OF AGRICULTURE. 191 



years or so there will be no more landes in that 

 district (p. 265). Nay, the marshes of the Dol 

 " The Holland of Brittany " protected from the 

 sea by a wall (5,050 acres), have been turned 

 into market-gardens, covered with cauliflowers, 

 onions, radishes, haricot beans and so on, the 

 acre of that land being rented at from 2, 10s. 

 to 4. 



The neighbourhoods of Nantes could also be 

 mentioned. Green peas are cultivated there on 

 a very large scale. During the months of May 

 and June quite an army of working people, 

 especially women and children, are picking 

 them. The roads leading to the great preserving 

 factories are covered at certain hours with rows 

 of carts, upon which the peas and onions are 

 carted one way, while another row of carts are 

 carrying the empty pods which are used for 

 manure. For two months the children are 

 missing in the schools ; and in the peasant 

 families of the neighbourhood, when the question 

 comes about some expenditure to be made, the 

 usual saying is, " Wait till the season of the 

 green peas has come." 



About Paris no less than 50,000 acres are given 

 to the field culture of vegetables and 25,000 acres 

 to the forced culture of the same. Sixty years 

 ago the yearly rent paid by market-gardeners 

 attained already as much as 18 and 24 per 



