French Experimental Farm at Vaujours, 
287 
drawn of tliemselveS and their brethren,— who, though not the 
pioneers of progress, are in the van, and moving steadily on- 
ward, observing and reflecting, though not called upon (or, 
indeed, warranted) to risk their means in ventures where the 
follower is pretty sure in the end to outstrip the leader. 
Such men will look with interest on the efforts of others who 
are blundering on towards knowledge and skill. For them the 
work is being cut out ; something will come of it by which 
themselves may profit. For the man of another stamp — the 
ardent amateur — these annals may serve as a useful warning, 
that however bright and well-founded his conception may be, 
its practical success will depend on numerous adjustments in the 
relations of soil, climate, markets, supply of labour, and state of 
civilisation, which prevent any agricultural " spurt " from being 
profitable. AH who will, may pick up some useful hints ; whilst 
those crusty friends of agricultural progress in the abstract, who 
chuckle at the miscarriage of every individual project, may 
enjoy their laugh ybr a season.. 
It would seem that in the year 1856 a company was formed 
in shares amounting to 100,000 francs (4000/.) for starting this 
Experimental Farm of 220 acres, situated at the distance of 12^ 
miles from Paris, in the midst of the Forest of Bondy — a name 
suggestive of robbery and violence. The choice of the site was 
evidently determined by the proximity of a canal, which inter- 
sected the farm and brought from Bondy in barges the 10,000 
tons of night-soil which the company undertook to apply to the 
land, on which condition the municipality of Paris contributed 
30,000 francs (1200/.) to the enterprise, to which the French 
Government added an annual subsidv of 160/. to start the 
enterprise, with a stipulation that its experimental and scientific 
character sliould be maintained. 
It was, indeed, an experimental rather than a model farm. Its 
site appeared at first to be at the world's end, for the public roads 
leading to it had been neglected, because hardly needed, and 
farm-roads it had none, neither materials for making them. 
The farm, as will be seen by the accompanying map, con- 
sisted of two narrow strips on either bank of the canal ; the 
buildings stood at one end of the smaller area, — no slight 
obstacle to carrying out liquid manure, as at first practised, 
,in carts, and to bringing home bulky forage crops, since it 
took, on an average, half-an-hour to convey a load to the 
chief allotment of land on the other bank ; this inconvenience 
also led to the horses finishing the day's work of ploughing 
in one journey. The land was poor and foul, mostly heavy, 
and requiring drainage, for which an artificial outfall had to 
be procured by means of a costly main drain. Their labour- 
