The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-10-10
FARM LIFE In FRANCE.
elimpses Betweea Paris and Geneva

tiyated. The abrupt side hills are in grape vines
and the fat land in grain. Here we see the
phenomenon of double crors-a crop Of grain
and vegetables growing under a crop of trees.
The Normandy poplar trees are from an inch to
three feet in diameter. They are planted thick
". but give no'shade. They are trimmed within
six feet of the top. The boughs, which are cut
off every year, make faggots enough to warm
France. We often see men aud women Grad
ling 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 very 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 trunk 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 sold for q
third of a cent a pound. 1t is worth as much
as corn in Kansas by the pound. So when the
Kansas man burns corn, he is no more profit
gate than the Frenchman who burns faggots.
The French farmer would never think of burn
ing wood 10 heat his house. He sits in the
cold all the winter long, only using wood to
COOK Wltl. 1u6 dN6TdSG ldTUlbI QObS lDb KNOW
enough TO buy coal or kerosene yet He does
not live as well as the poorset negro in the
south. He has no home comforts, poverty
and ignorance are his companions.
France is literally one large garden. Every
inch of sol. Is cultivated In riding from Paris
to Dion, $50 miles. we counted only thirty cat
tie, We saw no sheep or hogs. The farms
have usually from one to ten acres, Some
farms have half an acre, and some have as
many as twenty acres. They are usually from
80 to 800 feet wide and from 800 to 200 feet
long. There are no fences between them.
When l asked a French farmer how his farm
happened, like all the rest, to be 30 long and
narrow, he said:
at has been divided up so often. When q
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 becr.ase we plough fength-
ways. These strips always run north and
south, so that the sun can shine into the rows. 7
Glow large is your farm" / asked.
"My fathers farm was 800 feet wide and g.
GOO feet long. When he died my brother had
half. Now my farm il $50 feet wide and 2, 600
feet long. 1t is quite a large farm. There are
many farms much smaller than mine
"What do you plant in it?n / asked.
"See over there" he said, pointing to what
seemed to be a gigantic piece of striped carpet,
10 o. VII vi w AAShb w WV -AO 4LCh ROllAQG
a strip Of potatoes 25 feet wide. Then comes
40 feet of oats, then 10 feet of carrots, 20 feet
of alfalfa Quzurne), 10 feet of mangel- wurzels,
5 feet of onions, 5feet of cabbages, and the rest
is in flowers, peas, c~urrants, gooseberries, and
little vegetables"
feet wide and 1000 feet long?D l asked; for the
narrow strip seemed like a mans dooryard in
America.
support my family" he exclaimed ssWhy
the farm is too large for us l rent part Of it
out now"
'But your house." / said. ''where is that?''
oh, that is in town. Five families of us
out every morning to work and go In at
night"
"Does your wife always work in the fieldi''
"Yes. My wife, he continued, pointing to q
barefooted and bareheaded woman, at least six
feet around the waist, 'ishe can do more work
than can; She pitches the hay to me on the
stack. All French women work in the field
Why notg They have nothing to do at home. ?
This is true. The wife of q 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
Ike stables. They live in the same building
with their horses, hens and pigs. They never
wash q floor. THERE'S no table cloth, They
live like brutes. The handsome farm house
on by itself, surrounded by trees and gardens,
does not exist in France They live no better,
and are really no better of than were the slaves
OF the south before the war. French farmers
always co~ngregate in little tumhle-down viii
lagos situated about two mile apart These
villages may have been buils three hundred
years ago. The roofs are moss-covered, the
hcuses are dirty, ard remind one of a country
poor-house in New England.
There are millions of farms IN France con-
tanning from a quarter of an acre to four acres.
! find that an acre and q half is about all the
most ambitious man wants. The rent for land
is always one-half the crop. The land IL
worth about $500 an acre; or, if in grape
vines, 5000
This is why France is like a garden. In Eng
land there are 227, 900 landowners; in France
there are 1000, 600 landowners. The French
cutting grain with o sickle by his side, is hap
py and contentod, because he knows no better.
Such q degrading life would drive an Afaefi-
can farmer mad The Frenchman thrives be-
cause he spends LJthing. He has no wants be-
You'd the ~coarsest food and the washings Of the
grape skins after the wine is made. Yes he is
thrifty. He saves money, too. The aggre-
gated wealth of 20 00, 90 poor, degraded,
Darefooted peasants makes France rich. hi
Ignorance of the French farmer is appalling.
never saw a newspaper in a French farm vii
lage. Their wants are no more than the wants
oI u morse. The Frenchman eats the coarsest
food; about the same as he feeds his horse.
he will eat coarse bread and wine for break
fast; soup, bread, and wine for dinner, and
perhaps bread and milk for supper; he docs
not know what coffee of tea Ii. The negroes OF
the south live like kings compared To a French
farmer. Still, the Frenchman is satisfied be-
cause he knows no better.
.hen ! asked a French farmer who was Gull
tlvating his farm u50by 1,500) If he saved any
money, he said:
'sOh, not much. Igo to all the fetes. Jlaid
ny quo trancs (Si0g last year. I put 1t in the
Caisse d'Epargne.,s
.lWhat is thatyn I asked of the landlord
That il the government savings bank. The
government takes the money OF the poor, Up
y 900 francs, and gives them 81 per cent
Tor Its use, The peasant farmers OF France
have nearly $500, COG, 900 on deposit in those
savings banks. These poor, degraded, half
money.
The French farmer loves the republic, but
the people Of Paris hate ii. The empire made
20 rMn A..& IL 49, 49, - - -.