Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-02-21

England has a climate better
adapted to the growth of grass,
grain, and root crops than France.
because it is cooler and more humid:
yet Great Britain does not produce
half the food she consumes, while
France yields enough and to spare.
The wheat production of France ex-
ceeds that of the United States. The
exports less breadstuffs than the lat
ter, because she consumes more
wheat. The people of our Southern
States chiefly subsist on corn; where
as, in France, everybody eats ''wheat
bread" as wheaton flour is called.
The wheat exported by the United
States would not bread the ''South, "
if its people did not ett corn.
Wherever have travelled through
I France, | have been impressed with
the careful,
PAlNESrAKING CHARACTER OF us
FARMING.
No weeds or thistles are allowed to
appear. Every acre seems to be cul-
tivated, or made to contribute to the
wants and necessities of the popula-
tion. Everthing is neatly and ex-
actly done. One sees no slovenly,
careless agriculture. The French
are naturally a tasty, cleanly, tidy
people, with an eye to the beautiful
as well as useful. They love flowers
and fruits, shrubs, climbing-vines
and ornamental trees, and cultivate
them with great care and TASTE
They are good agriculturists and
horticulturists- It. could not be
otherwise to effect the great results
they do. Here is a population near
ly equal to that of the whole United
States subsisted in comfort on a ter
ritory no larger than the four States
OF Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Wis
cousin, and almost destitute of coal
Tor fuel or power. The soil is not
naturally rich. 1t is far inferior to
that of the States named, and has
been subject to the exhaustion of
twenty centuries of continual crop
ping. And yet, since the farmers
came into possession Of the land,
eighty years ago, and ceased to be
tenants ground into the dust by land
lords, they have more than
TREBLED THE ANNUAL PRODUCT
of France. They have sustained
tremendous wars, and furnished the
men to fight all Europe. Their
country has been ravaged by savage
invasions, and their industry at
times broken up by the spoiler.
They have survived all desolations
and distractions of human life and
property, and supplied the money to
pay off the national ransoms and in
demniticatiOns imposed upon the ma
ton by invaders; and to-day the
visible and realized wealth of France
is ten times as great as before the
Revolution 1889. The material i'm
provement of France only dates from
1915, after the overthrow and ban
ishment of Napoleon. For the 26
years subsequent to the commence
ment of the Revolution, France was
drenched in blood, and drained of
life and treasure to support the car
mage and destruction. But she has
survived all her losses and disasters,
including the last, and presents
MAPvEIOTrS OISprAy
of prosperity and wealth, IN dispite
of enormous and oppressive taxation
now exceeding $500, 100000 per an
mum for national purposes, exclusive
of all local and municipal burdens
and exactions.
In searching for these wonderful
results and triumphs over adversely,
l find it in the remarkable industry
and aptitude of the French people;
in their habits of economy, sobriety,
and thriftiness; their perseverance
in labor, hopefulness, cheerefulnesS,
skillfulness, and esthetic tastes; but,
above all, in the emancipation of the
farmers from the degraded condition
of landlesS serfs, and elevation into
that of independent freeholders, with
every family owning their own farm,
cultivating their own vine and fig
tree, and enjoying the fruits of their
own labor, with no landed aristocrat
to seize their earnings and squander
them in administering to his profit
gate dissipation. 1t was their
| TRANSITION FROM SERFDOM INTO FREE
HOLDERS
that gave the opportunity to convert
France into a garden of fruits and
flowers, aud to render its prosperity
irrepressibIe, in defiance Of misgov-
ernment aud invasion, war-taxes and
spohation.
While education is not universal
by any means among the farmers
of France, still great progress Of late
has been made. There has been a
national awakening in France, as in
Great Britain, to the necessity OF
better education among the common
people. At the beginning of this
century, only one adult in ten could
read and write. Now two-thirds
can do so. And, where one newspa-
per was read as late as the reign of
| Louis Philippe, now three or four
are read. Free public libraries have
been established in every city in
France, without exception. There
is hardly town of 5000 inhabitants
but has its public library. In some
cities not larger than Springfield OIL
Peoria, found libraries of 10000 tC
$4,000 volumes. The general rules
seems to be to provide public libra
ry with number of volumes at least
EQUAL To THE POPULATION
of the place. In connection with
these libraries, which are deposited
in fre-prooi buildings, are museums
for the collection and preservation OF
all local curiosities of Art or Nature
literature, history, geology, souvenirs
relics. etc; for nearly all the cities
of France have curious old histories
; and traditions, dating far back into
the ages of antiquity. There is ;