The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 2

France (Agricultural Holdings)

France (Agricultural Holdings)

Land-owners in other States

.

Total Acres.
1,815,000 occupiers of less than 5 hectares (7½ acres) 12,540,000
1,256,000 occupiers of between 5 hectares and 40 hectares (100 acres) 43,800,000
154,000 occupiers of over 40 hectares (100 acres) 27,142,000
3,221,000 83,482,000
Woods and forests 19,980,000
Moors and uncultivated land 18,200,000
121,662,000 1

Land-owners in other States.

From these figures it appeal's that France is neither owned nor cultivated to the extent that is generally believed by peasant proprietors; one-third only of its area is owned, and one-tenth of it only is cultivated by this class. Another third part is owned by half a million of persons we should more properly class as yeomen, and one-third of it is cultivated in farms of about the same size. The remaining one-third is owned by what are called large proprietors, 50,000 in number, and one-third of the cultivated part of France is held in large farms, most of them on tenancy. One half the area of cultivated France is held on tenancy; and the farms of over 100 acres very much outnumber those in the United Kingdom. Compared with this, five-sixths of the area of the United Kingdom are owned by 15,000 persons, and not one fiftieth part of it by small owners. The number of small cultivators however is considerable; they number three-quarters of a million and hold one-tenth of the cultivated land; the large farms are under 100,000 in number, but they contain about two-thirds of the cultivated land of the United Kingdom.

In none of these countries does there exist the entire and absolute separation between the three classes of landowners, farmers, and clay labourers, which is the distinguishing feature of the English system; in many of them there are numerous large properties cultivated by tenants and labourers; but the tenant-farmers are members of a class of whom many are themselves owners; and a great proportion of the labourers are also owners of land. Through-out all the countries named at least 50 per cent., and in France probably 75 percent, of the labouring population in the rural districts are owners of small properties, which they either cultivate themselves, or let out to their neighbours or relations to cultivate, while working for wages themselves.

In the United States also the separation of the rural community into landowners, farmers, and labourers has not begun to show itself.

1 It is of interest to compare this table with a similar one for the United Kingdom :—

Owners.
Total Acres.
130,000 small owners averaging 13 acres 1,750,000
50,000 medium sized owners with an average of 180 acres 9,000,000
15,000 large owners averaging 4,260 acres 64,000,000
195,000 74,750,000
Crown lands and lands in mortmain 1,600,000
76,350,000
Agricultural Holdings.
Total Acres.
750,000 occupiers of less than 10 acres 4,500,000
316,000 occupiers of from 10 acres to 100 acres 14,700,000
92,000 occupiers of above 100 acres 28,000,000
1,148,000 47,400,000
Mountains, moors, and woods 29,000,000
76,400,000