proprietors however regularly give so much a month voluntarily to those
who are past labour and have no relations to provide for them, and
houseless and pennyless wanderers are received and sheltered for a night
by the higher farmers and people of property, the mendicant having soup
and bread given him at night and the same when he starts in the morning.
Of these there are great numbers within the last few years, being
refugees from Spain, Italy and even Poland, driven to seek shelter where
they can find it by the political convulsions of their countries. In
this manner, the French have recently been severely taxed, but they
appear never to have the heart to deny shelter and food, although they
carry economy to such a height as would be styled by many of my affluent
countrymen absolute parsimony; which is perceptible in all their
transactions, and is in a great degree the cause of the miserable state
of their agriculture, which is also in some measure owing to the utter
ignorance of the farmers, who in all that tends towards improvement
display the stupidity of asses with the obstinacy of mules. There can be
no doubt that, generally speaking, the soil of France is capable of
producing half as much more than it at present yields; they still
persevere in the same system as existed in England in the year 1770,
when Arthur Young wrote his Agricultural Tour, describing the various
practices in the different counties throughout the kingdom. Two white
crops and a summer fallow is the usual course in France, sometimes
varied by a crop of clover, and very often they fallow for two years
together; they have no idea of leguminous crops as winter provision for
their cattle, and of the advantage to be derived from stall feeding they
are quite ignorant, except in a few provinces, as a part of Normandy and
Brittany. The same with regard to the drill system; they mostly plough
very shallow, and do not keep their land very clean, with a few
exceptions; the consequence is their crops are generally very light.
Thanks to the natural richness of their meadows in Normandy, they do