THE PRIDE OF FRANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 154, 8 October 1910, Page 4

THE PRIDE OF FRANCE.

Visitors to the south of France are always impressed by the wonderful success of 'the small holdings, the real basis of French properity. One great stretch of country was a waste of shifting sand dunes until an engineer suggested the planting of pines, and. now the "villas" of prosperous agriculturalists are seen in all directions among 'the trees. A correspondent of the London Daily News remarks that in the neighborhood of Soulac Gironde the plots vary in size from one acre to three acres, and the soil is sandy, but the peasants live happily and save a little anoney for the payment of "dots" when their daughters wed and for their own maintenance in old age. He mentions the case of his nearest neighbor, Madame Bouchet, whose husband is a waiter in a cafe. Madame has five children, the eldest aged fifteen years and the youngest five, and the area of her patch of ground is just throe acre;.

Assisted by her children she works from daylight to dusk and grows maize, rye, carrots, turnips, potatoes, "rapes, cabbages, broad beans, tomatoes, clover, peas, parsley, leeks, salads, peaches, strawberries and haricots. The portion of the ground that is not growing fruit or vegetables. Madame keeps on her '•farm'' six stoats, a donkey, and numerous fowls and rabbits. Mmlame Voloud, who lives near at hand, has little more than two acres, and she concentrates her efforts on strawberries and poultry. Last year she male a profit of 400 francs out of her poultry yard, and she and her husband added £.lO to their savings. "The husband does the marketing ami she does the work,'' adds the correspondent. No other country can show the equal of the French peasant woman for tireless industry, painstaking thrift an:l infinite resource. Needless to say, the peasants have no conception of an eight hours' day.