human increase will redress, instead of aggravating, as some ignorantly argue.

(10.) To come, then, to the immediate subject. Seeing these facts, which are in themselves so important and decisive, and sent, as we are, on all hands, to this interesting part of the world, in order to have the clearest insight into the best methods of productive agriculture: let us ask, what is the practice of the Netherlanders in regard of the size of farms? It requires but little research to satisfy ourselves on this point. The farms, with hardly any exceptions, are universally small; small, not merely in comparison with many which disgrace our present system, but with ours in former times, a generation or two ago, in the days of the honest yeomanry of England. In Arthur Young's Annals of Agriculture, we see those consisting of thirty or forty acres spoken of as considerable; there were many, it is observed, of greater extent, but then there were those which could not keep a horse, and where the whole business was executed by the spade'. In some of the remoter and more sterile districts, larger tracts may be allowed to be in possession of the same individual; but even then, there are few farms which would be called large in England; while, in the more fertile and best managed districts, the land is cultivated in very small allotments, almost universally, and these, it is observed, diminish in size as the country becomes

'Young, Annals of Agriculture, vol. i. pp. 222-251. Abbé Mann, Communications to the Board, &c. vol.i. pp. 224, 233, 245. Baron Poederlé; ibid. p. 252. Radcliff's Report on the Agriculture of Flanders, pp. 44, 92, 227.

richer. But, as it is obviously impossible for me to enter minutely into this branch of the subject, however important, I will at once select the most productive and best cultivated district of this fruitful country by which to put the question to the test. The Abbé Mann, writing at a late period, says, "The agriculture of the Pays de Waes passes, without contestation, for the most complete and perfect in all the Netherlands1." This district, Mr. Radcliff, in his "Report of the Agriculture of Flanders," says, "is of merited celebrity, and obviously beautiful to the eye, in the garden-like appearance of its cultivation," exhibiting an unrivalled unity of system and operation2. The major part of the farms, " in the country of Waes, which comprehends an extensive tract of Flanders, consist only of six or seven boniers, and many only of three or four3." "The bonier may be reckoned three English acres*;" consequently their size varies from about nine to eighteen acres. "The farms being so very small, few horses are kept in the land of Waes; the ground is chiefly worked with the spade and hoe. All these contribute, together, to give a

4

'Abbé Mann, Communications, &c. vol. i.

Radcliff, Report of the Agric. of the Netherlands, p. 181.

3 Baron Poederlé, Communications, &c. vol. i. p. 255.

Abbé Mann, Communications, &c., p. 224.

It is a pleasing sight to observe a row, consisting of the cultivator and his family, pursuing the system of spade husbandry, the lesser branches of it busy following the trenches, and planting, sowing, or manuring; more pleasing still to observe the luxuriant produce with which this persevering industry is attended, and most gratifying of all to trace its effects to the comfort it bestows upon the cultivator, and the overflowing plenty it confers on the community. In these observations I draw no conclusions favourable, or otherwise, to mere spade husbandry; but apply

richness and fertility to the soil of this tract, which surpasses almost what can be imagined. No spot lies uncultivated. Fallow ground is unknown." "There are three crops in two years." Another quotation, from the same authority, is most interesting, as illustrative of the effects of population on the quality of the land, as well as the condition of the people. The Abbé Mann says, "The original soil was pure sand, and its present state of fertility is owing to the great number of its industrious inhabitants, who cultivate a few acres round their dwellings, of which, for the most part, they are proprietors." Baron Poederlé concurs in attributing the great fertility of this celebrated district to its great population*.

I must further remark, that this system of minute cultivation is not the result of accident, as is so often alleged in reference to Ireland, but of deliberate preference and choice. It has been the principle of Belgic legislation to encourage it"; "the government

which has so much at heart all the minutest interests of agriculture," has "passed ordinances in some provinces for restraining the extent of farms, and prescribing a division of those of too great extent";"

them to the general argument in favour of continuing the present small farm system where it still exists, and of returning to it, where it is practicable, without inflicting injury on individuals; being convinced, to adopt the language of a very able and elegant writer on agriculture, that "smaller shares are more capable of admitting a correct and accurate husbandry."-(Harte's Essays, p.79.) 'Abbé Mann, Communications, &c., vol. i. p. 234.

2

Encyc. Brit., Supplement, vol. vi. p. 66.

3 Abbé Mann, Communications, &c., vol. i. p. 234.

* Baron Poederlé, Communications, &c., vol. i. p. 247.

* Abbé Mann, Communications, &c., vol. i. p. 223.

6

Radcliff, Report on the Agric. of Flanders, p. 66.

7 Abbé Mann, Communications, &c., vol. i. p. 223.

"and expressly prohibiting the letting farm-houses fall to ruin, without rebuilding them, a thing many proprietors seek, for the sake of sparing the expense of rebuilding and repairs'." This is a very different thing to government taxing the rebuilding of such, as some in our Emigration Committee seem to propose 2. It may be thought, however, that quoting legislative enactments carries but little weight to the argument, such being not always founded on the most enlightened principles; but it must be observed that the government, in thus acting, did not force, but follow public opinion; the superiority of small farms having been proved by all those who had, in that country, directed their attention to the subject and written upon it: in deferring to their recorded opinions, the legislature, therefore, pursued an enlightened as well as liberal policy. I particularly allude to the Abbé Mann, whom our Board of Agriculture consulted on the husbandry of the Netherlands, which drew from him that admirable memoir already quoted: in which there is an allusion, in a note to his observations on this important subject (so the Board confess it to be), which, says their report, "may be seen in the library of the British Museum3, of the Royal Society, the

1 Abbé Mann, Communications, vol. i. p. 224.

2

Emigration Report, third part, p. 323.

The board says, this work may be seen in the library of the British Museum. The difficulty, however, of obtaining access to that institution the writer of this has fully experienced, but which he has only shared with others, whose claims to admission to any national institution, where literature is professedly patronised, are far greater than his. The regulations are doubtless meant to secure the property of the establishment, and are so far proper; but it is doubtful whether they answer that purpose; while they certainly operate to the exclusion of many who may live remote from the

Society of Antiquaries, the Board of Longitude, &c. &c." Happy would it have been for the agricultural world, if it had been "seen" in their publications; but the principle it advocates did not coincide with the fashionable and fatal practice they espoused, founded on a principle of selfishness, as it regarded the class that had to determine a question which affected the happiness of thousands of families, and supported by false representations respecting the interest of those who were to be annihilated, as farmers, in order to execute the design. And it has too well succeeded. We may, however, still turn to the Netherlands, and see a better system yet remaining, where the farms, on the general average, are about the size of those little takes which have been wrested from the cottagers of England, by the large monopolists, under the pretence, forsooth, that it injured the landlord, the culti vator, and the public. These being all the parties concerned, it is worth while to examine these several allegations, as it respects the agriculture of the Netherlands.

As far as the landlord is concerned, this is stated to be the effect. "The increase of population," says the Baron Poederlé, "since the peace of 1749, has greatly diminished the size of farms, as well in Hainault as elsewhere." (So it ought to have done every where, if feeling, policy, or common sense had been consulted.) "The proprietors, in dividing their estates, have almost

metropolis, and who, consequently, have not an equal facility in obtaining the required introduction. He is bound, however, to add, that nothing can exceed the attention of the officers, if by good chance à stranger, resident at a distance from the capital, gain admission.