The sun., 1919-10-12


not an ideal one for potatoes. Never
theiess considerable acreage is de-
voted to this crop. Sugar beets were
formerly grown quite extensively, but
are now much less Important partly
on account of the use Of the beet
sugar factories for other purposes dur
ing the war.
One would expect that because OF
the character of the crops produced,
the fields would be large and labor
saving devices used to good advantage.
Unfortunately for the agriculture of
this region this is not so. There are
to be sure many large farms of 200,
500 or even 1000 acres. For the most
part. however, the farms are very
small. AS one looks up the valley
of the river he is struck by the check
er-board like appearance of the fields.
About the middle OF July the chang
Ing greens Of rye. wheat, barley, oats,
alfalfa and potatoes made a very in
teresting contrast. Some OF the rye
was being harvested. On the small
plots-often not more than two or
three square rods in area-women
were cutting the rye with the sickle.
On the other plots men were harvest
ing the crop with scythes. The
sheaves were bound by hand with
straw and neatly stacked. There was
evidently no loss of any portion of
the crop, but the vast loss of man
power involved in gathering the crop
by a method so expensive of time
explains much Of the ills of agricul-
tural France.
It appears that the French peasant.
ike the American farmer, is an in
dividualist. and disinclined for tho
most part to cooperate with his neigh
bors Employed as a day laborer on
tho larger estates he insists on the
eight hour day in the winter and the
nine hour day in the summer, but
when engaged in planting or harvest
ing his own crops he does not seem to
object to the sixteen or even eighteen
hour day. Evidently his attachment
to his own land Is so intense that he,
Is able to overcome, in a measure, the
handicap of large scale production, as
one finds 1t on the larger farms 1t is
true, nevertheless, that the dividing
and sub-dividing of small farms among
the children of the French peasantry
has created a condition in many re-
spects quite intolerable.
The salvation of French agriculture
must lie in economic production of
breadstuffs. but economic production is
not poss IDLE except on the large, well
managed farms or on the smaller
farms whose owners may so thorough
~ cooperate as to enjoy the advan-
tages of mass production.
The prosperity of the agriculture In
tho Loire Valley, and for that matter
Of any section Of France, is unfavor-
ably affected also by uneconomic and
inefficient methods of transportation.
A great deal of the food is transported
on slow moving two wheeled carts.
Much Of tho food of Paris and of other
large cities in the country Is brought
In on these vehicles. Naturally this
not only adds TO the cost of the food
when 1t finally reaches the consumer,
but it also Increases the loss of perish
able products on account of. decoinpo-
sition and fermentation.
One is struck by the scant num-
bers of beef cattle and of sheep in
the valley of the Loire. There are ap-
parently no large pastures as they
are understood in the United States.
Very small herds Of Normandy cattle
and of sheep are occasionally found
grazing along the roadsides, and US
ually in charge of old men or women.
No doubt the war and the resulting
lack of concentrated foodstuffs helped
greatly to deplete the live stock re-
sources OF this region. Young dairy
animals are conspicuous by their alb
sence and the number of swine is ridi-
culously small. 1t is questionable
whether existing conditions will en-
courage the restoration of the live
stock industry. From the standpoint
of feed costs, as we'll as labor costs,
there is not much hope of an early
revival of live stock farming on the
chalk plants of the Loire. Here again
some promise is held out by possible
cooperation among the small farmers.
The purchase Of feeding stuffs in
large quantities, the use &c pedigreed
herd bulls, the establish nent of
creameries and the adoption. of more
progressive methods of feeding might
again make live stock farming a fac
tor of moment in the agriculture OF
, the Loire Valley. To reach this con-
dition the small farmers will have to
secure more help from the agricul-
tural schools. experiment stations and
the Department of Agriculture than
| they are now receiving.
Indeed, one coming from the United
| States is struck by the lack of contact
between these agricultural organiza-
tons and their constituency. Some of
the experiment station workers are
well trained and we'll informed in
their chosen field, but they are
specialists. to a far greater degree
than experiment station men in the
United States. They are too often