722 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 12 



AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL ECONOMY OF ; 

 FRANCE. j 



I 

 Extracts from BirkbecU's Tour. j 



" In every part of France woraeri employ them- 

 eelves in offices which are deeiaed with us unsuit- 

 able to the sex. Here tiiere is no se.xual distinc- 

 tion of employment: the women undertake any 

 task they are able to perform, without much no- 

 tion of fitness or unfitness. Tins applies to all 

 classes. The lady of one of the principal clothiers 

 at Louviers, conducted us over the works ; gave 

 us patterns of the best cloths; ordered the machi- 

 nery to be set in motion for our gratification, and 

 was evidently in the habit of attending to the 

 whole detail of the business. Just so, near Rouen, 

 the wile of the largest farmer in that quarter, con- 

 ducted me to the barns and stables ; showed me 

 the various implements, and explained their use ; 

 took me into the fields, and described the mode of 

 husbandry, which, she perli^ctly understood ; ex- 

 |)atiated on the excellence of their I'allows ; point- 

 ed out the best sheep in the flock, and gave me a 

 detail of their management in buying their wether 

 lambs and fattening their wethers. This was on 

 a farm of about 400 acres. In every shop and 

 warehouse you see similar activity in the females. 

 At the royal porcelain manuliiclory at Sevres, a 

 woman was called to receive payment for the arti- 

 cles we purchased. In the Halle de Bled, at Pa- 

 ris, women, in liieirli'tle counting houses, are per- 

 forming the office of factors, in the sale of grain 

 and flour. In every depariment they occupy an 

 important station, from oneextren)ily of the coun- 

 try to the ovher. 



" In many cases, where women are employed 

 in the more laborious occupations, the real cause 

 ie directly opposite to the apparent. You see 

 them, in the south, thrashing with the men un- 

 der a burning sun; it is a family party thrashing 

 out the crop of their own freehold. A woman is 

 holding plough ; the plough, the horses, the land 

 is her's, or (as we have it) her husband's ; who is 

 probably sovvins the wheat which she is turning 

 in. You are shocked on seeing a fine young wo- 

 man loading a dung cart ; it belongs to her lather, 

 who is manuring his own field, fur their common 

 support. In these instances the toil of the wo- 

 man denotes wealth rather than want; though 

 the latter is the motive to which a superficial ob- 

 server would refer it."' 



* * * * '< From Dieppe to this place, 

 [Montpelier,] we have seen scarcely a working 

 animal whose condition was not excellent. Oxen, 

 horses, and now mules and asses, fat and well 

 looking, but not pampered. This looks like pros- 

 perity. And when I add that we have not seen, 

 among the laboring people, one such famished, 

 worn out, wretched object, as may be met with in 

 every parish of England, I had almost said on 

 every larm ; this, in a country so populous, so en- 

 tirely agricultural, denotes real prosperity. Again, 

 fi'onr> Dieppe to this place, I could not easily point 

 out an acre of waste, a spot of land thai is not in- 

 dustriously cultivated, though not always well, 

 according to our notions. France, so peopled, so 

 cultivated, moderately taxed, without paper mo- 

 ney, without tithes, without poor rates, almost 

 without poor, with excellent roads in every di- 

 rection; and overflowing with corn; wine gnd oil. 



must be, and really is, a rich country. Yet there 

 are few rich individuals. 



" In the agricultuie of France there is a great 

 sameness. The arable land, which cornfirises al- 

 most the whole surliice of the country, the vine- 

 yards, and a lijw tracts of mountain excepted, 

 may be divided into five classes, according to its 

 li^rtiiiiy, without regard to the nature of the soil. 

 The first bears a crop every year, as in Auvergne, 

 in the neighborhood of Toulouse, in some pat ts of 

 Normandy, &c. This description is highly cul- 

 tivated, and on a principle well adapted to soil and 

 circumstances. The second somewhat inlerior in 

 quality, but good land, is also judiciously cultiva- 

 ted, with the intervention of a liillow once in six 

 years; as about Dieppe and Kouen. The third, 

 land of middling quality, which embraces a very 

 large part of the kingdom, is managed on the old 

 plan of fallow, wheat, oats. The fourth, poor 

 land, which also covers a large space, is lallow 

 and wheat alternately. The fifth, land still poorer, 

 is cultivated in the round of li\llow, rye, rest with- 

 out grass seeds. 



" The first and second classes include what 

 there is of variety and spirit in French husbandry. 

 In the south, Indian corn alternating with wheat 

 exhibits management as good as the beans and 

 wheat of the best English farmer: and the varied' 

 routine, observable in the north, aflbrds many 

 proofs of a spirited and judicious culture. It is- 

 the thiee last which betray its weakness. If they 

 comprise half the cultivated surface, which I bfe- 

 lieve is not overrating their extent, halt of that 

 portion being iallow, it appears that one-lburth of 

 the whole country is lying in a state entirely un- 

 productive, a ftiw weeds, mostly ihisties, excepted. 

 A very lew half-starved sheep are kept to pick 

 over the constantly recurring barren fallows, ofters 

 accompanied by three or four long-legged hogs. 

 On the borders and out of the way corners, you 

 may see a cow or two with an attendant. But 

 there appears so little lor any of these animals to 

 eat, thai you wonder how even they are support- 

 ed. The prairies artijicielles (the artificial grasses 

 as we less properly call them) of which so much 

 is said by the amateurs, are like specks of green 

 on. a desert. Clover and lucern are cultivated 

 with great success, on the two first classes of land ; 

 but very rarely indeed on the others. Thus there 

 is probably as much really waste land in France 

 as in England, and it is of an expensive kind; 

 whereas our wastes support much more stock than 

 theirs, without any expense whatever. It has 

 been said that it would be vain for the French to 

 increase their flocks, because they have already as 

 much mutton as they consume; and there would 

 be no market for more. This sort of argument 

 would hold equally against every other improve- 

 ment. The price of mutton is fully in proportion 

 to that of grain. Mutton is 5d. per lib., wheat 5s. 

 per bushel. With us, mutton is lOd. per lib., and 

 wheat 10s. per bushel. Cheese and butter rather 

 exceed in price this proportion ; beef is about the 

 same. Thus it appears that stock pays as well 

 in France as in England. The French sheep 

 are chiefly remarkable for their long legs, thin car- 

 cases and coarse wool. The same characteristics 

 prevail from north to south, except that in the 

 north they are larger, stouter and bear finer 

 fleeces; in fact^ they are better treated than in the 



