Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/555

 AGRICULTURE.] FRANCE 519 - for the navy, and, in the south-west, Lorient. Proceeding further to the south, we find Nantes, with its two ports at the mouth of the Loire, Paimboeuf and St Nazaire ; Les Sables d Olonne, now connected with Liverpool by a regular service of steamers ; llochefort, on the Charente, one of the great dockyards and naval stations ; La Hochelle, a small but secure harbour ; and Bordeaux, where the Gironde is nearly equal in width to the Thames at Lon don. From this there is no seaport worthy of mention until we reach Bayonne, a place of difficult access. On the Mediterranean, France has the ports of Cette, Marseilles (the most spacious and secure on the coast), Nice, and the great maritime port, arsenal, and dockyard of Toulon. XI. Agriculture. The rural population of France is equal to about a half of the total number of the inhabitants. The census of 1872 gave a return of 18,513,325, or 5271 percent, of the whole population. That number was divided thus: Landowners living on their estates 9,097,758 Farmers and tenants 4,570,068 Gardeners and nurserymen 378,827 Woodcutters and charcoal burners 270,743 Servants 940,311 Day labourers 3,255,618 In the general description of the country, some infor mation has been given as to the nature of the soil and its various kinds of produce, which must be supplemented here. The extent of agricultural improvement in France since the first Revolution has certainly been less than in England and Scotland, and it has been repeatedly said that this in feriority had its chief cause in the insignificant size of the occupancies, a feature of French agriculture which Arthur Young observed in his time, but which has been much in creased by the law obliging a father to make an almost equal division of his property amongst his children. It would be perhaps nearer the truth to say that generally the more fertile a country is the less care the inhabitants take to cultivate it ; if we add to this the influence of the climate, which makes country people more frugal, and at the same time more indolent, we shall be able to account for the difference in the state of agriculture as between the northern and the southern provinces |of France. It does not appear, however, that land thus divided produces less in proportion than large estates, and, notwithstanding the great progress that France has still to make, it is in an agricultural point of view as rich as any other country. The Statistique Officielle gives a statement of the average alue of land per hectare, and the average rent paid for it, distinguishing in each case three classes of land, thus : (1) Lands under tillage: value, 3066, 2175, 1355 francs; rent, 96, 69, 45 francs ; (2) meadows : value, 4151, 3958, 2022 francs; rent, 152, 104, 72 francs; (3) vineyards: value, 3564, 2638, 1783 francs ; rent, 139, 98, 68 francs. The value of wood varies from 2877 to 1435 francs for the forests, and from 1081 to 569 francs for copsewoods. The cultivation of grain has always been the chief busi ness of French agriculturists. In 1873 about 13,000,000 hectares were under this crop, and in 1875 this had in creased to about 15,000,000, distributed thus: Hectares. ArcraffO Crop per Hectare. Total Produce. Wheat 6,966,419 Hectolitres. 12-04 Hectolitres. 83,861,193 Meslin 503,178 12 50 6,287,301 Rye 1,912,601 10-86 20 779,367 Barley 1,118,071 1675 18,732,827 Oats 3,182,456 21-33 67,891,995 Buckwheat 677,626 14 35 9 722 257 Maize. . 505,993 14-72 8 918 352 Millet... 49 984 12-24 612 031 Wheat sells at prices varying from 20 to 26 francs a hectolitre (40s. 6d. to 60s. 5d. a quarter), and costs the agriculturist about 1 7 francs 50 centimes ^Os. 8d. a quarter). The quantity which is produced in France, large as it is, does not meet the wants of the population, and several millions of hectolitres are every year imported from Russia, Prussia, lloumania, Spain, Italy, Egypt, and America. The cultivation of meslin and rye is on the decline ; wherever the progress of agricultural science had succeeded in making a poor soil more rich and fertile, wheat takes their place, as being better and more profitable. The area allotted to barley has been much the same for a long period, and is likely to remain KO. The same may be said of maize, which is especially cultivated in the east and south-west, and of buckwheat, which in Auvergne and Brittany forms no small part of the food of the inhabitants. Oats are extensively cultivated, and yield a good return ; this crop was on the increase from 1815 to 1862, but has since been almost stationary. Potatoes form a very important article, occupying in Other 1873 1,176,496 hectares (2,907,290 acres), and yielding crops. 120,410,929 hectolitres (331,274,554 bushels). The other crops are tabulated here with the results they yielded for 1873 : Hectares. Average Crop. Total. Pease, beans, &c 322,681 Hectolitres. 1374 Hectolitres. 4 434 107 Chestnuts 482,247 13 68 6 567 381 Colza and other olea- ) ginous plants Olive trees 214,808 148,626 13-34 2,963,441 4 594 010 Beet 253,335 Quintals. 306 Quintals. 1 77 435 100 Hops 3 528 14 50 244 Tobacco 14,858 12 172 522 Hemp 95,521 5-28 503,041 Flax 87,671 5-75 503,917 Miscellaneous 10,900 20 319,898 1 The quintal metriguels 3J lb less than 2 cwt. Meadows, both natural and artificial, are very numerous Meadows. in France, and give a higher return than any other kind of land. Artificial meadows, sown with clover or lucerne, have considerably increased in extent, as will be seen from the following comparative table : 1842. 1N9L INI. Natural meadows Artificial meadows .... Pasturage of various ) kinds Hectares. 105,103,888 47,256,674 22,500,000 Hectares. 129,290,229 84,806,847 36,049,858 Hectares. 160,095,347 103,663,376 39,355,398 174,860,562 250,146,934 303,114,121 The vineyards cover 4 27 per cent, of the surface of Vine- France, and are one of the chief sources of its agricultural yards, wealth. They are to be found, more or less, in every dis trict, except in ten northern departments, viz., Calvados, C6tes-du-Nord, Creuse, Finistere, Manche, Nord, Orne, Pas-de-Calais, Seine-Inferieure, and Somme. In 1862, according to statistical documents then published by the Government, the departments in which the vine was most extensively cultivated were He rault (162,172 hectares), Charente-Inferieure( 157,753), Gironde (126,220), Charente (100,008), Gers (94,790), Gard (94,200), Dordogne (87,252), Aude (81,869), Var (79,040), Lot-et-Garonno (69,166). The vintage of 1876 gave a total of about 41,846,748 hectolitres (921,033,017 gallons). The census taken in 1872 gave 2,882,851 as the total Live number of horses, comprising 400,454 colts, 351,654 stock, stallions of 4 years and upwards, 872,911 geldings, and 1,257,832 mares. The number of mules was 299,129,