THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



505 



the system, and lay the foundation of the riches of the 

 two States. Our Alps, on the contrary, reigning over the 

 scorched plains of Provence, ought at once to be the 

 breeding and the grazing country. All that they have 

 done towards grazing- was the part of breeding. The 

 cattle are debased, and remain scarce, small, and lean, 

 and yield only small profits. It would not have been 

 thus with them if the connection had been more actively 

 worked between the plain and the mountain. The in- 

 habitants, rich in the number and strength of their 

 cattle, would not have been driven to have recourse to 

 unprofitable works ; they would not have ploughed up 

 their declivities, nor demolished their country ; weshould 

 have had a Switzerland and a Lombardy. It is by the 

 pastoral system extended to our plains, by the construc- 

 tion of lakes which Nature has denied us, or which we 

 have found means to destroy, that our country will at- 

 tain its proper development, and bring its contingent to 

 that consumption of food which constantly tends to an 

 increase. 



The draining of the marshes, therefore, can only be 

 usefully accomplished when we shall be in a condition 

 largely to replace them with water-meadows ; they are 

 Btill the oases of our champaigns. Let us not increase 

 our deserts; let us not extend, by unprofitable cultiva- 

 tion, our agricultural fabrics, which will be more and 

 more deprived of the primary substances which we 

 gather in the marshes in such great abundance. It 

 would be much better to multiply our marshes, to com- 

 plete them, to add water to them, in which they some- 

 times fail, and so prevent that half- dryness which is the 

 cause of their unhealthiness. Such are the considera- 

 tions that I think ijaportant, and which we cannot neg- 

 lect without endangering our position. 



My next experiments will, I hope, demonstrate all 

 that the artificial marshes, all that the introduction of 

 the grassy riches of the tropics can add of grandeur to 

 the system which I recommend ; and what a brilliant and 

 hopeful career have we before us ! In this system the 

 labour of man resumes all its worth, and produces those 

 surplusages which are the life of society, the secret of its 

 strength, the elements of industry, and the source of 

 commerce and all its civilizing consequences. But the 

 deprived manufactory, whose resources we still further 

 diminish — the unoccupied loom, exhibits humanity ex- 

 pending its powers for unprofitable results : it is pe- 

 riodical scarcity, a sick and enfeebled soil, the vermin 

 that attaches itself to misery. The false glare of Paris 

 cannot cast its illusion upon the impoverishment of the 

 country. The financial spirit raised to its highest power, 

 has placed everywhere its aspiring splendours upon the 

 current of the small capitals, even those which are ap- 

 plied to cultivation. Useful improvements are no longer 

 made ; the fields no longer attract that look of affection 

 which in itself alone is a virtue, and which, in growing, 

 becomes the love of country. The land is the invest- 

 ment, and is no longer the patrimony, nor the cradle, 

 nor the pride of the family. It is time to return to it 

 those deluded capitals, largely and usefully, in united 

 labours, which prepare the future, and which isolation 

 cannot reach. We must promise, also, to give divi- 



dends — this, to a certainty, is for the honour and 

 indispensable duty of the great Syndicate which sums up 

 all our forces. 



As I began with the yam, I shall conclude with the 

 sorgho, its travelling companion, brought from the same 

 place by the same enlightened attention. The manufac- 

 turer, who may make sugar from it, already obtains 

 from it an excellent brandy. Its abundant seeds may 

 be available in times of scarcity. It is the best food for 

 fowls ; and the sorgho yields 80 hectolitres per hectare. 

 We can thus, and by it alone, realize the popular wish 

 of Henry the Fourth, the only king whose memory the 

 people cherish, because he came from a great school, and 

 had breathed our air in his youth, and had understood 

 the instincts of the people. Others have promised the 

 food of England, or the eternal and gross indigestion of 

 the shores of the Atlantic : but he promised that 

 chicken-in-the-pot — that ancient favourite of the Gaulish 

 family, identified with it even in one common deno- 

 mination, the regret of our soldiers when they quit their 

 Italy. 



What do we promise on our part ? We will write upon 

 our flag, Variety I Tfiat's my device. That rapid loco- 

 moMon which explores the world, which interrogates all 

 climates — that spirit of investigation which is the cha- 

 racteristic of our age, all will concur in concentrating 

 upon our old soil, the young productions snatched from 

 rich countries, and which we shall find means to natu- 

 ralize. The most humble table shall be covered with 

 new gifts : like that of the rich, it shall enjoy a diversity 

 of food, which is the pledge of health, strength, and 

 contentment. Uniformity, whatever may be the scale 

 that we assign to it, is the worst of conditions : it is the 

 spleen of the North ; it is the misery of Ireland ; it is 

 the rule and the chastisement of convents, the home- 

 sickness of the barracks. 



A. DE Gasparin. 



WILD PIGEONS.— There was shot lately in the 

 neighbourhood of Inverness a wild pigeon, in which was 

 found the enormous number of 1,100 grains of wheat, 

 barley, and oats, together with 40 grains of peas; the 

 barley grains predominating. This seems to be no unusual 

 case. There was sometime before that another killed on a 

 neighbouring farm, in which were found 70 grains of peas, 

 along with a very large quantity of the different grains 

 already mentioned, but the precaution of counting- was not 

 taken. It is stated, however, that the bird was full to the 

 very bill. Such quantities by a flock of 100 or 200 of these 

 destructive birds must be very considerable indeed in the 

 course of a whole harvest season, particularly since some 

 ornithologists maintain that such are the digestive organs 

 of pigeons, that they are capable of partaking daily three 

 times their own weight of food— a most extraordinary fact, 

 if true. It is needless to add, that the extermination of 

 such creatures must be highly desirable on the part of the 

 farmer. — Inverness Courier. 



