Here we saw an instance of the social metamorphosis taking
place in these progressive districts. The mistress of the house, a
bright clever woman, occupied all day with the drudgery of the
farm-house, is fairly educated; and, though now neatly dressed in plain
cotton gown, on Sunday dresses like any other lady for the promenade.
Her mother, still clinging to the past custom, appeared in short stuff
petticoat, wooden shoes, and yellow-handkerchief wrapped round her head;
while the children, who, in due time, will be trained to toil like their
neighbours, are now being well taught in the village school.
These people are wealthy, and may be taken as types of the farming class
here, though many of the so called _cultivateurs_, or proprietors,
farming their own land, live in much easier style; the men managing the
business, the ladies keeping the house, and the work of the farm being
left to labourers. The rent of good land is about fifty shillings an
acre, and wages, in harvest time, four francs with board. The farms,
while large in comparison with anything found in Brittany and Anjou, are
small, measured by our scale, being from fifty to two or three hundred
acres.
Steam-threshing has long been in use here; but, of course, not
generally, as the smaller patches of corn only admit of the old system;
and the corn is so ripe that it is often threshed on the field
immediately after the cutting; the harvesting process is rapid; we often
see only one or two labourers, whether men or women, on a single patch.
Pages:
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50