It is a system that
would soon become impossible without trustfulness and honesty. On both
sides there must be fair dealing. The _colon_ must feel that the landlord
will help him in time of trial and need, and the landlord must feel that
the _colon_ is not trying to cheat him. In the great majority of cases, the
man who does the ploughing, the sowing and the harvesting quite realizes
that honesty with him is the best policy, and the owner of the soil knows
that it is to his interest to support his _metayer_, and encourage him with
judicious aid when the times are bad. The _metayer_, who has hope of making
a little money over and above what is barely sufficient to support himself
and his family, and knows that results will depend largely upon his
own sagacity and industry, works with a steady zeal that it would be
unreasonable to expect of the hired labourer, who, having his measured
wage always in his mind's eye, has no incentive to do more than what is
rigorously expected of him.
It may happen that the _metayer_, with all his labour--carried sometimes
to an extreme that degrades the man physically and mentally--and all
his frugality, which so often entails constitutional enfeeblement and
degeneration, because the nutrition is not sufficient to correct the
exhaustion of toil, obtains really less value for his work than an English
farm labourer, and is not so well housed; but, on the other hand, he enjoys
a large amount of liberty and independence, and has the hope, if he is
young, of being able to save money, buy some land, and become his own
master.
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