16 
The Prize Farms of France. 
even a Parisian, tlirows herself into her husband's rural pursuits. 
The satisfaction and enjoyment, even the social consideration to 
be derived from being thus associated with pursuits which must 
engross much of the husband's time and thoughts, are well set 
forth in those pages. Allusions are also made to town misses, 
who come back from school only to hate the farm, and a call is 
Blade for more fitting and serious education, which may mould 
the intellect after a higher and more healthy fashion. Such a 
demand is in no way at variance with the cultivation of those 
lighter tastes and accomplishments of which the standard is ever 
varying with increasing civilization and wealth. A word on this 
subject is not unseasonable, when so much stir is being made 
about the education of young men : if it tend to the adoption of 
an improved method of keeping accounts, an important defect 
will have been remedied. 
But to return to Messrs. Rocquigny, — besides these remarkable 
agricultural results, the jury were moved, both by the pleasant 
picture of confidence subsisting between landlord and tenant, 
and that of family devotion and union — each a necessary pre- 
liminary for such success — to let the prize rest here ; but a 
still stronger claimant remained. 
Who then eclipsed all these rivals ? — A M. Dargent, of 
Reneville, near Saint-Leonard, who, at nine years of age, was 
left an orphan, and at twenty determined himself to occupy 
the little farm of the family (126 acres), that he might keep 
together and maintain his three brothers and sisters, who 
had no one but him to look to for support. Of this small 
propert}-, 12J acres were in sea-rushes, in roads, and shelter- 
belts against strong gales ; of the pasture, if part was good, the 
rest was but a sheepwalk on the cliffs; of the arable (77 acres), 
only acres were rated in the first class, and 19 acres in the 
second (both these had a clay subsoil) ; the rest were third and 
fourth-class lands. The events referred to occurred fifty years 
ago ; since then the buildings, such as survived the revolutionary- 
period and an uninspected tenancy, have been completely re- 
newed ; and are now models of simplicity, solidity, and fitness. 
The jury state "much as we admired the crops of Messrs. Lange 
and Rocquigny, we must admit that those of M. Dargent were 
much superior to them, and so luxuriant as fully to justify the 
statements entered in the account-books. We estimated the first 
cut of the clover-crop, which we saw growing, at 2 tons 7 cwts. 
per acre." The wheat-crop is stated to average 3G0 sheaves, and 
to'yield 42 bushels of corn, weighing 1 ton 4 cwts. (nearly (!4 lbs. 
per bushel) ; in 1854, it averaged 50 bushels. The oat-crop 
averages 320 sheaves, and 57 bushels of corn, weighing 18 cwts. 
3 qrs. per acre. The rape-seed, 44 bushels (21 cwts.) "The 
