OF AGRICULTURE. 175 



which means that the annual meat-food of at 

 least 1,500,000 full-grown persons, or more, 

 has been added to the yearly income of the 

 country ; home-grown, not imported. In fact, 

 in the valley of the Seine, the value of the land 

 was doubled by irrigation ; in the Saone valley 

 it was increased five times, and ten times in cer- 

 tain landes of Brittany.* 



The example of the Campuie district, in Bel- 

 gium, is classical. It was a most unproductive 

 territory mere sand from the sea, blown into 

 irregular mounds which were only kept together 

 by the roots of the heath ; the acre of it used to 

 be sold, not rented, at from 5s. to 7s. (15 to 20 

 francs per hectare). But now it is capable, 

 thanks to the work of the Flemish peasants 

 and to irrigation, to produce the food of one 

 milch cow per acre the dung of the cattle being 

 utilised for further improvements. 



* The increase of the crops due to irrigation is most In- 

 structive. In the most unproductive Sologne, irrigation has 

 increased the hay crop from two tons per hectare (two and a half 

 acres) to eight tons ; in the Vendee, from four tons of bad hay 

 to ten tons of excellent hay. In the Ain, M. Puris, having spent 

 19,000 francs for irrigating ninety-two and a half hectares 

 (about 2 10s. per acre), obtained an increase of 207 tons of 

 excellent hay. In the south of France, a net increase of over 

 four bushels of wheat per acre is easily obtained by irrigation ; 

 while for market gardening the increase was found to attain 

 30 to 40 per acre. (See H. Sagnler, " Irrigation," in Barrel's 

 Dictionnaire <F Agriculture, vol. iii., p. 339.J I hardly need 

 mention the striking results obtained lately by irrigation in 

 Egypt and on the dry plateaus of the United States. 



