268 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



onts, or broom. This last is cultivated fiir fuel, as 

 the district has neither coal nor wood. When the 

 land is exhausted l)y this iDode of" crop|)ini|, it is 

 pared and burned, abandoned, and by some time 

 recovered, that a succession oi" crofis may bring it 

 once more into the same situation. 



In Gascony, the usual rotations are, maize, 

 wheat and turnips; maize, clover cut once, and 

 (hen plou^iied up for maize again ; rye, millet, ha- 

 ricots or kidney-beans; maize, rye, millet; and 

 maize, rye, clover. 



In the districts of the Pyrenees, where irriga- 

 tion is practised with considerable skill, and on an 

 eslensive, scale, fallow is superseded by the cul- 

 ture ol' clover, millet, maize and haricois. Maize, 

 hoivever, is not cultivated in such large (luantilies 

 as in other parts. Two crops are gained every 

 year; but where irrigation is not practised, the 

 ground is lallowed, and afterwards millet, hari- 

 cots, or barley sown for forage, before the wheat is 

 put in. In Dauphiny, buckwheat is sown on the 

 wheat stubbles ; and, sucfi is the carliness of the 

 eliniate, that it is frequently in full blossom by the 

 end of August. 



The rotation in the stony district is particularly 

 distinguished by the introduction of potatoes in 

 some parts of it, as a preparation lor wheat. 

 VVIiere this root is not cultivated on a large scale, 

 and as a crop in regular rotation, the common 

 course is fallow, wheat or rye, and barley or oats. 

 In the disliict of chalk, the rotation in general is 

 very bad. In the province of Soloixiie, it is fallow 

 and rye: certainly the very worst and most unpro- 

 fitable that can be practised oti any land. In the 

 district of gravel, especially in (he Bourbonnois 

 and Nivernois, the same wreiclied rotation is pur- 

 sued. The district of various loanjs is chiefly dis- 

 tintjuished by the introduction of turnips into the 

 rotation ; but, as we shall afterwards have occa- 

 sion to remark, the culture of this valuable root is 

 lil understood in France. 



From this account of the most common rota- 

 tions in various pans of France, it will be seen, 

 that in general they are conducted on very erru- 

 neoiis principles; and that, even where they are 

 good, the climate ought to have the merit rather 

 than the skill of the agricidturis!. In the south of 

 France, the clinnie enables him to take two crops 

 in the season. This advantage is, however, also 

 derived in French Flanders entirely through tlie 

 attention and skill of the finrmer. The second 

 crops in :hat district being carrots, lurnijis, spurry 

 and yellow clover. 



The Ibllowins, perhaps, will give a sufficiently 

 precise and clear view of the general rotations 

 prac'ic^ed in France. The arable land, that com- 

 jirises nearly the whole of the kingdom, wilh the 

 exception of the vineyards, ;ind a Itjw tracts of 

 mountain, may be divided into five classes, with 

 respect to fertility of soil. The first class bears a 

 crop every year, as in most parts of French Flan- 

 ders, some ptirls of Normandy, the Limange of 

 Auvergne, the neiirhborhood of Toulouse," and 

 genertUly where maize is cultivated, or irrigation 

 employed. The second class, which is ratlier in- 

 ferior in point of soil, but is still good land, is cul- 

 tivated wilh tile intervention of a fallow once in 

 six years, as about Dieppe and liouen particular- 

 ly ; once in five years, as in some parts of French 

 Flanders, and in a few other districts. The third 

 class ol lundj of middling quality, which embraces 



a large portion of the kinijdom, is managed on 

 the old plan, of fallow, wheat, oais, or barley. 

 The fjurih, still poorer land, is f.dlow and wheat 

 alternaiely ; and the last class of land, where the 

 soil is in general miserably poor, is cultivated in 

 the round of fallow, rye, rest without irrass-seeds. 

 As it is probable that the three last classes of soil 

 comprise half the cultivated surtiice, and as half 

 of them are fallow, it appears that one-lourth of 

 the wfiole country is lyinij in a slate eiitirely un- 

 productive. The best husbandry in France, then, 

 is in the south and in the north; in the fijrmer, 

 the goodness of the climate enables the agricul- 

 turist to raise maize and wheat alternately, and to 

 have second crops of millet, clover, lupins, &c. ; 

 and in the north, the skill o!' the asrriculturist has, 

 in a great measure, banished fallow. On the 

 whole, so thr as respects rotation of crops, French 

 agriculture cannot be much praised ; and it will 

 be seen, that the manairement of the principal 

 crops is in general > ot better conducted than the 

 rotation. Before, iiowever, we proceed to notice 

 the culture of particular crops, it is proper to men- 

 tion, lliai the application of land to the crops best 

 suited to it is not well understood. Fi^ven in many 

 parts of Normandy, land that would bear heavy 

 crops of wiieat is not unfrcquently sown with bar- 

 ley; and rye in manv parts is sown, where the 

 soil is admirably adapted i" r wheat. It not un- 

 frcquently happens, too, that rye is sown along 

 wtih wheat; the consequence of which is, that, 

 as the former ripens three weeks or a month 

 sooner than the wheat, when the latter is reaped, 

 almost the whole of the former is shed and lost. 



Different kinds of wheat are s^own iu France; 

 the principal of which are tlie bearded wheat, va- 

 rious species of the comniori winter wheat, and 

 sprinnj wheat. What in Fnuland is called hedge 

 wlicat, where it is of comparatively laie introduc- 

 tion, has been lonir known in tiie north of France, 

 particularly at Calais, Lisle, and Dunkirk; it is 

 known there by the name of pullet wheat (ble 

 pullet,) or white vvheat, (blancble,) and it is re- 

 ijarded as wheat of the first quality. One of the 

 best kinds of sprin.q- or summer wheat known in 

 France, is called ble tremois ; the real sunmter 

 wheat, triticum lesiivum — it is sown wilh success 

 so late a^ the end of May, and yields a large in- 

 crease. The straw, too, is excellent fodder. The 

 produce of wheat in France per acre is small; 

 Even in the best cultivated districts, and on the 

 best soil, it cannot be averaged at more than 18 or 

 20 bushels per Entzlish acre. In most places it is 

 reaped ; this operation being performed, like the 

 other agricullural operations in France, chiefly by 

 women. In other districts, however, it is mown : 

 the whole process of harvesting is very carelessly 

 performed. In a "food year, in Picardy, 40 sheaves 

 are calculated to produce a septier of wheat of 

 240 lbs. The principal wheat districts of France, 

 are French Flanders, Arlois, Picardy, part of 

 Normandy, the Limagne of Auveriine, part of 

 Alsace, &c. Beauce, a province which lies be- 

 tween tlie Isle of France, Bloisois, and Oileari- 

 nois, and vhich now forms the department of the 

 Eure and J^oire, is so extremely fertile of wheat 

 as to be called the frranary of Paris. The wheat 

 of Narbonne is in high repute lor seed. 



Barley is not extensively or judiciously culti- 

 vated in France. There are two sorts : the one 

 which the French call square barley, or barley oJ' 



