DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1367#0149
'44
RECOLLECTIONS OF
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ISLAND OF BILLANCOURT.
It was decidedly anything but a " happy thought," to have
selected the island of Billancourt to consign thereto the
agriculcural implements which could not find, their place in
the Champ-de-Mars. Parisians have a profound aversion for
long voyages, and but few strangers could spare time to travel
over the few miles which separate Billancourt from the
capital. The natural consequence was that this part of the
show was only visited by farmers or by country school-
masters who came in batches, at the expense of Government,
to attend the lectures on agriculture given by competent
professors, and diffuse the " new light" on their return
home. This was the only practical part of this section;
otherwise it may be termed a failure; the exhibitors seldom
saw a customer, the huge restaurant was ever in desolate
solitude, and the long row of shops on the bridge above
remained untenanted.
Until very lately the French were very much behind their
neighbours, and especially the English, in all matters con-
nected with agriculture. Nature having done a good deal
for them, they did but little for themselves ; a very common
circumstance, by the bye, for the most fertile countries are
RECOLLECTIONS OF
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ISLAND OF BILLANCOURT.
It was decidedly anything but a " happy thought," to have
selected the island of Billancourt to consign thereto the
agriculcural implements which could not find, their place in
the Champ-de-Mars. Parisians have a profound aversion for
long voyages, and but few strangers could spare time to travel
over the few miles which separate Billancourt from the
capital. The natural consequence was that this part of the
show was only visited by farmers or by country school-
masters who came in batches, at the expense of Government,
to attend the lectures on agriculture given by competent
professors, and diffuse the " new light" on their return
home. This was the only practical part of this section;
otherwise it may be termed a failure; the exhibitors seldom
saw a customer, the huge restaurant was ever in desolate
solitude, and the long row of shops on the bridge above
remained untenanted.
Until very lately the French were very much behind their
neighbours, and especially the English, in all matters con-
nected with agriculture. Nature having done a good deal
for them, they did but little for themselves ; a very common
circumstance, by the bye, for the most fertile countries are