The agronomes did not only wish for the establishment of their agricultural technique. Although they were mostly concerned with problems of pure practice, they often ventured to submit solutions for its acceptance in rural society. Their demonstrations were more rudimentary than those of the representatives of the physiocratic ‘school’. Yet they were interesting in so far as they were intimately connected with problems of pure technique; they often possessed a sort of earthy flavour and frequently looked to England for guidance and confirmation.

They knew the system of taxation, as it existed, to be a major obstacle to the acceptance of a new method, which involved great expense.Thus, parallel to the attacks led by people like Le Trosne and Boncerf, against feudalism and feudal rights, are the agriculturists' complaints against the excessive taxation imposed on the peasants.But, in contrast to the gloomy colour of rural life as it is presented in works of general scope, quite a different picture can sometimes be obtained from local information. The Abbé Roger Schabol gives an interesting picture of the Montreuil territory.

Ailleurs, ce sont de vastes oseraies, des prés, des luzernes, des sainfoins, des blés, du seigle pour faire du pleyon, des grains de toute nature. On trouve de câté et d'autre, à l'écart, de petits cantons de terre ménagés qui forment des bouts de pépiniéres…. Lá, me dit-on, nul n'est oisif ni exempt de travail …. Aussi sait-on que le Village de Montreuil paye jusqu'a quatre-vingt mille livres de taille.

D'Epremesnil similarly pictured the Pays de Caux, ‘oú il n'y a pas un pouce de terre qui ne soit cultivé avec le plus grand soin…. Quelle prodigieuse quantite de Fermes! Parcourons ces fermes; nous verrons les Fermiers, la plupart riches, tous aisés.’

It must be observed that these examples of thriving districts,however, showed two different aspects of agricultural structure. In the former, agriculture was somewhat like gardening and belonged to small-scale farming. The latter was an enclosed country in process of modernization.