6 Julia Crczvitt Stoddard 



i 



Not only was a large part of the arable land in France allowed 

 to He untilled, but the cultivated portion was so unskilfully man- 

 aged as to reduce its productiveness to the minimum. Again 

 and again Young groans over the poor husbandry. 1 At La Loge 

 he says : "The fields are scenes of pitiful management, as the 

 houses are of misery ! yet all this country is highly improvable 

 if they knew what to do with it." 2 In Bretagne he asserts that 

 "the country has a savage aspect; husbandry not much further 

 advanced, at least in skill, than among the Hurons." 3 In other 

 places the state of agriculture was a "disgrace to France." 4 

 Lands that might without much trouble be made to produce an 

 average of £2 $s. per acre, "if farmers could be induced to change 

 their methods," brought in fact only an average of £1 8s. 5 

 It was estimated that the total product from the harvests of 

 France was to that of England as 3 to 8. G 



This lack of enterprise in agricultural pursuits was so general 

 ?nd the annual product of the land so insufficient in consequence 

 that the government had been impelled to take measures to rem- 

 edy the evil. In the hope of inducing an improvement of methods 

 there had been instituted a society "for the encouragement of 

 agriculture." It was hoped that this society would succeed in 

 creating a new interest in the subject, and by promoting the 

 adoption of improved methods, increase the production of the 

 country. By a ruling of the king, dated May 30, 1788, the Royal 

 Society of Agriculture was empowered to distribute prizes and 

 award gold medals for such improvement as might fulfil the de- 

 mands of this society. 7 We have already seen that this measure 

 was without success. Too many circumstances tended to inter- 

 fere with quiet rural pursuits. 8 New methods are not readily 

 adopted by the ignorant and suspicious. Without doubt the fear 



'Young, Travels in France, 13, 155, 489. 

 *Ibid., 12. 

 s Ibid., 83. 

 l Ibid. t 12, 13, 155. 



5 Young, Travels in France. 



6 Champion in Histoire general 'e, VIII, 17. 

 ''Anc'ennes his, XXVIII, 573, 578. 



8 Young, Travels in France, 545. 



272 



