FRANCE - AGRICULTURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



As much as possible the school should seek to send the men back to their 

 homes. In any case it shoiild find situations for the re-educated men, 

 insure that they have work b^/ coming to an understanding with manufac- 

 turers, and even give thenr guiding after they have been re-educated. 



Shepherd's School annexed to the National Shepherding Industry at Ram- 

 houillet and the Training of Shepherds in the Schools uf Agriculture. — This 

 school was formed in accordance with a resolution of 3 April 1916 and receiv- 

 ed its first pupils on the following 30th of August. A committee of bene- 

 volence, got together by M. G. Hanotaux, gives 100 francs a month for the 

 maintenance of each mutilated man. Good shepherds are highly impor- 

 tant : they would help to reconstruct the country's flocks, without which 

 the problem of wool will be very difficulty to solve, as indeed it was before 

 the war. The Ministry of Agriculture has therefore annexed shepherds' 

 schools to several schools of agriculture. At Rambouillet two shepherds 

 have been re-educated and six are being re- educated. The school at Ram- 

 bouillet is also concerned with agriculture in general, gardening, basket- 

 making, and, exceptionally, the management of engines. A gardener, the 

 driver of an engine and a basketmaker have been re-educated, and three 

 basketmakers and one gardener are now being re-educated in the school. 



School of Driver-mechanics at Noisy-le-Grand. — Before the war the 

 development of mechanical cultivation, as a certain palliative to the un- 

 ceasing diminution of rural labour, was already a preoccupation of the Ad- 

 ministration of Agriculture. There had been competitions in mechanical 

 cultivation and schemes for schools for rural mechanics had been prepared. 

 The war has made the development of mechanical agriculture a yet more 

 urgent matter : after the war every agricrdturist should be in some sort a 

 mechanic. The Ministry of Agriculture has therefore regarded as an im- 

 perative duty a contribution to the staff necessary to the working and up- 

 keep of tractors and of agricultural machinery generally. It has been pos- 

 sible to recruit this staff among mutilated agriculturists, the more so be- 

 cause the wages of such employment are equal to whose given in industry. 

 The following are examples of wages earned : manager of a depot of tractors, 

 15 francs a day; assistant manager, 12 francs ; chief mechanic, 13 to 15 

 francs ; chief assistant mechanic, 8 to 10 francs ; chief smith,, 8 to 12 francs ; 

 chief assistant smith, 6 to 10 francs ; driver of a tractor, 3.50 francs plus 1.50 

 francs a hectare (r) — since two hectares are ploughed in a day this amounts 

 to 6.50 francs a day — together with board and lodging. 



An enquiry into the service of mechanical agrictdture revealed that 

 it is possible to re-educate as drivers of tractors men who have lost one leg, 

 men who have lost one arm if the shoulder and elbow joints remain good, 

 and men who have a stiffened elbow joint with a more or less normal shoul- 

 der joint. Men with a mended shoulder joint will never be able to drive well 

 and will not be able to put out the necessary strength to start a machine. 

 Men who have lost a left arm and have a stiff left shoulder have difficulty 



)i) I hectare = 2.47 acres. 



