The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1893-03-10
sn1cinl c-or,nponlnee Of NE Inielaeer.


about rural France will have to be re-
vised. 1t has been popularly supposed
that tho extensive subdivision OF agri-
cultural land in this country was due
primarily to the Revolution OF a hun
bred years ago, There a be no doubt
that the popular uprising of that ps'
Rod, with its political and material
. changes, were somewhat Of a help to-
ward this end, but that they could not
have been the chief factor is shown
c~onclusively by the single circumstance
that when the Revolution broke out it
found amongst the twenty-five millions
OF the population at that period about
half as many small landowners rs there
arc estimated to be at present, in a pop
ulation OF thirty-eight millions. As q
matter OF fact peasant proprietorship
as II exists in France is q legacy from
the far distant past. Itexisted and was
recognized side by side with feudalism,
and 1t has reached It's present %unparal.
leled dimensions because, since feudal-
ism was abolished the political and ma
terial conditions OF France have become
gradually moro and more favorable to
il.
Another notion needing to be modi-
fed is that which conceives OF small
propriotors as holding a larger area Of
the agricultural land OF France than is
held by proprietors OF more import
ance. 1t is easy to BIO misled in this
matter. There are portions OF France,
and the fairest and richest portions, OF
which such q conception would be un-
o%uestionably true, and the notion re-
ceives additional favor from those gen.
eral statements which are afloat, like
that, for instance, which puts the ag-
gregate OF landowners at eight millions,
and another which states that one half
of tho agricultural surface Is titled by
the families to whom it belongs.
When, however, we dive into figures q
little, what we discover is that holdings
OF less than 10 acres amount to only
about q fourth Of the country's surface,
while those exceeding l20 acres cover
moro than a third of it. We also find
that holdings which range between
these figures exceed considerably In the
acres they cover both the smaller and
the larger estates; making 1t obviously
true, as French statisticians have repeat
edly maintained, that France, as re-
CARDS tho division of its land, may moro
properly be classed as q country Of
medium holdings than as a nation
which is either dominated by big land
lords or cut into piecemeRl for the sole
benefit OF little ones.
THEIR PROSPERITY,
Two other notions challenge atten.
ton, both Iot which will have to be
changed somewhat If they are to har.
monizo with the facts. One is the pop.
ular ideathat under a system Of small
and medium ~holdingsthe land will be
cultivated better, and hence be more
fruitful, than under o different system
such q system; for instance, Us that
obtaining in England. 1nanew u
try like our own. where the soil has
only 10 DO tickled with the pillow to
smile annually with a bountiiul har-
vest, such a result from small proprie-
torship might be naturally counted up
on, but where the soil Is old and SO
nearly exhausted as to need artificial
stimulus, and therefore capital and
skill, to bring It into q state OF oven
moderate fr~uitfulness, it is very easy to
see, upon reflection, that the small,
semiimpoverished owner, who must
rely solely Upon his own limited re-
sources, is at a disadvantage, Not only
is this what might reasonably be TX
pected, but the figures show that it is
the actual result; that, too, whether
small holdings in France are compared
in their productiveness with larger
holdings Of the Same sort Of land IN the
same country, or whether agricultural
France ia Jumped together and COM
pared in this matter with nations which
pursue their farming under q different
sYstom.
So likewise must our notions as to
the degree OF material prosperity accra-
ing to small proprietors be modified
somewhat. Settled upon n few acres, a
small family may manage to live, but II
they depend solely upon what their
little patch OF land affords them, they
will live q hard life, with Rcarcely any
comfort, and in mean and squalid sur.
r~oundings. This is the condition of n
large part OF the French p~easantry at
the present day. II is quite true that
most OF them lay by a little for the fu.
ture, but thoy do this by q sort OF in
RtinCt, aud the reason they are able TO
do it Is that rather than leave the future
in uncertainty they will steal u little
from present necessaries. Allowing for
exceptions, we have not found that as
regards tho supply OF their material
wants tho French peasantry as d whole
are much, II any, better ssoif than the
farm laborers OF Great Britain. Their
food is coarse in the extremo and they
are often very meanly domiGiled. The
cleanliness and brightness ono sces 40
generally in laborers' cottages in Eng.
land aro rare indeed in France. NJ.
Blouet, who Is surely a good authority,
tells us that the average France peasant
will live on eight or ten cents adaY, and
another writer, NJ. Betham.E Edwards,
who has traversed the entire country,
says that Thousands OF French peasants
must have seen for the first time, at tho
Paris exposition Of 1889, those convent
onces OF modern lifo which in all vol
regulated families arc held essential 10
both health and doconcy.
VAST IMPROVEMENTS.
Perhaps wo arc laying too much stress
upon those things. For fear of being
Misunderstood, wO hasten to say that
rural life in France has undergone vast
improvements within twenty years, aud
that tho trond rs now moro decidedly
onward aud upward than ever before.
You an still find sections whore the
rude rcd udorns an alcoyo in tho kitchen,
and whore, ns In the earliest times,
lorsas are used to tread out tho corn