For the production of wheat, in respect of which France is self-supporting, French Flanders, the Seine basin, notably the Beauce and the Brie, and the regions bordering on the lower course of the Loire and the upper course of the Garonne, are the chief areas.
The colony is self-supporting, the revenue being largely derived from the drink duties, and there is no public debt.
The benefits that accrue from the practice of rotation are well illustrated in the results obtained from the investigations at Rothamsted into the simple four-course system, which may fairly be regarded as a self-supporting system.
Very little of the lime of the crops, however, goes off in the saleable products of the farm in the case of the self-supporting rotation under consideration.
As late as 1906 it was estimated that nearly two-thirds of the men were to a greater or less degree self-supporting, as were many of the young women.
