8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



thirty-eight per cent of the number of farms are of less than one 

 hectare, and this thirty-eight per cent includes only 2.2 per cent of 

 the entire area, mere dots of land, more suited for residences than 

 farming. The holdings from one to ten hectares included 46.5 per 

 cent of the number and 22.9 per cent of the area; those from ten 

 to forty hectares, 12.8 per cent of the number f nd 29.9 per cent of 

 the surface; and the larger farms, of more than forty hectares, only 

 2.5 per cent in number and forty-five per cent of the area. So that 

 84.7 per cent of the number of farms covers just one fourth of the 

 total area under cultivation. When this feature of land holding is 

 combined with very careful and intelligent agricultural methods, 

 another proof of strength is developed. Stress is laid by observers 

 on the continued increase of the yield per acre of wheat, due to the 

 application of better methods and science, and, as is believed, to the 

 use of better fertilizers, which had rendered the soil less sensitive to 

 atmospheric variations. To this march of scientific agriculture there 

 is no end, and with the more general use of discoveries it is possible 

 to conceive that France in wheat will be able to hold her own. 



In the production of wheat the position of France is peculiar. 

 Other countries of Europe, like Holland and Belgium, obtain a 

 larger yield per acre, and even Germany gives a higher yield; but 

 no country produces so many bushels in proportion to its population, 

 or approaches the record of France — more than seven bushels per 

 capita. The second in rank is Italy, with only five bushels, and the 

 neighbors of France on the north, Belgium and the ^Netherlands, 

 grow only 3.5 and 1.3 bushels respectively. France is therefore 

 more independent of foreign supplies of wheat than her continental 

 rivals in trade and industry, Russia and Hungary excepted. It has 

 been a conviction with French statesmen that, possessing no com- 

 mand over the sea, it would be suicidal to permit France to become 

 dependent for food upon foreign and possibly rival powers. This 

 conviction has influenced the commercial policy of France, for the 

 Government has ever given a ready ear to the demands of the agricul- 

 turist, and has now adopted protection to the farmer as a settled 

 policy. Where duties on imports have not been granted, bounties 

 on production are given, and only in the great raw materials of 

 industry, like wool, have the proposals of duties, revenue or pro- 

 tective, been set aside. It remains to be seen whether the colonial 

 policy of France will modify this tendency of legislation. In 

 Algeria she holds a country capable of great development in wheat, 

 but Algeria is not tempting to the French farmer, who prefers his 

 smaller holding at home. The more distant colonies as yet play no 

 part in supplying France with this important grain, but are rather 

 dependent upon the mother country for everything — a penalty in- 



