114 REPORT—1848. 
Statistics of Brittany and the Bretons. 
By Josrreu Fretcuer, Hon. Sec. Statistical Society of London. 
This paper was an abstract of the report of a tour in the five departments of 
Brittany during the years 1840 and 1841, under instructions from the Academy of 
the Moral and Political Sciences, made by MM. Beniston de Chateauneuf and Vil- 
lermé, members of that Academy, and contained in the fourth volume of the Me- 
moirs of the Academy of the Moral and Political Sciences. It described the surface 
of the great peninsula of Brittany, projecting into the ocean between the Bay of — 
Biscay and the English Channel, to comprise 1715 square leagues (the French league 
of length being 23 English miles), or 3,388,850 heetares of 23 English acres. Its 
central parts are occupied in great measure by a double range of mountains of no 
great elevation. Breton cultivation, on the borders of the province, is intelligent, 
advanced and productive; in the interior, it is ignorant, prejudiced and unproduc- 
tive, In the two entire departments of Finistére and Morbihan, there are more 
heaths than cultivable land; and it is of course in these wilder regions, with those 
of the department of the Cétes-du-Nord, that the old manners, habits and customs 
of the country are most tenaciously retained. The sources of the reputed poverty 
and backwardness of the province being the especial object of the inquiry, the espe-. 
cial attention of the travellers was given to the poorest and most backward depart- 
ments. 
Table of the cultivation of Brittany, as compared with that of all France, abstracted 
from the Official Statistics of Agriculture. 
Brittany. 5 France. 
Occupation of the surface. a 
Hectares. | Proportion.} Hectares. | Proportion. 
Wheat rcresss.c. Sete caacak unt eososes Cie aae 269,888 | 3, to 3 | 5,586,787 3 
Other grain ......... en racenacteesa cee t teens gis 491,010 + 8,313,478 z 
Buckwheat” ON scccssccstesenvaedesss 0% schist tas 272,541 ab 651,242 sk 
IPOURTOERS. 04. 4eccueceds netecedsedaes ve Seqnesat acd 65,069 sb 921,971 a5 
Hemp and Haws ti7 220 .bi2t.-cdecuee erate! 34,917 oa 274,389 con 
Orchards, nurseries, and osier-beds ...... 56,904 <5 766,578 os 
Gardens and lands under various vege- 
tables,—colewort, turnips, beet-root, 38,742 a 896,747 sh 
tobacco, &ce. ....... Wade tustwas vcetac ss bo | 
WARY rccas nate ne Beek tac anaannn cc ksnecs voc aanas Ly Pads iao qis 1,972,340 | 
Natural meadows 2.5. c.ccctuccccerecesunsecses 301,861 =a 4,198,198 | = 
Artificial meadows .........Secdesveaceeacest. 50,880 or 1,576,567 sy 
Woods and forests ........c.2ceeees 100,154 =e 8,804,551 + 
Ballawa lee se seer eee Pelt tone sae! 7) 420:055 2 6,763,281 L 
Pasturages, Heaths, &e. ......... eseccceeeess} 976,034 | 2to 3 | 9,191,076 4 
Total surface, including roads, &c. .........| 3,388,843 | ............ 52,768,600 | o.oo. .cccen 
The Breton sows for the first year buckwheat, which is his own principal food ; 
the second, wheat ; the third, barley or oats, or often wheat again, of which he thug 
takes two crops in snecession, and then he leaves it bare, except of self-sown weeds 
for three, four, and five years, and often much longer : replying to every argument i 
favour of green crops, with all the firmness of conviction, that the land requir’ 
rest as well as the arms that cultivate it. Under such a system, the peculiar Bret 
custom of tenant-right to compensation for improvements has not proved a panacea 
for a distress frequently as great as that of Ireland. 
The cattle are very poor and inferior,—an ox weighing from 50 to 260 kilogramm 
of 23 English pounds; a cow from 40 to 100 kil.; sheep from 10 to 18 kil. 
quantity of cattle on the land has greatly declined since 1812. From 10,000 t 
15,000 horses are sent annually out of the country for the service of the artillery 
cavalry, and diligences. The commercial industry of Brittany is almost wholly 
agricultural produce (of which it exports all the best), in grain, hemp,flax, cattle an 
horses, and less important articles, such as honey, bees’-wax and butter. Salt fro 
the neighbourhood of Nantes, oysters from the Bay of Cancale, and pilchards fro 
