The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-18 00:00:00

-I-'RITH'S CELEBRATED DERBY DAY,
WILL OPEN on SATURDAY next, April 19, at the
UPPER GALLERY, 120, Pall Mall. Admission is.

('IHRISTY'S MINSTRELS. The Original,
.) Well-known, and only CHRISTY'S MINSTRELS are
performing nightly to crowded houses at the POLYGRA-
PHIC HALL, King William-street, Strand. Tickets to be
had at Mr. Mitchell's Royal Library, 33, Old Bond-street;
Mr. Austin's Ticket Office. St. James's Hall, Piccadilly
Morning Performance every Saturday at three o'clock.—
W. P. COLLINS, Sole Proprietor.

MR. AND \IRS. CHARLES MATHEWS
"A I' HOME,"
At Her Maj2sty's Concert Room, Haymarket.
The LAST PERFORMANCE To-MORROW (SATUR-
DAY) at Three.
Private boxes, stalls, and places may be secured at the Box-
office, which is open daily from Ten till Five, and at Mr.
charge for booking. 33, Old Bond-street. No extra
4Es. ; Upper Boxes, 3s. ; Unreserved
sMesiattteash,l el
2sl t 54
as
n. I :do
First
Circle Library, ,
s.
Due notice will be given of the Production of the New
Entertainment.

FREIV CH AGRICULTURE.

A letter from Poissy says—France, pre-eminently the
country of revolutions, now offers the spectacle of one from
which nothing but good can be expected. It is not the
ouvriers rising to overturn the Empire, but the Emperor
seeking to consolidate his power by opening up the re-
sources of the country, and gtving to capital that confidence
which can only be derived fr‘m a firm Government. The
special phase of this revolutign I am here to chronicle is
soon explained. A number of cattle, sheep, and pigs are
collected at Poissy, near to Ptiyis, and are here ranged side
by side with some fine represeriativeis of our English breeds.
The whole are drawn together by a lirge amount of prize
money, amounting to £5,938, exclusive of gold medals and
cups offered by the French Government. There is more in
all this than appears to a casual observer. There are but
few who remember what England was 80 years ago; but
those who have made themselves acquainted with the pro-
digious change which has occurred in our agriculture will
be at no loss to recognise the significance of a bucolic as-
semblage like this, nor of the presence here of the cylindri-
cally formed English short-horn.
France, too often led Ly clever clap- trap, once felt herself
flattered by the well-known saying, "France is rich enough
to pay for her glory." Sha now seems disposed to say,
France is rich enough in glory to think of her finances ;
and certainly if we by the action of public opinion can en-
courage her in this wise decision it will not be own interests
alone that we shall serve. Eo soon as the fertile soil of
France shall be made to yie.d its increase, and bread shall
be cheap, and contentment shall promenade in holiday
attire the Champs Elysees, ben may that immense stand-
ing army (so expensive a btgbear to England) gradually
merge again into the populace, and from being an unpro-
ductive element, serve by its welt-directed energies in trade,
commerce, and agriculture t) augment the national wealth.
It is a very common notion that Napoleon is a profound
man, that he returned to France as the elected of the people,
with a mysteriously forecast plan of domestic and foreign
policy, to which everything has been made to bend, and
which will eventually land him above the reach of deadly pro-
jectiles in some third heaven or other. There are those, how-
ever, who have always esteeraed him a man of simple though
bold cast of mind, having a singularly sagacious knowledge
of the French character. He seems to have made blunders
like other men, and if he has had plans, to have deviated
from them when circumstances have required it of him.
The main single idea to which he has kept true seems to
have been the development of the internal resources of the
country, and particularly those of the soil. There is some-
thing said about some memorable speech of his, wherein he
tells his countryrhen that be represents a defeat, and a de-
feat to be revenged; but looking at him, and at the charac-
ter of his reign, there is reason to think that he must just
then have been in an ironical mood, and alluded to the rural
defeat so lucidly portrayed by M. de Lavergne, where he
shows statistically that the soil of England, though less
fertile, produces just twice as much as that of France.
Nothing is more certain than that in apiculture the
ussisergoingdirect
dirrapt encouragement forward, and that it is
u.ragement and gwooinrkg offorpwrogre
under forward
foster-
ing care of the Emperor. Aware that example is more in-
fluential than predept, he possesses farms in all quarters of
his dominions. They are model establishments, and are
designed to show to the cultivators of the -neighbourhood
round what they may do to imprsve their breeds of cattle
add their methods of cereal culture. The Emperor is, in
fact, the largest farmer in his domains any at rate, if not
in Europe. He cultivates 51,000 acres of land, and gives
to his rural affairs an attenticn as hearty as he does to affairs
military and naval. The year before last, when the Em-
press visited the Smithfield Cattle SW:4w, the hon. secre-
tary was amazed by the minute intimacy which that lady
discovered with the breeds and sub-breeds of France, and
also with those of England. The Government is encou-
raging agriculture far and wide. There are 12 regional
cattle shows throughout France annually. It would be
better, certainly, that these shows should be due to private
enterprise, and not to the governing power; but if private
enterprise is at fault, it is well that official alertness should
take its place. All is yet contained within a little official
world, but the dimensions of this world are growing larger.
These meetings and the large prizes offered by the Govern-
ment are drawing every year more exhibitors, and every
man who attends returns to his herd, his flock, or his town
agricultural association, the wiser for the experience thus
gained. But, beyond the influence thus brought to bear,
there are 71 agricultural schools, for the purpose of train-
ing boys in correct theoretical principles of cultivation
and in the proper reduction of those principles to prac-
tice. These co-exist with colleges of agriculture, breed-
ing establishments where the best English cattle are
kept, national flocks and studs of thoroughbred horses, and
a bank of credit fonder, by means of which wonders are
wrought beyond the barrieres of Paris quite equal to those
which astonish even the residents within them. It will
not surprise anybody to know, after what has been stated,
that there is springing up a reading agricultural public,
and this intelligent taste is being nourished by such perio-
dicals as the Journal d'Agriculture Pratique and the Revue
Abricole, and by such works as those whioh M. de Lavergne
has recently furnished for the edification of English as well
as French readers.

Notwithstanding all this advance, and all these aids to
advancement, much remains to be done. The last-named
writer, after showing that the gross produce of land in
France has increased from 16s. an acre in 1789 to 19s. an
acre in 1815, and to 325. an acre in 1859, goes on to say
that this progress, had not half the time that has elapsed
since the Revolution been wasted, might have been twice
as great. " A neighbouring country, in which the princi-
ples of 1789 have been, notwithstanding a few apparent
exceptions, more anciently and more constantly applied
than with us, has accomplished in the same time a progress
much more rapid still. In 1789 the United Kingdom had
thirteen millions and a half inhabitants; in 1856 its popu-
lation had increased to 28 millions, without reckoning the
millions of English-born individuals scattered in distant
colonies and all over the world. The population of Eng-
land has thus more than doubled, whilst ours has increased
only by one-third. It has taken us 70 years to reclaim five
million acres of waste lands, suppress half of our bare fel-
lows, double our agricultural produce, increase our popu-
lation by 30 per cent., wages 100 per cent., and rent 160
per cent. At this rate we should require three-quarters of
a century more to reach the point of prosperity which
England has already attained."

Our neighbours, however, do not seem disposed to travel
at this tardy rate. They have devised a short cut, and
certainly it is the best they can adopt. Observing the pro-
digious results which are due to the appreciative selection
of animals for reproduction, exercised by our breeders of
cattle and sheep, and the substitution of some three or four
pure and noble breeds in each division, in place of a great
many poor ones, which were only valuable so long as local
circumstances, since extinguished, rendered them so, the
French landed proprietors have readily availed themselves
of the stack so obtained, and we are glad they should have
done so. The establishment of what is called the short-
horn breed has proved a mine of wealth to us. In Ireland
and our colonies it is working wonders ; and already, as
is visible at Poissy, it has set its seal upon some of
the French local breeds. The Herefords and cer-
tain Scotch breeds have also been imported into France
with the best effects. Our readers will perhaps scarcely be
prepared for the announcement that there is now quite a
bulky short-horn herd-book. Turning over the volume
published this year, it is observable that 1,645 pedigree ani-
mals are therein entered, bred or imported by 140 breeders,
including tho Emperor. This has boon going on for 25
years.

Were this show to exhibit all the French breels
it would be much more extcnsivo than it is. From
the little steers of Mori an and the miscroscopic Bretonne
cows to the colossal animals of Cotentin or of Agenois—
from the stunted sheep of the Landes or Ardennes to the
long-backed Dishley merinos, there is a variety of types
sufficient to fill an indefinite space. No one who glances
at the geological structure of the surface of the country
could be astonished at this. It is clear enough that plains
and mountains, rocks and marshes, granitic, calcareous,
clay or sandy soils, the sun of the north or of the south,,cli-
mates rigorous or temperate, dry or damp, variable or
constant, are circumstances that will account for this diver-

- -
sity. There are the physical agencies which give rise to
breeds. To some extent these are variable. There are
also economic conditions such as the movements of popula-
tion, the facilities of communicution, and the opening of
markets. The bovine breeds have, for instance, hitherto
been more used, to plough the land, and draw the load,
and give milk, butter, and cheese, than nurtured to pro-
duce meat. But now a change arises in the public taste,
and it is felt that a bullock fattened after having worked
five years is as incompatible with juicy
beef as to spend
four or five years in bringing a steer to maturity when it
can be done elsewhere in two or three,