482 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



bear catting three times a year, and will endure in the ground 

 eight to tea years. It does not come to perfection the first year ; 

 and the circumstance of its being ordinarily continued in the 

 ground for a term of years forms an objection to its culture, with 

 those who wish to pursue a regular rotation of crops. Gypsum 

 is applied to lucern with the same success as to clover ; and the 

 best farmers advise to harrow it in the spring, and, indeed, after 

 each cutting, excepting the last cutting in the autumn. 



12. SAINFOIN. Sainfoin is the next species of forage most 

 largely cultivated in France. I have already spoken of it, but 

 its value can scarcely be too highly appreciated. It is ordinarily 

 cut only once a year, but in rare cases, twice. It forms a most 

 excellent feed, especially for sheep ; and the hay is of the best 

 quality. It will endure for some years. They have had no 

 success in cultivating sainfoin or lucern in Flanders. The preju 

 dice, to which I have referred, that it requires a calcareous soil, 

 is, undoubtedly, not without some foundation. 



I come now to speak of the great crops, which may be said to 

 be almost peculiar to France ; and if it be proper to estimate the 

 agriculture of a country by the success of its peculiar crops, then 

 the agriculture of France assumes a high rank. I refer in this 



O o 



case particularly to beet sugar, wine, silk, and oil and fruit from 

 olives. These are in France immense products, and of high 

 commercial value. 



13. BEETS. BEETS FOR SUGAR. The history of the intro 

 duction of the culture of beets into France for the manufacture 

 of sugar, is well known. The presence of sugar in the beet-root, 

 in an available quantity, was the discovery of a distinguished 

 chemist ; and it is among the great obligations under which that 

 science, cultivated so successfully, and with such distinguished 

 talent, has laid the French. The Emperor Napoleon, being cut 

 off by Hie nations at war with him from those supplies of this 

 article, which the people had been accustomed to receive from 

 their colonies, conceived the plan of their supplying this great 

 necessity from within themselves. It was much ridiculed, but 

 he was not a man to be turned aside from any great project by 

 any minor considerations, where success was possible ; his object, 

 to a considerable degree, was accomplished. Since his time, the 



