André Gide, Eugène Rouart, and le retour à la terre
237
such establishments which by the 1880s were helping the Third Republic revolutionize French agriculture through developing the technology of farming and the sciences of crop development and animal
husbandry. If Jules Ferry’s schools produced the famous “Hussards
noirs de la république”, it is equally true to say that under the stewardship of Jules Méline, the first man to preside over a separate Ministry
of Agriculture, the Ecoles d’agriculture like Grignon sent out across
the country an analogous army of pioneering “ingénieurs agronomes”
bent on modernizing the countryside. For Méline the watchword was
Le Retour à la terre to offset the effects of excessive industrial production, as he argued in his book of 1905; after World War I he would
raise the stakes: Le Salut par la terre.
3 As for the rôle played by the
schools of agriculture, one need only read Georges Duby and Armand
Wallon’s Histoire de la France rurale
4 to realize that Eugène Rouart’s
professors were those to whom historians look back now as trailblazers for modern farming. Names little known outside this specialist
sphere made their mark within it in no uncertain terms. André Sanson,
an expert in zootechnie and animal genetics, as well as being a revered
professor, was witness at Eugène’s wedding; the work of another professor Daniel Zolla on cattle breeding, is drawn on by Duby. Lucien
Brétignière, a pioneer in plant biology and close associate of the Vilmorin family, expert in scientific fertilizers and silage, was a condisciple and ultimately wrote Eugène’s obituary.
5 A key mentor of
Eugène, François Berthault, was responsible for reconstituting the
vineyards of the south-west after the phylloxera disaster of the late
nineteenth century – and wrote one of the books telling how the salt
plain of L’Habra, in the Sahel, had been turned into fertile farming
land.
6 The pioneering enthusiasm of these authorities communicated
itself to Rouart and his fellow-students.
Eugène’s results at the concours d’entrée did not secure him
immediate entry to Grignon, and to his initial dismay he had to do a
stage at the Ecole d’Agriculture in Montpellier – a long way from his
___________________________
3 See Jules Méline, Le Retour à la Terre (Paris: Hachette, 1905); Le Salut par la terre,
(Paris: Hachette, 1919).
4 Histoire de la France rurale, Vol. III, “Apogée et crise de la civilisation 17891914”, by Georges Duby, Armand Wallon, Maurice Agulhon, Gabriel Désert, Robert
Specklin (Paris: Seuil, 1992).
5 Bulletin des Anciens Élèves de Grignon, no. 8, août 1936, pp. 262-66.
6 See Correspondance Gide-Rouart, II, p. 198.
237
such establishments which by the 1880s were helping the Third Republic revolutionize French agriculture through developing the technology of farming and the sciences of crop development and animal
husbandry. If Jules Ferry’s schools produced the famous “Hussards
noirs de la république”, it is equally true to say that under the stewardship of Jules Méline, the first man to preside over a separate Ministry
of Agriculture, the Ecoles d’agriculture like Grignon sent out across
the country an analogous army of pioneering “ingénieurs agronomes”
bent on modernizing the countryside. For Méline the watchword was
Le Retour à la terre to offset the effects of excessive industrial production, as he argued in his book of 1905; after World War I he would
raise the stakes: Le Salut par la terre.
3 As for the rôle played by the
schools of agriculture, one need only read Georges Duby and Armand
Wallon’s Histoire de la France rurale
4 to realize that Eugène Rouart’s
professors were those to whom historians look back now as trailblazers for modern farming. Names little known outside this specialist
sphere made their mark within it in no uncertain terms. André Sanson,
an expert in zootechnie and animal genetics, as well as being a revered
professor, was witness at Eugène’s wedding; the work of another professor Daniel Zolla on cattle breeding, is drawn on by Duby. Lucien
Brétignière, a pioneer in plant biology and close associate of the Vilmorin family, expert in scientific fertilizers and silage, was a condisciple and ultimately wrote Eugène’s obituary.
5 A key mentor of
Eugène, François Berthault, was responsible for reconstituting the
vineyards of the south-west after the phylloxera disaster of the late
nineteenth century – and wrote one of the books telling how the salt
plain of L’Habra, in the Sahel, had been turned into fertile farming
land.
6 The pioneering enthusiasm of these authorities communicated
itself to Rouart and his fellow-students.
Eugène’s results at the concours d’entrée did not secure him
immediate entry to Grignon, and to his initial dismay he had to do a
stage at the Ecole d’Agriculture in Montpellier – a long way from his
___________________________
3 See Jules Méline, Le Retour à la Terre (Paris: Hachette, 1905); Le Salut par la terre,
(Paris: Hachette, 1919).
4 Histoire de la France rurale, Vol. III, “Apogée et crise de la civilisation 17891914”, by Georges Duby, Armand Wallon, Maurice Agulhon, Gabriel Désert, Robert
Specklin (Paris: Seuil, 1992).
5 Bulletin des Anciens Élèves de Grignon, no. 8, août 1936, pp. 262-66.
6 See Correspondance Gide-Rouart, II, p. 198.