504 



rye in aiitumu, the seed being mixed with animal-charcoal. Wheat in 

 the clover, fertilized by compost, followed the rye, and brought flue 

 crops. A drain-pipe factory was established, the flat meadows drained, 

 and a system of irrigatiou, by ditches and trenches economically run 

 upon levels, gathered the fertilizing waters for distribution wherever 

 their benefits were most needed. A quinquennial rotation of a restora- 

 tive character, with three forage to two grain crops, was adopted, as 

 follows: 



First year. — Forage crops, roots, and fallowing wherever deemed nec- 

 essary. 



Second year. — Wheat and fall rye. 



Third year. — Clover and ray-grass pastures, white clover. 



Fourth year. — Clover and ray-grass pastures. 



Fifth year. — Winter and spring oats or winter barley. 



Not a rod of surface is unoccupied ; and the example has been so 

 contagious that heather and broom-sedge have disappeared from the 

 neighborhood. Besides clover, lucerne, and ray-grass, the forage 

 resources were increased by maize, vetches, the cavalier cabbage, and 

 the forage-roots, rape and turnips. 



In 1849 forage resources consisted of meager pastures and 40,000 

 kilograms of natural hay of poor quality; in 18G9 it had increased to 

 240,000 kilograms of natural hay, 400,000 of cultivated forage, and about 

 400,000 kilograms of roots ; in all about 1,100 English tons of feeding- 

 material. In the same period the grain product was increased from 

 61 hectolitres* of rye and 42 of oats to 1,541 hectolitres, consisting of 

 wheat, barley, rye, oats, and buckwheat. In twenty years the value of 

 live-stock had advanced from 2,774 francs to 09,480 francs, of which 

 half was the property of the farmers. 



The improvement in buildings was equally marked. The ruins were 

 rebuilt or rei)aired by the proprietor. " Light, cleanliness, health, and 

 happiness penetrated these residences formerly so miserable." Education 

 followed ; the children were taught to read, write, and cipher, and 

 means taken to initiate the adults, in the long winter evenings, in the lan- 

 guage and methods of progressive agriculture, presented in works from 

 the libraries which M. Bignon had established upon each of the three 

 farms. The stables were airy, spacious, and provided with all conve- 

 niences. Similar improvement had been attained in the animals them- 

 selves. Formerly numerous paths tracked field and heath, the ravines 

 constituted roads, and the roads were lost in the swamps. These were 

 all discarded, and a system of roads, intelligently surveyed and thor- 

 oughly constructed, took their place. 



What has been the financial result of this enterprise ? Certainly 

 the metayers have been greatly bench ted in large increase of income 

 and comforts of life, in educational and social progress. The proprietor 

 had in vested originally 81,220 francs; theexpense of improvement, includ- 

 ing the cost of contiguous property purchased, was 71,597 francs. Upon 

 this investment M. Bignon received an average return of 8 per cent., 

 an income claimed to be superior to revenue from government stocks, 

 and almost equal to the highest profits of the most doubtful of mobile 

 values. At the same time the value of the estate had advanced from 

 384 francs to 1,500 francs per acre. 



As early as 1858, M. Bignon received an honorable reward from his 

 own arrondissemeiit, and has received many since from regional and stock- 

 growing associations : from the Exposition Universelle ; in 18G8, the 



*A hectolitre is 2.83782 Lnshels. 



