60 FRANCE 



It was necessary to organize for the struggle, to realize 

 promptly all the possible opportunities for progress, to de- 

 crease the cost of production, and to improve the methods 

 alike of production and of sale. For the attainment of these 

 ends the old agricultural associations were but ill-prepared. 

 It no longer sufficed merely to spread technical knowledge 

 and to give prizes and awards to agriculturists at period- 

 ical exhibitions. 



In reading* these remarks it is impossible not 

 to be struck by the similarity between the condi- 

 tions thus developed in France and those that 

 arose in Great Britain — a country that was, in 

 fact, still more open to "the speculations of 

 international commerce " ; and the conclusion 

 must be drawn that there was as much need for 

 foresight and energy to be shown in this country, 

 in the way of organizing for the coming struggle, 

 as was the case in France. 



There, at least, the new economic conditions 

 were met in a way that was eminently practical, 

 though the very small beginnings offered no 

 suggestions of the great things that were to 

 follow later on. A certain M. Tauviray, depart- 

 mental professor of agriculture at Blois, found in 

 the early eighties that there was great difficulty 

 in getting the agriculturists to use for their im- 

 poverished lands the fertilizers which agricultural 

 chemistry was offering to them ; but he saw, 

 also, that their reluctance was not unnatural. 



