Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-03
CELL PERKINS, IN FRANCE.

|
Special Correspondence Of the Morning Ne,Os.
DIJoN, FRANCE, July 19.-In going
from Paris TO Geneva, via Dion, we pass
through the best portion of France. For
hundreds of miles every inch Of land is
| cultivated. The abrupt side hills are in
grape vines and the flat land in grain.
Here we see the phenomenon of double
| crOps-a crop of grain and vegetables
growing under crop Of trees. The Nor
mandy poplar trees are from an inch to
three feet in diameter. They are planted
thickly, but give no shade. They are
trimmed within SIX feet of the tops. The
bOughs, which are cut off every year,
make faggots enough to warm France.
| We often see men and women grading
| wheat or hoeing beets in the midst of a
| wood giving no shade. When you look
across the country the tall boughless
! trunks look like black streaks painted
| against the sky. They make the view
| YerV picturesque. Our farmers on the
| prairies could plant black walnut trees
! where they want fences, trim them to the
| tops, preventing shade, and then string
| barbed wire on the trunks for fences: At
the end of fifty years the black walnut
| trees on a mans farm would be worth
| more than his farm! Wood in France is
/
! worth as much as corn in Kansas by the
pound. So when the Kansas man burns
corn he is no more prOfigate than the
| Frenehman who burns faggOts. The
| French farmer would never think of burn
| ing wood to heat his house. He sits in
| the cold all the winter long, only using
| wood to cook with. The average farmer
does not know enough to buy coal or kero-
sene yet. He does not live as well as the
| poorest negro in the South. He has no
| home comforts; poverty and ignorance
are his companions.
| THE SMALL FRENCH FARMS.
| France is literally one large garden.
| Every inch of soil is cultivated. In riding
| from Paris to Dijon-150 miles-we count
| ed only 80 cattle. We saw no sheep or
hogs. The farms have usually from one
| to ten acres, and some have as many as
twenty acres. They are usually from so
| to 800 feet wide, and 1000 to 1000 feet
| long. There are no fences between them.
When l asked a French farmer how his
farm happened, like all the rest, to be so
long and narrow, he said:
sit has been divided up so often. When
a French father dies he divides his farm,
| and each one of his children has an equal
share. He always divides it lengthwise, !
so as to give each one a long strip. The
| long strips are easily cultivated, because
we pillow lengthWays. These strips always
into the rows"
Chow large is your farm ~ l asked.
''My fathers farm was 800 feet wide |
and 1000 feet long. When he died my |
brother had half. Now my farm is $50 |
feet wide and 1000 feet long. 1t is quite |
a large farm. There are many farms much |
smaller than mine."
''What do you plant in it?o l asked.
"See over there" he said, pointing to |
what seemed to be a gigantic piece of |
striped carpet, sis a strip of wheat so |
feet wide. Then comes strip of potatoes |
% feet wide. Then comes 40 feet Of oats, |
then 10feet of carrots, 20 feet of alphalpha |
Glover }, 10 feet of mangel-wurzels,5 feet of |
onions, . feet Of cabbages, and the rest is
in flowers, peas, currants, gOoseberrIes
and little vegetables"
"Can you support your family on a farm
$50 feet wide and 1000 feet lOng?' 1 asked,
for the narrow strip seemed like mans
dOOrYard in America.
support my familyp' he exclaimed.
"Wby the farm is too large for US. rent
part of it out now"
But your house, 1 said; "where is
thatT'
go, that is in town. Five families of
us live in one house there. My wife and
l come out every morning to work and 60
in at night"
docs your wife always work in the
field ~ / asked.
Eyes. My WIFE" he continued, point
ing to a bare-fOOted and bare-headed wO-
man, at least six feet around the waist,
''she can do more work than l can. She
pitches the hay to me on the stack. All
French women work in the field. Why
not? They have nothing to do at hOme."
This is true. The wife of a French,
English, Irish or German farmer has
nothing to do at home. They do not
"keep house." like the wives Of American
farmers. They have no houses to keep.
The huts they live in are like stables.
They live in the same building with their
horses, hens and pigs. They never wash
a floor. There is never a table-cloth.
They live like brutes. The handsome
farmhouse, off by itself, SURF Ounded by
trees and gardens, does not exist in
France. They live no better, and are
really no better off, than were the slaves
of the South before the war. French
farmers always congregate in little tum-
ble-dOWn villages, situated about two
miles apart. These villages may have
been built three hundred years ago. The
roofs are mOss-covered, the houses are
dirty, and remind one of a county poor
house in New England.
LITTLE FARMS MAKE A RICH NATION.
There are millions OF farms in France
containing from quarter of an acre to
four acres.
] find that about an acre and half is
about all the most ambitious man wants.
The rent for land is always one-half the
crop. The land is worth about $500 an
acre, or, if in grape vines, 5000.
This is why France is like garden. In
England there are 227,000 land owners;
in France there are 100000 landowners.
The Frenchman on his two acres, with
his barefooted wife cutting grain with
sickle by his side, is happy and cOntented,
because he knows no better. Such de-
grading life would drive an American
farmer mad. The Frenchman thriYes
because he spends nothing. He has no
wants beyond the cOarsest food and the
washings of the grape skins after the
wine is made. Yes, he is thrifty. He
saves money, too. The aggregated wealth
Of 30,000,000 poor, degraded, barefooted
peasants makes France rich. The igno-
rance of the French farmer is appalling.
never saw a newspaper in French
farm village. Their wants are no more
than the wants of a horse. The French
man eats the cOarsest food-abOut the
same as he feeds his horse. He will eat
coarse bread and wine for breakfast;
soup, bread and wine for dinner; and per-
haps bread and milk for supper; he does
not know what coffee or tea is. The ne
grOes of the South live like kings COM
pared to a French farmer. Still, the
Frenchman is satisfied because he knows
no better.
w H60 dSk6u d EI6HCu idIulSI WIN Wds
cultivating his farm $50 by 1,500) if he
saved any money, he said:
go, not much. go to all the fetes. I
laid by 800 francs $1,000 last year. l put
it in the CdiSse d. Epdrgae."
EWhat is that?'' l asked Of the land
lord.
That is the Government Savings Bank.
The government takes the money of the
poor, up to 1000 francs, and gives them
81 per cent. for its use. The peasant
farmers of France have nearly $S00,0O0,-
600 on deposit in these savings banks.
These poor, degraded, half-ied farmers
keep the French treasury full Of money.
THE FRENCH FARMER LOVES THE RE
PUBLIC.
The French farmer loves the Republic,
but the people of Paris hate it. The En-
pire made Paris. Without the Empire
trade is bad in Paris: so Paris signs for
some Louis XIV. or Napoleon III. to come
and establish an expensive court again.
/ asked a farmer near Dion if he pre-
ferred the Republic to the Empire.
Yes he said ''but we want most of |
all peace. We are sick of war. If the /
Empire comes they will want US to fight.