Tlie French Peasant-Farmers Seed Fund. 325 
our case, they have to compare the merits and demerits of 
1 irms varyine: in size from 105 to 482 acres, and a much 
L,Moater diversity even than this might very easily have occurred. 
A classification such as we have named would materially lessen 
this objection ; the prizes might be in keeping with the extent 
of the farms ; and the cost of inspection, which is the main 
item of expenditure, would only be increased by greater and 
keener competition. 
Lastly, in closing this Report, we would express the pleasure 
we experienced in traversing a beautiful and highly interesting 
country, and in discoursing with farmers of great experience 
and abilit)". In farming, as in every other branch of industry, 
there are, and ever will be, different degrees of excellence; but 
as regards hospitalitv, courtesy, and willingness to impart all 
lut essary information, there was complete uniformity amongst 
the whole of the nineteen competitors. The warm reception 
and cordial co-operation we met with from one and all have 
made a lasting impression upon us, and we shall ever look 
back with the most agreeable recollections to the twenty hard- 
working days we spent in South Wales and Monmouthshire. 
(Signed) Thomas Bowstead. 
Thomas Jexkixs. 
FiNLAi' Dun. 
XV. — T/ie French Peasant-Farmers' Seed Fund. By H. M. 
' Jexkixs, F.G.S., Honorary Secretary of the Fund. 
I The progress of the recent war between France and Germany 
had, at the end of 1870, resulted in the occupation by the German 
army of an extensive tongue-shaped tract of country stretching 
from the Franco-German frontier on the east almost to the confines 
of Normandy on the west. The southern boundary of this occupied 
territory roughly coincided with the valleys of the Loire, Indre, 
Saone, and Doubs; while on the north-east it reached to the 
Belgian frontier, and on the north-west almost to the coast of 
French Flanders. The non-combatant inhabitants of this district 
were as completelv cut off from the rest of the world as were 
the besieged inhabitants of Paris. The harvest of the small 
farmers had in many cases never been reaped, and those who 
I had been more fortunate were compelled to surrender their 
, stores, whether of corn or meat, to one or other of the contending 
forces. To keep the wolf from the door was the absorbing con- 
sideration, and how to sow their land in the spring was a problem 
which the small cultivators had been unable to attempt to solve. 
Even those who had managed to sow autumn wheat, and who 
