300 SMALL INDUSTRIES AND 



establishment where marble pieces are roughly 

 shaped with the aid of steam, to be finished 

 in the small village workshops. At Sable the 

 workers in that branch, who all own their 

 houses and gardens, enjoy a real well-being 

 especially noticed by our traveller.* 



In the woody regions of the Perche and the 

 Maine we find all sorts of wooden industries 

 which evidently could only be maintained 

 owing to the communal possession of the 

 woods. Near the forest of Perseigne there 

 is a small burg, Fresnaye, which is entirely 

 peopled with workers in wood. 



" There is not one house," Ardouin Dumazet writes, " in 

 which wooden goods would not be fabricated. Some years ago 

 there was little variety in their produce ; spoons, salt- boxes, 

 shepherds' boxes, scales, various wooden pieces for weavers, 

 flutes and hautboys, spindles, wooden measures, funnels, and 

 wooden bowls were only made. But Paris wanted to have a 

 thousand things in which wood was combined with iron : 

 mouse-traps, cloak-pegs, spoons for jam, brooms. . . . And 

 now every house has a workshop containing either a turning- 

 lathe, or some machine-tools for chopping wood, for making 

 lattice-work, and so on. . . . Quite a new industry was born, 

 and the most coquettish things are now fabricated. Owing to 

 this industry the population is happy. The earnings are not 

 high, but each worker owns his house and garden, and occa- 

 sionally a bit of field." f 



At Neufchatel wooden shoes are made, and 

 the hamlet, we are told, has a most smiling 

 aspect. To every house a garden is attached, 



* Ardouin Dumazet, vol. ii., p. 51. 

 | lbid. t voL i., pp. 305, 306. 



