OF AGRICULTURE. 



163 



must also be remarked that during the same 

 hundred years, and even within the last fifty 

 years, market-gardening, fruit-culture and cul- 

 ture for industrial purposes have immensely 

 developed in France ; so that there would be no 

 exaggeration in saying that the French obtain 

 now from their soil at least six or seven times 

 more than they obtained a hundred years ago. 

 The " means of existence " drawn from the soil 

 have thus grown about fifteen times quicker 

 than the population. 



But the ratio of progress in agriculture is still 

 better seen from the rise of the standard of 

 requirement as regards cultivation of land. 

 Some thirty years ago the French considered a 

 crop very good when it yielded twenty-two 

 bushels to the acre ; but with the same soil 



The average crops for each ten years since 1834 are given as 

 follows : 



The wheat crop has thus increased in seventy-five years by 74 

 per cent., while the population increased only by 20 per cent. 

 For potatoes, the increase is still greater : while 198,800,000 cwt. 

 of potatoes were grown in 1882, the crop of 1909 was already 

 328,300,000 owt., the average yield of the acre growing from 

 148 cwt. in 1882 to 212 cwt. in 1909. 



