10 
The Prize Farms of France. 
It may be said that such a prize must be a very great attraction ; 
but is it a healthy, and is it a general one? Is the prize within the 
reach of any but those highly favoured by soil, by wealth, by 
early training? To such natural misgivings the awards seem 
to afford very satisfactory and conclusive replies ; now crowning 
the head of the capitalist Avho has worked wonders in a short 
time with great eclat, much benefit to his neighbourhood, .and no 
inconsiderable outlay ; then covering the bald temples of a gentle- 
man v.'ho has economically and unobtrusively pursued a long 
career of gradual advancement ; here recognising the skill and 
perseverance of an agriculturist who began life with these endow- 
ments for his whole stock in trade, there drawing from his retreat 
the energetic soldier of the old Empire, who has since been cam- 
paigning on a modest scale ; now showing how the man whose 
free spirit fretted and chafed against the trammels imposed on 
thought and action, grappled successfully with the elements ; then 
placing in the first rank of agriculturists the sailor, who, in a fit 
of enthusiasm at the preaching of a Dombasle or a Royer, turned 
■ — shall we say ? — his anchor into a plough, took to him a wife, 
reared eight children for the state, and provided adequately for 
them all. 
As the mass of materials available for our purpose is greater 
than can fairly be reproduced within the limits of a single 
article, it will be better to give a selection rather than an abstract ; 
some of the more memorable contests, or most characteristic 
groups, being chosen for description. 
Let us first turn to the department of the Lower Seine — part 
of Normandy — giving it the preference not only from its resem- 
blance to England, but because the jury (including two Norman 
prizemen) report that of the five contests held in that province 
this has been the most distinguished. Here, then, we shall see 
what our neighbours consider good farming under circumstances 
like our own. 
For this contest twenty competitors sent in their name^s, of 
whom nine did not satisfactorily fulfil the preliminary conditions. 
The pretensions of the tenth did not bear a comparison with 
the rest, though he had increased his crop of wheat 75 per cent. ; 
that of oats, 50 per cent. ; and his yield of rapeseed eightfold. 
He was an adherent of the old three-course and bare fallow. 
The field as it then stood was nearly equally divided between 
proprietors and rentpaying farmers, and of the former one only 
appears to be a man of rank. 
One farmer, M. Basset, showed that on 144 acres he had 
doubled his live stock in ten years ; the increase of his green 
crop being due to very liberal dressings of marl, lime, gypsum, 
nightsoil, and street-scrapings. He received a commendation. 
