commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
in the
Seine-et-Marne
Seine-et-Marne () is a Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne (river), Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square ...
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
in north-central
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.
Ferme de Galande
Around 1881,
sugar beet
A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together wi ...
producer
Arthur Brandin
Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more ...
invested in a
Decauville
Decauville () was a manufacturing company which was founded by Paul Decauville (1846–1922), a French pioneer in industrial railways. Decauville's major innovation was the use of ready-made sections of light, narrow gauge track fastened to steel ...
railway with eight horse-drawn tipping lorries for the Ferme de Galande near Réau, 15 km east of the Decauville factory in Petit Bourg. As well as being a sugar beet farmer, he was also mayor of Réau and Republican Consul of the Canton of Brie-Comte-Robert from 1895 to 1912. The surface soil of his sugar beet fields consisted of clay in which fragments of siliceous sandstone were embedded, used for millstones and structural purposes. The subsoil was limestone, so the fields were often very muddy at harvest time until Brandin installed an innovatively designed drainage system.G. Wery and E. Risler page ''Irrigations et drainages: l'eau dans les améliorations agricoles,'' p. 106 and 409.