FRANCE 



2297 



FRANCE 



chief branches, the Isere and the Durance, also 

 have Alpine sources. The other three great 

 rivers, to the west of the watershed, empty 

 into the Atlantic. The Loire, the longest river 

 of France and the one with the largest drain- 

 age basin, rises in the Cevennes, curves north- 

 ward toward the sea through the plateau region, 

 and ends in a wide estuary; the Garonne rises 

 in Spain, finds its way along the edge of the 

 great plateau, and after receiving a number of 

 tributaries flows northwest and finally broadens 

 into the estuary of the Gircnde. These last 

 two rivers are subject to disastrous floods and 

 are in places obstructed by sandbanks. The 

 Seine, which has the smallest basin of these four 

 chief rivers, is the most valuable for naviga- 

 tion, forming with its tributaries and branching 

 canals a great system of waterways over which 

 a considerable part of the commerce passes. 

 On this river Paris is situated. 



France has few lakes, and these are of no 

 great size. Lake Geneva, in the Alpine coun- 

 try, forms part of its boundary for thirty-two 

 miles, but belongs to Switzerland. Near the 

 coast in certain regions are numerous brackish 

 lagoons or inland bays, but these have neither 

 beauty nor any particular importance. 



Climate Conditions. As a whole, France has 

 a mild and even climate, due to its bordering 

 seas, but there are very noticeable variations 

 in the different parts of the country. The west- 

 ern coast regions are warm and damp, with a 

 small annual range of temperature, but in the 

 interior, and especially in the extreme east, 

 the contrast between summer and winter is 

 much more sharp. The central plateau has 

 a rather bleak, unattractive climate, with high 

 winds and cold winters, but just over the ridge, 

 on the Mediterranean coast, is a delightful 

 region with a subtropical climate a region 

 which with its olives and oranges seems more 

 like Italy than like France. The average 

 temperature for the year at Paris, in the north- 

 central part, is 50, that for July being 65 

 and that for January 36. 



The winds, which blow for the most part 

 from the south and west, are warm and mois- 

 ture-laden, and since no mountains near the 

 coast force out the moisture, this is dropped 

 fairly evenly over the country. Thirty inches 

 is the average rainfall for all France, but a 

 few regions in the mountains have forty, while 

 a few districts in the northern plains have but 

 ten. 



Resources and Industries 



As stated above, in the discussion of popula- 

 tion, the statistics given of necessity have 

 reference to conditions before the War of the 

 Nations. How great will be the change and 

 how long it will be before a normal state of 

 affairs is reached cannot even be predicted 

 now. 



Agriculture. Primarily France is, and has 

 been for centuries, an agricultural country, but 

 until the nineteenth century there were vast 

 areas of moor and heath and waste land. Dur- 

 ing that century, however, conditions changed, 

 and at present less than one-twelfth of the 

 land is waste. Most of the farms are small 

 and are cultivated by their owners. The 

 French farmers are by no means the stolid 

 peasants of some of the other European coun- 

 tries, content with the antiquated methods 

 practiced for centuries by their ancestors, but 

 have always shown themselves progressive and 

 ready to adopt the best scientific methods. 

 As a result of this and of the favorable cli- 

 mate, French farms yield for the most part 

 excellent returns. The plains of the north and 

 northeast, with the valleys of the Rhone and 

 Garonne, are the most productive regions. 



There is a national department of agriculture 

 which not only provides courses in the public 

 schools, but establishes special schools where 

 the peasants may go for their training. 



Crops. Among all the agricultural products 

 of France there are two which stand out with 

 special prominence wheat and the vine. At 

 least one-eighth of all the area of the country 

 is annually under wheat, and no other Euro- 

 pean country except Russia raises as large a 

 quantity of this important cereal. The peas- 

 ants of France, unlike those of most European 

 countries, do not live on the coarse "black 

 bread," or rye bread, but have as their chief 

 fare wheaten loaves. In all, France produces 

 considerably more than one-third as much 

 wheat as the United States Oats is the cereal 

 of second importance, and large crops of rye 

 and barley are produced. 



Vine-growing is perhaps the most character- 

 istic industry of France. In Champagne, in 

 Burgundy and near Bordeaux are raised the 

 luscious grapes which yield the famous wines 

 known by those names, and in other depart- 

 ments, particularly in the south, other varieties 

 scarcely less satisfactory are grown. In good 



