Omaha daily bee., 1902-11-16

NY7N VALLEY OF THE RHONE,
1871 Nov. 5.-(Special Correspondence
EG of The Bee.)-I want to tell you
IQ3N9oE something about the farmers of
49, France. | have been travelling for
weeks through the different parts of this
country and | am now on a train speeding
up the Rhone valley from Lyons to Swift
erland The land is covered with luxuriant
crops. There are no fences, and natures
great patchwork stretches out on every
side as Tar as my eyes can reach. Just
now we are passing some wheat in which
blood red peoples as big around as a tea
cup look out of the green. On the oppo-
site side of the train is a bayfield, where
women and girls are working side by side
with the men, and farther on is a great ex-
panse of white beets in which are women
bent half double pulling the weeds. The
women here work as hard as the men.
They do all sorts of field labor, and you see
them scattered over every landscape. They
are more thrifty than the men, and they
are among the great savers of the French
people.
The work among the farmers goes on
throughout the week and often on Sunday
as we'll. The fields are full of Sunday
workers. While the church bells are toll
ing mechanics are plying their trades and
the ordinary stores and workshops are
open.
have described England as owned by the
few. France is owned by the many. There
are $500, 900 landowners among the $780,
900 people which make up the French re-
public or almost a landholder to every
family, The average holding is less than
six acres, and thousands own little tracts
upon which they live, working a part OF
the year for someone else.
The French love their land, and it is this
common ownership that keeps them at
home. They are not an emigrating nation,
like the Germans and Italians or the Eng
lish. More strangers come into France
every year than Frenchmen leave, and not
withstanding this the people are about the
richest on the face OF the globe. They
were able to pay the enormous Franco
Prussian war debt without feeling 1t, and
they have now hundreds OF millions OF dol
lars stored away in their wooden stock
ings under the ~rafters. They are prosper
Gus, although they have the largest debt OF
any nation. They pay In interest alone
$3.50, 900, 900 a year, or almost 81 per head,
to say nothing of the taxes required for
the necessary expenses of the government.
The French are excellent farmers. With
them a penny saved is twopence earned,
anu tntg HtN NuGl hONulh6 bOSo W NoSNS'
They live as cheaply as any people of Eu-
rope. The average farmer starts out to
work on black bread and vegetable soup,
or he may have only bread and cheese and
a glass of wine. At noon he will have a
vegetable soup and perhaps fried potatoes
and in the evening the same. He has wine
at every meal, for It is one OF the cheap
est of drinks. Nearly everyone keeps a
goat, but few drink the milk, for goats
milk will make cheese.
The farming is intensive. The wheat re-
gIons produce almost twice as much on the
average as the wheat fields Of the United
States. Every bit OF land is used. and moth
ing goes to waste. On the larger farms
American machinery is employed. Our
plows are bought and also our mowers and
threshers. President Loubet uses an Amer
lean reaper on his big French estate.
The French understand how to make
money out of trees. They appreciate the
value Of forests, and have some Of the
largest and best OF the world. There are
vast wood lands belonging to the govern
ment and private holdings in which thu
trees are as we'll cared for as In our city
parks. Only the ripe trees are cut and
every piece of fallen wood is saved.
The roads and streams and little canals
OF France are lined with poplars. l can
see long lines OF them cutting the land
scape in every direction as l look out OF
NV car window. Some OF the trees are 100
feet high. They are bare OF branches. with
only a tassel left on the top. Others are
full limbed and others are Just sprouting
new growth on all sides. These poplars
are RIaVn for their branches and are finally