Aveyron. 
27 
concentrate his fanning ; made model roads : and last — not least 
— kept clear accounts, and "accounts are a necessary check, 
which never misleads." 
To M. Lerov a gold medal was assigned for improvements 
in drainage. He had one special difficulty to deal with, the 
choking of his pipes by a crust of oxide of iron, which he has 
met successfully by scouring out these drains from time to time 
by the agency of a rapid stream that runs down from above. 
He has laid 97,000 pipes on 72 acres, at an average cost of 
3/. 155., all expenses included. He turns all the drainage-water 
to account ; drainage and irrigation go hand in hand. After a 
tenure of ten years, his live-stock are worth 860/. ; his grain, 
stover, and roots in hand, 280/. ; implements, 180/. ; making in 
all a capital of 2280/. on a farm of 225 acres, which the last 
tenant abandoned. 
The claims of the two last competitors point to a more 
advanced stajje of asrriculture. 
M. Therion, near Xanteuil, calls special attention to his farm 
buildings, and raises the question whether he is right to erect 
two homesteads for 450 acres of land. The award of a gold 
medal answers him in the affirmative. To us the most striking 
feature in his plans is, that he has sheep-stalls (bergeries) for 
700 sheep ! 
Finally, M. Darodes de Tailly receives the gold medal, not 
otdy for reclaiming 50 acres of swamp, and protecting his hill- 
side farm from the ravages of the floods, but specially for his 
water-meadows, scientifically laid out on the Southern method, 
with dams, reservoirs, carriers, (Sec. It is remarked with dis- 
satisfaction that one-sixth only of the meadows of the Ardennes 
is irrigated. What account could we render under this head — 
if, indeed, we could render any at all ? 
A contrast is drawn between the valuation of !M. Darodes* 
farm of 141 acres (A.) and that of a neighbour, comprising 149 
acres (B.) : — 
A. B. 
Live stock, reduced to the standard for large cattle 40 .... 30 
" Moliilier Agricole" (querv, stock and crop?) .. £()22 .. .. £38 
Dead stock " 142 .... 56 
This contrast, it is pointedly stated, is due to the water-meadows. 
AVEYROX. 
Let us now plunge into the interior, to the Department of 
Aveyron, that we may see what may be accomplished even in 
France, and in a corner, bv local institutions, without the inter- 
vention of the central Government, and also note some of the 
bickerings which now and then attend on the best of institutions. 
