604 



FAilMERS' REGISTER. 



the bark is clean and bright, and ihis years 

 shoots lour and even five feet ion^. A common 

 mode, and indeed the only one, of atiempimg 

 improvements here, is lo perr.iil Hie peas.uiis to 

 pare and burn pieces of ihe heath ; to tiiUe five 

 crops in succession, but to leave the straw ol the 

 last ; to Kince the piece around ; and to sow what- 

 ever seeds of wood the landlord provides, usually 

 oak, lor a copse, wiiich, in this villanous way, 

 succeeds well ; but as such copses are lenced with 

 a ditch and bank only; and never any hedge ijlanl- 

 ed, ihey are presently open and eaten. 



Maim:.— C?uess£/«n/.— The landes ol" Anjou 

 extend over a great part of Maine also. Here 

 they told me, t: at the extent in thai neighhorhocd 

 is hardly less than sixty leagues in circuailerence, 

 with no great interru|)iion of cultivation. 'J'I'.e 

 account liiey give ol'ihe soil is, that it is absolute- 

 ly good lur nothing but to prodme wood, which 

 it will do very well. The sei_;neuis lie)' it out lor 

 ever, in any quantity, at the rent ul' hall' a bushel 

 of oats an ar|)enl (the bu.<hel 30 lbs. ol' vvheai), 

 and some at 10s. lo 20s. the peasants pare antl 

 burn, and get a very tine crop ol rye ; then another 

 poor cropol'rye ; and alter that a miserable one ol 

 oats ; leckoning, in common, that a burning will 

 give just three crops; alter which the land is 

 Elriclly iinod lor noiliiiiiT, but is lelt to nature lo 

 recoverilseir. The price ol' paring and burning 

 30 liv. per arpent. 1 can hardly record these in- 

 Btaiices of barbarism with tolerable patience— 

 without dealing execrations, not against a poor 

 unenlightened peasantry, but ngainst a govern- 

 ment possessing, in demesne, immense iiacis ol 

 these lands, w^ithoui evtir crdering any cxpeii- 

 ments to be made and published, of ihe best me- 

 thods ol improving them. But had it come into 

 any such projects, and had those experiments had 

 French conductors, they would have been merely 

 with a view ol' getting corn! corn! corn! 



To Le i)/aus.— Much of these wastes here re- 

 semble the sands ol iSoiogne ; upon a dead level, 

 and water standing in many places ; yet the soil 

 a sand; and, in spots, even a running one: it 

 arises Irom the same circumstHnce which makes 

 them productive of oak timber, wherever pre- 

 served, viz. the bollom of clav and marl. 



BouRBONNOis.—i1/ou/j7JS.— Three Iburihs of 

 the whole province waste, or heath, or broom or 

 wood. 



St. Pourcain.— As I quitted theBourbonnois in 

 this vicinity, entering Auvergiie, it will not be 

 improper to remark, that the whole province, as 

 well as that ol Nevernois, ought, respecting all the 

 purposes of improvement, to be deemed waste. 

 The culture that is carried on, without any excep- 

 tion, on the arable lands, is only fallowing lor rye : 

 and, after two or three rounds, the land is so ex- 

 hausted by this blessed system, (hat it is left to 

 weeds : broom is the prevalent spontaneous growtii 

 in such a case ; and if the broom be lelt lor a num- 

 ber of years, it becomes a Ibiest. This rye-course 

 produces the landlord, lor his half (as all is in the 

 hands of metayers), about 2s. 6d. or 3s. an acre 

 through the whole larm, by corn, cattle, &c. ; and 

 at Bucdi rates a vast proportion of the province is 

 chiefly to be bought. Considering that the lands 

 are all inclosed ; That wood enough is every where 

 found ; thai the country is furnished with a 

 Bufficient quanti'y of buildings ; that the roads 

 gre excellent ; that it enjoys a navigation to the 



capital ; that markets are good, and prices hifjh ; 

 that there is marl or clay under the sands and 

 sandy gravels ; that the climate is one of the 

 finest in Europe ; and the country highly pleasant 

 .tnd beauiilul ; when all these circumstances are 

 well weighed, ii will be admitted that no part of 

 France is so eligible to establish a great and pro- 

 liiable improvement; but, as I must again repeat 

 It, the whole province appears waste to the eyes 

 of an English farmer. 



A I' viiUGKi;. — Brioude. — The mountains in 

 ibis neiglibuihood too much cultivated; the earth 

 i.-^, by suih means, washed away by storms, and 

 lui rents dtive away every thing. 



VivAiiAis. — Praddlcs. — Pare and burn old 

 lurl in these mouniams. Great tracts burnt, ex- 

 hausted, and leli to nature to recruit. 



To 7'huytz. — Cultivation is cariied on in these 

 mountains lo an incredible hei^iht ; and is all by 

 liand. In some cases, earih is carried, by han(l, 

 in baskets, to Ibrm the terraced beds, that yield a 

 dillicuh and scanty crop, that is brought away on 

 the back. Nothing could possibly support such 

 exeriions, but the whole being small properties; 

 eveiy peasant cultivates his own land. 



Phovence. — Tour d'Jligves. — The moun- 

 tains here are all calcareous, ) el they are, from a 

 VICIOUS culture and management, destroyed and 

 abandoned, and yield subsistence to a lew nfisera- 

 ble goats and sheep only ; such mountains in the 

 Vivarais, the Presideni remarks, ate covered with 

 superb chestnuis, that yield a good revenue — thia 

 country would do equally well lor (hem, as ap- 

 |iears Irom the very fine ones found in the park of 

 Tour d'Aigues. The cutting of every bush for 

 burning the earth is the cause; this species of 

 culture loosens the surlace, and renders ii a prey 

 lo (orients; so that all is washed into the rivers, 

 and liecomes the destruction of the plains. The 

 Durance, in iis whole course, of near 200 miles, 

 has destroyed, on an average, lo the breadth of 

 half a league. 



General Observations. 



In the preceding notes, mention is often made 

 of grea( tracts of country, so miserably cultivated 

 that (he whole would, by a good English larmer 

 be considered as waste. This is particularly the 

 casein Bretagne, Maine, Anjou, Sologne, Bour- 

 bonnois, &c. ; and it is this circumstance which 

 reduces the general average product of France to 

 so low a pitch, as appears in (he chapter which 

 tieats of It, notwithstanding the immense tract of 

 twenty-eight millions of rich land, the products 

 ol which are, of course, very high. Here then 

 ought lo be (he great efiort of a new system of 

 government in France. The revolution has cost 

 intmense sums ; and has occasioned a happy 

 delalcalion of the revenue, provided it be replaced 

 wiselv and equally, on some object of general 

 consumption, and not on land; but the public 

 huribens ol the kingdom are so heavy (propoition- 

 ed to Its consum|)lion and circulation,) that every 

 aitention should he exerted lo increase and improve 

 the contributing income; and ibis can in no way, 

 and by no methods, be effected so well and bo 

 easily, as by spreadinir improvements over these 

 immense wastes, which are such a disgrace to (he 

 old government. The wastes alone are calculated 

 in these sheets, at 18,000,000 of English acres ; if 

 to these we add the tracts, in the above mentioned 



