10 Aug., 1918.] Notes on the Vaucluse District. 



493 



avoided bj carefully supervising the gathering; pickers have a tendency 

 to cut the stems too low in order to increase the weight of the harvest. 



In the Carpentras district lavender is chiefly found noa-r Mount 

 Ventoux. Over an area of about 10,000 acres, it is about equally dis- 

 seminated on the flat land and on the rocky mountain slopes; lavender 

 plantations are mostly confined to flat land, artificial lavenderaies occupy 

 about one-sixth of the total land. 



NOTES ON THE VAUCLUSE DISTRICT. 



By F. de CasteUa, Government Viticulturist. 



The foregoing article vividly recalls a brief visit to this most 

 romantic region, in August, 1907, and how, as my host (Mons. A. 

 Taccusel) and myself sat, after lunch, on the terrace overlooking the 

 swift Sorgues river, sipping coffee and the petit verre of fifty-year- 

 old cognac, an agreeable odour of lavender was distinctly noticeable in 



Fig. 1. — Vaucluse, France. — Portion of the Village (the rocky hills where the 

 lavender grows are shown in the background) . 



the air. This, it was explained, came from a neighbouring distillery 

 across the river, where the oil is extracted. Formerly lavender grew 

 wild on the hills and other waste lands in the region, but of recent years 

 it has been cultivated to some extent, where this is possible, with 

 plough or scarifier. The wild plants are thus thinned in one direction; 

 the loss of a certain number of them is, however, fully compensated by 



