80 MISERY OF THE BRETON PEASANTRY. 



Some of tlie facts above stated may, however^ be 

 considered as arguments in favour of the cultivation of 

 this grain ; and, where the soil is naturally poor, buck- 

 wheat is really a precious gift of nature, by which sub- 

 sistence may be raised until, by cultivation, the land is 

 made capable of producing more desirable crops. But 

 it is the prelude of evil when a kind of food which 

 requires little exertion to obtain it becomes the staple 

 support of a people. They are sure to become indolent, 

 and careless of further comforts. And if the food be one 

 which, like buckwheat, will grow upon a poor soil, they 

 are apt to allow the soil to become poor, because it will 

 still grow this crop. Thus, they are inevitably exposed 

 to periodical accessions of scarcity or famine, and by 

 these visitations are certain to be reduced to permanent 

 poverty. 



xA.t all events it is well-known that, in those parts of 

 Europe where buckwheat is the staple food of the people, 

 ignorance and neglect of good husbandry prevail, and great 

 poverty is seen. In France tlils grain is regarded as the 

 symbol of agricultural misery, and of the most detestable 

 culture ; and, with the chesnut, is the " triumph of impro- 

 vidence and idleness." * Of the whole surface of France, 

 less than an eightieth part (gV) is sown with buckwheat ; 

 but in the province of Brittany one-twelfth of the whole 

 surface Is sown with this grain. " The exceeding misery 

 of the Breton peasant was noticed by Neckar in 1784, 

 again by Arthur Young ten years later, and, relatively 

 to the population of the rest of France and of Great 

 Britain, it Is as conspicuous as ever. The interior of a 

 Breton cabin in the North Breton departments is described 

 as a parallel to that of an Irish one — buckwheat bread 

 being the chief sustenance, instead of potatoes." f 

 Whether this grain be the cause, or only the attendant 



* Notes Econorrciques sur la Sfatisque Agricole la France, p, 205. 

 + Proceedings of the British Association for 1818, p. 116. 



