PEASANT PEOPKIETOES 138 



exceed 300 acres; and Cliarente-Inferieure, Rhone, Tarn- 

 et-Garonne, and Seine. It is impossible to assign any 

 general reasons for the relatively large number of peasant 

 proprietors in these departments. In each different locality 

 much depends on the character of the soil and climate, the 

 special crops, the rate of agricultural wages. Thus, for 

 instance, in Manche, with its unrivalled pastures, its 

 ready markets for eggs, poultry, and butter, its fruit 

 orchards, and its domestic industries, peasant proprietors 

 flourish. Owing to the amount of grass and to the 

 decrease of population, but little agricultural employment 

 is provided. Consequently wages are very high, and self- 

 farming is profitable. The same remarks apply to the 

 neighbourhood of Paris, where the rural population is 

 attracted into the city, and where market-garden pro- 

 duce commands a ready sale. In Rhone, again, where 

 manufacturing industries abound which give employment 

 to thousands of peasant proprietors, tenant-farming is 

 unprofitable, while at the same time the market is good, 

 and the peasant supplements his earnings in the muslin 

 works of Tarare or some of the numerous manufactories of 

 Givors. So, lastly, Charente-Inferieure is well suited to a 

 peasant proprietary. Its soil varies between the reclaimed 

 marshlands of La Rochelle and Rochefort to the valleys 

 and gently undulating plains of Saintes, the well-wooded 

 district of St. Jean d'Angely, or the heathy ground of 

 Jonzac. Peasant proprietors, who number considerably 

 more than half of the adult male rural population, are to 

 be found in the richest districts, where, besides the vine 

 and the ordinary cereals, hemp, flax, fruits, and garden 

 vegetables are grown in great abundance. There is also a 

 large trade carried on in horses. One farmer breeds the 

 colts, the other buys them at six or eight months and 



