24 
TJie Prize Farms of France. 
£. 
Siuce 1839, and up to 1859, the total outlay has reached .. 59,349 
Besides capital required for working the farm, &c 9,8S0 
Total investment 69,229 
In 1859 the inventory of live and dead stock, crops, forage, £. 
&c., came to 10,610 
To this we may join for outlay on chateau, park, and place 10,000 
Together 20,610 
Leaving for cost of the productive lands .. 48,619 
The net receipts from the estate increase every rear, the 
return on the average of the three last years in the account being 
1330/. But this statement takes no notice of the young woods — 
2000 acres — which are as yet unproductive. If these are estimated 
at 8s. per acre for each year of growth, their annual value is 
800/., which, added to 1330/., gives 2130/., or nearly 4J per 
cent, on 48,000/. 
*' It should be remarked that the Dampierre estate pays only 
210/. for taxes, a very low figure, consequent on the numerous 
plantations exempted from taxation, and on the fact that the last 
survey was made before most of the improvements had been 
effected." 
yi. de Behaque's merits as an agriculturist have been recognized 
by 106 prize medals, and three cups, by his appointment to be 
Member of the Imperial Society of Agriculture, Member of the 
General Board of Agriculture, and first, jNIember, then Officer, 
of the Legion of Honour ; distinctions now crowned by the award 
of this splendid prize. 
The Ardenxes. 
Let us now take a glance at a Northern district still less 
favourably circumstanced — that of the Ardennes on the Belgian 
frontier, part of the old Province of Champagne. 
Of this department M. de Lavergne writes as follows :* '''The 
Department of the Ardennes, which occupies the extreme 
north of the province, was once an unbroken forest, famous in 
the earliest antiquity and in the Middle Ages, of which many 
remains are still visible. It consists almost entirely of a series 
of loftv plains bearing the name, now known to fame, of the 
'Chain of the Argonne.' On this schistous! soil the growth of 
every plant and animal is stunted (rahourgrie) ; nothing but the 
most skilful and stubborn culture can turn it to any good 
account." 
• • Economie Rutale de la France,' p. 127. 
■f " Schii-tous," consisting of schist, a " deatable " rock readily reduced by 
atmospheric influences to a claj -earth. 
