French Farmers Thriftiest in the World
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?F ffil V:frCTOP
EVERY CHAIR A NO TABLE OUTSIDE PAYS A TAX.
HOW FRENCH DEPARTMENT STOKES SELL GOODS ON THE STREET.
(Copyright. I!i(i2. by Frank (J. Carpenter.)
PjrN THE VALLEY OK THE RHONE,
Jl I I Nov. 5. (Special Correspondence
I I of The lice.) I want to tell you
something nbowt the farmers of
France. I have been traveling for
weeks through the different parts of this
country, and I am now on a train speeding
tip the Rhone valley from Lyons to Switz
erland The land is covered with luxuriant
crops. There are no fences, and nature's
great patchwork 8t retches out on every
side as far aa my eyes can reach. JuBt
now we are passing some wheat In which
blocd red popples as big arouud as a tea
cup look out of tho green. On the oppo
site side of the train Is a hayfield where
women nnd girls are working side by side
with the men, and farther on Is a great ex
panse of white beets In which are women'
bent half double pulling tho weeds. The
women hero work as hard as the men.
They do all sorts of field labor, and you see
them scattered over every landscape. They
are more thrifty than tho men, and they
are among the great savers of the French
people.
The work among the farmers goes on
throughout tho week and often on Sunday
as well. The fields are full of Sunday
workers. While the church bells are toll
ing mechanics are plying their trades and
the ordinary stores and workshops are
open.
I bo.ve described England as owned by the
few. France Is owned by the many. There
are G,GOO,000 landowners among the 38,500,
000 pcoplo which make up tho French re
public or almost a landholder to every
family. The averago holding Is less than
six acres, and thousauds own little tracts
upon which they live, working a part of
the year for someone else.
The French love their land, and It is this
common ownership that keeps them at
home. They are not an emigrating nation,
like tho Germans and Italians or the Eng
lish. More strangers come into France
every year than Frenchmen leave, and not
withstanding this the people are about the
richest on the face of the globe. Tbey
were able to pay the enormous Franco
Prussian war debt without feeling It, and
tbey have now hundreds of millions of dol
lars stored away in their woolen stock
ings under the rafters. Tbey are prosper
ous, although they have the largest debt of
any nation. They pay in Interest alone
(250,000,000 a year, or almost $7 per bead,
to say nothing of the taxes required for
tho necessary expenses of the government.
The French are excellent farmers. With
them a penny saved is twopence earned,
and they see that nothing goes to waste.
They live as cheaply as any people of Eu
rope. The average farmer starts out to
work on black bread and vegetable soup,
or he may have only bread and cheese and
a glass of wine. At noon he will have a
vegetable soup and perhaps fried potatoes
and In the evening the same. He has wine
at every meal, for It ia one of the cheap
est of drinks. Nearly everyone keeps a
goat, but few drink the milk, for goat's
milk will make cheese.
The farming Is intensive. The wheat re
gions produce almost twice as much on the
average as the wheat fields of the United
States. Every bit of land is used, and noth
ing goes to waste. On the larger farm
American machinery is employed. Our
plows are bought and also our mowers and
threshers. President Loubet uses an Amer
ican reaper on his big French estate.
The French understand bow to make
money out of trees. They appreciate the
value of forests, and have some of the
largest and best of the world. There are
vast wood lands belonging to the govern
ment and private hdldlngs in which th
treea are as well cared for as in our city
parks. Only the ripe trees are cut and
every piece of fallen wood la saved.
The roads and streams and little canals
of France are lined with poplars. I can
see long lines of them cutting the land
scape In every direction as I look out of
my car window. Some of the trees are 100
feet high. They are bare of branches, with
only a tassel left on the top. Others are
full limbed and others are Just sprouting
new growth on all sides. These poplars
are luawo for their branches and are finally
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cut down for wood or foi- furniture. The
branches grow rapidly. They are cut off
year after year, put into bundles and sold
to the bakers to make the hot Area neces
sary for the crisp cruet on the French
bread. There Is such a demand for them
that raising them Is one of the chief lu
dustrles of France. The poplars are
planted in places which are good for noth
ing else, and after five years each will an
nually produce at least 20 ':ects. Later ou
tho trees are cut down and sold. Willows
aro grown in the same way, their sprouts
being used for baskets.
The French make money out of chestnuts.
They grow varieties which are from two to
three times as largo as the American
chestnut, and eell them to the fruit stands
and the groceries. The chestnuts are used
to dress turkeys, geese, chickens 'and gamo
and they are also used for dessert. The
confectioners make candy of them, and the
bebt candied chestnuts bring 45 cents per
pound, or, if coated with chocolate, 52
cents a pound. There are largo establish
ments in France which do nothing elst,
one at Lyons handling 25,000,000 pounds
of chestnuts a year.
The French chestnut trees are not culti
vated. They are usually planted on poor
earth and in lime are cut for their wood.
Some chestnuts are grafted, and thero is
no doubt but that the French and Spanish
chestnut can be grafted on our native
American sprouts. In fact, I have done
tills on my farm In Virginia and have there
produced nuts as large as the largest buck
eye. There are men in Pennsylvania and
New Jersey who are making such chest
nut grafting commercially profitable, aud
the sumo might be done in other parts of
the United States.
lu South France, Spain and Italy chest
nuts are ground into a meal aud used fot
bread, and they command good prices la
such localities. In the United States they
are chiefly sold by fruit venders and by the
confectioners, and they bring. I am told.
$7 or JS per bushel. Here In France they
eell by the kilogram, for 2 or 3 cents a
pound.
I have already written of the market
gardens of France. I learn more about
them every day. and am more and more
surprised at their excellence. The French
have 1,000,000 acres devoted to gardens
and fruits, and In riding over the country
you pass fields of hotbeds and see glass
frame propped over plants outside the
beds. In many places glass bells are used
to cover the individual plants, and there
are some sections which raise potatoes
under glass for export to London.
The French have studied the soil and the
sun and they coax both to work. Tbey
N AMERICAN REAPER IN USE IN FR
feed the crops rather thut he land and li
places get three crops a year through in
tensive cultivation. Near Cherbourg cab
bage Is raised early In February. After
it is taken off a crop of potatoes ts planted
and a third crop comes on in the autumn.
This is on land that has been used for
generations.
And still we Americans talk of old Mother
Earth being worn out. Nothing of tho
kind! The old lady has all the possibilities
of perpetual youth, but, coquette that ehe
Is, she must be fed with the dainties she
loves and petted to make her yield her
best crops. This Is especially so as to tho
vineyards which have been used for genera
tions. The French vines are cut down
every year and every vine has its individ
ual stake, and I might say its individual
treatment.
One of the odd features of fruit growing
here is the training of the trees against
Btone walls for early crops. The stones
act as radiators and proportionately in
crease the amount ol heat and the fruit
ripens earlier.
I have Been garden after garden outside
big French cities walled in this way. It is
estimated that there are 400 miles of such
walls in the suburbs of Paris and that
they annually yield 12,000,000 peaches. The
peaches are sold by the piece and bring a
franc and upwards. Indeed, I have seen
peaches sell for 75 cents and $1 apiece, but
they were probably raised under glass.
Suburban Paris has pear orchards which
produce as much as 1300 per acre, and there
is one noted for its early pears which yields
more than $2,000 a year. It contains five
acres. The French export trees in great
quantities and good fruit land is very val
uable, the best selling for $500 or even more
per acre. This is of course in favorable
localities.
I had a long chat during my stay In
Lyons with Consul Covert about farm clubs
and agricultural organizations. Mr. Covert
has spent a great deal of time with the
farmers and has attended many of their
meetings. He says they are far in advance
of us In such matters.
Every French country community, for
Instance, has its clubs where the farmers
meet and discuss how to market the crops.
They combine together and buy their fer
tilizers at wholesale and appeal to the rail
roads for low freight rates. Not only the
farmers but the railroad officials, the bank
ers and the merchants come to the clubs.
The railroad men are asked to advise the
farmers as to what they should do as to
transportation and markets and the bank
ers and merchants are also counseled with
about money matters. In America the
NCE.
farmer wants nottiing to do with tue city
man. He seems to be jealous and afraid of
him. The French farmer is willing to Bay
there may be some brains outside his own
class, and he Is glad to take advantage of
them.
There are more than 8,000,000 farmers
in France who belong to agricultural syndi
cates, and there are altogether over 2,000
such syndicates. These syndicates are for
general furthering of the farming and com
mercial Interests of the members, and they
are further organized into ten unions which
work together for the Interests of their
class. They have a head office at Paris, and
this deals with the railroads as to freight
rates and also pushes agricultural interests
before the French Parliament.
The farm syndicates support measures
for a protective tariff on farm products and
do all they can to bring the farmers into
connectiou with the markets, the bankers
aud the public. They have made it so that
much farm goods are now sent over the
country by mall. Butter and cheese are
thus shipped, and wine is marketed by post
in two-bottle lots. Most of these syndi
cates have their own libraries, and it is
largely due to them that the national gov
ernment has established a bank with a
fund of about $8, 000, 000, which has been
loaned out to farmers at 3 per cent Inter
est. They have also decreased the taxes
on farm lands aud provided that certain
Ian. Is shall be exempt from taxation.
These syndicates buy things in quantities
for their members, and it might pay our
exporters of farm implements and fertil
izers to treat directly with them.
Speaking of taxes, tne tax exemptions
of the farmers have caused a decrease lu
the revenue of $5,000,000, and this came
from the very smallest of the taxpayers.
Nevertheless, there are some taxes almost
infinitesimal. There are more than 8,000,
000 persons in this country who each pay
a land tax ranging from 10 to 20 cents,
more than 3,000,000 pay from $1 to $3, and
there are more than ?. 000, 000 landholders
who each pay from $4 to $6 per annum.
If a farmer pays a rent of less than $.")0 he
Is untaxed. If he pays $1)0 he Is taxed
only on $130, but If he pays more than
$lf,o he Is taxed 9 per cent on the whole
sum.
Almost all taxes here are based on in
comes or rents. Business property ts taxed
8 per cent of the amount for which It rents,
and if it Is idle it is not taxed at all. If a
store or house burns down the tax on the
land stops from that moment, and if a
factory 6tops work its tax stops. Ever
loom in the silk mill pays a tax while it is
working, but if it Is broken or becomes
Idle the tax officials are notified and the
tax Is not collectable.
In Lyons all buildings are free from tax
ation for two years after their erection, no
matter whether they are rented or not
This is to stimulate building, and to en
able the owner to get back something of
the first cost.
The policy of the government Is to make
every man pay taxes in proportion to the
benefit he receives, and this policy extends
to the smallest of such benefits. For this
reason every chair and table which is
placed cn tho pavement outside a store or
restaurant must pay its tax. Sometimes
cafes and restaurants thus monopolize the
whole street, but the people do not grum
ble, for they know the owner is paying
for the privilege.
Every plant set out on the street pays a
tax, as we'll as every counter for the sale
of goods. Many of the largo department
stores of Paris and other cities use the
streets during bright days to sliow goods
and sell them. The wares are spread out
upon tables and the clerks stand there and
hawk them out to passersby. When tho
goods are so displayed the merchants are
taxed, but when taken in they are not
charged.
There are such counters about the Bon
Marche and Au Prlntemps, two of the lar
gest stores of Paris, and also about a
great department store near the Hotel de
Ville. Some stores have movable counters,
on wheels, as large and aa long as the
counters Inside, which are pulled out dur
ing the shopping hours and pushed In at
night, thus increasing the working space
about 50 per cent. The Bazaar of the Hotel
de Ville has three sides facing the streets
and its pavements are filled with goods. I
looked over the counters and found many
American articles. There were ch"ap
watches, carpenter tools from New Eng
land, American ink and American canned
fruits. As I waited the bell rang for
closing the store and the clerks shoved
the counters from the -street Inside, and
within five minutes the great building was
surrounded by blank walls of steel, which
had dropped from above, covering the win
dows. Tho next day was rainy, and when
I came past the store at noon the business
was all inside, and I was told that no tax
was collected except for such times as the
street was so used.
It takes an army of officers to collect
such taxes, and hence France has a large
offlceholding class. There are families of
professional officeholders who feed at the
public crib from generation to generation,
being backed by political influence.
In France even government bonds are
taxed, but nearly every issue has a lottery
attachment. City and municipal bonds
bear low rates of Interest, but there are
always a number of prizes connected with
them and the lottery element ts as great
an attraction as the investment Itself. The
Paris exposition bonds were issued In this
way, as were also those of the exposition
of lSS!t. lotteries aro Instituted for all
sorts of purposes and are generally patron
ized. They are operated fairly, and the
prizes sometimes go to the rich and some
times to the poor. A coachman at Lyons
lately drew 100,000 francs, or $20,000, and
the Rothschild brothers more recently got
$20,000 from tickets in a lottery organized
for the support of indigent artists. The
Rothschilds refused to take the money and
gave it over into the hands of Coquelin,
the French actor, who had charge of the
fund.
The United Stales would never permit its
government bonds to be issued with a lot
tery attachnxnt. It is contrary to our
Ideas of the right. But there are many
things outside this which the French can
teach us as to handling our finances. They
know how to keep their own debts amoni;
their own people, and when they annually
pay out $7 per head in Interest they have
the satisfaction of knowing that it all goes
back Into France. Their bonds are of such
a nature that every French family, how.
ever pror, owns some of tbem. This might
be done In America if our bonds were in
small denominations, and it would un
doubtedly tend to bind our people more
closely together and to make them better
citizens and more enthusiastic patriots.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.