SMALL INDUSTRIES AND INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES. 145 



towns, hand-weaving in the villages is nearly gone. 

 But things have a different aspect when we take other 

 regions of France, where other industries prevail. 



Taking the region situated between Rouen in the 

 north-east, Orleans in the south-east, Rennes in the 

 north-west, and Nantes in the south-west, that is, the 

 old provinces of Normandy, Perche and Maine, and 

 partly Touraine and Anjou, as they were seen by Ar- 

 douin Dumazet in 1895, we find there quite a variety 

 of domestic and petty industries, both in the villages 

 and in the towns. 



At Laval (to the south-east of Rennes), where drills 

 (coutils) were formerly woven out of flax in hand-looms, 

 and at Alencon, formerly a great centre for the cottage- 

 weaving of linen, as well as for hand-made lace, Ardouin 

 Dumazet found both the house and the factory linen 

 industry in a lingering state. Cotton takes the lead. 

 Drills are now made out of cotton in the factories, and 

 the demand for flax goods is very small. Both domestic 

 and factory weaving of flax goods are accordingly in a 

 poor condition. The cottagers abandon that branch of 

 weaving, and the large factories which had been erected 

 at Alencon, with the intention of creating a flax and 

 hemp-cloth industry, had to be closed Only one fac- 

 tory, occupying 250 hands, remains ; while nearly 

 23,000 weavers who found occupation at Mans, Fresnay 

 and Alencon in hemp cloths and fine linen had to 

 abandon that industry. Those who worked in factories 

 have emigrated to other towns, while those who had not 

 broken with agriculture reverted to it. In this struggle of 

 cotton versus flax and hemp, the former was victorious. 



As to lace, it is made in such quantities by ma- 

 chinery at Calais, Caudry, St. Quentin and Tarare that 

 only high-class artistic lace-making continues on a smal? 

 scale at Alengon itself, but it still remains a by-occupation 

 in the surrounding country. Besides, at Flers, and at 

 Ferte Mace (a small town to the south of the former), 



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