1408 AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTIONS 



AGRICULTURAL 

 INSTITUTIONS 



which lucerne would be sown, or trifolium might be taken after the wheat. 

 A typical rotation is given below 



I St year : spring wheat and turnips as a catch crop. 

 2nd year : parsnips with cauliflowers or artichokes. 

 3rd year : wheat or onions and trifohuni. 

 4th year : cauliflowers. 



The chemical requirements of such a rotation are considerable and 

 even assuming that very heavy dressings of seaweed and farm yard manure 

 are available, these should be supplemented by applications of fertilizers 



1058- Blind Soldiers on the Land. — Karonne ThenArd.A. (Note from the Valentin, 

 Haiiy Association) m Comptes Rendiis des Seances de VAcademie d'As,ri'nltuie de France, 

 Vol. II, No. 21, pp. 595-602. Paris, 1916. 



Ever since the beginning of the war the Valentin Haiiy Association has 

 undertaken the task of helping bUnd soldiers to earn their own livelihood 

 and whenever it has been possible they have put such soldiers back to 

 their old pre-war trades and occupations. On this principle large numbers 

 of blind men should have been brought back to the land. The Associa- 

 tion was already in touch with several men who were successful farmers, 

 poultrymen or bee-keepers in spite of having lost their sight, as for example 

 the owner of a vineyard in Franche-Comte who though he became bUnd 

 at the age of forty kept on working for many years. Another had been 

 taught a trade specially adapted to the blind (straw and cane work), but 

 preferred an agricultural occupation and rapidly became a .skilful labourer. 

 The latter man was an immense help to the Association, for his case could 

 be quoted to the blind soldiers and it could be pointed out to them that 

 they had the advantage of being already familiar with farm operations. 

 He was even charged in July 1915 to go round to the homes of bhnd soldiers 

 and to show them by his practical example what could be accomplished 

 without sight, to encourage them to be self-reliant, and to indtice them 

 to try to pick up the threads of their old life. 



The results of this policy have been excellent : one man has gone back 

 to an employer for whom he had previously been working for nine years, 

 and has regained much of his old skill ; another man, besides going back to 

 his original work, has taken charge of 50 beehives to which he attends 

 mostly at night ; a third man who is not only blind but also suffers from 

 slight deafness and a certain weakness in the right arm has taken up the ma- 

 nagement of a farm again and works himself in the garden and at pruning 

 vines. All show remarkable pluck; but even the most able man when 

 deprived of his sight is largely at the mercy of his stirroundings and could 

 accomplish little without the help and sympathy which are most surely 

 found amongst his own people. 



The Valentin Haiiy Association is establishing a small potiltry farm for 

 blind soldiers, as experiment have recently shown in England that chicken 

 rearing and fattening is work particularly well adapted to the blind. 



