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This paper discusses the existence of an open-field type of cultivation in Mediterranean lands and in the Atlantic Coastal lands of south west Europe. In certain islands of Brittany, France traces of an open-field type of cultivation still exist. Exposure to the westerly winds retards, and in many cases entirely prevents, the growth of trees, but in sheltered spots they may be found, as well as such sun-loving plants as mimosa, myrtle and vine. The islanders are occupied with fishing and farming. In the Balearic Islands also, the Minorcans are fishermen, while the Mallorcans have been enterprising navigators from earliest times. In all these islands the sillon is the basis of land tenure, and many sillons are cultivated in common. Communal methods of working were also characteristic of other occupations in the islands. The fertility of the soil is maintained by the application of manure in the form of seaweed, and there are very strict regulations concerning the cutting of this plant. In Ile d' Arz, France, with a two-field scheme, the ancient jachère morte has been replaced by the Jachère verte or green fallow. Barley and wheat, both varying in their species as much as the soil varied in its composition, were the cereals most usually grown. The mountains in Greece have limited the extent of the fertile land, and the dry climate has limited its green pastures.

Investigates the agricultural revolution in France during the 19th-century. Sources of the national growth; Discussion on the timing of the agricultural revolution.

This article focuses on physiocrats, a study in economic rationalization. Physiocrats meant free movement of agricultural products within France and free export, becomes confused with free import as understood today. As a matter of fact foreign trade for the Physiocrats was a temporary measure. Their aim was to do away with foreign trade altogether once it had served its purpose of relieving the landowners of their surplus crops at good prices. The peculiar characteristic of the Physiocrats single tax is to be found in the idea of the product net. It was not essentially a single tax on land at all. It was a single tax on surplus agricultural products. Psysiocrats was a device of the commoner landowner, eager for profit, to escape the multiplicity of taxes which fell on land under the ancient regime and to substitute one tax upon the agricultural surplus, thus insuring to the landowner, not only his cost of production, but a profit before taxation could be applied. Their economic doctrines of free trade, the single tax and the sole productivity of agriculture are re-interpreted In the light of the above analysis.

The article focuses on the historical development of the land system in France, the basic division of power on the land between 1870 and 1914, the hierarchy of rural personnel, and the irregularity of rural social behavior. Since its great revolution in 1789 France has been praised and envied as Europe's classic home of the family farmer, that independent, landholding peasant whose stake in the soil has made him the bulwark of private property and conservative politics. France is a fertile country of varied produce. Each of her seven topographical regions yields important and abundant products for the food and processing market. On the surface of things, therefore, the idea of a stable, contented peasantry in a balanced national economy has been supported by data on the high degree of ownership, the fertility of the countryside, and the impressive list of marketable staples. These statistics, however, do not explain the contrast between the familiar generalizations about the peasantry and certain vivid descriptions of oppressive rural living conditions. A striking contradiction, therefore, confronts the investigator of French farming, a gap between the pat theory and the spotted reality.