in this particular branch of husbandry. The hay was cut
mostly by women and children with scythes. An American mower probably
had never been seen there. It seemed like a tremendous waste of human
energy to see these women and children doing such hard manual labor in
the field, when a modern mower would cut the entire field in a very
short time. It seems to me there should be a field for the sale of
American mowers and other modern American farm machinery in the rural
districts of France. While the farms are so small that the individual
farmer could not, perhaps, afford to buy a mower, still, several
farmers could go in together and buy one, or the community as a whole
could buy one, for the common use of all who needed it. Here is
something that the French and American Governments might get together
on, for surely the French want to conserve the energy of their women
and children who now do this hard work, and the Americans want a wider
market for their modern farm equipment. It must be said, however, that
the women of the French peasantry who were doing this hard work,
appeared strong and healthful, and were enured to this difficult
labor, no doubt, through many generations of this hard farm life.

We noticed as we got away from the coast, that there was a change in
the style of dress of the peasants. We no longer saw the round hats
with the ribbon streamers hanging down behind, so familiar in the
rural districts around Brest. The dress of the peasants, farther in
the interior, was more like that of the laboring classes of America.
The men and women both wore serviceable clothes of dark material, but
few of them wore anything on their heads. Sabots were worn instead of
leather shoes. The women wore a sort of an Arctic sock over the
stockings; the men frequently wore no socks at all. Occasionally the
sabots would be several sizes too large for the wearer, but were made
to fit by stuffing straw in them. This must have been rather
uncomfortable, but the French peasantry seemed not to mind it at all.

While the horse is the principal draft animal in France, oxen are
also used by some farmers. Most Western boys have seen teams of oxen,
as they are still in use in some of the mountain districts of
California, or at least they were still in use up to a few years ago;
but to the Eastern boys an ox team was a new and interesting sight,
and there was much comment upon it.

The first large city at which we stopped after leaving