New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-08-13
EUROPE REVISITED.... No. XVI


A Yankee here lately said to aFrenchman;
81 am amazed that your people continue to cut
"prsss with that short, clumsy, wide bladed,
"s,raight-handled, eleventh-century implement,
"when we in America have scythes scarcely
" dearer which cut twice as fast Why, you see"
responded Monsieur, "while you have less laber than
"vou need we have far more; 30 that while il is
"your study TO economic human exertiOn, il is
"ours 10 find employment for our surplus. We
"have probably twice as many labOrers as we
need Then" persisted Jonathan your
true course would seem 20 be 10 break your
"scythes in two and work them at half their pres
cent length, thus adjusting your implements TO
"yOur work, since you are cOniessedly unable 10
"fnd work enough for your laborers, even with
" the wretched implements you now use Mon
sieur did not the matter in this light, and the
stream of conversation flowed into another channel.
Now while otherwise sensible Frenchmen actu-
ally believe that labor is here in excess there Is at
this hour pressing need of all the surplus labor OF
France for the next forty years TO be absorbed IN
the proper drainage of her soil alone. For want OF
this, whole districts are submerged or turned TO
marsh for three or four months between NOyem-
Der and April, ObstructDg labor, loading the air
with unwholesome humidity and subjecting the
peasantry 10 fevers and other diseases Thorough
draining alone would immensely increase the an
nual product, the wealth, and ultimately by pro-
noting health and diiusing plenty, even the pOpu-
ldtiOn of France.
So with regard to Flowing 1t is not quite so
bad here as in Spain, where friend this season
saw peasants blowing with an implement composed
of two clumsy sticks Of wood, one of which (the
horizontally worked its way through the earth after
the manner of a hogs snOut, while the other, IN
serted in the former at convenient angle, served
as a handle, being guided by the plowmans lett
band while he managed the team with his right.
With this relic of the good old days, the peasant
may have annoyed and irritated rood OF ground
per day to the depth of three inches and, as care
Is taken not to aict in this fashion any field that
cannot be irrigated he may possibly, by the con-
junction of good luck with laoOriOus culture OBJ
tain half crop 1t is a safe guess that this cult
vatOr, living the year round on black bread
moistened with weak vinegar or rancid oil, because
unable to live better, chershes a supreme con
tempt for all such quackery and humbug as book
farming.
The display Of Flows in the Palace of Industry
may have already alluded TO- bat | AIN not yet
done with it. II is therein perfectly demonstrable
that the same expenditure of human effort and
animal muscle which is now employed to disturb
the earth indiferently to an average depth of five
inches would suffice, if properly directed, to
pulyerize the same area thoroughly to the depth
of ten or twelve inches, increasing our annual har-
vests by at least twenty-five per cent and ahordlng
safeguard against the evil Influences of both wet
and dry seasons. A few enlightened minds here
are contemplating this result; the great majority
of French farmers either never think on the sub
ject or else regard it much as one of our own In
yeterate blOckbeads-of that sort which not only
knows nothing but glOries in it-expends his sub
sttute for wit on any meeting of Farmers Club.
France has naturally magnificent soil Ipre-
fer it, all things considered, to that of our own
Ua have land hat IL
richer at the outset, but very little that will hold
it's own in defiance of matreatment so well as this
does Lime abOunds here in every f0rm-the rail-
roads are often cut through hills loose chalkand
very much of the subsoil in this vicinity appears
TO be rotten limestone or gypsum but is said to
be marine deposit-proved such by the infnity
of shells therein imbedded. There is not particle
of stone in the surface soil the rotten gypsum ia,
for the most part, easily traversed by the pillow,
though at a depth of ten to twenty feet the same
original formation may be found hard enough
to quarry into buidiDg-stone. To reinforce
such soil, after the exhaustion pro-
duced by a hundred grain-crops in suc,es-
sion, it is only requisite to run the plow two
inches deeper than it has hitherto gone-a process
urgently desirable on other grounds than this. |
never before observed land so thoroughly fortified
against the destructive tendencies of human igno-
rance, incidence and folly. Then the Summer OF
France as compared with ours, is cool and humid
exposing grain-crops to fewer dangers OF smut
rust, &c, and breeding far fewer insects than
does ours. % that there were some power in
America adequate and resolved TO protect those
best friends of farmers-the blrds-agalnst the
murderous instincts of every young rufiian who
can shoulder a musketD | have seldom seen
finer Wheat than grows profusely around Paris
and think this region ought TO average more
bushels to the acre in the course of century than
any part of the United States.
But French genius and talent do not tend to the
soil. / must have already observed that the " I'm
"perial" School of Agriculture at Grgnon,
though tweDty-eight years Old with / 100 acres of
capital land choice stock and well adapted build
ings, enters on its twenty. eighth year with barely
serenity pupils kindred testimony is waited
from Reform School " in the western part of
the country. To this school young reprobstes are
sent from the adjacent cities and made adopts in
Agriculture as just punishment for their sins
and its last official report boasts that the school
has been conducted with such wisdom and success
that Orer half Of its graduates hare enlisted in the
Army! There's climax for you
The Agricultural Department of the Exhib
ton contains little by which intelligent farm
ers could be instructed. Samples OF choice Wheat
Oats, Peas, Beans, dc, are very We'll in such
show, and may stimulate some cultivators 10 try
TO equal them, but do not tell them how the thing
is TO be done. / have already incidentally spoken
OF the Flows other than English as an lllaVored
lot-those of France only less irrational than some
competitors from other portions of the Continent
l judge one from Norway will take any premium
which may be awarded to the worst The chief
anxiety of the Gontrivers would seem to be, that
each shall be thoroughly guarded, at whatever
cost, against running too deep into the ground
though 10 that excess thev manifest not the
slightest inclination II is very plain that the
makers Of these Plows believe all the earth which
lies more than six inches from sunshine very
noxious 10 growing plSnts-as some of il NAV be