No. 4. 



Agriculture in France. — Berhshires. 



115 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Agriculture in France. 



Mr. Editor, — Your description of the 

 state of aorriculture in France is correct, and 

 shows conclusively that low wages are not 

 all that is necessary to insure a profitable re- 

 sult in the cultivation of the soil in any coun- 

 try; it is doubly to be deprecated in this, for 

 the object here ought to be, to produce as 

 great a quantity as possible, and by rendering 

 the price low, to induce a greater consump- 

 tion — by far the best method of obtaining the 

 desired end. 



In a late number of the Quarterly .Tournal 

 of Agriculture, there are a few remarks upon 

 the present state of agriculture in the Nor- 

 mandy provinces of France, which are, I 

 think, applicable to our present purpose; it 

 is said : " The quality of the soil is fine, in 

 many parts highly calcareous; the farms may 

 be said to average sixteen English acres in 

 extent, and when rented to tenants they are 

 generally held under leases of nine years cer- 

 tain. But one half the farms are held by the 

 proprietors, who also sometimes rent other 

 adjoining lands; but these proprietors, even 

 under such circumstances, are, in the majori- 

 ty of instances, poor farmers of the lowest 

 class, and living as meanly as it is possible 

 to imagine. Many of them, like the common 

 labourers, dine upon a few apples or pears 

 and a bit of bread, without the formality of 

 sitting down to a table, and are content with 

 a drink of their home-made and most misera- 

 ble cider. It is not easy to conceive how 

 men can labour on such washy diet which is 

 60 general in France ; we have seen men cut- 

 ting up wood for fuel from morning till night, 

 and in the severest weather, without more 

 nutritious food than indifferent fruit and a 

 little bread; the soup taken perhaps for sup- 

 per at home, or for early breakfast, is, if pos- 

 sible, worse as a means of support, for it con- 

 eists merely of cabbage and hot water, with 

 a little grease or kitchen stuff' stirred into it; 

 it distends the stomach with wind, and is, 

 therefore, totally unsuited to a working man, 

 who requires solid food to enable him to la- 

 bour, not a liquid diet." 



I have, myself, seen twelve ploughs going 

 in one field at the same time, with three 

 teams harrowing; and when the dinner hour 

 arrived, the men would turn the horses to- 

 wards the fence, give a small bundle of hay 

 to each pair, retire themselves to an adjoin- 

 ing brook, and by the side of it take their din- 

 ner, consisting of a lump of bread and an ap- 

 ple or an onion, slaking their thirst in the 

 rivulet, and receiving for their labour from 

 12 to 1.5 cents a day ; and with all this econ- 

 omy and the advantages arising from such 

 low wages, the proprietors and occupiers of 



the land were scarcely able to make both 

 ends of the year meet. With regard to the 

 expense of pulling weeds, so often complained 

 of, I think the best advice would be, not to 

 grow them in the way we do, by permitting 

 them to ripen and shed their seeds in our 

 wheat stubbles. It is, I know, objected, that 

 as the wheat is generally seeded, we are pre- 

 cluded the opportunity of mowing our stub- 

 bles after harvest; but this is not the fact, for 

 a man can go over three or four acres a day 

 with a scythe hung high and wide, and take 

 off" the weeds and a part of the stubble with- 

 out cutting scarcely an inch of the young 

 grass, the after-growth being encouraged by 

 the operation ten-fold, having been relieved 

 from the presence of the weeds and the shade 

 occasioned by their growth ; the stubble and 

 the weeds placed at the bottom of the winter 

 straw-yard paying a hundred fold the labour 

 incurred — "'tis but to try it," as my neigh- 

 bour Grojan says. Joshua Davidson. 



October 22, 1841. 



Berkshires. 



A WRITER makes complaint that the Berk- 

 shires do not come up to the weight of pork 

 which it was stated they would, when first 

 introduced. This seems to be a general com- 

 plaint among the pork raisers at the West. 

 It is true that there have been instances of 

 individuals of that breed, that have been made 

 to weigh 400 and even 000 lbs. when slaugh- 

 tered, but it is also a fact that the average 

 weight is not more than 300 lbs., and a good 

 many fall short of that. Now, for all useful 

 purposes we would venture to say that 300 

 lbs. is large enough, yet such is the taste 

 among our pork buyers, that a 400 hog will 

 bring more per lb. and sell quicker than a 

 250 or 300 pounder. Besides, a farmer who 

 lives at a distance from market, had rather 

 haul 600 lbs. of pork to that market packed 

 into one carcase than in three. Still, the 

 Berkshire is an invaluable breed. They are 

 the very "ieait ideal" of a hog. We do not 

 know how the shape of a genuine Berkshire 

 could be improved. All that is wanting is 

 to enlarge it. It is an artificial breed, that 

 is, no such breed is found in a natural state. 

 It was produced by judicious crossings, and 

 like all other breeds will go back to the origi- 

 nal shape, if not carefully kept up by close 

 attention, A. B. Allen, Esq., of Buffalo, N. Y., 

 who has become celebrated as a breeder of 

 Berkshires, is now in England for tlie purpose 

 of examining the best breeds of cattle, hogs, 

 &c., which that country can produce, and he 

 has pledged himself to the Western breeders 

 that they shall have Berkshires of a size that 

 will suit them if any such can be produced in 

 Great Britain. — Maine Far. 



