FARMERS' REGISTER. 



603 



considerable, even to fourteen leagues in length. 

 I liave marked one district in the map which con- 

 tains some hundred thousand acres. Three- 

 fourths of the province are either waste, or so 

 rough as to be nearly the same thing. This is 

 the more surprising, as here are some of the first 

 markets in France ; that is to say, some of the 

 most considerable commercial towns ; and every 

 where the vicinity of the sea. These enormous 

 wastes, which are said to exceed two millions of 

 arpents'^, are found, as I have remarked, in my 

 notes on the great road, within four miles of such 

 a city as Nantes : vast districts are to be had on 

 leases, or rather property lor ever, on the payment 

 of very flight fines. The soil is generally very 

 improveable ; I mean, convertible to cultivation, 

 at a very small expense, and with great Jacility ; 

 contrary to the assertion of every body in the pro- 

 vince, v;ho hive been so used to see it desolate, 

 that they cannot readily believe it capable of a 

 better husbandry than being burnt, exhausted, 

 and left to nature. The means of improving these 

 wastes are absolutely unknown in France, and 

 not much belter understood in England. The 

 profit of the undertakiuir, however, when properly 

 pursued, upon the never-failing principle of grass 

 — sheep — caitle — corn; instead of the common 

 blunder, which puts the cart before the horse (if I 

 may use a vulgar proverb), will be found great 

 and rapid. 



Axjou. — Turbllly. — In the Journal part of this 

 work, I have explained the motives which carried 

 me out of my road, to view the wastes of this 

 vicinity, and particularly the improvements of the 

 !ate Marquis of Turbilly, described at large in his 

 M&mnire $ur Us Defrichemens, which has been 

 so often cited in almost every language. 



The immense heaths, or ZantZes, are in general 

 a sandy or gravelly loam ; some on a gravel, 

 others on a clayey, and others on a marly bottom; 

 and others, again, on imperfect quarry ones: the 

 spontaneous growth would predominately be every 

 where forest, particularly ofoak, if it were inclosed, 

 and preserved from depredation. At present, it is 

 wood browsed and ruined, fern, furze, broom, ling, 

 &c. &c. In the desert state in which the whole 

 country is left at present, the value is nothing else 

 but what it yields to a {'^vf cattle and sheep ; not 

 the hundredth part of what might be kept, il" any 

 well regulated provision were made for their win- 

 ter support, I passed ten railes over these heaths; 

 they were, in some directions, boundlefis to the 

 view ; and my guide assured me, I might con- 

 tinue travelling upon them for many days. When 

 at Tours, I was told of their extending much in 

 that direction also. The climate is good. There 

 are streams that pass through these wastes, which 

 might be employed in irrigaiion, bu' no use what- 

 ever made of them ; there are marl and clay under 

 them, for manure ; and there is every where to be 

 found plenty of pasturage, liar the immediate sum- 

 mer food of large flocks. — in a word, there are all 

 the materials for making a considerable fortune 

 — except skill and knowledge. 



Such was the country in which the late Marquis 

 of Turbilly sat down, at an early period of life, 

 determining to improve his estate of 3000 arjienis 

 in these deserts ; with all the necessary activity of 

 disposition; every energy of mind; and that ani- 



*D^ la Necessite d'occuper tous las gros Ouvriers, 

 par Mans. Boncerf. 17S9. p. 8. 



mated love of laudable attemptn, to give life and 

 efficacy tt) the undertaking. Some meadows and 

 plantations, which he made, succeeded well, and re- 

 main ; but, of all his improvements of the heaths, 

 to the inconsiderable amount of about 100 arpents, 

 hardly any other traces are now to be seen, except 

 from the more miserable and worn-out appearance 

 of the land ; which, after cropping, was of course 

 left in a much worse condition than if it had never 

 been touched. The fences are quite destroyed; 

 and the whole as much laiide as before improve- 

 ment. This flowed from the unfortunate error, so 

 common, indeed so universal, among the impro- 

 vers of waste lands ; and unexceptionably so in 

 France — that of improving, merely for the purpose 

 of getting corn. Pyron, the laborer who worked 

 in all the Marquis' improvements, informed me, 

 that he pared and burnt, which is the common 

 practice of all the country, and then took three 

 crops of corn in succession ; that the first was very 

 good, the second not good, and the third good lor 

 nothing, that is, not above three times the seed : 

 from that moment there was an end of improve- 

 ment ; it only crawled, during many years, to the 

 amount of 100 acres ; whereas, if he had begun 

 on right principles, he would, in all probability, 

 have improved the 3000; and, others copying his 

 modes, the whole country might, by this time, 

 have been under cultivation. It was reckoned a 

 vast effort in him to fold 250 sheep : and this waa 

 the best engine he had in his hands ; but giving 

 the fold /or corn, it was lost as soon as exerted. 

 Instead of 250 sheep, the Ma.-quis should have 

 had 500 the first year, 1000 the second, 1500 the 

 third, and 2000 the fourth ; and all his paring, 

 burning, manuring, folding, exerted to raise turnips 

 (not their contemptible raves) to winter-feed 

 them ; with so much burning, folding, and eating 

 off the turnips, the land would have been prepared 

 for grass ; and when once you have good grass, 

 good corn is at your command. Thus corn was 

 the last idea that should have entered his head : 

 instead of which, like other French improvers, he 

 rushed upon it at once — and fi-om that instant all 

 was ruined. 



Ttie particular advantages of the spot are con- 

 siderable, if ever an improver should arise, with 

 knowledge enough to pursue the methods that 

 are adapted to the soils and situation. The hilla 

 of all the country are so gentle, that they are to 

 be tilled with great ease ; offering the advantage 

 of perennial streams, that run at present to waste 

 in the vales. There are rich veins of white marl, 

 with an under-stralum, in many places, of clay. 

 There is a hill of shell sand, for improving the 

 stiffer soils and moory bottoms. There is lime- 

 stone at the distance of half a league, and plenty 

 of peat to burn it. Tlie Marquis of Galway's 

 lather spread some of the shell sand on a small 

 poor field, and had an immediate luxuriance of 

 crop in consequence. The present cure of the 

 parish has tried the marl, with equal success. 

 But both these manures, and indeed any other, 

 would be absolutely lost, if a succession of corn 

 crops were immediately to follow. It is this 

 valuable under-slratum of clay and marl which 

 give.-J such a growth to wood. In passing from 

 La Fieche to Turbilly, I was amazed, in some 

 spots, at the contrast between the apparent pover- 

 ty of the surface soil, and the oaks scattered about 

 it ; they, are in general, eaten up by cattle, yet 



