2-913-695 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Harvest-Home Custom in France, 1854. '...the French have advanced in agricultural...skill, in comfort, and in wealth, are better fed and better clothed, as they have increased in numbers. Their progress has been slower than ours, the increase of the people smaller, but they have both increased in numbers and improved in skill. All travellers in France represent the French as being at present intently engaged in improving their agriculture, extending their manufactures, cultivating the peaceful arts, and anxious to acquire wealth. They have changed with their rulers, from a restless to an industrious, peaceful people, and have become good neighbours. Deriving a very large proportion of their subsistence from their own agriculture, they justly hold it in high honour, and rejoice, as we see by the sketch, in their Harvest- home...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.