THE ECONOMIC LIFE OF FRANCE. 293 



the dairy industry nourishes, especially in the low-lying, moist plains 

 which border the English Channel. France has been divided into four 

 agricultural regions. The first is the land of the olive, bordering the 

 Mediterranean; the second, to the north of the other, is the corn belt, 

 extending in the west to the island of Oleron; in the east, to the middle 

 of the Vosges Mountains. The third is the vine country, limited on 

 the north by a line drawn from the mouth of the Loire to the middle 

 of the Ardennes. The vine is grown throughout central and southern 

 France in detached areas, wherever the soil and exposure especially 

 favor it. The northern plains compose the fourth agricultural region. 

 They are devoted to grain, flax, potatoes, apples, small fruits and garden 

 produce. Southwest of Paris lies the fertile plain of Beauce, the 

 'Granary of France,' described by Zola in 'La Terre,' and pictured by 

 Millet. Agricultural methods are in the main clumsy and imperfect, 

 and their defects are made up only by grinding toil. This condition 

 of things has been explained as due to the conservatism of the peasant. 

 There is an absence of newspapers and farmers' organizations to spread 

 scientific knowledge concerning the processes of agriculture. The 

 prevalence of small holdings prevents the profitable use of expensive 

 agricultural machinery on private account. While the price of land is 

 high, foreign competition keeps the price of staple products low. 



As to mineral resources, France is generally accounted under, rather 

 than over, supplied. There is everywhere an abundance of building- 

 stone. Paris has exhaustless supplies within the municipal area. This 

 has had not a little to do with the splendor and durability of Parisian 

 architecture, which contrasts favorably with the brick of London and 

 the stucco of Berlin. In the northwestern portion of the Central High- 

 lands the mountains of Limonsin afford unexcelled porcelain clays, 

 from which the famous Limoges china is made. The Jura Mountains 

 produce mill-stones and lithographic stones. Brittany has a little tin. 

 The Pyrenees offer nothing but mineral waters, except some iron in the 

 extreme east. At Baccarat, in the Vosges, the ingredients for glass 

 are found, and St. Gobain and St. Quirin manufacture plate glass. 

 Nevertheless, France has perhaps less mineral wealth than any other 

 well-known country of like extent. The chief defect is in connection 

 with the supplies of iron and coal. Iron ore must always be trans- 

 ported to coal, for in producing iron two tons of coal are required to 

 one ton of ore. It is to be desired, therefore, that coal should exist in 

 large beds, accessible to the miner, and of proper quality for coking. 

 Iron, though it may be in small deposits, should be free from certain 

 impurities and not far distant from fuel and flux. France has no 

 large beds of fine coal, and her iron ore is not of high grade; neither is 

 it advantageously located with reference to coal. The largest collieries 

 are in the extreme northeast, and extend across the border into Belgium. 



