162 



THE POSSIBILITIES 



the land they own. In the course of the nine- 

 teenth century they have nearly doubled the 

 area under wheat, as well as the returns from 

 each acre, so as to increase almost fourfold the 

 amount of wheat grown hi France.* 



At the same time the population has only 

 increased by 41 per cent., so that the ratio of 

 increase of the wheat crop has been six times 

 greater than the ratio of increase of population, 

 although agriculture has been hampered all the 

 time by a series of serious obstacles taxation, 

 military service, poverty of the peasantry, and 

 even, up to 1884, a severe prohibition of all 

 sorts of association among the peasants. f It 



* The researches of Tisserand may be summed up as follows : 



t In a recent evaluation, M. Auge-Laribe (U ^volution de la 

 France agricole, Paris, 1912) arrives at the following figures : 



