602 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Bive tracts not so employed, and which are to be 

 purchnsed at so cheap a rate, they are among the 

 mo?; improveat)le districts in the ixingdom, and 

 mioht be made, at a very small expense, capable 

 oi supporting immense flocks oi'sheep, 



Cavignar. to Pierre Brane. — Many sandy 

 waste.-, with white marl under the whole. 



To Chersac.—Gveai wastes, of many miles ex- 

 tent, covered will) fern, ling, and shrubby oak ; 

 ail tTeaily improveable. 



7'o 3Jontlieu.—D\no. Many of these wastes 

 belonged to the Prince ol'Soubise, who would not 

 sell, but only let them ; the consequence has been, 

 that no improvements have been wrought. 



£a Graule. — The wastes in this country are 

 Eold at 10 liv. the journal, and less ; some better 

 at 20 liv. The journal here is to the English 

 acre as ten to thiriy-eighl ; it consists oi 10 car- 

 raux, each 18 feet square. 



NoRMANDiE. — Valogneto Cherbourg. — Mons. 

 Doumerc, of Paris, having bought ot Monsieur, 

 the king's brother, 3000 arpents, part of 14,000 

 sold at the same time, being parcel of an ancient, 

 but much neglected, Ibrest. has made an improve- 

 ment here, vvhich, so lar, deserves avtention, as 

 it shows the principles on which French improvers 

 proceed. He has brought into culture 700 verges, 

 which form his present liirm, around a house 

 for iiimself, and another for his bailirt, all built, as 

 well as many other edifices, in much too expen- 

 sive a manner ; lor these erections alone cost 2500 

 louis d'or. Such unnecessary expenditure in 

 building is generally sure to cripple the progress 

 in much more necessary matters. The first bu- 

 siness in tlie improvement, was to grub up the 

 wood ; then to pare and burn; and manure with 

 lime, burnt with the furze, fern, and heath of the 

 land ; the stone was brought from Valogne : as 

 Boon as it was cleared, it was fallowed llie first 

 year for wheat. Such infatuation is hardly cre- 

 dible ! A man is commencinir his operations in 

 the midst of 3000 acres of rough ground, and an 

 immense pasturage for cattle and sheep, begins 

 witli wheat ; the same follies prevail every where: 

 we have seen just the same course pursued in 

 England, and prescribed by writers. Such people 

 think cattle and sh ep of no importance at the be- 

 ginning of these improvements. This wheat, 

 limed at the rate, per arpent, of 7 or 8 tonneaux, 

 of 25 boisseau, each 18 pots o! 2 pints : 4 boisseau 

 of seed sown, and the crop 40 boisseau. Afier 

 this wheat sown 5 boisseau of oats, the crop 40. 

 'rtien barley, seed 4 boisseau, produce 20 to 25 

 boisseau. With this barley clover sown ; mown 

 the first year twice, and pastured the second ; be- 

 ing then ploughed for wheat, which is inferior to 

 the original crops ; then oats and fallow again. 

 From all these crops it is sufficiently evident, that 

 French liarmers esteem corn, and not cattle, the 

 proper support of a new improvement. The soil 

 which has been thus reclaimed, is on a sionc quar- 

 ry in oreneral ; a friable sandy loam, covered with 

 a BtroiTg spontaneous growth (v;here not forest) of 

 furze, lern,'and in some places, heath ; mixed with 

 much gras;-, and even clover and millefolkan ; 

 vvhich, if properly stocked by cattle, well led in 

 winter, would be of no considerable value in its 

 present rough state. 



Though the methods pursued have, not been 

 calculated on the beet principles, yet there is cer- 

 tainly a considerable degree of merit in the under- 



taking. Last year's crop of wheal produced 

 40,000 gerbs ; and this year (1787) there is one 

 piece of oats, of 80 verges, whicfi gives 12,000 

 gerbs, at 15 boisseau per hundred ; each boisseau 

 40 lb. and the price at present 45s. The present 

 stock 207 wethers, 10 horses, 21 working oxen, 

 10 cows, 1 bull, 6 young cattle, are certainly fine, 

 lor a spot where, ten years ago, Mons. Eaillio, 

 the bailiff', who has executed the whole, and who 

 seems to be a truly excellent man, was in a hovel, 

 with no other siock than a dog. 'I'he whole im- 

 proved, would now let at 15 liv. per verge, 2^ to 

 the arpent. 



Bretagne. — Combourg to Hede. — Pass an 

 immense waste (or a league, but to the left a dead 

 level, boundless as the sea ; high lands at one 

 part, seemingly 8 or 10 leagues olf. Every part 

 which the road passes, has been under the plough, 

 for the ridges are as distinct as if made but last 

 year ; and many ruined banks of hedges cross it 

 in various ways. The spontaneous growth, furze, 

 ling, and fern ; the soil good, and ecjual to valua- 

 ble crops, in a proper manasemeni. The king 

 has part, Mons. de Chateaubriant part, and other 

 seigneurs also ; but every body 1 talked with says 

 it is good for nothing. Would to heaven I had 

 1000 acres of it at Bradfield ! 1 would soon put 

 that assertion to the lest. 



JRennes. — The waste lands, which, in almost 

 every part of the province, extend lor many 

 leagues, are almost every where to be bought, in 

 any quantity, of the seigneurs, at 10s. the journal, 

 whicli is to the English acre as 47 to 38, with a 

 small quit-rent per annum. 



St. Brieux. — Inquiring here into the period of 

 the cultivation which I every where ren)arked on 

 the landes of Breiagne, 1 was told, that it was no 

 ancient culture, but common for peasants, who 

 took them of the seigneurs, to pare and burn, vviih 

 the ecoiibu, exhaust, and then leave them to na- 

 ture : and this for forty, fifty and sixty years back. 

 Rented for ever, at 20s. to 30s. the journal. 



St. Nazaire to Savanal. — \mxm\\s& bog marked 

 on all the maps ot Breiagne, and filling tlie space 

 of many leagues, covered with vast growth of 

 bog myrtle and coarse grasses, three or four feet 

 high ; what a field lor improvement, in a climate 

 that gives such a spontaneous growth ! 



To Nantes. — In the landes, which, strange to 

 saj"^, extend to within three miles of Nantes, 

 there was an improvement attempted some years 

 ago : four good houses of stone and slate are 

 built, and a Hew acres run to wretched grass, 

 which have been tilled, but all savage, and be- 

 come almost as rough as the rest : a lew of the 

 banks have been planted. This may be the im- 

 provement I heard of alierwards at Nantes, made 

 by some Eiig'ishmen, at the expense of a gentle- 

 man, and all the parties ruined. 1 inquired how 

 the m/)rot)eme7i< had been effected: wheat, rye, 

 oats!!! Tlius it is forever: the same methods, 

 the game failures, tlie same folly, the same mad- 

 ness. When will men be wise enough to know, 

 that good grass must be had, if corn is the ob- 

 ject ? 



Nantes. — I have now travelled round (he vast 

 province of Bretagne, and may observe, that so 

 large a proportion of it is waste, as to be difficult 

 to calculate : I have passed tracts of land, of three, 

 four, five, and even eight miles in extent, without 

 any cultivation, and 1 have heard of much more 



