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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



afterwards planted. Thus, whatever may at first be the 

 difficulties of a cultivation, we must not give up, for 

 they will be smoothed down at a later period. I could 

 give many instances of this. 



I now come to the experiment with the potatoes. 

 These yielded 69 kilogrammes, of the average value of 

 5 fr. 50 c., covering all the outlay with an excess of 1 fr. 

 This would give a profit of not less than 1,000 fr. net 

 per hectare (or ^18 5s. 3d. per acre). Nor must it be 

 objected that the experiment was a slight one in extent ; 

 for the roots spread out little, and developed them- 

 selves upon the spot assigned to them, which would not 

 have been the case with plants with running roots. 



Now, I think three important consequences may be 

 deduced from these experiments in favour of intensive 

 culture. Here are products which have, the first 

 year, covered the expense of excessive manuring and 

 careful cultivation. The potato, by its right of seniority, 

 having a known value in our markets from which we 

 may take an authentic average, will become more par- 

 ticularly the basis of the considerations I am about to 

 put forth; and this is the reason why I call this paper 

 «' A Sack of Potatoes." 



Azote, 

 kils. 



My manure had brought to the soil 400 



The potato had taken away of it 100 



The batata 070 



The beetroot 3-96 



Thus the beetroot had absorbed the manure; the 

 potato one-fourth of it only; the batata one-fifth. 



I have taken do account of the leaves, which imme- 

 diately unite in the circulation with the manure. 



After such a cultivation, there are two courses that 

 may be taken — either to continue it in the same track, 

 and then, with the addition of a quarter of the manure 

 previously employed, we should have a corresponding 

 produce of potatoes, which being charged only two 

 francs of expense, would yield a product of 3,000 francs 

 net per hectare ; and the batata would yield a return still 

 more considerable. 



But there is another course to take : if we have not 

 near home an inexhaustible supply of manure, we might 

 at once adopt the distribution of crops of Nismes, which 

 during fifteen years would require nothing, and always 

 yield satisfactory products ; or that of Orange, which, 

 with the addition of dung, sustains itself as long. Thus 

 the excessive employment of manure applied to roots is 

 that of manure, free of cost, in order to enter boldy into 

 the richest distribution of crops. It is nothing more than 

 an advance for a short time, which will be returned be- 

 fore the expiration of the first year. 



I do not conceal from myself the insufficiency of one 

 such experiment, and I mention it expressly that it may 

 be repeated, to induce others to entertain this idea. 

 Next year I hope to be able to extend the importance of 

 it. Unfortunately the agricultural laboratory makes 

 only one experiment in the year ; and as time flies, it is 

 necessary to collect all that we can, and to form our 

 sheaf of all that falls into our hands. It is by simul- 



taneousness alone that we can proceed : our furnaces are 

 not always lighted like those of chemistry. 



Agriculture is only a vast manufactory, in which we 

 transform the simple substances. These substances are 

 manures, and means of improvement of all kinds ; the 

 land is the loom, the man and animals are the power. 

 The manufacturer will find it useless to multiply his 

 looms and his shuttles if the silk and flax fail him ; and 

 his vast establishment will become more burdensome 

 than useful. He occupies only an unprofitable space, 

 which proves his ruin, but which would make the for- 

 tune of twenty manufacturers, better provided. It is in 

 the transformation, accelerated by the elements in the 

 manufactory working night and day, and the quick re- 

 turns of capital, that we acquire riches. If upon our 

 fields we unite to the cessation of labour of winter that of 

 summer — the period when vegetation will be in all its 

 energy, and the earth only asks to be allowed to pro- 

 duce with profusion and rapidity — our climate, which 

 seems so well endowed, becomes a cause of impoverish- 

 ment. This activity, indispensable to large results, can 

 produce only by the agency of water regulated by human 

 intelligence. It is thus that we can almost make an ab- 

 straction of extent, and become millionaires with a hun- 

 dred hectares. Do we not see how some marshes of 

 the sea-coast furnish abundance of horse-litter, by 

 which the vineyards of the Gard, L'Hcrault, in the Isle 

 of Re, and in La Charante-Inferieure have developed 

 their riches, and have become the foundation of a manu- 

 facture which covers the world with its products ? 



From the marshes of the sea-coast to the summit of 

 the mountains have been constituted those mysterious 

 alliances which make the harmony of the world. The 

 pastoral system placed at the two extremities, at the 

 birth-place of the rivers and at their mouths, is in com- 

 munication by an uninterrupted chain, unless factitious 

 boundaries intervene to change the order of the universe. 

 Sometimes, also, the harsh sounds of speculation dis- 

 turb these admirable harmonies, and a barbarous music 

 mixes itself with the concerts of creation. It is then 

 that the enlightened eye of science and the firm hand of 

 power ought to intervene to arrest ignorance in its ope- 

 rations. 



The state of degradation into which our Basses-Alpes 

 have fallen is nothing more than the defect in the equili- 

 brium between the plain and the mountain ; and it is 

 in the plain now that we must reconstruct the moun- 

 tain. Our country unfortunately finds itself in an ano- 

 malous state, from which all our eflTorts should be de- 

 voted to its emancipation. L'Auvergne has its sides to 

 the North, and that breeding country finds an opening 

 for produce even to the plains of Normandy. There we 

 see the division of labour between the breeder and the 

 grazier ; each fulfils his part, and does it well. 



Switzerland, besides having its openings upon a south- 

 ern country like ours, has at the same time rich pastu- 

 rages, which owe everything to art and the intelligence 

 of their inhabitants. The Italians have not left unem- 

 ployed those numerous water, courses, or those splendid 

 lakes which crown their horizon. Immense plateaus, 

 embracing 60 leagues of meadows, have come to complete 



