FARMING IN FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 2, 27 September 1918, Page 8

FARMING IN FRANCE

| . "THE LAST WORD" IFRENCH: TREATMENT OF THE j v "... SOIL I ■" ! The: soldier friend of an Australian Jagricuiture journalist has sent him the jfollotviilg observations on farming in Ithe portion ■ of. France in which is is jquartered-:^-''A{-- present the cereal jirops'-and 'the pastures look liko going |to waste.. ."-. 'The barley is. in the ear, jtheivheat 'iind oats up to one's hips. I Quite a lot. of rape is grown, some [lucerne;'/and beautiful fields of strawberry clover,. aixl, as all civilian livo 1 stock /has been removed, the Army i horses , and mules are doing well. . . . IThe. farmers do not live on their forms. ' One'neyer sees' a house standing alone. [They. live. in. villages, a . survival of the jfeudaKsystem; which accounts for the 'map/being dotted over with them. The iChurch' and_ the-cha'teau dominate the [village, while -round - them arc clustered the 'dwellings of tho tillers of the ! soil. . The treatment of, the'soil lis the last word in farming methods. 'Australians, seeing the small field's and jthe absence of labour-saving machinery, ! consider tile French methods out or jdate and unscientific; but the-fanning :must be good to enable the soil to sup-' il>ort a fairly dense 'population, • which jit lias done for many centuries. 'A re-' |versible single-burrow plough is almost [universal in.this, part and in- Flanders. •The ploughman works up ai:d down,the ■field',.-laying each furrow alongside the past one. As lie turns at the headland the beam is reversed, bringing innderneath and into action a mouldj board, share, and coulter- previously .carried above the beam." The friend also sent an illustrated catalogue of .a 'district manufacturer, which (says the (journalist) not only ; shows. the. plough Imentioned, but also conveys the. imipressipn. that the hand-hoo is not so ilargely used in France as one is accustomed, to think. This reversible plough !lias a straight beam, and two large 'wheels oi the same size, which features are common to all the numerous iplpughs shown. Another single-fur-irqiv reversible plough is shown, with ■ibpuld-board cut into grilles. This, iwhilo giving all the effects of'"a solid mould-board, is lighter, and requires ; less metal. There are numerous ;Bhares of different sizes ai:d shapes to .'suit varying.soil conditions on sale, ■eoJ farmers can be well silitcd. Reversible and ordinary, two-furrow plqughs are also shown. A handyjlooking little reversible plough is named ;;"the Marvellous," its special feature, being. that the. two. mould-board s are cast ia.one piece. A workman-like implerofiiit isi the stubble-buner, ordinary and reversible, which carries four shares. A strange-looking "weeder" carries four long, tapering blades, shap-. ,Ed like flattened erescent3, mounted on a frame furnished-with four wheels. Scarifiers, spring-tooth -. cultivators, a cultivator-digger, horse-hoes, cereal and beetroot cultivators, ' manure distributors, harrows, clod-crushers, etc., ft 1 figure in this price list. An' implement which might attract beet-growers-is the inbeetfoot lifter,- the name of which sufficiently indicates its use. The catalogue shows that prices lire reasonable, and "dimlicates'" seem to add .up to quite a decent total as usual.