WHEAT LANDS OF RUSSIA AND AMERICA. 43 soil, and as much as possible in the locality where it was to be consumed, for the wants of its own people. This has not been apprehended by the teachers of the new school, who make price the sole rule of action. Natural causes have operated for centuries in America and Russia, storing up the ingredients of fertility to supply food for the increase of the human race; it is a spendthrift policy to exhaust that fertility by continuous exports. It is false political economy to call the exhaustion of the resources, or the money that represents them, wealth. The ground is impoverished in a greater ratio than the money received for the grain, and there is no increase of wealth; a man may obtain a supply of ready money by denuding his estate of the trees, which the selfdenial of his forefathers had reared, but he is not a richer man. The rich wheat lands of Russia are capable of supporting a population larger than the whole of Europe, if the grain were consumed where raised, but if there is a continued export of that grain she will greatly lessen that capability. The diffusion of the French people over the surface of France has prevented the exhaustion of the soil. She thus saves all unnecessary carriage, and retains her land in fertility. The district lying between Paris and Lyons is most interesting. Though a large portion is occupied with vines, and though, from the absence of coals, France has to preserve a large area under forests, yet she has ample food for her people. The wheat crop of 1815 was only equal to 167 litres per inhabitant; in 1848 it was raised to 226 litres; thus showing how the produce has increased more rapidly than the population. I think Frenchmen of the middle and upper classes live better that is, they consume more food-than Englishmen of the same rank in life. I believe the artisans the working class-do not live so well. I take for example railway travellers. Most of the French lines start at an early hour, before a breakfast can be had; the railway companies usually arrange for a substantial meal about eleven o'clock, allowing sufficient time to enjoy it. To-day a large company sat down at Tonniere, on the line from Paris to Lyons. The bill of fare was-1, mutton cutlets, with mashed potatoes; 2, salmon; 3, beef, with sauce piquant; 4, slices of ham; 5, kidney beans; 6, roast fowl; 7, apple marmalade; 8, coffee; 9, dessert, consisting of pears, peaches, grapes, &c., and there was a liberal supply of light wine. The viands disappeared with most commendable rapidity, and most of those who partook of them would have another and as substantial a meal at the end of the day. This good living is telling on the appearance of the French; Johnny Crapaud no longer looks like a frog-eating gentleman; many Frenchmen show that rotundity of figure which is sure to arise from generous diet, without too heavy exercise. The ride through Burgundy is most interesting; the land is cultivated with such extreme and minute care; along the valleys and plains, the little plots of the peasant proprietors show their varied crops. Not an inch of land is lost, not a weed to be seen. This tillage runs up the side of the hills. The absence of pasturage, and of grazing animals, is such a contrast to British farming. In one little grass field, which seemed to be the joint ownership of several families, there were six cows together; each of them had a collar, the rope of which was held, for unfenced crops VINE CULTURE IN BURGUNDY. 45 who was were growing all round. One woman, either better off than her friends, or had undertaken the duty of the absent, had three of these cows under her care: the subject would have formed a pretty picture. Sheep are rarely to be seen. I tried to count the number of patches of different culture in a field which seemed not to exceed ten English acres. I got on as far as thirty, when I was hurried out of sight, but farther on the novelty wore off. Hillsides and level plains of many square miles were without a fence of any kind; every man's farm was shown by bounds known to him and his neighbours; each had its own rotation. At Boisey-Bas the geological structure of the country changes; along the route from Paris the hills ran parallel to our course, but here they traverse the path; lamps were lit and tunnels passed; then came the vine lands, the best of which have given the name of Burgundy a world-wide reputation. Each farmer makes the wine from his own grapes, and sells it to the wine merchant, who stores and tests it. The casks, of about 100 gallons, sell at prices ranging from 10f. to 200f.; some vine land sells as high as 20,000f. the hectare, and it is bought not so much by the acre as by the interest producible; thirty to forty years' purchase, or two and a half to three per cent. on the money invested, is considered a fair return. The area of land under vines in France is nearly 6,000,000 of The estimated produce of the wine crop of 1865, an unusually good year, is 1,000,000,000 gallons, or about 140 gallons per acre. The quantity imported into Great Britain has increased from 583,000 gallons in 1854, to 2,304,000 gallons in 1864. acres. All those acquainted with the rural population of France know that their health, strength, and activity are remarkable, particularly when the small consumption of animal food is considered. This is attributed to the wholesomeness and life-giving properties of their cheap ordinary wines. A peasant in the wine districts is rarely seen intoxicated. He buys his wine, or makes it himself, at a cost of about 2d. or 3d. the bottle. It consists solely of the juice of the grape; nothing whatever is added to give it increased force, or an improved flavour. The flat, rich land lying between Chalons-surSoane and Lyons is unfit for vines, and there were seen some considerable herds of cows grazing. They are a peculiar colour, and do not possess either the rich roan of the Durham or the black and white of the Dutch; they are either a dirty white or a light dun colour. Lyons is about the size of Dublin, the population being 292,000: its markets are well supplied with meat, which is now 14 sous (about 7d.) per pound. How the Londoners' mouths will water at this price. The departments I traversed to-day were principally Yonne, the chief town of which is Tonnerre; Côte d'Or, of which Dijon is the capital; and Saone et Loire, of which Macon is the chief town. The area under wheat and barley has considerably increased.* Notwithstanding the large area occupied by the * Area under Wheat and Barley in the departments of Côte d'Or, Saone et Loire, and Yonne, in 1815 and 1817 were FRENCH PEASANT PROPRIETORS. 47 vines, there has been a considerable increase in that under wheat and barley. The great prosperity of agricultural France is mainly attributable to the existence of the peasant proprietors, and one cannot but regret their absence in Great Britain. Had the commonages which existed in England from the time of the Anglo-Saxons to the accession of the Stuarts, which never were held by feudal tenure, but were allodial lands—the owner's title lies, not in the original grant, but in the Act of Parliament which permitted its enclosure-had these lands been di vided among the poor, to whom they belonged in common, in plots of eight acres each, we should now have no less than 500,000 proprietors of that class. With such a policy, the poor laws, which have cost England since their institution over 500,000,0007., would now be unnecessary; the poor would have provided for themselves. This would have preserved to the agricultural interest its weight in the legislation of the country, as it would have made the freehold voters three times as many as they now are. It would have also made the poor more independent and more conservative. The great increase in the civic population deserves the attention of all. The hint given by the cotton famine ought not to be disregarded, but, without in the slightest degree lessening the value of existing estates, some plan ought to be devised which would gradually add to the rural population of Great Britain. M. Turgot, a French statesman, whose treatise on the production of wealth was the text of Adam Smith's work, divided mankind into two classes, alimentary and stipendary. He placed the agriculturist in the former class, and held that all the other grades live upon |