The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1896-04-04

I MHa VG2 man Agriculture
| IN S\AF&SSgzw William W.. Dukes
S,W3@W of Normandy, in-k
0NENEW vaded and conf
| II quered England in
T~ 1866, and became
king of that country 8
While still retaining his dukedom His
| successors in the dukedom were enter
| prising and powerful Princes, and took
an active part in the crusades and others
! warlike enterprises. At the same time
they encouraged both agriculture ands
| navigation, and the people Of their sea-
coast were the most daring and skill
ful amongst the navigators of that
time. They conducted an active traffic
with foreign countries, and as early as
the fourteenth century establishedf
treaty ports on the coast of Africa, and
elsewhere. In the sixteenth century,
they discovered the St. Lawrence river
and occupied it's shores; and also estab-Y
llshed settlements in Brazil and other
parts of South America. This COM
merce necessarily called for the estab-5
l1shment of seaports in France. The.
least important Of these ports was
Havre, at the mouth of the Seine,5
founded by Francis, the first King Of
France, about 1885, the previous port.
of Harfleu, at the mouth of that stream
having become ineligible on account of
the filling up of the stream by allu-ss
:V1um, similar to what has occurred at
the mouth of the Mississippi and other
rivers of it's kind. The harbor has ever.
since been maintained and improved at
great expenditure Of money, and it's
docks are now more extensive than
those of any other port except Liver.
pool, and its commerce equals, If not
exceeds, that of any French port. Dur.
Ing the growth of the commercial prop
| erty the agricultural interests Of Nor.
/ ln1 mandy made corresponding improve-I
ment, this being mainly due to the
fact that, unlike England, the land, in
stead OF descending always in a body to
the eldest son, was divided among all
the children, until the whole country
is held in small tracts. This state of
things have continued until this day,
and now nearly the whole of France is
owned by occupants of the soil, who
thus have the greatest interest, as it is
to their advantage, to bring and keep
the same i'll the highest state of culti-
vation and productiveness The lands
are now in better condition than they
were i've hundred years ago, the policy
OF the farmers being to replace the
| drain upon the soil each year by it's
| equivalent in barn-yard manure, The
| proprietors of land make it an invari-
! able practice in renting to require the
tenants to be skillful producers of barn
yard fertilizers. Such tenants have but
little difficulty in renting the best lands
In Normandy. Many of these lands are
occupied by the fifth and sixth genera
tion of tenants.
Three-quarters of all the land in
England is owned by less than 10000
proprietors, while three-fourths of all
the lands Of France are owned by
three-fourths of the people, who work
them; hence, for seventeen consecutive
years, up to the last twelve years. the
French farmer, with about 40 1000 900 of
people on a territory but little larger
than the State of Texas, produced
surplus of wheat, horses, cattle, butter
and eggs; and, in fact, furnishing
very large share of table supplies to
London. A French farmer on sixty
acres of land, with but few fences tn
keep in repair, other than mud fences.
that require little or no attention after
they are made; although they are about
four feet at the base, they take up less
than no land at all, as they are four
feet high and two feet wide on ton. and
| as they are universally cultivated in
grass, which is cut and grazed as grass
lands are in this country, with the adj
dition Of a line Of trees, mostly beech.
This class Of French farmers. which
are about the average, will have at the
end of the year little balance sheet of
sales about as follows: 5z
Six head Of cattle, at an average of
1,40O pounds; 8 head of hogs, at an
average Of 200 POUNDS; 400 or 500 chick
ems, worth 80 cents each; 700 or 800
pounds Of butter;3 3 or 4 Norman draft
colts, where they work mares (for they
do not keep their stations and mares
on the same FARM; together with their
wheat and fruit, for there is an orchard
on almost every tract of land. Such
farm has more money to its credit than
the average of our farms with 300
acres. When our people raise corn and
hogs and pay taxes on at least one half
Of 3OO-acre farm that is not cultivat-
ed, our farmer making his land poorer,
and the French farmer increasing the
productive quality Of his land every
year. The tillers Of the French soil
understand, furthermore, the import
ance of growing crODs at1antnd ~ nar-