Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-04-18
FRENCH FARMS AND FARMERS.
What q Gentleman Saw while Going from
Paris IN Ceneya.

In going from Paris to Geneva via Dion
we passed through the best portions OF
France. For hundreds of miles every inch
of land is cultivated. The abrupt sidehl-ls
are in grapevines and the fiat land IN grain.
Here we see the phenomenon of double
crops-a crop of grain and vegetables grow
ing under a crop of trees. The Normandy
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 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 barb wire on the trunks for
fences At the end of fifty years the black
walnut trees on mans farm would be
worth more than his farm Wood in
France is sold for a third of cent pound.
1t 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 Frenchman who burns faggots. The
Frenchman would never think of burning
wood to heat his house. He sits in the
cold all winter long, only using wood to
cook with. The average farmer does not
know enough to buy coal or kerosene yet
He does not live as well as the poorest
negro in the South. He has no home COM
forts; poverty and Ignorance are his conf
panions.
France is literally one large garden.
Every inch of soil is cultivated In riding
f'om Paris to Dion, $50 miles, we counted
only thirty cattle. We saw no sheep or
hogs. The farmers have usually from one
t. ten acres. Some farmers have half an
acre, and some have as many as twenty
acres. They are usually from 30 to 300 feet
wide, and from l 500 to 1000 feet long.
There are no fences between them.
When l asked French farmer how his
farm happened, like all the rest, to be so
long and narrow, he said:
" 1t 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 long strip. The
long strips are easily cultivated, because we
pillow lengthways. These strips always run
north and SOUTH so that the sun can shine
into the rows"
How large is your farm p | asked.
My fathers farm was 800 feet wide and
1900 feet long. When he died my brother
had half. Now my farm is $50 feet wide
and 1000 feet long 1t is quite large farm.
There are many farms much smaller than
mine"
What do you plant in it ?" I asked.
"See over there" he said pointing to
what seemed to be a gigantic piece of
striped carpet, is a strip of wheat 90 feet
wide. Then comes strip of potatoes %
feet wide. Then comes 40 feet of oats, then
10 feet of carrots, % feet of alfalfa (luzerne],
10 feet of mangel-wurZels, 5 feet of onions,
5 feet OF cahbages and the restis in flowers,
peas, curTants, gooseberries and little veg
etables"
Can you support your family on a'farm
$50 feet wide and 1000 feet long p asked,
for the narrow strip seemed like mans
dooryard in America.
Support my family7" he exclaimed.
" Why, the farm is too large for us. | rent
part of it out now
But your house" I said where's
that?'
"Oh that's in town. Five families live
in one house there. My wife and ! come
out here every morning to work and go il
at night
Does your wife always work in the
field?"
YES; my wife, he continued, pointing
to a barefoOted and bareheaded woman,
at least six feet around the waist she can
do more work than | can. She pitches the
hay TO me on the stack All the French
women work in the field. Why not?
They have nothing 10 do at home
This is true. The wife of French,
English, Irish or German farmer has moth
10 n
house, like the wives Of American farmers.
They have no house 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 floor There
is never a table-cloth. They live like
brutes. The handsome farmhouse off by
itself, surrounded 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 cOngrcgate in little
tumble down villages situated about two
miles apart These villages may have been
built 800 years ago. The roofs are moss
covered, the houses are dirty. and remind
one of a country poor-house in New Eng
land. There are millions Of farms in
France containing from quarter OF an acre
TO four acres.
find that 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 800 an acre, or, if III
grapes 5000 This is why France is like a
garden. In England there are 227 900
landowners; in France there are 100000
landowners. The Frenchman on his two
acres. with his barefoOted wife cutting grain
with a sickle by his side, is happy and CON
tented, because he knows no better. Such
q degrading life would drive an American
farmer mad. The Frenchman thrives be-
cause he spends nothing. He has no wants
beyond the coarseSt food, and the washings
of the grape skin after the wine is made
Yes, he is thrifty. He saves money, too.
The aggregated wealth of 100000 poor,
degraded, barcfooted peasants makes
France rich. The ignorance Of the
French farmer is appalling, ! never
saw newspaper III French farm
village. Their wants are no more than the
wants of horse The Frenchman 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 perhaps bread and milk for
supper; he does not know what tea or cOf-
fee is. The negroes of the South live like
kings compared TO q French farmer. Still
the Frenchman is satisfied because he
knows no better When | asked French
farmer who was cultivating his farm $50
by 500 if he saved any money, he said
"Oh, not much. 90 to all the fetes. |
laid by 500 francs 300 last year. put tin
the Caisse d F,pargne."
What is that | asked of the landlord.
That is the Government savings bank.
The Government takes the money of the
poor up to 1000 francs. and gives them
3 per cent for its use The peasant farm
ers of France have nearly $S00000,000 on
deposit in these savings banks. These
poor, degraded, half-fed farmers keep the
French treasury full of money.
The French farmer loves the republic,
but the people OF Paris hate it. The en-
rire 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 preferred
the republic to the empire.
I,n unil ,t,f wa t11nst of q II want