IO2 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



plot takes the aspect of an excellent corn-field, as may be 

 seen from a photograph given by Grandeau in his 

 Etudes agronomiques. 



In fact, the eight and a half bushels required for 

 one man's annual food were actually grown at the 

 Tomblaine station on a surface of 2250 square feet, or 

 forty-seven feet square, i.e., on very nearly one-twentieth 

 part of an acre. 



Again, we may thus say, that where we require now 

 three acres, one acre would be sufficient for growing 

 the same amount of food, if planting wide apart were 

 resorted to. And there is, surely, no more objection 

 to planting wheat than there is to sowing in rows, which 

 is now in general use, although at the time when the 

 system was first introduced, in lieu of the formerly usual 

 mode of sowing broadcast, it certainly was met with 

 great distrust. While the Chinese and the Japanese 

 used for centuries to sow wheat in rows, by means of a 

 bamboo tube adapted to the plough, European writers 

 objected, of course, to this method under the pretext 

 that it would require too much labour. It is the same 

 now with planting each seed apart. Professional writers 

 sneer at it, although all the rice that is grown in Japan 

 is planted and even replanted. Every one, however, 

 who will think of the labour which must be spent for 

 ploughing, harrowing, fencing, and keeping free of weeds 

 three acres instead of one and who will calculate the 

 corresponding expenditure in manure, will surely admit 

 that all advantages are in favour of the one acre as 

 against the three acres, to say nothing of the possibilities 

 of irrigation, or of the planting machine-tool, which will 

 be devised as soon as there is a demand for it* 



More than that, there is full reason to believe that 

 even this method is liable to further improvement by 

 means of replanting. Cereals in such cases would be 



* See Appendix K. 



