The exact data for England are I believe not found,
but in 1827 Mr. Couling, a civil engineer and sur-
veyor, delivered a series of calculations to the Select
Committee of the House of Commons on Emigra-
tion, which calculations have been reproduced by
Mr. Porter in his work on the Progress of the
Nation. From this I copy the following table:

Now as the arable and gardens are all that can
possibly be reckoned to the hide, we have these
figures:

Arable........................ 10,262,800

Meadow, waste, forest, etc....... 22,080,000

giving a ratio of 5:11 nearly between the cultivated
and uncultivated¹.

The actual amount in France is difficult to ascer-
tain, but of the 52,732,428 hectares of which its
superficial extent consists, it is probable that about
30,000,000 are under some sort of profitable cul-
ture: giving a ratio of rather less than 15:11 be-
tween the cultivated and uncultivated: how much
of this is arable and garden I cannot exactly deter-
mine ; but it is probable that a great deal is reck-
oned to profitable cultivation, which could not have

¹ This differs from the result obtained at forty acres, only by the
small advance of ⅛ : or taking Mr. Porter’s tables, of ʌ.

CH. IV.] THE EDEL HI'D OR ALOD.           Ill

been counted in the hide. Osieries, meadows, or-
chards, cultivated or artificial grassland, and brush-
wood, are all sources of profit, and thus are pro-
perly included in a cadastre of property which may
be tithed or taxed as'productive: but they are not
strictly what the hide was, and must be deducted
in any calculation such as that which is the object
of this chapter. We are unfortunately also fur-
nished with inconsistent amounts by different au-
thorities, where the difference rests upon what is
reckoned to profitable cultivation, on which subject
there may be a great variety of opinion. Still, for
a time neglecting these considerations, and making
no deduction whatever, it appears that the excess
of culture upon the gross sum is only as 15:11 in
France ɪ.

In the returns from Austria we can follow the

¹ The hectare is about 2∙5 acres. The calculations have been va-
riously made. One is as follows :

Total superficies .............. 62,732,428 hect.

Profitably cultured, including gardens, osier- 1

ies, willow plantations, orchards, meadows > 30,000,000 hect.

and cultivated pastures................I

Forests and landes...................... 10,000,000 ..

Useless land............................ 7,000,000 ..

47,000,000 ..

Another, and I believe sounder, calculation makes the forests and
landes amount to

Forest................ 8,623,128 hect.

Landes ...........    8,000,000  ..

16,623,128’ ..

Where, probably, portions of the wood and lande are not reckoned to
the land under profitable cultivation. Still this is a very different thing
from being under the plough.

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