Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1884-08-19
FRENCH FARMING.
The Misery of the Poor in the French
Agricultural Districts
Country of Small PrOPrfetOrs-HOW
the small Farmers Live-Ch1ld.
hoods First Lessons-Farm.
Ing Implements.

[American Agriculturist.l
France is one of the richest agricultural
countries of Europe Its 204. 500 square
miles of area, produce both temperate and
sub-tropical crops. The olive, the null
berry and the vine flourish in the south,
and in the north and northwest (the most
fertile part of Europe), the wheat and beet
root are the staple crops. The latter is q
most important product, as it is upon it
that the sugar supply of the country mainly
depends Beet-root sugar first became
known in France when the wars of the
first Napoleon closed the empire to i'm
portations from America. Its manufac-
ture is now one of the great industries of
the country.
Unlike England, France is a country Of
small proprietors. The great revolution
wrested the vast estates from their hersdi-
tary owners, and threw them into the
market. They were then broken up and
purchased piece meal, and though many
large properties have been gathered to-
gether since then, their number is small
compared with that of the individual
farms The result of this condition of
affairs, is that while in England wealth
centers in the manufacturing districts. and
the great cities, in France it is generally
diffused over the whole country. In Eng
land the farmer pays heavy taxes and
heavy rent. In France, he pays heavy taxes
but no rent. He saves money, and there
are few farmers indeed, who are not small
capitalists. The extremely frugal habits
of the agricultural people of France aid
in bringing about this result. In England,
as in America, the farmer. thoush he may
be careful man, does not stint himself Of
necessities He lives well, and he educates
his children In France matters are differ
ent
To the misery of the poor in the French
agricultural districts, no mere description
can do Justice Like the condition of the
English agricultural laborer, theirs Is one
of black, hopeless privation. There are
sections in which meat is an unknown ar
ticle of diet to them. At best they get a
scrap of it, and that of the cheapest kind,
once week Brsad of the poorest quality,
and potatoes ft-m their staples Of diet
The bread is generally baked in patches to
last several weeks, and is eaten even when
bitter with mould In the mountain dis
tricts of France. the agricultural poor sup
ply the place of potatoes with a
fungus picked in the woods,
which is of kind too coarse for market
Thousands of the small farmers, how
their laborers. The misery instinct is a
Characteristic of some of the people
They save at the expense of their bodies
and their minds All that they raise i'm a
condition fit to eat is sold; the rest they
live on. The agricultural districts of
France are very wealthy in money boarded
away by people whom one would not sus-
pect of being anything but beggars, if
they were encountered on the high road.
The holiday suit often lasts a farmer a life
time. He only wears it on occasions of
show, and is not ashamed of his work
ing clothes. The types of country life in,
France are probably distinct from those of
any other country in the world In some
sections, the men and women dress accord
ing to their employments, so that you can
distingui between the field and the sta
bic laborer, the dairy women, and the
house servant at sight.
In France. as in England, the first les
sons OF childhood are labor. The babies
are made scare-crows of, and set to watch
drive the lean swine, which look like dogs
In their meagreness. and drudge in the
barn-yards and the fields.
The various implements now in use on
the finest farms in France, would be con
sidered old-fashioned across the channel.
In the best sections the pillow is little bet
ter than that which the Egyptian uses to
scratch the soil. On very many farms
the spade and hoe are made to do duty for
the pillow. With small farms and cheap
labor, such a method is possible, but it
would make France new country for the
farmer. if it was plowed up from end to
end like one of our great farms. Ameri-
can tools find little favor with the French
farmer as yet. We once passed a group
of fifty people gathered at a roadside ia
Normandy, TO watch the workings of an
American pillow.