CULTIVATION IN FRANCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1731, 18 September 1917, Page 4

CULTIVATION IN FRANCE.

With the progress of the war the French Government is increasing its effort to encourage intensive cultivation. Financial assistance is being given to co-operative societies undertaking to utilise waste land and land that has since the waxbeen out of cultivation. The fortifications round the walls of Paris are being largely employed in the growing of vegetables. The essential feature of these military gardens is that the work of cultivation is done by men who are necessary in the depots and who use their spare time for the work, the result being that from the national standpoint the crops raised constitute a pure profit. As an indication of the way in which cultivation of this sort has grown, it may be stated that whereas in 1015 there were only some 5,000 acres under cultivation, there are now between 17,000 and 18,000 acres so cultivated. The only expenses involved are foxseed and tools, and in many cases these are provided free to the men. A secondary, effect produced has been that the influence of the soldiers has spread to civilians, and that the latter have very greatly developed the use of their gardens, and have also taken up a considerable quantity of fresh ground. Thus, as regards the fortifications round about Paris, plots have been rented to individual tenants of about 150 to 200 square yards, the price charged being four shillings a plot. It is estimated that after the second year of cultivation each of these plots produces crops of the value of between £2O and £30.. As a result of this movement of intense culture throughout France tens of thousands of acres, which formerly were not under cultivation, are now being utilised, and many individuals who formerly took no interest in the soil are developing the taste for intensive culture and acquiring skill and experience that will bo invaluable in the future.