32 
Hie Prize Farms of France. 
gTOMth of com was formerly 1400. now 3300 bushels — the 
vrheat vielding IS bushels, barlev 23 bushels, oats 27 bushels 
per acre. 
During M. Durand's exile part of the farm was let for a time, 
and thus afforded a practical test of the improved value. Esti- 
mated on this basis, the income had increased from 240/. to 
791/. per annum. 
But I would now invite special attention to the chief work of 
this man of concentrated energy. In spite of unheard-of obstacles 
raised by proprietors of adjacent lands and mills, and by the 
officers of Government, he turned a branch of the Aveyron river, 
constructing a stone weir, and forming a canal SOOO yards in 
lenffth, which serv ed to irrigate 75 acres with water often charged 
with warp : whilst the earth dug out of the canal formed a bank 
to protect 50 acres from floods. It took thirtv years to master 
his opponents, and gain a legal right to use a fall of 13 feet and 
30-hor3e power, by which the canal water is returned to the 
river. M. Durand's personal experience prompted him to take 
up the general subject of irrigation bv branch streams derived 
from rivers, which he has advocated in manv publications ; one 
of these, in 1831, received a prize offered bv the Royal and 
Central Society of Agriculture for the best Essav on the Law of 
Irrigation. If our Society is precluded from offering a similar 
prize, we may perhaps glean some useful hints from this 
document 
He has received a gold medal for the diversion of the waters 
of the Aveyron. If any one should accomplish the same feat in 
England, a \ ictoria Medal or a statue in Trafalgar-square would 
hardly be excessive or unsuitable rewards I 
M. Barascud next claims our attention as the owner of the 
.330 acres, of which 200 were, in 1849, entered in the Public 
Register (Cadastre) as waste, unsettled lands, and consequently 
nearly unproductive: prior to 1852 the farm was rented at 48/. 
The owner then found near Aveyron a good practical agricul- 
turist, M. \ grier, and installed him on the farm as Half-holder. 
The first object of these partners was to bring the waste under 
the plough. The surface furrowed by the torrents had to be 
levelled : the Dombasle plough, followed by a subsoiler, was 
then set to work, and a luxuriant crop of lucerne was the result : 
a fine crop of wheat followed ; the flakes of schistose rock have 
since melted down under the combined influences of fresh 
manure, sun, and frost ; and the land will now bear comparison 
with the best alluvial soils on the plain. This example, which 
was at first ridiculed, has since been followed on 50,000 acres 
of similar land, which were a blot upon the district of Cameres. 
The rest of the farm has been enriched by the diversion (in 
