Statistics. 
— 
Orchilla: 
French ber- 
Saffron. 
Turnsol. 
- pared by a long 
Sumach. 
704 
Languedoc ; but, by the decrease of the demand for it 
i" at home and abroad; the culture of it has comparative- 
ly declined, and given place to that of millet. In Lan- 
guedoc five are gathered in one year. Great care 
is taken both in the cultivation, and in the subsequent 
preparation of it. When the leaves become yellow, 
they are gathered and carried directly to a mill, much 
resembling the oil or tan-mills, and ground into a 
smooth paste. This is laid in heaps, pressed close and 
smooth, andthe blackish crusts, which forms on the 
outside, reunited, if it should happen to crack. In 
this state it lies for fifteen days, when the heaps are 
opened, the crust rubbed and mixed with the inside, 
and the matter formed into oval balls, which are 
ed close and solid in wooden moulds. These are dried 
upon hurdles; they turn black on the outside if ex- 
to the sun; if in a close place, yellowish, espe- 
cially if the weather be rainy. The’ dealers prefer the 
first. The balls are distinguished by their 
weighty, of an agreeable smell, and of a violet colour 
within when they are rubbed. 
Orchilla weed can scarcely be said to be cultivated : 
it however grows in abundance, and ofa good quality, 
in Aw e. There is also in this province a» kind of 
moss different from the real orchilla, known by the 
name of orseille de terre, orseille d’A e, which is 
used for dyeing, but it contains fewer and lighter co- 
louring ities! The real orchilla is prepared in 
France, for the purpose of dyeing, by being ground 
betwixt stones, moistened occasionally with spirits of 
wine, and somade up in a paste, which they call or- 
seille en piite. French berries, that is, the berries of 
the Riamnus infectorius, are grown abundantly in the 
south of France, particularly in the vicinity of Avig- 
non, whence they are called graines d’ Avignon. They 
aré used considerably in the south and middle of France, 
to give a yellow dye, chiefly for silk. They are ga- 
thered unripe; bruised, steeped, and’ then: boiled in 
water mixed with the ashes of vine stalks, to’ give a 
‘body, and then passed through fine linen. The’ colour 
they give is fine, but very evanescent, especially when 
ex to the sun. 
’ Saffron is cultivated about Toulouse, Angouleme, in 
the principality of Orange, near Avignon, in‘Norman- 
dy, Angoumois, and Gatinois. The best saffron in 
France comes from Boisne in Gatinois, where the soil 
is amere sand. The saffron of Angoumois is perhaps 
next in quality, and is grown there in great abundance. 
This plant seems to have been introduced into Spain by 
the Moors, and from Spain into France. The roots are 
liable to many maladies‘in France, which are unknown 
here. There is nothing’ peculiar in the’mode of cul- 
ture, except that sometimes, in the very height of the 
season, they pull the flowers in the evening as well’ as 
in the morning, instead’ of only in the morging, as is 
practised in En d. Turnsol, a valuable dyeing 
drug, is chiefly in the village of Grand Gar- 
largues, near Montpellier, from the croton tinclorum, 
which the French call marille. The flowering tops, in 
the latter end of July a. August, are pre- 
process, linen or ien-rags dip- 
te in their juice. ‘These are packed’ and sold under 
name of fournois en drapeaux. These’ shreds are 
chiefly used for tinging wines, cheese; linen, and’ { 
* Sumach is cultiv. in the neighbourhood of Mont- 
pellier, where it is called r2dout, or roudou; Its shoots 
are cut down every year quite ‘to the root, and, after 
they are dried, they are reduced to [se otey Pe a mill. 
Horehound is another plant used‘in France‘for dyeing. 
3 
FRANCE. 
To it the Frenclt manifieturers are chiefly indebted 
for the deep black colour of their cloths. 
But our limits will not allow us to enumerate all the 
lants raised or used in France for the of 
eing ; and we must also omit the 1 lants, 
of which there are not a few in the southern districts ; 
as well as the aromatic plants, which grow in t 
abundance all round’ M furnish 
mes for which ‘this place 
ler the eiptlletey (enuideaté bt) te partied 
er the capil (maiden’s hai abun- ; 
dant, and thas frby ands Reciriy is tn high repueaton °°? 
all over Europe. 
. Hops are also in France, but their cultivation Hops. 
is not distinguished by any peculiarity or excellence, 
nor are they grown in n such abundance, nor of 
so good quality, as in England ; the demand for them 
being much more limited, in consequence of the com+ 
paratively confined use of beer as a beverage. ©” 
Teasels are’ cultivated with ‘much assiduity in Lan- Teasels. 
guedoc, Normandy, and Picardy, for the same : 
‘or which they are in England. Those of Pi- 
cardy are esteemed the best that grow in France. Ac- 
cording to the trades in which they are principally a 
used, they distinguish them into chardon ‘bonnelier, ‘ 
chardon drapier, chardon foulon, in general chardon. 
niere, and smaller ones are called teles des li 
linnets’ heads, They commonly lant their tea- 
sels in France, in order to improve their heads, and in 
some places horse-hoe them. Before the Revolution, 
teasels were regarded as so essentially in the 
manufacture of woollen goods, that the 
them was prohibited, except by licence. now in 
France, as in England, their use is in a great measure 
yi taetege by improvements in machinery. 
parta, or s grass, a ies of fibrous grass, or Sparta 
junk, grows abucclately on the sea-shore in Provence, grass. 
edoc, and some other provinces of France. It is 
pet frat pe mage nee = ropes, but in 
that of mats, anda sort of carpet, which is looked’upon 
in France as being extremely ornamental to a room. 
Swallow-wort, a hardy plant that grows in the ‘south 
of France, contains in its seed- les ‘a kind of' silk, 
that is used for st pillows, and also for manufac- 
turing of a su quality: romtal > 
' The est in the south of ce” ‘com- Harvest. 
mences about the middle or end of June, in the cen+ 
tral provinces about the middle’ of July, and in the 
north of France about the beginning of August; but 
in the high grounds, especially in Auvergne, the har- 
vest is very late, oats aes unfrequently green in 
the middle of August. It has ‘already been mentioned, 
that women are pri employed in the harvest 
operations ; indeed, agricultural operations of all kinds 
are conducted more frequently, and on a more exten- 
sive and independent scale, by them in France than in 
most other countries. ‘The Hainault sickle is used in 
French Flanders, and in parts of the north and east’ of 
France: The sickle more generally, and’ the commen 
scythe in some districts, even for the wheat. The har- 
vest operations are by no means carried on with neat- 
ness or method ; and the excellence of the climate is 
such, in most of prother Foet that these: defi-« 
ciencies are seldom attended with much loss.” 
epson any corn ae orale to ae ent 
ar ‘the corn r er put 
into barns, the size Tewwhich, in‘ some Gin is enors 
y after harvest, in 
ing, however, can 
Thrashing. 
mous, or thrashed’ out imm 
the open fields ; this mode of th 
