FARMERS' REGISTER, 



225 



August. But the climate of the central provinces 

 is not tree li'om its inconveniences : all the country 

 south of the Loire is subject lo violent storms ol' 

 rain and hail, the latter occasionally beating down 

 and desiroyiiiir all the corn and vintage on which 

 it may liill. Frosts also somelinies happen in the 

 spring, even so late as the end of May and begin- 

 iimgof Jutie, so severe as to turn the leaves of 

 the walnuc trees quite blaclv, and to render ii ne- 

 cessary to cover the fig trees with straw. Au- 

 tumnal li-osis also not unl'requenlly occur earlier in 

 the central provinces of France than they do 

 in the south of England. On the 20th of Sep- 

 tember, 1787, Mr Young says, there happened so 

 smart a one on tlie south of the Loire, between 

 Chambort an.l Orleans, that the vines were liurt 

 by it. The high country of Auvergne is bleak 

 and cold ; and all the disiricis within reach of the 

 mountains of Vosges are afl'ected by llie snow 

 that falls upon them ; a circumstance which some- 

 limes occurs as laie as the end of June. 



In the south of France, particularly in Provence, 

 a continuance of dry and hot weather may be ex- 

 pected throughout the months of .June, July, and 

 August, and a part or perhaps the whole of Sep- 

 temlier. The greatest heats seldom occur till the 

 15ih of July, nor alter ihe 15ih of September. 

 Harvest generally begins the 24ih of June, and 

 ends the loih of July : the middle of the vintage 

 is about the end of September. During the con- 

 tinuance of the hot weal her, or Ics grandes cka- 

 Icurs, as they are called, scarcely any persons who 

 can avoid it think of (]uitting their houses in the 

 middle of the day. Daring the end of auiumn 

 and the beginning of winter, violent rains fre- 

 quently fall; I'ui, in ihe intervals between the rains, 

 October and November may be regarded as the 

 pleasantesl months in the year. In December, 

 January, and February; the weather is generally 

 fine : but after February, the f^etit de bize is very 

 /requeni. This wind seems to pierce through the 

 body, and dry up all the humors. It is a strong 

 north or north-east wind, accompanied generally 

 wiih a clear sky, but sometim.es with snow. It 

 seldom lasts lijr more than three days at a time. 

 This wind blows with peculiar violence and bit- 

 terness about Avignon : the winters there are 

 someiiiaes rendered by it most distressingly cold; 

 and the Rhone is covered with ice sulliciently 

 strong to support loaded carts, and the olive trees 

 sometimes perish to their roois. Some parts of 

 the coast of Pro vence, as about Toulon and Hieres, 

 are still milder ihan about Marseilles and Aix ; but 

 the noriherii and more mountainous parts of the 

 province often experience very severe weather in 

 the winter, and are as cold as England, but with 

 a much clearer and purer air. 



Tlie chief disadvantages of the climate of the 

 south of France are, the plague ol" insects, and 

 the peculiar violence of its storms, especially in 

 ihe mountainous tracts. The flies are excessively 

 troublesome in ihe olive districts of France; they 

 not only bite, sting, and hurt, but they buzz, tease, 

 and worry. Tiie mouUi, eyes, ears, and nose are 

 full of them ; they swann on every thing eatable , 

 fruit, sugar, milk, every thing is attacked by them 

 in such niyriads, that if they are noi driven away 

 incessantly by a person who has nothing else to 

 do, to eat a meal is impossible. Sometimes it is 

 absolutely necessary to darken the room, in order 

 to keep it tolerably clear of them. In the stables, 

 Vol,. VTII-29 



they are obliged to cherish the spiders, that their 

 webs may catch the flies, which would otherwise 

 be an actual torment to the horses. In the night 

 the gnats are very troublesome; and, besides the 

 torment of their bite, render sleep extremely diffi- 

 cult to he procured, by their constant and loud 

 noise. The author of the Essai sur la Mineral- 

 ogie des Pyrenees describes a thunder storm near 

 Bareges as extremely impetuous and formidable; 

 the cataracts rushing down the sides of the moun- 

 tains, carrying ruin and desolation along with 

 them ; those meadows, which a few hours before 

 were covered with verdure, now buried under 

 hea|;s of stones, or overwhelmed by masses of 

 liquid mud, and the sides of the mountains cut by 

 deep ravines, where the track of the smallest rivu- 

 let was not before to be discovered. The hail 

 storms in the south, and even in the central pro- 

 vinces of France, are not unfrequently most dread- 

 ful and ruinous in their consequences. About 

 thirty years aijo, a violent storm of hail swept a 

 track of desolation in a belt across the whole king- 

 dom, to the damage of several millions sterling ; 

 and no year ever passes without whole parishes 

 suffering to a very considerable degree. In the 

 south of France, where the hail storms are the 

 most common and the most violent, it is calculated 

 that, on an average, one-tenth of the whole pro- 

 duce is damaged by them, loung colts are 

 sometimes so severely wounded by the hail as to 

 occasion their death ; and it has even been asserted, 

 that men have been known to be killed by the hail, 

 when they could not procure shelter. 



The climate of France naturally divides itself 

 into four zones, according to the vegetable pro- 

 duce which each affords. The most northern of 

 these divisions bears a considerable resemblance, 

 in its veiietable produce and in its climate, to 

 England : the second differs from the first princi- 

 pally in exhibiting here and there a few vineyards: 

 in tlie third, fields of maize begin lo make their 

 ajipearance ; and the fourth is distinguished from 

 the preceding by the intermixture of olives, mul- 

 berries with corn, vines, and maize. The line of 

 separation between vines and no vines is at Coucy, 

 ten miles to the north of Soissons ; at Clermont in 

 the Beauvoisis ; at Beaumont in Maine ; and 

 Herbignac, near Guerande in Brittany. The line 

 of separation between n:iaize and no maize is first 

 seen on the western side of the kingdom, in going 

 from the Angoumois and entering Poiiou, at 

 Verac, near RufTec: in crossing Lorraine, it is met 

 with between Nancy and Luneville. If these 

 lines between vines and no vines, and between 

 maize and no maize, be drawn on the map of 

 France, it will be found, that Ihey proceed in an 

 oblique line from the south-west to the north-east, 

 being parallel to each other. The line which the 

 vines forms is nearly unbroken; but that formed 

 by the maize in the central part of France, pro- 

 ceeds no farther north than the southern part of 

 the Limosin. The line of olives is also pretty 

 nearly from south-west to north, in the same 

 oblique direction. In proceeding lo the southward 

 from Lyons, they are first met with at Montcli- 

 mart ; and, in proceeding from Bezieres lo the 

 Pyrenees, they are lost at Carcassone. Hence it 

 appears, that there is a considerable difTerence 

 between ihe climate of France in the eastern and 

 western parts ; the eastern side of the kingdom 

 indicating, by its prcduciions, 2^ degrees of lati- 

 tude of niore'heat than the western. 



