348 The French Peasant- Farmefs' Seed Fund. 
already, as if in confirmation of this favourable result, I have 
been asked to assist French farmers in purchasing in England 
the same description of seed-wheat as that which we distributed 
last autumn. 
The crop yielded by our autumn wheat being destined for seed 
purposes, I was very desirous of seeing something of the result of 
sowing the produce of bur spring-seed. I found no difficulty in 
discovering large breadths of land under oats and barley which 
were the produce of our spring distribution, the yield and quality 
Jbeing uniformly of a most satisfactory nature, particularly in the 
case of the barley. 1 also determined, if possible, to trace our 
spring wheat to a second generation, and for this purpose selected 
Nonville, a commune upon which I have reported at some length 
in reference to the spring distribution (see pp. 343, 344). It was 
very gratifying to find that the produce of our April wheat had. 
been carefuly saved for seed, and that this year much of the wheat 
land in the commune had been sown with it. Some of the 
patches which had been well treated were estimated by the 
Maire to yield about 32 bushels per acre, and this he considered 
a most extraordinary crop for the locality and soil. Other 
patches, which had been wheat last year also, or which had been 
otherwise less cared for, would not yield more, probably, than from 
20 to 28 bushels ; but in every case the English April wheat was 
much superior to the native Bl^ de Mars, treated in the same 
manner. 
The autumn wheat distributed in this and other communes was 
of the Spalding variety ; and examples were shown me of the 
standing crop from seed sown after both bare fallow, mangolds, 
potatoes, and wheat last year. The results were, in descending 
-order, as above named ; but in all cases the crops were far superior 
to those from native seed sown under similar circumstances. The 
Maires informed me that the crop of English wheat would be pre- 
served entirely for seed ; and it was believed that the whole of it 
had been bespoken for that purpose by farmers in the neighbour- 
hood. I may add that this evidence was corroborated in every 
j)articular by many other authorities in different parts of France. 
After the operations wliich I have described, a balance accrued 
by further refunds and the sale of sacks, amounting to about 
1100/. This sum has since been distributed by Mr. Furley and 
Mr. Pitman, in the Ardennes and other departments where the 
peasant-farmers had suffered most from the destruction of their 
houses and implements. We had previously distributed in the 
Ardennes seed-corn to the value of 500/. through Mr. Bullock, 
of the Daily News Fund, in conjunction with the Belgian Seed 
Fund Committee, to whom the care of that region had been left 
.by mutual consent. 
