They are generally
well clothed, and have a plenty of food, not animal indeed, but
vegetable, which is as wholesome. Perhaps they are over-worked, the
excess of the rent required 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.
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