RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 161 



for proper business methods after the foundation of ownership and 

 technical skill has been laid. In the basket-making industry the earn- 

 ings of those who work under firms of osier planters, without co-opera- 

 tion, is from one-fifth to one-ninth of the earnings of those who work 

 through their own co-operative association. 



Canada is peculiarly rich in native woods, but we have not yet 

 attempted to convert them into manufactured articles to any extent. 

 There is nothing which illustrates the strength of petty industries 

 in France to a greater extent than the use to which the peasants put 

 the native woods. Great quantities of fans, paper-knives, brushes, 

 spoons, salt-boxes, scales, flutes, spindles, funnels and boxes are turned 

 out by the peasant workers in such places as Fresnaye, near Alencon, 

 Wood is obtained from adjacent forests, each peasant having his 

 own lathe, which he works when not engaged in cultivating his garden 

 or his field. Carvers and makers of furniture and souvenirs are to 

 be found in the rural districts all over France — other articles which 

 are made are bellows, tapestry, pottery, metal work, telescopes, 

 watches, etc. In the case of watches, which is one of the most im- 

 portant small industries, particularly around Lyons, it is interesting 

 to find that, although these are largely made in the homes of the 

 people, yet hardly any single man can turn out a complete watch — 

 showing that even in these small industries the advantage of the divi- 

 sion of labour is recognized. At Cluse electric power is transmitted 

 to the homes of the watchmakers from a power station adjoining the 

 river — and the yield of the industry in this district alone is 3,000,000 

 francs annually. Schools for training watchmakers have been estab- 

 lished at Besancon, which is the great watch-making centre of France. 

 There is no machinery used, but labour is well organized and subdi- 

 vided. About 8,000 workers in Besancon produce from 400,000 to 

 500,000 watches every year. 



These industries are all carried on in conjunction with farming, 

 and it is this that has helped to give to France her strength of man- 

 hood, her intelligent citizenship and her enormous wealth. The 

 present war has revealed to many how great France really is; it is no 

 new-found strength, but the product of a combination of intelligent 

 application to skilled industry and healthy life in the open country. 

 As much as $240 per acre per annum is made from land cultivated 

 by the peasant workers in some districts, so that their skill in garden- 

 ing or farming does not suffer from their ability to manufacture. 



There must be many groups of people of diuerent races in Canada 

 who have had experience of some class of domestic iadustry while in 



