equired by the landlord obliging
them to too many hours of labor in order to produce that, and wherewith
to feed and clothe themselves. The soil of Champagne and Burgundy I
have found more universally good than I had expected, and as I could
not help making a comparison with England, I found that comparison more
unfavorable to the latter than is generally admitted. The soil, the
climate, and the productions are superior to those of England, and the
husbandry as good, except in one point; that of manure. In England,
long leases for twenty-one years, or three lives, to wit, that of the
farmer, his wife, and son, renewed by the son as soon as he comes to
the possession, for his own life, his wife's and eldest child's, and so
on, render the farms there almost hereditary, make it worth the
farmer's while to manure the lands highly, and give the landlord an
opportunity of occasionally making his rent keep pace with the improved
state of the lands. Here the leases are either during pleasure, or for
three, six, or nine years, which does not give the farmer time to repay
himself for the expensive operation of well manuring, and, therefore,
he manures ill, or not at all. I suppose, that could the practice of
leasing for three lives be introduced in the whole kingdom, it would,
within the term of your life, increase agricultural productions fifty
per cent.; or were any one proprietor to do it with his own lands, it
would increase his rents fifty per cent., in the course of twenty-five
years. But I am told the laws do not permit it. The laws then, in this
particular, are unwise and unjust, and ought to give that permission.
In the southern provinces, where the soil is poor, the climate hot and
dry, and there are few animals, they would learn the art, found so
precious in England, of making vegetable manure, and thus improving
these provinces in the article in which nature has been least kind to
them. Indeed, these provinces afford a singular spectacle. Calculating
on the poverty of their soil, and their climate by its latitude only,
they should have been the poorest in France. On the contrary, they are
the richest, from one fortuitous circumstance. Spurs or ramifications
of high mountains, making down from the Alps, and, as it were,
reticulating these provinces, give to the valleys the protection of a
particular inclosure to each, and the benefit of a general stagnation
of the northern winds produced by the whole of them, and thus
c