STATE REPORTS OF AGRICULTURE. 501 
is filled with details on the production of beet sugar, and is well worthy 
attention. In France, farming without this adjunct is thought a slow 
business. As an instance of this mixed agriculture, a farmer at Lens, 
fifty miles from Calais, has 500 acres in beet root, all on the ridge, with- 
out a single black spot in any part. He raises eighteen tons per acre ; 
keeps thirty horses and eighty working oxen; has a sugar factory on 
his farm, and fattens three hundred to four hundred cattle annually on 
the pulp from his sugar factory. Pigs thrive on it when cooked, and 
sheep eat it raw. He adopts the English “ box” system in fattening his 
cattle, keeping them in darkness; they are then less troubled with flies, 
eat better, and are sooner ready for the butcher than when kept in day- 
light. Near Valenciennes the country is covered with sugar factories ; 
the average size of the farms is 30 to 40 acres, though there are 
some of 400 to 600 acres. About half of the land is cropped with sugar- 
beet, the remainder with wheat, clover, and lucern for fodder; guano 
is falling into disuse, not producing so good sugar-beet as oil cake, 
which is now applied to the land as manure. In these sugar districts 
land has advanced to £100 per acre. The growth of wheat in this dis- 
trict before the production of beet sugar was only 976,000 bushels, the 
number of oxen, 700; since the introduction of the sugar manufacture 
the growth of wheat has been 1,168,000 bushels, and the number of oxen 
11,500. In Southern France a very different state of things exists ; 
there are to be seen many large estates of 5,000 acres, divided into farms 
of 2 acres up to 500, and rented at 5s. to 8s. an acre; rye is the chief 
crop. Wages are low, and the condition of the laborers is deplorable. 
The team-men sleep with the cattle, two in a bed, or rather in a box, on 
a sack of straw, a rude floor being put up at one end of the shed, and 
they may be said to be nearly ina state of slavery. Their hours of 
labor are from 4 a. m. to 8 p. m. in summer, and till noon on Supdays; 
their wages being but 1s. 8d. per day, without perquisites, for these long 
hours. Thus ground down, itis no wonder that the peasantry are crowd- 
ing to the cities. To compensate for this depopulation of the rural dis- 
tricts, boys are sent from the reformatories and employed in farming till 
their turn comes for the dreaded conscription. The reformatories are 
called agricultural colonies. (In Austria the condition of farm laborers 
is still worse.) A marked improvement is taking place in the live-stock 
on French farms, and the best breeds of cattle, sheep, and pigs are freely 
imported. The government has shown a fostering care in importing. 
improved breeds of riding, draught, and carriage horses. Horse-breed- 
ing establishments, termed haras, have been conducted by the state for 
many years, and for a trifling fee all farmers can obtain the use of the 
best stallions at these establishments. Stallions are also sent from these 
haras to various districts of the country, and the government also grants 
a handsome premium to the owner of a good stallion approved by 
the official inspector. The draught horses have been greatly improved ; 
the “ Percherons,” particularly, have been brought to high perfection. 
The French maintain that the English, though good judges of horse- 
flesh, are too careless about their horses’ feet. 
Attention is called to the importance of irrigation, which has changed 
the face of the country in many parts of Europe; and in Egypt, with 
very primitive pumps, worked by a mule, bullock, or a couple of don- 
keys, sufficient water is raised to irrigate 30, 40, or 50 acres, which then 
produce large crops of a kind of clover called “‘ Burseem.” In Lombardy, 
with an area of 6,000,000 acres, more than a million acres are artificially 
irrigated, and upwards of three thousand miles of canals have been cut, 
besides a vast extent of small arteries belouging to private individuals; 
