DUTIES OF THE GOVERNMENT. 235 



Those who have invented or improved agricultural ' imple- 

 ments ; 



In a word, all those who should have rendered services in 

 any department of agriculture, would be entitled to these 

 rewards. 



I believe that prizes to the amount of ten or twelve thou- 

 sand francs, annually distributed in each of the principal de- 

 partments, would be sufficient to excite a happy emulation 

 among agriculturists. 



The government should also reserve to itself some places 

 in the two practical schools of agriculture, and there place 

 the children of the most distinguished cultivators, to be 

 maintained at its expense. 



But it is not enough to create agricultural products ; chan- 

 nels must be opened to them, and a market secured; and 

 thus the government has other duties to fulfil. Whatever 

 facilitates transportation will become of general utility, by 

 increasing the consumption of commodities, and lowering 

 their price ; the first object of attention is then the means of 

 attaining this end. 



To arrive at a conclusion respecting these means, we must 

 first state the present condition of things. 



There are some roads, which may be called parish roads, 

 which merely form a communication between the estates of 

 one parish ; these consequently are merely roads for farming 

 operations. 



There are others, which form a communication between 

 adjacent parishes, and which may be called district roads. 



There are also others, which connect together all the 

 towns of a department, which may be called departmental 

 roads. 



And finally, the great roads, which form communications 

 between all the departments. 



The care of maintaining parish or farm roads is entrusted 

 to the local authorities, and one needs only a hasty journey 

 through France, to be convinced of the neglect and care- 

 lessness with which these communications are treated. 

 Transportation on these roads is difficult and tedious ; twice 

 the number of animals are employed upon them which 

 would be necessary if the roads were kept in a proper state, 

 and the price of commodities is increased by the difficulty 

 of transportation ; all this is detrimental to the proprietor, 

 who indeed admits it, but no one is willing, at his own ex- 

 pense, to make repairs by which all would be benefited, and 

 the evil continues. 



