Statistics. be practised 
FRANCE. 
in the southern parts: of the kin. 
st cl he 
Ym" There harvest is not considered as finished. 
thrashingis done. Where it is performed by the flail in 
poe > cater ein, repo arermern family 
ner of it, ifthrashing-floors they may be called ; for all the 
ee eee shovelling aside the loose mould 
ind a good sweeping. The size of course is in propor- 
tion to the number of le, which is from two to 
twelve ; rarely more than the latter. They thrash and 
winnow about seven Winchester bushels in a day, 
Where the corn is trodden out, instead of bei a 
ed by thie flail, horses and mules are employed: oxen, 
which are used in most of the ‘other operations of hus- 
Eeieyaees weitons chSensonengiie adie tbs. The num- 
ber of horses or mules varies: sometimes there are four 
mules and four men ; sometimes only two mules and 
two men; Coe eae twelve or fourteen mules or horses 
Eo rim sometimes even as many as twenty-four. 
The mules or horses, as well as men, are hired 
at forty sous for each mule or horse, the same for 
each man: the latter have their boatd besides. With 
24 horses or mules, their drivers (who are paid in kind, 
grain ed,) ande15 
they can thrash of wheat from 
in tags args me a Gigi ie ge 
bags per day, it costs about per English. bushel. 
The common practice is to lay three or four: layers of 
wheat, barley, oats, &c. upon some of the field, 
under, a; central tree; the and: mules 
are then driven upon and round it, in all directions, a 
woman being in the centre, like a pivot, and holding 
the reins: horses, are sometimes driven. by little 
1 on in, the open air, through 
t any means of protection 
against a sudden change. Indeed a soaking rain could 
possibly do harm, as a day’s sunshine, or even the 
the night, would soon evaporate it. 
means used in France to improve the soil or par- 
See veer y paring and burn- 
and irrigation... In. most of districts, there is 
peculiar in the manures employed, or in 
managing them, The small towns and 
e 
5 
4 ie 
j 
‘ 
s. 
i 
Be 
RE 
£ 
i 
“8 sf 
= 
: 
8, 
& 
: 
3 
a 
E 
dong.af cattierand horvas withthe: tries ashes; lime; 
the urine of animals collected with care in brick cis, 
3 marl; refuse of horns, 
VOL. IX. PART I, 
705 
Although the price of this last article is only 3d. Statistics. 
ton —— scavengers, “the town 
-and 9d. to the farmers, the town 
of Lisle alone produces as much as would sell for about 
1.4200 a year. Besides these manures, Dutch ashes 
are extensively employed as a dressing for clover: these 
are the ashes of the peat or turf brought: principally 
from Friesland: by their application, great crops of 
clover are raised, and the subsequent crops are also im- 
ved.. From the nature of the soil and climate, drain- 
ing is requisite only in very few parts of France; and 
in the practice, there is nothing particular or commend 
able: The marshes in. some of the sea districts have 
been partially drained, but this improvement is by no 
means carried on with spirit, Louis XIV. made a pre- 
sent to Marshal Turenne of the marshes of Bourgoigne, 
in the department of Isere, on condition that he would 
drain them; but neither he nor his api is Be a 
accomplished it... In some provinces, a singular kind o' 
husbandry is practised ; thes nds are drained, and cul- 
tivated.for a few years, till they lose their fertility, 
when the water is again eniaed to: accumulate, and 
the same ois repeated. Respecting: paring and 
burning, which is very partially practised, and, scarce« 
ly ever for any other purpose, or at least with any other 
effect but to impoverish.and exhaust the land, itis un- 
necessary to enter into details. 
Irrigation is the most remarkable feature in the mode Irrigation. 
of improving land. in France, or, to speak more cor+ 
rectly, in the mode of increasing its fertility ;—and its 
effects are. wonderful, Irrigation, however;:is by» no 
means general: in trayelling from Calais to the Pyren- 
nees, Lo oe observes, he first met with it in La 
Marche, between La Ville au Brun, and. Bossie,: after 
he had passed oyer considerably more, than half the 
i ; thence. it is practised, with little interrup- 
tion, to the Pyrenees, and the whole, district,of those 
mountains from Perpi almost) to Bayonne: is wa- 
tered, Through all the north of France; comprehend~ 
ing every thing north of the Loire, there are only afew 
im traces of it in some of Normandy, and 
in the Beauvoisis. In Picardy, Flanders, Artois, Cham- 
e, Franche Compté, Burgundy, and the Bourbon- 
nois, it is unknown. In Alsace and Lorraine, it is par- 
tially practised for their meadows. .,On,the whole, hard- 
ly more than one third of the kingdom. can be said ‘to 
understand and practise irrigation... nT estibes 
. But where; it, is ised, it.is upon, a large scale, 
and. with wonderful. spirit. and: success. , By means of 
it, artificial fertility is conferred on some of the barren 
mountains, ef theCevennes,,, As the ‘waters that run In the Ce- 
considerable, quantities of earth vennes. 
down the sides 
into the ravines, walls, of loose stones are constructed, 
which it the waters. to pass when, they. are. clear; 
but when turbid, their load of earth is gradually de- 
posited inst the wall, and afford a quantity of ex- 
cellent Par Successive ramparts are thus erected to 
the very top of the mountain ; and the water having 
no longer.a violent fall, nourishes, instead of injuring 
the crops. In order to give security and consistence to 
the new acquisition of soil, fruit trees are planted at 
certain intervals. Perhaps the greatest exertion, in ir- 
rigation.to be seen in France, occurs in Lan, 
Raney of the. town of Gange: a solid. s 
timber masonry is, formed. across a considerable 
river between two rocky mountains, to force the water 
inte a very fine canal, in which. it is, on an average, 
six feet broad by five deep, and half a mile long, built 
on the side, of a mountain, and. walled in; a wheel, . 
AD 
, in In Langue. 
stank of 49% 
