106 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[FEB. 14, 
on his own history, and we may learn from his narra- 
tive several means which might prove useful in bette 
ing the condition and augmenting the comforts of these 
men. If the allotment system were more generally 
established in the fens, much good might be aecom- 
plished. Hands,when unemployed by the farmers, would 
find work in cultivating their own little farms and the 
mere means of usefully employing theirsparetime would 
alone be a very great benefit. It would keep them out 
of mischief, and from quarrelling, poaching, thieving ; 
it would keep them more from the ale-house, and the 
consequent pestilence of bad companions. They would 
be * tenant farmers ;" they would possess the means of 
getting property of their own ; and they would not be 
ltogeti lependent upon the fluctuating and uncertain 
patronage of their superiors, An independence of 
spirit thus implanted in their breasts would inevitably 
lead them to look with more firmness and resolation 
upon distress, should it arrive. If then, by rightly 
employing their time, and by gaining produce of their 
own, labourersmay be raised to a much better condition 
of both mind and body, ought not the meansto be more 
extensively—should they not be universally adopted ? 
The suecessful working of the system has been proved — 
the regular payment of the rents, and the improved 
character and condition of the tenants, has refuted all 
objections, and we trust that ere long fen-labourers may 
have their hearts cheered, their families more amply 
supplied, their comforts increased, and their future 
prospects brightened by the lights of success and en- 
couragement which this mode of benefiting them will 
shed around them. 
More benefit clubs might be introduced. Societies 
instituted for the maintenance of members during sick- 
ness have done a great amount of good. If more of 
these were established, the fen-labourer, by paying 
from sixpence to one shilling a month, might have 
a fund to rely upon for sustenance in the time of illness. 
Clothing-clubs might be set on foot in the towns and 
villages. The payment of weekly subscriptions during 
the summer season—a time when labour is plentiful 
and the wages high—would enable each member to 
bio 
the scenery indeed about the town of Quimpèrlé, which 
is at the confluence of the rivers Elle and Isole, and 
surrounded by woods, is of extreme beauty. 
It is indeed rare to find such a spot, and while we 
contemplate its natural beauties, the antiquary has his 
attention arrested by the frequent monumental ruins of 
antiquity. The port of Brest is as beautiful and com- 
modrous for shipping as can be imagined—a very spa- 
cious harbour, with one safe and not too extensive 
entrance, with two fine branches of water, one running 
up to Chateaulin and the other to Landernau, while 
from this noble basin diverges a long deep creek which 
forms the inner port both commercial and naval. It 
may indeed with truth be said that human art could 
never have planned so perfect a roadstead and port as 
Providence has bestowed upon France in this splendid 
harbour. The climate there, as at Quimper and 
L'Orient, is very moist and relaxing, very similar to 
that in the south-west of Ireland. 
The geological formations in Finistóre are considera- 
bly varied (as is the ease throughout lower Britany) ; 
bnt granite, with more or less proportions of mica or 
felspar in its combination, abounds towards the coasts, 
and blocks of this primitive rock are grouped in many 
places, and remarkanly so at Pontaven in Quimpérlé, 
where Menhirs and Dolmens astonis!: the traveller (who 
for the first time meets with those druidical antiquities), 
by their magnitude and durability. There they are— 
the perpetual memorials of idol homage “ to the un- 
known God,” while of the worshippers themselves no 
traces exist in the land. 
This division is traversed by two chains of hills, 
called the Black Mountains and the Mountains of Arkés; 
the first are more southerly and of far greater extent, 
reaching from within a few miles of Chateaulin, on the 
east coast (through the Cótes du Nord), into Normandy 
on the west; the other range, commencing to the 
northward of this range, in the latitude of Brest, in- 
clines from east to west also. This range is of granite ; 
the other being composed of quartz in the higher parts ; 
both chains ramify considerably, and vary in elevation 
from between 200 and 300 to 1000 feet at the eulminating 
point ; they are generally flat on the summit, which is co- 
vered with heath and other coarse vegetation, with peat 
bogs and swamps interspersed. The rural parts of the ar- 
D 
receive a supply of clothes at the o 
the winter—a time when work is hardly to be found 
and wages are redueed, Another improvement of a most 
important character is the better education of the fen- 
labourers’ children, There may be many schools 
already in constant activity, and many boys and girls 
are, no doubt, deriving great advantage from their in- 
struction, but still numbers of these children are not 
taught. Many there are that are compelled to work all 
day for their bread, aud are thus necessarily kept away 
from school. Now, for such, evening teaching might 
be set on foot. Many schools have been formed for 
this purpose in different places, and the payment of 2d. 
a week has been found to answer the master’s purpose 
very well. Many labourers could afford this, and a 
school of 20 or 30 pupils might be made up in many of 
the villages. The children, alter working hard all the 
day, aud then walking perhaps 23 or 3 miles overa soft 
spongy soil whieh lets them sink (light though they be) 
Sor 4inehes deep at every step, must be tolerably 
fatigued; but still they might meet in the school-room 
for an hour in the evening, because little bodily exer- 
tion would be required of them.* 
Improvements in drainage and cultivation are going 
forward so rapidly in the fens, that scarcity of work 
for the labourer is now the exception. Good manage- 
ment becomes-more prevalent, the knowledge of farm- 
ing progresses, and more tillage is fouud necessary 
We trust, then, that in proportion as the capabilities 
and productiveness of the soil are inereased, as the 
crops beeome more abundant and the profits aug- 
mented—the means of bodily, mental, and moral im- 
provement for the labourer will increase also.—J. 4. C. 
——— 
ON THE STATE OF HUSBANDRY IN LOWER 
BRITTANY, 
WITH INCIDENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONDITION OF 
THE FARMING POPULATION THERE, COMPARED WITH 
THE SOCIAL STATE OF THE ANALOGOUS CLASSES IN 
IRELAND. 
By MARTIN DOYLE. 
My remarks shall be limited to the departments of 
Finistére, the Côtes du Nord, and Morbihan, which 
constitute the part of western France distinguished as 
Basse Bretagne; for in those parts are to be traced 
more especially the natural features which characterise 
that iarge proportion of the people of Ireland who have 
descended also from the Celtic race. 
In pursuing the observations which may suggest 
themselves to me, I have no inteution of entering into 
any minute and separate analysis of those interesting 
districts, though they possess distinctive trfits ; but 
mean rather to treat them as one province, after a very 
few necessary preliminaries respecting their individual 
pecuilaritie " 
Finistére, which is bounded on the north-west and 
south by the ocean, is the least of those three in super- 
ficial extent ; yet it contains 353 square leagues, and is 
exceeded in size only by 20 (the Cótes du Nord and 
vihan inclusive), out of th» 86 departments of 
France. It is subdivided into five arrondissements, of 
which that of Brest is the most important. Those of 
Quimper and Quimpérlé being the most pictaresque ; 
or! 
* To recommend these invaluable institutions, Sunday schools 
may be deemed superfluous, but they cannot be too highly prized. 
r sse Chateaulin, which lies between those two 
chains of hills, is very thinly inhabited ; the farm-houses 
and cabins are “few and far between,” and the physical 
condition of the people, like that of their climate (ex- 
posed, as it is, to malaria from fens and blighting blasts), 
is miserable in the extreme, while their moral reputa- 
tion is indifferent, Were it not that the lead mines at 
Poullavouen and Huelgoat (which are the most produc- 
tive and considerable in France, and employ upwards 
of 800 persons) afford them the means of subsistence, 
the population would be in a very depressed state. The 
necessity of depending solely upon the land for support 
does not exist there, consequently the peasantry are far 
less energetic and skilful in their efforts at agricultural 
improvement than they would probably otherwise 
become ; yet industry and skill might easily render the 
hill-sides, and even the moors which crown them, pro- 
ductive at least of nutritious herbage, for sheep and 
small black cattle, and, by a necessary reaction increase 
the general resources of the people. 
Besides its lead mines, Finistére possesses zine and 
bismuth, and slate and marble quarries, but is without 
imestone, except at Brest, where the stone is burnt. 
There is, however, some shell-marl at Morlaix, and one 
or two other places ; for building purposes limestone is 
brought to Morlaix from Coutances, and thence carried 
to the interior, The sea-weed and caleareous sands, 
upon the coasts of the three departments, constitute a 
valuable supply of manure, which gives to those mari- 
time places, in particular where the soil is naturally 
deep and loamy, iramense advantage over the interior, 
where the soil is light and hungry, and without any fer- 
tilising substances at hand to supply its wants, and cor- 
rect its natural deficiencies. 
The Cótes du Nord lies to the east of Finistére, 
stretching a little more northward, where it is bounded 
by the ocean, or canal of La Manche, as French geo- 
graphers designate that portion of the sea ; it is divided 
into five arrondissements (but that of Dinan and a 
small part of St. Briene are not properly in Basse 
Bretagne), and contains 377 square leagues. 
The chain of the Menez, which is a portion of the 
Black Mountains, on their continuous course from the 
coast of Finistére, crosses this department, branching 
throughout the whole of the southern side, which con- 
tains but one arrondissemen', the remaining four being 
on the sea side of the hills, and presents at its highest 
point an elevation exceeding 1000 feet. This ridge is 
in some points searped like a castellated wall ; in other 
parts the rounded summits decline in undulations at in- 
tervals, into valleys which are beautifully wooded. The 
neighbourhood of Carfaix is remarkably well timbered, 
and the same may be stated of the vicinity of Chateau- 
neuf, near the northern side of the mountains. Yet 
though the whole country would supply remunerating 
employment in draining swampy land and reclaiming 
the Jandes, very little is done in either respect; the 
scattered peasantry having no desire to cultivate more 
land than is absolutely necessary for their support, nor 
energy enough to encounter the labour or outlay requi- 
site for bringing the wild land into a state of produc- 
tiveness. This departement altogether has little cham- 
pagne land of much extent, but many. productive and 
sheltered vales intersected by streams. The moun- 
tainous distriets are but slowly if at all improving, and 
the interior, after receding three or four leagues from 
the coast, is comparatively wild. here is much soft 
and sylvan beauty up the rivers of Treguier and Lannion 
(where many Celtic monuments are found), intervening 
between high granite eliffs and bristling rocks, whieh in 
some spots of the coast, and numerous islands, torn at 
some unknown period from the main land, attest the 
ocean’s force. 
The salt works, conducted in à very rough and prim- 
itive manner on the marshes which the tide overflows, 
ive much employment to the natives, who, like many 
of their toiling brethren of Ireland, have to contend with 
dark and dropping skies, and cold moist winds in spring 
and winter; the summer climate is, however, more 
steadily fine than that of Ireland, and the autumnal 
months of September and October on the coasts of 
Brittany are usually delightful. The fisheries, especially 
for sardines, are considerable on the whole line of coast, 
and the number of hands employed in the taking of 
sardines alone, from the vicinity of Brest southward, is 
estimated at 4400. There are some fine rivers navigable 
more or less into the interior, and two canals, one of 
which connects Brest with Nantes, passing through 
Morbihan. Limestone is imported from Coutance to St. 
Brieux for building purposes ; for manure there are in 
the communes of Harmoye and Cartravers beds of shell 
marl, the only calcareous substance in the whole of 
central Brittany. 
The quantity of lead and iron in this departement are 
trifling, and if other articles of export and import were 
not more cousiderable, the barge trade on those canals 
would slumber soundly. 
Morbihan (which derives its name from the gulf of 
the same name*) is not entirely in lower Brittany, two 
of its four arrondissements being in the upper province, 
it is bounded on the northern side by the Cétes du Nord, 
by the Atlantic and part of the department of Loiré in- 
ferigure on the south, by Ille and Vitaine on the east, 
and by Finistére on the west; it contains 360 square 
leagues, the surface generally inclines from the north 
side, where it is hilly, to the south, improving in the 
qualities of its soilas it approaches the sea, where the 
fertile plains of argill soil p te for the 
unproduetiveness of remoter portions: this department 
s very mountainous to the east and north-east of its 
principal town, Vannes, the city of the ancient Venetee. 
This district, on the whole, is very uneven in surface, 
and varies, like the other two departements, in the 
ualities of its soil, and one-half of its superficial ex- 
tent is said to be under wood and water, /andes and 
marshes. 4 
The population here are still distinguished as Bretons 
and Gallos (who speak a variety of dialects), the latter 
being the descendants of the original Gauls, who, more 
or less, have mixed with the later emigration of Celt 
from Britain ; the former have a decided superiority in 
intelligence and industry ; the others, on the contrary, 
being proverbially fond of drinking, stupid, idle, obsti- 
nate, and so dirty in their habits that the cutaneous 
disease which politeness forbids me to name in English 
is there called “la galle,” as, par excellence, the malady 
of the Gallois or Gallos ; though they suffer also from 
the malaria arising from their marshes, which occasigns 
intermitting fevers. Both these tribes, however, are 
hospitable, and the Gallos of the seaside are exceptions 
to the more general character just given of them. 
The port of L’Orient is in this department, and the 
Bay of Quiberon where the English landed in 1746, but 
unsuccessfully, and where an army of unfortunate Roy- 
alist emigrants landed in 1745 under a misconceived 
expectation of support from our eountry, and miserably 
perished in unequal conflict on the sandy plains, with 
the large island of Belleisle, remarkable in French 
history, render this part of the province in some mea- 
sure classic ground. 
(To be continued.) 
ON THE UTILITY OF FARMERS’ CLUBS. 
[Tux following remarks by Mr. G. H. Ramsay in illus- 
tration of this subject were made in the course of an 
address to the lately lished elu! tle-on 
Tyne] :— 
The formation of any new institution requires steady 
p and sy ie attention from its mem- 
bers, partieularly those persons who are seleeted by 
the general body to carry out its measures. i 
necessary that each member should interest himself in 
its prosperity, in order that, additions being made to 
its members, we may aequire additional funds, which 
will be one of the main-springs of our success. We 
should on every occasion, and at all times, carry on our 
discussions with calmness, good feeling, and kind gen- 
tlemanly demeanour, to one another, so that. every one 
may have a fair and impartial hearing on every sub- 
ject under diseussion, and strict adherence should be 
given to our rules. If such elements are brought t0- 
gether in our case, I have not the slightest doubt of the 
success of this Club, or of its accomplishing every pur- 
pose in contemplation, viz. to diffuse a practical know- 
ledge of the science of agriculture. Our secretary has 
already informed you what progress the Club has made 
both as to the number of our members* and the flatter- 
ing reception the institution has met with ; what books 
and papers the committee has ordered 5 and the liberal 
encouragement to us by the enlightened body under 
whose roof we now sit. A room more fitted for a elub- 
room than this could scarcely have been met with, and 
for it we are indebted to the liberality of the committee 
* The words Mor-bihan in the Celtic tongue mean little sen. 
+ We have nearly 100 members. 
là 
