
right alone, independently of the usual farm charges. In
Sussex, the usual rate is 30s. to 50s., which is perhaps still
heavier, since the land is in worse condition. With such
advances before them, one can understand how the
English agriculturists should be nearly unanimous in
condemnation of tenant-right, at least as a general rule.
Long leases, and, in some cases, special agreements, are
deemed a sufficient solution of the difficulty.*

If it is thus with tenant-right when justified by real
outlays, what would be the consequence if that right,
such as it existed in Ireland, were legalised, as it was
desired it should be 1 What the incoming farmer would

* We are not aware that the system of tenant-right has been so universally
condemned. This is not the place to enter into any discussion as to the real
mexits of the general question ; but while it may be said some convention of this
kind is in many respects essential for Ireland in its present circumstances, in order
to restore confidence and encourage improvement, there is no doubt a well-devised
system of indemnification to tenants, as an accessory to the lease, would in gene-
ral greatly tend to increase the produce of the soil. The main objection to the
lease, in as far as the grand question of productiveness — the maintenance of the
people — is concerned, is, that towards its close, from the uncertainty which attaches
to the renewal of the tenure, there occur several years in which the tenant can-
not safely apply such ameliorations as are often necessary to maintain the soil in
full and vigorous bearing. His interest too frequently requires that at this period

372 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

there have had to pay, was not remuneration for im-
provements which had no existence, but a payment
for the peaceable possession of his lease ; or, as it was
naively called, the goodwill of the outgoing tenant.
It was difficult not to perceive in this a real right
of partnership. When this right has existed from
time immemorial, as in Ulster, where it appears to
have been introduced with James I/s great experiment
of Protestant colonisation, and with the view of at-
tracting foreign settlers by the expectation of great
advantages, nothing can be said against it ; but where it
was only recently established, it is evident that its
introduction could not take place without altering the
conditions of property. Attempts have also been made
in France to establish something of the same kind. Such
is that which, in certain parts of the department of the
Nord, is called le mauvais gr& (the ill will) ; that is to
say, a regular coalition among the farmers to force pro-
prietors to let their lands low, or to give previously a
large indemnity to the outgoing farmer, whether he has
improved the land or not. But this abuse, which is
opposed to every kind of agricultural advancement,
and which has, in addition, a demoralising effect
upon the rural population, has never extended very far
with us.

Whatever may have been the wrongs of Irish pro-

his chief attention should be directed to exhaust the means he has previously
applied. Hence the soil, for a considerable part of the lease, both at its close, as
we have seen, and at its commencement — when this exhaustion is under the pro-
cess of repair — may be said to be very partially performing its full functions.
Unless, therefore, some well-considered principle of remuneration for unexhausted
improvements be devised, we fear we must be content to submit to a material
curtailment of the supplies which the soil is otherwise capable of furnishing.
Tenant-right, no doubt, owes its origin to the conflicting interests of individuals ;
but before the problem is fully solved, it will require the introduction of higher
elements.— J. D.

STATE OF WARFARE. 373

perty, it is clear the English Government never wished
to impose upon it such a bondage as this. The ques-
tion was, not only how the errors of the past were to
be repaired, but also what was to be done for the
future. What, then, would have become of property, and
consequently of farming, which is so closely connected
with it, if this plague-spot had first been put upon it 1
Some people have been pleased to say that tenant-right
has succeeded in Ulster ; but this pretended success
proves nothing. For, as Mr Campbell Foster has clearly
shown, in his Letters upon the Condition of the Irish,
published in 1846, this province contains both county
Down and county Donegal, in the first of which there
exists comparatively a pretty fair degree of prosperity,
and in the latter the extreme of Irish misery. Tenant-
right existed in both ; tenant-right certainly : but that of
Down was not the least similar to that of Donegal. The
first alone was conformable with the English practice
— the utility of which may be questioned, but which is
nevertheless legitimate in many respects ; the second was
the real Irish tenant-right, that which has nothing to do
with unexhausted improvements. The latter was every-
where coincident with the common ruin both of proprietor
and tenant, being, in short, nothing less than the actual
value of the land, so that the unfortunate individual who
took a farm had to pay the sale price for it ; or, in other
words, to purchase the property for liberty to pay the rent.
Nothing but the imperceptible work of time can account
for the establishment of such a singular and fatal anomaly.
In its turn, fixed tenure was nothing more nor less than
a sale of the land upon the terms of a perpetual rent ; and
as that system did not leave the amount of rent to be
fixed between the interested parties, but was regulated
according to Act of Parliament upon an official valuation,

374 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

it was really, in fact, only another name for dispossession.
M. de Eaumer and M. de Sismondi have both extolled this
forced system, which has found a good many partisans
even in England. Here again it may be said that Irish
property in general deserved little consideration, both on
account of its origin and the use that had been made of
it ; but, after all, it was property — that is to say, the
most solid basis of society. The name, at all events,
commanded respect ; and in every case there are always
numerous exceptions, which it would not be right to
include in a general condemnation.

There was nothing to prove, moreover, that this remedy
would be efficacious. It was countenancing absenteeism,
one of Ireland's greatest curses ; and more than ever
doing away with the connection between rent and farm-
ing. Supposing that the measure had, for the moment,
good effects, it was creating for the future a position full
of embarrassment and difficulty. In France, perpetual-
lease rents were very common under the old regime ; but
they entailed such a complication of interests, that it was
judged necessary to do away with them, or at least to make
them essentially redeemable. The power of repurchase
would have been but an insufficient remedy in Ireland.
Besides, according to the manner in which it works in a
country in a state of revolution, it would only in most
cases have completed the expropriation. It may answer
when perpetual-lease rents are the exception ; but when
this is the universal condition of property, it could have
only an imperceptible effect; and properties which are
not free, remain a long time the rule.

Ulster being constantly quoted as a favourable ex-
ample of fixed tenure as well as tenant-right, proves no
more in the one case than in the other. It is true that
in some parts of this province, and by way of encourage-

STATE OF WARFARE. 375

ment to settlers, recourse was had many centuries ago
to perpetual leases ; but the particular districts where
this system prevailed were not the most prosperous,
and yet the rent, or rather fine, reserved for the nominal
proprietor was quite insignificant. The tenant was the
real proprietor ; and one remarkable thing, inasmuch as it
shows the true point of the difficulty, is that these lands,
held in perpetual lease, had been divided and subdivided
at least as much as any others ; so that although the rent
was almost nominal, most of the cultivators had not
enough to live upon. Whole districts were divided into
farms of only three or four acres each, and it was seldom
that any above ten or twelve were to be met with.

An unmitigated dispossession of the proprietors,
which the Irish more or less desired, would have been
but an imperfect remedy for the evil. Properties, like
farms, would have come to be divided, and after the first
generation they would have found themselves in the
same predicament as before. If large property should
have bounds, so should small. The danger from too small
properties is to be dreaded even more than from large.

Above all, then, it is necessary that a limit should be
put upon this never-ending subdivision of farms, which
is fraught with impoverishment to the soil, the wretched-
ness of the cultivators, and trouble and annoyance to
proprietors.

The English Government applied itself as earnestly
to encourage industrial and commercial enterprise, as it
formerly did to strangle them ; but time was an indispen-
sable element for developing this new and inexhaustible
source of employment, and that mass of unfortunate people
could not afford to wait. It was also thought that a means
for raising the rate of wages would be found in the estab-
lishment of a poor-rate for Ireland, but the number of

376 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

poor was so great that it was found to produce no sensible
result; while all the time it imposed a heavy burden upon
property. Others proposed to make a distribution of
the uncultivated lands among the peasantry ; but the
too palpable reply was, that these, for the most part, were
incapable of cultivation ; and that, as regarded those
which might be brought into condition, heavy expenses
would be necessary as well as time — that time which was
wanted for everything. Numerous inquiries were made,
and the question discussed both publicly and privately,
but without eliciting anything decisive.

The question remained to be solved by God ; and that
proved a terrible solution. All that long arrear of crime
and error was to be atoned for only by an unexampled
catastrophe.

377

CHAPTER XXY.

THE FAMINE AND EXODUS.

THE year 1846, so disastrous throughout Europe, was
particularly fatal to Ireland. The potato disease, which
had some time before made its appearance, became very
virulent that year, destroying three-fourths of the crop.
Oats, the other resource of the poor cultivator, were
equally short. On the news of this terrible disaster, it
was very evident what would be the result. The Eng-
lish Government, alarmed at the prospect, took the most
active measures for bringing supplies from all quarters.
Although it had to concert measures at the same time for
England, which was also suffering from scarcity, but in a
less degree, the Government made extraordinary efforts
to provide work for the Irish. It took half a million of
labourers into its pay ; made arrangements for employing
them upon government works; and spent, in relief of all
kinds, ten millions sterling.

The proprietors, too, very different in this respect from
their forefathers, who would have looked upon these
sufferings with indifference, made in their turn every
possible sacrifice on behalf of their tenantry. In case of
need, the law forced them to do it, for the poor-rate rose
in an enormous proportion. In 1847, neither rent, taxes,
nor interest on mortgages, were paid.

378 EURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

These tardy measures of kindness, however, did not
suffice to arrest the evil. Famine was universal, and lasted
several years ; and when the decennial census of 1851 was
taken, it was found that, instead of an important increase
as usual, there was a startling decrease in the population.
One million out of eight — an eighth of the population-
had died of misery and starvation.

This frightful calamity has effected what years of war
and oppression failed to do — it has subdued Ireland.
When the Irish beheld the loss of their chief article of
food, they began to perceive that there was no longer
sufficient room for them on their native soil. They who
had hitherto obstinately rejected the idea of emigration,
as a flight before the enemy, now suddenly passed to the
opposite extreme. A current, or, as it might be more aptly
termed, a torrent of emigration ensued. For the last
seven years — for the movement began in the height of
the famine — one million five hundred thousand persons
have embarked for America; and the tide still flows on.
Those who have found work and are well off in the United
States, write to their relatives and friends to follow their
example, and at the same time send funds enough to pay
the passage of these fresh emigrants. It is reckoned that
the total sum thus remitted, since 1847, amounts to four
millions sterling ! The unfortunate Irish never dreamt of
such a sum. They look upon America as the land of
riches and liberty, and regard their own country as a
scene of misery, slavery, and death. Ties of country and
religion, once so strong, no longer hold them back. To
find a name for this popular flight, we must go back to
Bible history, for it can only be likened to the great
migration of the Israelites, an exodus like that in Moses'
time.

The proprietors, in place of opposing, second the move-
ment. This they are in some measure constrained to do,

THE FAMINE AND EXODUS. 379

owing to the ruinous pressure of the poor-tax ever since
this starving population was charged upon them, and
henceforth they have great interest in thinning it.

There is certainly nothing more distressing than such
a sight, and nothing could have been more strikingly
condemnatory of England's conduct towards Ireland in
times past. But it must, at the same time, be admitted,
that all the hitherto undetermined problems are practically
solved by this rapid depopulation. England finds in it
at once her punishment and her safety. Ere long, the
population of Ireland will have been reduced by a half ;
and as emigration and mortality have affected only the
agricultural and Catholic part of the population, all the
fundamental difficulties go along with them. Previously
to 1847, the Protestants formed only a fifth of the
population : they will soon come to be one-half. The
rural population was twenty-four to the acre, now it is
approaching to twelve, as in England ; and from the
wildest and most rugged districts, such as Connaught,
after suffering most from the famine, the exodus takes off
the greatest number. It may now be said that warfare
between the two countries no longer exists : the Irish
have left the field. Those who remain are not sufficiently
numerous either to carry on the struggle, or to occasion
much trouble by their wants. One fact, in particular,
shows the general pacification of the country : agrarian
outrages have ceased, and security is as complete now in
Ireland as it is in England. God has employed the
formidable means of which Tacitus speaks — He has made
peace out of solitude.

What was before impossible in rural economy, hence-
forth becomes easy. The too great division of the
farms is no longer a matter of necessity. In place of
seven hundred thousand farms, there may now be, and
indeed ought to be, only half the number, and conse-

380

KURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

quently of twice the size.* Where two families of culti-
vators were unable to exist, one may henceforth live in
comfort. Potatoes and oats, which had been grown
to excess, may now be reduced within proper bounds.
Present wants being now less urgent, more thought may
be given to the future. The four-course system may be
more extended, and with it rural prosperity, of which it
is the token. Meadows and pastures, hitherto neglected,
begin to receive the attention they merit, and which they
ought to repay a hundredfold. Ireland will again become
— what she should never have ceased to be — the Emerald
Isle par excellence — that is to say, the finest grass coun-
try in the world. Cattle, which were never sufficiently
encouraged, because the population could not obtain
enough to feed themselves, will now find a more abun-
dant alimentation. Farming, in place of desperately
seeking effects without causes, may at length, by substitut-
ing an ameliorating in the place of an exhausting system,
be taken up at the beginning. Wages being no longer
unduly depressed by a superabundance of hands, labour
becomes more productive and better paid ; and, provided
the impetus imparted to manufactures and commerce for
the last few years is maintained and increased, the over-
crowding of the fields need no longer be feared, even
should population rise again to its former level.

* DECREASE OF HOLDINGS FROM 1841 TO 1851.

HOLDINGS.

1841.

1851.

Decrease.

Increase.

Above 1 and not exceeding 5 acres,
„ 5 „ „ 15 „
,,15 „ „ 30 „
30

310,375

252,778
79,338
48,623

88,083
191,854
141,311
149,090

222,292
60,924

61,973
100,467

691,114
T<

570,338
)tal Deere

283,216
ase, 120,7

162,440
76

— Parliamentary Papers. — J. D.

THE FAMINE AND EXODUS. 381

Under this new state of affairs, the English hope to be
able to introduce into Ireland their favourite system of
large farming. No doubt they will, to a certain extent,
succeed ; but it does not appear that it ought to become
the general state of the country. Large farming requires
what is wanting to Ireland, and that is capital. Induce-
ments are held out for drawing over to Ireland wealthy
English or Scotch farmers. Whenever one crosses, all
the newspapers proclaim it, in order to bring over others.
But hitherto few have been induced to go there. Capital
fears to risk itself in a country which, though tranquil,
it is true, bears the marks of recent frightful disorders.
To all appearance it is likely that Ireland will continue
to be worked chiefly by the Irish. Agricultural regener-
ation will thus proceed more slowly, but its basis
will be wider and more natural. Farming by the na-
tives presupposes a small or middling farming. The
example of Scotland shows what may be made out
of it, and the average size of the farms may, without
inconvenience, be less in Ireland than in Scotland, be-
cause of the greater fertility of the soil. Twenty or
five-and-twenty acres per farm on the good lands, a
couple of hundred or so in the worst, where it would
be chiefly pasturage, and about fifty as the average,
would probably be a fair measure. With these limits
the farmer should not only live and pay rent, but accu-
mulate capital.

The real question which concerns the production of
farming capital, so deficient among the Irish, and which
seems little disposed to reach them from other quarters,
is that of leases. There again Scotland sets an excellent
example, which cannot fail to be followed. Tenant-right
—such, at least, as they understand it in Ireland — is not
necessary. That engine of war is out of place in a well-

382 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

regulated community. It is the same with perpetual
leases. Instead of extending them, they should rather
be reduced by repurchasing the fine, and by reuniting
nominal property with actual possession. What is needed
are long leases, with moderate rents, and a constant care
to prevent subdivision ; or, if it be desired to preserve the
old system of tenants-at-will, great liberality towards the
tenants on the part of proprietors. No more middlemen
speculating upon under-lettings ; — no more partnership-
tenure, con-acre, and other contrivances for making a
momentary gain at the expense of the land ; but in their
place useful advances, hitherto unknown and beyond the
reach of the common farmers. While necessity will oblige
farmers to dispense at starting with ready-made capital,
they will find such capital as they can avail themselves
of, as buildings, marlings, drainings, &c., extremely useful
in hastening the formation of the other. Wherever large
farming is established, it can go to the expense of these ;
but, otherwise, these fruitful expenditures fall as a charge
on the property.

In default of natural benevolence, the poor-tax, under
skilful management, has certainly acted as a powerful
social lever ; it lays the proprietors under the necessity
of making exertions, if they do not wish to see all their
income absorbed by the workhouse. And this means of
coercion, already so powerful, is not the only one which
was to be employed to expiate the past wrongs of Irish
property. A radical improvement in the relations be-
tween proprietor and tenant was not possible to any
extent without a kind of revolution in property. Even
allowing them more enlightened and liberal intentions,
most of the proprietors, already overhead in debt, could
do nothing : they had exhausted their credit and re-

THE FAMINE AND EXODUS. 383

sources. Accordingly, the English Government decided
upon ordering a general liquidation.

This measure, the best of all that had been proposed,
has this advantage, that, without violating the principle
of property, it admits of the desired results being at-
tained. Those proprietors who are such only in name,
will disappear, and, in their stead, real proprietors will
come, who will be able to make advances. This change of
owners, moreover, affords an opportunity for doing away
with entails; of dividing the too large estates ; of sweep-
ing away that chaos of contradictory rights which always
accumulates round real property under mortgage ; and
takes from Irish property part of the odious associations
connected with it, by breaking the chain of its traditions :
valuable and positive advantages — purchased, no doubt,
by the disagreeable means of a forced liquidation, but
which ought in the end to save Irish property, by remov-
ing from it its exceptional character. M. Gustave de
Beaumont, a great authority in Irish matters, pointed out
from the first the necessity of this change.

In consequence, an act was passed by Parliament, in
1849, appointing a Royal Commission, consisting of three
members, for the sale of encumbered estates. The powers
of this Commission were at first conferred for only three
years; but they have been extended — first for one year,
and are about to be extended again. These powers con-
sist in ordering properties burdened with debt to be sold
by auction, upon the simple petition of a creditor, or of the
proprietor himself, and that in the most summary way —
the purchaser receiving what is called a parliamentary
title — that is to say, one that is perfectly legal and indis-
putable, conferring an absolute right to the property, called
in English fee simple. Those who formerly had claims

384 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

over the land, have no longer any, but only upon the pur-
chase-money. The Commission is charged with exami-
nation into the validity of these claims, and with the dis-
tribution of the sum realised.

The functions of the new court commenced in Novem-
ber 1849 ; and up to November 1852, three years after-
wards, it had received two thousand five hundred and
fifty-four petitions for the sale of as many properties, re-
presenting in all an annual rental of £1,360,000, and
charged with mortgages to the extent of £30,400,000, or
nearly their whole value. Up to the same period, about
one-third of the properties under petition — say eight
hundred and thirty- nine in all — had been sold. One mil-
lion two hundred and fifty thousand acres had changed
hands. In 1853 and 1854 the sales were being con-
tinued in the same proportion.

The average sale-price has been at the rate of 5^ to 6
per cent on the nominal rental ; or, as they say in
England, eighteen years' purchase. This rate caused a
great outcry on the part of the dispossessed proprietors,
a pretty considerable number of whom found themselves
ruined at once ; but, on a nearer view, it is not found
to be quite so disadvantageous. Properties in the good
counties, such as Antrim, Down, Tyrone, Meath, "VVest-
meath, and Dublin, sell at rates equal to a return to the
purchaser of four per cent. If those situated in what
were formerly the most wretched districts have produced
only such a price as will give eight to ten per cent, it is
because they were not worth more. Nothing was more
uncertain than the declared rental ; it was based upon
that of 1847, and even then it was seldom paid. At the
time of sale, several years' rent was in arrear, while
the future appeared to have still worse prospects than
the past, and considerable outlays on the part of the

THE FAMINE AND EXODUS. 385

purchasers were necessary to bring these bare lands into
value.

It is no doubt vexatious that these forced sales took
place at the very time when Ireland was undergoing a
terrible crisis. But does it not always so happen 1 Crises
are just the periods which bring about and justify extra-
ordinary measures. Calm weather is not the time chosen
for throwing part of the cargo overboard to preserve the
ship from future storms. The remedy is applied only
when the evil is at its height :. it would be still less ac-
ceptable if it came sooner. Perhaps it might have been
possible to mitigate a little the working of this realisa-
tion, by giving facilities to the indebted proprietors for
saving something out of the wreck. But at the time of
the passing of the Incumbered Estates Bill, England
had already made, without success, immense sacrifices
for Ireland, and was not inclined to do more.

As to the measure itself, the necessity for it cannot be
questioned. The proprietors could neither pay the in-
terest on their debts nor borrow a fraction more. Among
these accumulations of mortgages there were some dat-
ing as far back as Cromwell. One naturally pities a man
who, to-day, possesses a fine property, and to-morrow finds
himself with nothing ; but it is not dispossession which
is the grievance, but debt. The man had been for a long
time only nominal proprietor, and in one day pays for
the mistakes and follies of many centuries.

Taking the number of properties sold up to the end of
1852, according to the foregoing figures, we find the
average to be £10,000 for fifteen hundred and sixty
acres, which is equal to nearly £6, 10s. per acre. Surely
Irish land is worth, and certainly will be worth, more
than this. But it must also be remembered, that this
figure comprises large tracts of uncultivated land, called

2 B

386 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

the Irish Highlands ; as a specimen of which Martin's
estate is always quoted. This domain is of such extent
that the porter's lodge stands twenty -five miles from
the house. The inheritor of this vast property died in
poverty, upon the ocean, while flying from the soil that
no longer belonged to him. As formerly, in the case of
Sutherlandshire, we are not told in what condition this
gigantic property was found, which could no longer sup-
port either the owner or the tenants.

After all, the Incumbered Estates Court brings forward
for sale only two and a half to three millions sterling
worth of properties per* annum, or the fiftieth part in ex-
tent, but in value hardly a hundredth part of the island.
At this rate the sale of one-tenth, — the most burdened
portion of Irish property, — will last ten years. In France,
where we hamper transfers of property with expensive
formalities, prejudicial both to the creditor and the owner
of the land, sales more or less forced take place annually,
to the extent of one-hundredth part of the total value of
land in the country ; and we have not several centuries
of arrears to settle. If, under favour of interminable
delays and expenses of the Court of Chancery, Irish pro-
prietors had got into a habit of not paying their debts, it
is just as well, for their own sakes, that they should
be deprived of the opportunity for the future.

For a year past the prices given have been advancing
materially. The worst sales were the first, and, as always
happens in such cases, the owners of these properties
were the greatest sufferers. In the good counties, land
sells almost as high as in England ; and in the bad, the
return is about five or six per cent on the purchase. As
prospects brighten in Ireland, prices will become more
and more satisfactory.

The most characteristic symptom produced by these

THE FAMINE AND EXODUS. 387

sales is, that the land is obviously becoming more di-
vided. The Commissioners made four thousand lots out
of the eight hundred and thirty-nine domains sold up to
the end of 1852, and the average price per lot was £2000.
Many were sold at £1000, and these were not always the
best bargains. This subdivision, generally speaking, has
been approved of, as it creates what in Ireland has hitherto
been wanted — a middle class. Those proprietors, whose
estates have come to the hammer are not all entirely
dispossessed. Some retain portions of their old proper-
ties ; and in many cases such portions, being entirely
free from debt, are worth more to them than the whole
estate was in its involved condition. A man is not rich
in proportion to the number of acres he owns, but accord-
ing to the rent he draws from it ; and when that can be
increased by reducing the extent, there should be no
hesitation about doing so.

Another no less important fact is deserving of notice,
and that is, that the majority of the purchases are
for Irish account. It was hoped that English or Scotch
purchasers would have been induced to buy land in
Ireland, and farm it ; but neither, it seems, have come
forward ; and for this reason, that agriculture nowadays
requires capital to a greater amount than ever, both in
England and Scotland, and the remuneration upon the
spot is quite sufficient without any necessity for going
elsewhere in search of it. Besides, there exists an old
distrust of Ireland, not soon to be eradicated. Neither
do they like to bring themselves into contact with misery :
they fear the revival of jacqueries, and detest popery and
the papists. Ask an Englishman to invest his capital in
Ireland, promising him at the same time a return of eight
or ten per cent : it is much the same as proposing to a
Frenchman to send his to Africa among the Arabs. This

388 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

is the reason why only an eighth of the properties sold
have been purchased by other than Irishmen ; and for the
most part these acquisitions have been forced on the
purchasers, who, being creditors, have found no better
way of getting back their money. Martin's Estate is a
case in point. It has passed into the possession of a Life
Assurance Company, who were mortgagees, and who
now desire to sell it piecemeal.

The other seven-eighths of the properties sold have, gen-
erally speaking, been bought by former middlemen ; for
even they had mortgages upon the properties which they
managed, as is always the case with stewards of a liberal
household ; and there is no cause for regretting it, since
property thus takes a more national character.

Such, then, is the twofold movement accomplished in
Ireland, beginning with depopulation, and expropriation
following — the concentration of farming, and division of
property, both brought within proper bounds. Farming
is being just sufficiently concentrated to put a limit upon
extreme division, without depriving the Irish of the pos-
session of the soil. Notwithstanding its detestable rural
system, Ireland seems to have preserved one excellent
feature — namely, the almost entire absence of day-labour-
ers, properly so called. Almost all its cultivators, conse-
quently, will be capable of becoming small farmers as
before, but under more favourable circumstances. On
the other hand, the division of property suffices to make
it more accessible to the natives ; or, in other words, does
away with their estranged and hostile feeling, at the same
time that it opens to them a source of credit.

As for what is properly called small property, the intro-
duction of which has been advocated by many clever
men — among others, Mr Stuart Mill, in his new Principles
of Political Economy — it appears to me less desirable in

THE FAMINE AND EXODUS. 389

the face of such facts. Ireland will probably, one day, come
to small property, for its natural tendency is in that
direction. Meantime, however, the rural population is
too poor. It must gain in farming what is necessary to
become proprietor. It is not for its interest to think
about it sooner.

The English Government, being desirous at the same
time of providing regenerated Ireland with capital, and
outlets for its productions, offer, as they did in England,
to lend £4,000,000 to such proprietors as may be de-
sirous of draining their land, or repairing their build-
ings and farm -roads ; the amount borrowed to be re-
paid at the rate of 6^ per cent for twenty-two years.
A good many have accepted this offer, and are proceeding
with these useful works. The Irish banks, whose history
had hitherto been full of disasters, have taken up a new
position. During the former struggles, a run on the banks
was a means often adopted by the agitators for throwing
the country into confusion. These disturbances to the
circulation are, however, much less to be feared now.
The banks can safely let themselves out a little more, and
extend their business to a larger circle of customers. A
net- work of railways begins to cover the island, and har-
bours and rivers are being improved.

The improvement in means of communication shows
itself by the rise in agricultural commodities all over the
country. Exportation, which was formerly an evil, inas-
much as it carried off the food of the people, without
giving anything in return, becomes a benefit now that
Ireland has fewer mouths to feed, and that rents are
expended more upon the spot.

Finally, instruction in agriculture, of which Ireland stood
much in need, is widely extending, and forms part of a re-
cently organised system of popular education. Since 1826,

390 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

Ireland has possessed an Agricultural College at Temple-
moyle, in County Londonderry, founded by. subscription,
with a grant of £17,000 from the corporations of Lon-
don, who own the greater part of the county. Sixty
pupils there receive theoretical and practical instruc-
tion. A farm of one hundred and seventy acres, con-
ducted by a clever Scotch agriculturist, is attached to the
school. At a special inquiry in 1843, eighteen years
after its foundation, it was proved that, by means of its
pupils, and the examples it gave, Templemoyle had
exerted a beneficial influence upon the local agriculture.
In all the large Irish colleges, chairs of agriculture had
been founded ; but the instruction disseminated was un-
able to contend against the bad system of husbandry.
This is a seed which can only grow under favourable condi-
tions. These conditions being henceforth possible, the time
for advantageously giving an impetus to instruction has
arrived, and we see farm-schools springing up in every
county. Peripatetic lecturers have been started ; a new
order of missionaries carry agricultural preaching into the
poor villages, and disseminate cheap pamphlets among
the cabins of the people. No pains are spared to acquaint
the people with the two or three fundamental principles
which form the basis of good husbandry, — the theory of
rotations, the beneficial use of manures and improvers,
and the art of breeding and fattening cattle.

One of the most remarkable examples of the new sys-
tem which tends to establish itself, is to be found in the
present condition of an immense property in Kerry, be-
longing to Lord Lansdowne, a nobleman most justly
respected in England. This property contains no less than
one hundred thousand acres. The greater part of it is
mountain, affording excellent pasture, but not equally

THE FAMINE AND EXODUS. 391

suited for cultivation. A twentieth part only may be
advantageously brought under the plough. It contained
sixteen thousand of a population ; and, in spite of the per-
severing efforts of the proprietor, these people lived in a
state of misery. When the famine came, a fourth died
from hunger or disease, without the possibility of help.
Another fourth has since emigrated; and, with the aid of
money remitted from America, and advances from Lord
Lansdowne for facilitating emigration, the still supera-
bundant population is rapidly going off; so that in a short
time it should be reduced to only an eighth of the ori-
ginal number — say two thousand, which is reckoned quite
sufficient to bring the land into value. The old cabins,
which are not worth 50s. a-piece, are being pulled down,
and in their stead more comfortable houses, though fewer
in number, are erected for the new tenants, and now built
by the proprietor.

It is still the system of cottiers, or small farmers, which
will be followed on Lord Lansdowne's property ; for really
it does not seem possible to carry out any other to a great
extent. But the application of this system promises for
the future to be as advantageous to proprietor and tenant
as formerly it was disastrous for both. In place of three
thousand farms, there will be in all four hundred. The
extent of arable land will probably be confined to what
will pay a good profit on its cultivation; that is, ten or
fifteen acres to each family, making five thousand upon the
whole property. The remainder, consisting of pasture, will
be occupied by cattle in place of human beings. This, it
will be perceived, is the system practised in the High-
lands, but on easier terms, as here the -soil and climate are
more favourable to manual labour and the feeding of
cattle. The return to each family will be at least quad-

,31)2 KURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND.

rupled, and the proprietor's rent will rise in proportion.
The nominal rent of this immense property is £9000,
of which the poor-rate still takes nearly the half. For
several years to come, the greater part of the remainder
will be absorbed by assistance afforded to emigrants, the
erection of new farm-houses, cost of implements, new roads
and fences, and stocking with cattle. These expenses
will all tell by-and-by, and so will it be wherever the
proprietor can come forward with similar advances.

Everything in Ireland is now approaching to a solu-
tion : the mysterious designs of Providence oftentimes
bring good out of the excess of evil.

And now I bring to a close the task which I had
imposed upon myself — namely, to give a summary
account of the rural economy of the three kingdoms.
What I have said regarding Ireland appears to me to be
not the least useful in an instructive point of view ; for
although it does not show us what good farming is, it
warns us of the troubles and dangers resulting from bad.
In no part of France do we find anything quite identical :
the state of warfare between two nations, which brought
on the misfortunes of Ireland, has no analogy with us.
Still we find, on several points of our territory, other
causes producing similar effects, though with less inten-
sity. We have all the evils resulting from absenteeism,
middlemen, excess of population, crushing debt upon the
land, misery of the farmer, and exhaustion of the soil.
We see to what these lead when pushed to extremes. Let
us learn, then, from this example, not to slumber with
such an abyss under our feet ; and let us take care,
especially, how we speculate upon low wages through a
superabundance of hands. There is no greater or more

THE FAMINE AND EXODUS. 393

fatal error than this. Good rents cannot be kept up
unless with good wages, and good wages cannot be paid
unless rents are good : both should rise and fall together.
To increase production without proportionately increas-
ing the number of hands, and thereby to add to the
general comfort — this is the ultimate object of economical
science, the solution of the greatest social difficulties.

APPENDIX.

The following Tables will, the Translator thinks, prove interesting and
useful to the reader of this work.

AREA AND POPULATION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND,

WITH COMPARATIVE DENSITY OF THE DIFFERENT COUNTIES, ACCORD-
ING TO THE CENSUS RETURNS OF 1851.

ENGLAND.

SOUTHER!

f COUNTIES.

Kent,
Sussex,
Surrey,
Hants, .....

Area — acres.

1,041,479
934,851
478,792
1,070,216

Population.

615,766
336,844
683,082
405,370

Pop. to five
acres.

2.96
1.80
7.13
1.90

Dorset,
Devon, .....
Cornwall, ....

632,025
1,657,180
873,600

184,207
567,098
355,558

1.46
1.71

2.04

Total,

6,688,143

3,147,925

2.35

EASTERN

COUNTIES.

Middlesex, ....
Hertford, ....

180,168
391,141

1,886,576
167,298

52.35
2.14

Essex,
Suffolk, ....
Norfolk, ....
Bedford, ....
Northampton,
Cambridge, ....
Huntingdon, . . .
Lincoln, ....

1,060,549
947,681
1,354,301
295,582
630,358
523,861
230,865
1,776,738

369,318
337,215
442,714
124,478
212,380
185,405
64,183
407,222

1.74
1.78
1.63
2.11
1.68
1.77
1.39
1.15

Total, exclusive of Middlesex,

7,211,076

2,310,213

1.60

Total,

7,391,244

4,196,789

2.84

396

APPENDIX.

ENGLAND— Continued.

W£STEB>

r COUNTIES.

Somerset, . . . .
Gloucester, ....
Monmouth, ....
Hereford, ....
Salop,
Chester, . . .

Area— acres.

1,047,220
805,102
368,399
534,823
826,055
707,078

Population.

443,916

458,805
157,418
115,489
229,341
455,725

Pop. to five
acres.

2.12

2.85
2.14
1.08
1.39
3.22

Total,

4,288,677

1,860,694

2.17

MIDLAND

COUNTIES.

Buckingham, ...
Berks,
Oxford, . . . .
Wilts,
Warwick, . . . .

466,932
451,040

472,887
865,092
563,946

163,723
170,065
170,439
254,221
475,013

1.75

1.89
1.80
1.47
4.21

Worcester, ....
Rutland, ....
Leicester, ....
Stafford, ....
Nottingham,
Derby,

472,165
95,805
514,164
728,468
526,076
658,803

276,926
22,983
230,308
608,716
270,427
296,084

2.93
1.20
2.24
4.18
2.57
2.25

Total,

5,815,378

2,938,905

2.53

' NORTHER!

* COUNTIES.

Lancaster, ....
York (West Riding), .
„ (East Riding),
„ (North and city), .
Durham, ....
Westmoreland,
Cumberland,
Northumberland, .

1,219,221
1,708,026
768,419
1,352,841
622,476
485,432
1,001,273
1,249,299

2,031,236
1,325,495
220,983
251,517
390,997
58,287
195,492
303,568

8.33

3.88
1.44
0.93
3.14
0.60
0.98
1.21

Total,

8,406,987

4,777,575

2.84

j

Total— England, . . 3

rea — acres.
2,590,429

Population. Po
16,921,888

p. to five
acres.

2.60

APPENDIX.

397

WALES.

NORTH.

Anglesey, ....
Caernarvon, ....
Denbigh, ....
Flint,
Merioneth, ....
Montgomery,

Total,

Area — acres.

193,453
370,273

386,052
184,905
385,291
483,323

Population.

57,327

87,870
92,583
68,156
38,843
67,335

Pop. to five
acres.

1.48
1.19
1.20
1.84
0.50
0.70

2,003,297

412,114

1.03

SOUTH.

Brecknock, ....
Cardigan, ....
Caermarthen,
Glamorgan, ....
Pembroke, ....
Radnor, .

Total,

460,158
443,387
606,331
547,494
401,691
272,128

61,474
70,796
110,632
231,849
94,140
24,716

0.67
0.80
0.91
2.12
1.17
0.45

2,731,189

593,607

1.09

Area-acres. Population. Vol^Ve

Total— Wales, . . . 4,734,486 1,005,721 1.06

ISLANDS.

Area— acres.

180,000

Population.

52,387

Pop. to five
acres.

1.45

Jersey, .

40,000

57,020

7.13

Guernsey I
and adjacent Islands, . )

32,000

29,757
3,962

I 5.27

Total,

252,000

143,126

2.84

398

APPENDIX.

SCOTLAND.

SOUTHERN DIVISION.

Ayr,

Berwick, ....
Bute,
Clackmannan,
Dumbarton, ....
Dumfries, ....
Edinburgh, ....
Fife, ......

Area — acres.

650,156
309,375
109,375
29,744
189,844
722,813
254,300
322,031
185,937
49,531
610,734
631,719
64,375
226,488
150,000
460,938
170,313
295,875
326,736

Population.
189,858

36,297
16,608
22,951
45,103
78,123
259,435
153,546
36,386
8,924
43,121
530,169
30,135
10,738
161,091
51,642
9,809
86,237
43,389

Pop. to five
acres.

1.46
0.59
0.76
3.86
1.19
0.54
5.10
2.38
0.98
0.90
0.35
4.20
2.33
0.24
5.37
0.56
0.29
1.46
0.66

Haddington, . .
Kinross, ....
Kirkcudbright,
Lanark, ....
Linlithgow, ....
Peebles, ....
Renfrew, ....
Roxburgh, ....
Selkirk, .
Stirling, ....
Wigtown, ....

Total,

5,760,284

1,813,562

1.57

NORTHERN DIVISION.

Aberdeen, ....
Argyll,
Banff/
Caithness, ....
Elgin or Moray, .
Forfar, ....
Inverness, ....
Kincardine, ....
Nairn,
Orkney and Shetland, .
Perth,

1,260,625
2,083,126
439,219
455,708
340,000
568,750
2,723,501
252,250
137,500
988,873
1,814,063
2,016,375
1,207,188

212,032
89,298
54,171
38,709
38,959
191,264
96,500
34,598
9,956
62,533
138,660
82,707
25,793

0.84
0.21
0.62
0.42
0.57
1.68
0.18
0.69
0.36
0.32
0.38
0.21
0.11

Ross and Cromarty,
Sutherland, ....

Total,

14,287,178

1,075,180

0.38

Area-acres. Population. Pop'j££™

Total— Scotland, . . 20,047,462 2,888,742 0.72

APPENDIX.

399

IRELAND.

LEINSTER.

(1841— Population, 1,973,731).

Carlow, ....

Area — acres.

221,342
226,414
418,436
509,732
493,985
269,409
201,906
579,899
424,854
453,468
576,588
500,178

Population.

68,059
405,092
95,688
158,746
112,080
82,350
90,812
157,595
111,623
111,409
180,159
98,978

Pop. to five
acres.

1.54
8.95
1.14
1.56
1.13
1.53
2.25
1.36
1.31
1.23
1.56
0.99

Dublin, ....

Kildare, ....

Kilkenny, ....
King's County, .
Longford, ....
Louth, ....
Meath, ....
Queen's County, .
Westmeath, .
Wexford, ....
Wicklow, ....

Total,

4,876,211

1,672,591

1.72

MUNSTEB.

(1841— Population, 2,396,161).

Clare,
Cork,

827,994
1,846,333
1,186,126
680,842
1,061,731
461,553

212,428
649,071
238,239
262,136
331,487
164,051

1.28
1.76
1.00
1.93
1.56
1.78

Kerry ....
Limerick, ....
Tipperary, ....
Waterford, ....

Total,

6,064,579

1,857,412

1.53

ULSTER.

(1841 -Population, 2,386,373).

Antrim, ....
Armagh, ....

762,453
328,076
477,360
1,193,443
611,919
457,195
518,595
319,757
806,640

352,264
196,085
174,071
255,160
328,754
116,007
191,868
141,813
255,819

2.32
2.99
1.82
1.07
2.69
1.27
1.85
2.22
1.59

Donegal, ....

Fermanagh, ....
Londonderry,
Monaghan, . . . .
Tyrone, ....

Total,

5,475,438

2,011,841

1.84

400

APPENDIX.

IRELAND— Continued.

CONNAUGHT.

(1841— Population, 1,418,859).

Area — acres.

Population.

Pop. to five
acres.

Galway, ....
Leitrim, ....
Mayo,
Roscommon,
Slteo.

1,566,354
392,363
1,363,882
607,691
461,753

321,831
111,841
274,612
173,417
128,510

1.03
1.42
1.01
1.43
1.39

Total,

4,392,043

1,010,211

1.15

Area— acres. Population. ^acreY^6

Total— Ireland, . . 20,808,271 6,552,055 1.57

1841— Population, 8,175,124 1.96

GRAND TOTAL.

Area— acres.

Population.

Pop. to five
acres.

ENGLAND, ....

32,590,429

16,921,888

2.60

WALES, ....

4,734,486

1,005,721

1.06

ISLANDS (Man and Channel),

252,000

143,126

2.84

SCOTLAND, ....

20,047,462

2,888,742

0.72

IRELAND, ....

20,808,271

6,552,055

1.57

78,432,648

g^-— ——sag.^^

27,511,532

1.75

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