CHAP. XVI. Obstacles to Improvement; including General Observations on Agricultural Legislation and Police.

CHAP. XVII. Miscellaneous Observations.

SECT. 1. Agricultural Societies.

2. Weights and Measures.

3. Supply of London.

4. Experimental Farm.

CONCLUSION. Means of Improvement, and the Measures calculated for that Purpose. APPENDIX.

PERFECTION in such inquiries is not in the power of any body of men to obtain at once, whatever may be the extent of their views or the vigour of their exertions. If LOUIS XIV. eager to have his kingdom known, and pos sessed of boundless power to effect it, failed so much in the attempt, that of all the provinces in his kingdon, only one was so described as to secure the approbation of poserity *, it will not be thought strange that a Board, possessed

• See VOLTAIRE's Age of Louis XIV. vol. ii. p. 127, 128, edit. 1752.. The following extract from that work will explain the circumstance above alluded to:

"Louis had no COLBERT, nor Louvois, when, about the year 1698, for the instruction of the Duke of BURGUNDY, he ordered each of the intendants to draw up a particular description of his province. By this means an exact account of the kingdom might have been obtained, and a just enumeration of the inhabitants. It was an useful work, though all the intendants had not the capacity and attention of Monsieur DE LAMOIGNON DE BAVILLE. Had what the King directed been as well executed, in regard to

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sessed of means so extremely limited, should find it difficult
to reach even that degree of perfection which perhaps
might have been attainable with more extensive powers.
The candid reader cannot expect in these Reports more
than a certain portion of useful information, so arranged as
to render them a basis for further and more detailed in-
quiries. The attention of the intelligent cultivators of the
kingdom, however, will doubtless be excited, and the minds
of men in general gradually brought to consider favoura-
bly of an undertaking which will enable all to contribute
to the national stores of knowledge, upon topics so truly
interesting as those which concern the agricultural inte-
rests of their country; interests which, on just principles,
never can be improved, until the present state of the king-
dom is fully known, and the means of its future improve-
ment ascertained with minuteness and accuracy.

every province, as it was by this magistrate in the account of Languedoc, the
collection would have been one of the most valuable monuments of the age.
Some of them are well done; but the plan was irregular and imperfect, because
all the intendants were not restrained to one and the same. It were to be
wished that each of them had given, in columns, the number of inhabitants
in each election; the nobles, the citizens, the labourers, the artisans, the
mechanics; the cattle of every kind; the good, the indifferent, and the bad
lands; all the clergy, regular and secular; their revenues, those of the towns,
and those of the communities.

"All these heads, in most of their accounts, are confused and imperfect;
and it is frequently necessary to search with great care and pains, to find what
is wanted. The design was excellent, and would have been of the greatest use,
had it been executed with judgment and uniformity."

CONTENTS.

CHAP. II. STATE OF PROPERTY,...... 13

CHAP. III.

BUILDINGS.

SECT. 1. Houses of Proprietors,

24

2. Farm-Houses, Offices, and Repairs, ........ 16

CHAP. IV. MODE OF OCCUPATION.

SECT. 1. Size of Farms,

25