EDUCATION. 131 



to bring about in the condition of French Agriculture is 

 exceedingly noticeable. We must not judge the French 

 Agriculture solely by the results of that excellent market 

 gardening and fruit and flower growing w^hich extorts 

 admiration, not only in respect of cultivation, but also of 

 marketing, including large co-operative cold storage depots 

 for fruit and vegetables, and special fast railway and boat 

 services which carry train and boat loads of perishable 

 fruit and other produce safely and expeditiously from 

 the Cote d'Azur to Paris and to our shores. There is still back- 

 ward ordinary husbandry in France. And twenty and thirty 

 years ago there was a great deal more. Travelling — for 

 the most part on foot — twenty-four years ago through the 

 famed Lauragais, the original _/)fl3/s de cocagne,'^ or " Cock- 

 aigne," as we have called it, I could not help being struck 

 with the very backward aspect of Agriculture in that 

 chosen paradise of fertility and a genuinely favourable 

 climate. " You are still rather backw^ard here," so I timidly 

 remarked to the departmental professor at Toulouse. " Oh, 

 we are still in the age of the ancient Roman plough," was 

 his reply. Such things have been altered, thanks, in a 

 great measure, to the devoted labours of the " Directors 

 of Agriculture." However, one may be thankful that there 

 have been other influences at w^ork by their side. For, as 

 one cannot help remarking at the annual Congresses — un- 

 fortunately interrupted by the war — of the Federation 

 Nationale de la MiUualite et de la Co-operation Agricoles, 

 the Directors are willy-nilly kept very much under their 

 master's thumb, and not allowed to exercise much will 

 or initiative of their own. There is far greater freedom, 

 and therefore more genuine and representative expression 

 of opinion, at the Congresses of the Agricultural Syndicates, 

 to whose good work and teaching, as observed. Lord Reay 

 specially alluded at the head of his Committee. In Govern- 

 ment quarters their leaders are taxed with being " Royal- 



1 So called from the coques de pastel (cocks of woad) wliich were 

 to be seen at harvest time on this fertile bit of land — woad being a 

 very remunerative, but also a very exacting plant in respect of soil, 

 and therefore accepted as a test of fertility. 



