FARMERS' REGISTER 



223 



of the Lincolnshire fens, and is indeed of the same 

 nature, being lor the most part marshy land drain- 

 ed, or gained from the sea. To the south of the 

 Loire, in the direction ol" BourgneulJ there is a 

 tract of rioh loam. Alsace, in respect to soil, re- 

 sembles Flanders, but it is inferior to it. The 

 whole fertile part of the narrow plain of Alsace, 

 hardly presents a surface of more than 1000 square 

 miles. The flat, and chiefly calcareous vale of 

 Auvergne, which commences at Riom, is a tract 

 of great 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 

 naturalists who have examinedi it, assert the depth 

 to be 20 leet of beds of earth, formed of the ruins 

 of what they style the primitive and volcanized 

 mountains. The best part of this vale reaches 

 no farther than from Riom to Vaires, scarcely 

 more than 20 miles. Mr. Young calculates, that 

 the whole of the fertile districts of France, which 

 we have just described amounts to about 28 mil- 

 lions of English acres. 



IL The district of heath is chiefly in the pro- 

 vinces of Brittany, Anjou, parts of Normandy, and 

 Guienne, and Gascony. The five departments 

 into which Brittany is divided, are reckoned to 

 contain 1G09 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-fifihs 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 extensive, that a house is scarcely seen in ten 

 leagues. The soil of the best part of the heaths 

 in Brittany is commonly 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. Anjou and Maine 

 are equally noted lor the immensity of their heaths, 

 which are reported to extend 60 leagues in one 

 place. The soil of these heaths is, however, in 

 some parts tolerably good, and might be rendered 

 useftil by proper skill and labor; 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 ofLabouron the 

 south, Guienne on the north, and the ocean on the 

 west. They are divided into the greater Landes 

 between Bourdeaux and Bayoimc, and the lesser 

 between Bazas and Montmarsan. They are 

 if sandy tracts, covered with pine trees, cut regularly 

 for resin, broken and enlivened however with cul- 

 tivated spots for a league or two. When the Moors 

 were expelled from Spain, they applied to the 

 court of France to be allowed to settle 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, occupying a large portion of Gascony. 

 Though the soil of these Landes is among the 

 poorest in France, it is not utterly incapable of 

 cultivation, and even the pines with which it is 

 covered yield from 15s. to 20s. an acre. 



III. The district of chalk, as distinguished from 

 the calcareous loams already noticed, is chiefly in 

 the provinces of Champagne, Sologne, Touraine, 

 Poitou, Saintonge, and Angoumois. The chalk 

 provinccB contain 16 millions of acres. The soil 

 0^ Champagne in general is thin and poor. The 



southern part, as from Chalons to Troyes, has 

 liom its poverty acquired the name of pouilleux, 

 or lousy. Sologne is one of the poorest and most 

 unimproved provinces in the kingdom. It is a 

 flat, consisting 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 direst seasons. Touraine 

 is better. It contains some considerable districts, 

 especially on the south of the Loire, in which 

 good mixed sandy and gravelly loams rest on a 

 calcareous bottom. Considerable tracts in the 

 northern parts of the province, however, are of" a 

 very inferior soil, not belter than the predominat- 

 ing soil of Anjou and Maine. Poitou consists of 

 two divisions, the upper and the lower, the latter 

 of which has already been mentioned as resem- 

 bling the fens of Lincolnshire. The upper di- 

 vision 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. 



IV. The district of gravel is chiefly in the Bour- 

 bonnois and Nivernois. The gravel in the latter 

 is of little value, three-fourths of the province be- 

 ing covered with heath, broom, or wood ; but, not- 

 withstanding the inferiority of the soil, these pro- 

 vinces are reckoned by Mr. Young among the 

 most iinproveable in France. They fbrm one 

 vast plain, through which the Loire and Allier 

 pass. The belter parts of them consist of a 

 sandy soil, and in some places the subsoil is cal- 

 careous. In a few spots, good friable sandy loams 

 are met with. 



V. The district of stony soils is chiefly in Lor- 

 raine, Burgundy, Franche Compte, &c. In Lor- 

 raine, there are commons of inimense extent, 

 which scarcely yield any thing. From St. Mene- 

 hould to the borders of Alsace, the soil is entirely 

 stony, but of various kinds. Most of them are of 

 the kind denominated stone-brash in England, 

 "or the broken triturated surface of imperfect 

 quarries, mixed by time, frost, and culiivation, 

 with some loam and vegetable mould ;" much is 

 calcareous. Districts of rich and even deep friable 

 loams occur in Lorraine, but they are of incon- 

 siderable extent. The soil of Burgundy varies 

 much. The best part of it lies in the line from 

 Franche Com|)ie to the Bourbonnois by Dijon. 

 Here sandy and gravelly loams predominate; but 

 even in this part of it there are spots of poor gra- 

 nite soil. The subdivision of the province called 

 Bresse, is a most miserable country. The grounds 

 alone on a white clay or marl, amounting, it is said, 

 to nearly 250,000 acres. The stony soil of Fran- 

 che Compie is in general good. From Besangon 

 to Orechamp, the country is rocky quite to the 

 surface. The rocks are calcareous. A reddish 

 brown loam rests on the rock. In the hilly parts, 

 a red ferruginous loam, schistus, and gravel, pre- 

 dominate. Part of Alsace consists of soil of nearly 

 the same character. 



VI. The district of various loams, mixed with 

 sand, granite, gravel, sione, &c. is chiefly in the 

 Limosin, La Manche, Berry, &c. The loams of 

 the two former are friable, and sandy , some on 

 granite, and others on a calcareous subsoil. Of 

 the granite, there are two kinds ; one hard, and 

 full of micaceous particles, the grain coarse, with 

 but little quartz, hardening in the air in masses, 

 but becoming a powder when reduced to small 

 pieces. This is very unfertile, as neither wheat, 



