FRANCE. 
Soissons to Carentan is another right line of about 200 
miles; from Eu, on the coast of Normandy, to Chartres, is 
100 miles. The breadth of this rich district in some places, 
i about Caen, &c. is not considerable, yet the 
will be found to contain not a trifling proportion 
of the kingdom. The fertile plains of Flanders and of 
Artois, are perhaps the richest parts of this valuable soil, 
which here consists of ‘deep friable mould, rather incli- 
ning to clay than sand, on a calcareous bottom, bearing 
evident marks of having once been covered by the sea. 
From Paris to near Cambray, by the road of Soissons, 
this loam is more sandy, but equally valuable and fertile. 
About Meaux, there is as fine soil as can possibly exist. 
It consists of-an almost impalpable powder, and of admi- 
rable texture and friability. In some places it is 18 feet 
deep, resting on a stratum of white marl. The line from 
Paris through Picardy is inferior ; but all the arable 
part of Normandy, which lies within the limits above de- 
scribed, is a rich, friable, sandy loam, in some places of 
a reddish colour; and very deep. The calcareous loams 
» are of much greater extent than the loams which have 
been described. To the east, they stretch across Cham- 
From Metz to Nancy, all is calcareous, but-not 
chalk. In the southern parts of Alsace, limestone land 
abounds. Immense districts of Dauphiny and Provence 
consist of the same kind of soil.._ Indeed, the chalk dis- 
trict extends east to about St Menehould, and south to 
Nemours and Montargis, or even farther, for it reaches 
‘Auxerre in another direction, There is also much cal- 
‘careous loam in is, Poitou, and through Tour- 
raine to the Loire. Most of the course of this river is 
calcareous. The chalk district, therefore, may be re- 
as stretching not less than 200 miles east and 
west, and about as much, but more irregularly, north and 
south. The next considerable district of fertile soil, is 
the plain of the Garonne. Through all this plain, wher- 
ever the soil is found excellent, it consists usually of a 
deep, mellow, friable, sandy loam, sufficiently moist, and 
in many places calcareous. The plain of the Garonne is 
entered about Creissensac, in passing to the south from 
the Limosin. Its fertility increases all the way to Tou- 
louse, where it is uncommonly rich. Its richness, how- 
ever, ny prem as we approach the Pyrenees. The 
breadth of this plain is every where inconsiderable. Ano- 
ther tract of rich soil is found in the vale, which stretch- 
es from Narbonne to Beziers, Moi ier; and Nismes ; 
but its fertility is inferior to those that have been previ- 
ously described. The soil of the Lower Poitou resem- 
bles that of the richest parts of the Lincolnshire fens, and 
is indeed of the same nature, being for the most part 
Jand drained, or gai from the sea. To the 
south of the Loire, in the direction of Bourgneuf, there is 
a tract of rich loam. Alsace, in respect to soil, resem- 
bles Flanders, but it is inferior to it.. The whole fertile 
part of the narrow plain of Alsace, hardly presents a sur- 
face of more than 1000 square miles. The flat, and 
chiefly calcareous vale of Auvergne, which commences at 
Riom, is a tract of fertility. The whole surface is 
a real marl, but mixed with such a proportion of soil as 
to be most valuable and productive. The French natu- 
ralists who have examined it, assert the depth to be 20 
feet of beds of earth, formed of the ruins of what they 
style the primitive and volcanized mountains. The best 
on brig feng farther than from Riom to 
‘aires, scarcely more than 20 miles. Mr Young calcu~ 
VOL, 1X. PART I. . 
681 
lates, that the whole of the fertile districts of France, Statistios. 
which we have just described, amounts to about 28 mil- 
lions of English acres. [*s 
IL. The district of heath is chiefly in the provinces of H 
Brittany, Anjou, parts of Normandy, ‘and Guienne, ‘and 
Gascony. The five departments into which Brittany is 
divided, are reckoned to contain 1609 French square 
miles ; the cultivated land amounts, according to some 
calculations, to less than one-third, and the heaths to 
3,006,000 acres; according to other calculations, two- 
fifths of the whole province are uncultivated ; and some 
authors assert, that of 39 parts 24 are lande, which 
amounts to three-fifths. _Some:of the heaths -are ‘so ex- 
tensive, that a house is scarcely seen in ten leagues. The 
soil of the best part of the heaths in Brittany, is com- 
monly gravel, or gravelly sand on a gravelly bottom, of 
a very inferior and barren nature. In many places -it 
rests on sandstone rock : none of it is calcareous. An- 
jou and Maine are equally noted for the immensity of 
their heaths, which are reported to extend 60 Jeagues in 
one place. The soil of these heaths is, however, in some 
parts tolerably.good, and might be rendered useful by 
proper skill and labour ; consisting of gravel, sand, or 
stone, generally a loamy sand or gravel. The Landes, 
as they are emphatically called, lie west from Bazadois 
and Condomois to the sea coast, between the country of 
Labour on the south, Guienne on the north, and the 
ocean on the west.. They are divided into the greater 
Landes between Bourdeaux and Bayonne, and the lesser 
between Bazas'and Montmarsan. \ They are sandy tracts, 
covered with pine trees; cut regularly for resin, broken 
and enlivened however with cultivated spots for a teague 
or two. When the Moors were expelled from Spain, 
they applied to the court of France to be allowed to set- 
tle on, and cultivate these lands; but permission was not 
granted them. They are:said to contain not less than 
300 square leagues, or 1,468,181 English acres,. occu- 
pying a large: portion of Gascony. Though the:soil of 
these Landes is among the poorest in France, it is not uts 
terly incapable of cultivation, and even the pines-with 
which it is covered yield from 15s. to 20s. an acre: 
eath 
ict, 
III. The district-of chalk, as distinguished from the chalk 
calcareous loams already noticed, is chiefly in the pro- district. 
vinces of Champagne, Sologne, Touraine, Poitou, Sain« 
tonge, and An, ois. The chalk provinces contain 16 
‘millions of acres. The soil of Champagne in. general. is 
thin and poor. The southern part, as from Chalons to 
Troyes, has from its poverty acquired the name of pow- 
illeux, or lousy. Sologne is one of the poorest and most 
unimproved provinces in the kingdom. It is a flat, con- 
sisting of a poor sand, or gravel] lying every where on a 
bottom of clay or marl, so very retentive of water, that 
every ditch and hole is full of it, except in the.dryest 
seasons. Touraine is betters Itcontains some consicer= 
able districts, especially.on the south of the Loire, in 
which good mixed sandy and gravelly loams:reston a” 
caleareous bottom. Considerable tracts in.the northern , 
parts of the province, however, are of a very-inferior 
soil, not better than the predominating soil of Anjou and 
Maine. Poitou consists of two divisions, theupper and 
the lower, the latter of which has already been mention 
ed as resembling the fens of Lincolnshire.» The upper _ 
division is generally a thin loam, on an imperfect quarry 
bottom,—a very inferior stone brash, A great part of 
Angoumois is a thin and poor chalk. 
: 42. 
