The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-08-14 00:00:00

THE HARVEST IN FRANCE.

We (The Times) have been favoured by Mr. Kains-Jackson
with the following observations, formed during a journey
thrQugh the principal corn distiicts of France :-
- -

" CHATEAUDIIN, FRANCE, July 27.

"The cupboard of France, yet well filled with bread
from the reserves of last year, seems likely to get fairly
replenished from this season's crop. Dismissing any
theories that from the bad weather of July a bad
harvest should follow, and resolving to note only
actual facts, I have accordingly passed through some
of the principal districts that grow wheat in France
during mid-harvest, in the centre of the country;
happily, under the sunny skies that succeeded the
flooding rains in the middle of this month. Setting
out from Normandy, and descending southwards
through the Sarthe Department, through Touraine,
Anjou, Poitou, to the sea coast of La Vendee, I doubled
back through the Loire Inferieure, Saumur, Angers,
by Vend Ame, ChAtennrinn, and the valley of the Seine,
to my point of departure,—in the cheerful streets of
Havre.

"The impressions received on such a journey of
several hundred miles are here offered as likely to assist
in the formation of a fairly accurate opinisn as to the
probable results of the French wheat yield.
"A rapid rise in the price of wheat and flour had, by
the 21st of July, so far prejudged the case that general
alarm was felt as to the safety of the crops, which were
supposed to be.deteriorated, and in some cases half
sacrificed to the violent season ; and this feeling was
especially strong in England, where continued rain
has a great significance, and is associated with dank
vegetation and a saturated surface soil. An hour's
survey dispelled much of this alarm; for, although the
skies were overcast and the afternoon rainy when
I visited my first fields in the fertile valley
of the Auge I soon understood that rain in France
is vastly ditierent to rain in England. The soil of
most French lands—light, thirsty, and volatile—
accepts the moisture, but it does not remain obstin-
ately wet and cold for a single day, while a few hours
of the downright sunshine of France makes the land-
scape smile again, and mists and swampiness are un-
known, at least in July. '1 be above fact altered the
case at once, and I was prepared to find that the
actual damage to the French harvest by rain was in
reality very inconsiderable, and that the yield of wheat
would be whatever the season had made it up to the
time of blooming. A second doubt was also quickly
dissipated, in respect to saving the crops during
' catchy ' weather, such as in England is the farmer's
tiresome and formidable enemy, but which here is
wellnigh only a spectre to frighten the markets.
Against small farms there has been a heavy debtor
account reckoned up by pslitical economists, but there
may be, assuredly, a good credit given to the right
side in their manageability during harvest. Give
the peasant owner an hour's sunshine between showers,
and he and his family wi'l contrive to save in a few
days all the best of the crop. The ears for man are
first bagged, being cut at the top, and the long straw
stubble is left for a more convenient season to be saved
for beast. Bad, indeed, must be the weather that does
not afford such opportunity as the French farmer re-
quires to save his wheat. Now, reference to the about
176 million acres of wheat grown in France shows that
more than three-fourths of the farms are under 25
acres, and more than half are under 15 acres' so that
probably three to four acres of wheat would be the
average area of such farms; consequently the labour
and time necessary to save the yield would always be
commanded. Such being the position of affairs where
culture in patchwork plots is the system of the
country, I proceed to notice in some detail the diffe-
rent sections.
"On Thursday afternoon, the 22nd. of July, the ap-
pearance of the fields in the North of France settled
one point—harvest time was fully a fortnight later
than it was in 1874, for in that Vile, on the 11th,
thresh:ng of seeds in the fields and the cutting of rye
and oats were general. This year, and on the 23rd,
wasted hay in cocks was the chief harvest object in the
land-cape to be seen the valley of the Auge, fertile
with orchards on the slopes, and rich with meadows
full of cattle, where the soil is geologically partly of
the Paris tertiary basin, with hills of. the Jurassic
period. Here, where many wheat crops are growing
under apple trees, tke corn was ripening and of
good colour, the crois- being occasionally thick and
laid by the floods that had recently produced the
inundations of Lisieux, but without doing impor-
tant damage to the crops. Certainly the wheat
yield in this district should reach an average. Lower
down, where the soil becomes a poor, yellow, stony
brash, marked oolite 'on the maps, the wheat was
thin, uncut, and all standing, barley short, the land
badly farmed and full of weeds. Nor were the crops
better near Argentan, where the gray transition rocks
form the soil. According to my own judgment, the
harvest hereabouts must be deficient, but a man in-
formed me the wheat crop was fair; so little goes
to make the French yield an average. Alencon
stands on the borders of the oolite and transition
soils, and here I made a visit on foot into the fields,
finding them improve as I got on the older forma-
tions, until at Vivoin-Beaumont several wheat fields
were standing up well, or falling, July 23, under
the mowers' scythe. This was the first wheat I had
seen cut, and the grain was ripe and hard, the day
being sunny. As to last week's, even yesterday's rain,
the land and the people seem to have forgotten it.
Journeying on, taking the slow stopping trains, and
crossing the Sarthe river—the soil a light brown loam
—I am far enough south to welcome the vines and to
meet with hemp side by side with wheat, much of the
latter ripe for gathering and some fields already cleared
and showing fair stubbles, which prepared me, when I
arrived at Le Mans on its market day to find plenty of
new wheat in sacks on offer. The samples were un-
satisfactory as regards condition, being soft and damp,
but otherwise the grain was well grown. The wheat
yet in the fields was hard and ripe enough, and would
make good market samples, superior to the first. There
was now no doubt the weather had taken up, and
from Le Mans to Tours I found harvest-work going on
biiskly under bright blue skies, softened by white
clouds that tempered the warm air. This route soon
showed the chalky soil of Touraine, green sand dividing
this formation from the common chalk of the Seine
valley. Everywhere the wheat was dead ripe, some-
times thick and laid, but oftener thin and upright on
short straw. The vines seemed to love the soil better
than did the wheat, and potatoes were hesking well in
flower and without trace of disease, which must
surely spare these light soils, sweetened by pure soft
air. .Experiments now in progress at Mettray invited
a visit, but I had decided to give the 21th of July
to Poitou and La Vsnd6e, visiting tbe great cattle
centre of Chollet, where many hundreds of strangers
resort. In the country, from Tours to Angers,
along the delightful Loire valley, the peasants
were often mowing the straw stubble, having
already cut and saved the ears of corn. Hemp, corn,
• and potatoes shared with vines the ground, and good
barley fields occasionally appeared. While some
patches were being ploughed already, a large portion
• of grain was still in the fields, although beans were
being harvested in others. The best soils had the best
crops ; the light lands, sometimes almost a blowing
sand, had a thin and poor harvest. Near Les Rosieres
hemp was common, six to seven feet high, and I was
told the rotation of crops was exceedingly simple—wheat
one year, hemp the next, and then wheat and hemp
; again. Where the line of journey turned off due South
at La Poissonniere the country soon became rocky, a