Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-01-20
BRITTANY SALT MARSH.
How It Flowers and How the Peasan
 Reaps the Harvest.

|
 Nothing is more easy to describe than
 salt-marsh Imagine market-garden
 divided into squares, filled with water,
 and the walks not level with, but raised
 above the spaces about ten inches in
 height. These are filled with sea-water,
 which pours in through conduits at high i tlde, the water having been stored dur
 Ing period of from fifteen to thirty | uaYs Tn reservoirs attached to each marsh The system of canals through winch It passes is of complicat ted nature, ana the production of the salt consti- tutes. so to speak, special branch of aSrlculture. where the visible help of man assists the hidden work of nature
 The ground must be dug and arranged Ill particular manner, that the saline particles may crystalizc, just as a field where wheat grows and ripens Thus:
 It Is not surprising that the salt-workers aoopt the professional terms of the farm
 CTS. At certain times they say: ..Tho
 niarsh IS In 1lower;' they speak of the harvest and of "reapinc the salt" 1t Is in the aillet, where the water is
 only about an inch in depth, that tho
 salt forms, thanks to the evaporation of
 the sun and to the current which. slow
 ly circulating through the different
 compartments, assists the evaporation
 me salt which then falls to the bottom
 o1 the basin is raked out by the paludiel
 lhto round hollows made at the edge at
 certain distances. This is done ever.
 one or two days. The art consists in
 rak1ng up all the salt without drawing
 the mud with it. In the salt marsh O,
 Guerande they collect separately a white
 f.
 the appearance of foam and is used fo,
 the Salting of sardineS
 It will easily be understood that every
 thing depends on the sky; above all
 things, the heat of the solar rays is necessary. In cloudy weather there is no generalization Rainy seasons are most disastrous for the paludiers.
 The harvest varies from year to year. Calculating the produce fo1 ten years, it amounts to threo thousand or four thousand pounds Of salt in each eillet. Work begins in the month of June and is carried on till Oc. tober. The number of nillets varies With the size of the marsh: that of Iuerande contains about twenty-fou1 thousand; others are much less The gathered salt is carried daily to some slope near and packed in conical form, very much resembling the tents of a camp when seen from a distance. Al Guerande the women are seen runnino Tn this direction, carrying the salt on their heads in large wooden bowls hold Ing about fifty pounds, while at Bourr. neuf the men are employed, who mako use of willow caskets borne on the shoul- der. If the salt is sold immediately the cone is only covered with little earth. But 1t more frequently happens that when the harvest is good speculators buy large quantities to keep until tho price rises, and then large masses one thousand pounds in weight are formed and protected by a thick layer of earth.
 Like all kinds of property in France, the salt-marsheS are much divided. More than three thousand proprietors share that of Guerande; and there is a Kind of cooperative partnership be- tween the owner and the worker the latter generally receiving a quarter Of the profits, out of which he pays the porterS. The gain is, however. missr- | ably small: and the wonder is how the various families manage to exist upon | 1t. Even if the wife and daughter help. the whole family only earn about 255 1rancs year-$SoO of our money: and in | of the season when salt is | collected, the plaudier has no chance of | increasing his income by assisting the farmers, and can only employ himself | in the tritling labors of winter So low. indeed. have the profits sunk in some | marshes the expenses have exceeded | them; in short, there is no kind of prop erty in Franco that has for the last undergone more terrible re- verses than this. These changes are partly due to the railways. which have provided a much more efficient and rap i'd means of transportation for the east of France than for the west.-Ballou's Monthly.