Rural Economy of France since 1789. 
541 
The extreme division of property, and the consequent small 
number of cows owned by each tenant or proprietor, render it an 
impossibility for any single farmer to attempt making cheeses 
which require as much as 60 gallons of milk at once. Hence the 
necessity of association. Afrnitiere is then a company of small 
farmers, sometimes fifty or sixty in number, who carry all the 
milk from their cows to a central establishment, where it is 
manufactured into cheese, and where the produce is divided 
according to the quantity of milk contributed by each associate, 
3. Western Division. 
Leaving the extreme eastern limits, with their Alpine horizon, 
we now come to the opposite region, bordering on the Western 
Ocean. This division- comprises all the remnants of the old 
Celtic race, displaying still, in the midst of modern civilization 
and refinement, much of that sturdy tenacity of purpose, earnest- 
ness of sentiment, indomitable clinging to old usages and tradi- 
tions, which so eminently characterised the Celtic family. It is 
impossible to utter the names of Britanny, Anjou, Poitou, 
Vendee, without kindling vivid recollections of deeds of valour, 
fidelity, and heroic martyrdom on behalf of the most lofty prin- 
ciples by which society is upheld. 
The admirable resources of that part of France, its mild 
climate, the natural fertility of its soil, its peninsular formation 
(jutting as it does far out into the Atlantic, which skirts two- 
thirds of its boundary), the stately Loire, whose broad stream 
intersects it from east to west like a huge artery, diffusing in its 
course the elements of life and activity : all these advantages, 
united to the sterling qualities of its inhabitants, seem to vindi- 
cate for it a higher position than that of third in rank among 
the six regions of France for wealth and prosperity. M. de 
Lavergne explains this anomaly. Previous to 1789 it was — 
that which it bids fair to become again — one of the most flourish- 
ing regions of the whole country. But the revolution of '93 
kindled all over its hitherto bright and happy extent one of 
those terrible social conflagrations which destroy and raze to the 
ground every element of wealth, the embers of which, long after 
it has been extinguished, still smoulder beneath the ashes. 
The disasters of the French republican era, in fact, dried up for 
half a century all those natural resources in which this ill-fated 
district abounds. No wonder, then, it should appear to a disadvan- 
tage in comparison with other more favoured parts of France. But 
M. de Lavergne assures us that for the last twenty years a great 
improvement has taken place. " No part of France," he says, 
" presents a greater show of industrious activity and increasing 
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