FARMERS' REGISTER 



609 



or sweeter, yet botted frona the field in the metliod 

 universal in France. She was so prood as to in- 

 form me, that no (bod for cows yielded finer but- 

 ter ; I tasted it, and none could be better flavored. 

 J)amm,artin. — JNliich ; hists nine years; cut 

 thrice, unless tor seed, in which case, twice only. 

 The first culling yields 400 or 500 bottes; the se- 

 cond halfas much. The Archbishop of Aix, who 

 has an abbey in the neighborhood, has taken great 

 pains to spread the culture, and has occasioned 

 near 800 arpenis being sovvn. 



Soissons. — Lasts eight or nine years ; cut thrice; 

 yields at the first 300 bottes oC hay, of 12 lb. ; at 

 the second 250 ; and at the third 100 per arpent, 

 of 96 perch, oC 22 feet, 46,404 feet (3 tons 3 cwt.) 

 AiiTois — liecousse. — They have some; cut 

 tiirice ; lasts twelve to fifteen years, and reckoned 

 excellent. 



NoRMAN-DY. — Coiitances, — In the way to 

 Granville many patches, the first I had seen in 

 Normandy, and they increase to pieces of some 

 consequence ; lasts twenty years, and is constantly 

 cut thrice. 



La Roche Guynn. — Much cultivated ; the 

 Duchess d'Anville lias filty arpents, and a farmer 

 in the neighborhood /brty-seven ; and I saw some 

 good pieces in going to Magny ; it is cut thrice, 

 but does not last more than six years ; sow it 

 with oais ; when broken up, they take three crops 

 ofcorn in succession; in the open fields every body 

 turns into it the 1st of November. 



Isle OF France — Nangis. — Seed 20 lb. an 

 arpent de Paris, at 12 to 20.s. the pound (26 lb, 

 the acre) ; sow it with barley or oats that tbilow 

 wheat ; lasts six years, if manured, eight ; a good 

 srpent yields three hundred bottes the first cut 

 (1 ton 14 cwt. per acre), two hundred the second 

 (1 Ion 3 cwt), one hundred the third (llA cwi.), j 

 each of 10 lb. (in all 2 tons S\ cwt.) ; som'e sown ' 

 alone on a clean fallow in August, and this is by 

 far the best ; the hay 20 to 30 liv. the hundred 

 bottes (2/. 3s. Sd. a ion) ; if let it is at 40 liv. {21. 

 2s. per acre) ; when they break it up, two crops 

 of oats, and then one of wheal, and all good. 



3feaux. — When oats have two leaves, they 

 harrow in the lucerne seed 20 lb. per arpent (100 

 perch 22 feel) (17 lb. per acre) ; the price per lb. 4 

 to 10s. usually 6s. ; the first year it produces, the 

 first cut, but one hundred bottes per arpent, after- 

 wards four hundred (2 ton2 cwt. per acre), some 

 five hundred, each of 12 to 16 lb. ; the second cut 

 two hundred (1 ton 1 cwt. per acre), the third one 

 hundred (10^ cwt. per acre), in all 3 tons 13^ cwt. 

 the hay ot'ihe first cut is given to horses, the second 

 to sheep, and the third to cows ; it is never ma- 

 nured ; but the soil is a deep rich loam, that is to be 

 ranked among the finest in the world ; couch is the 

 greatest enemy to it; they never use it in soiling, but 

 always for hay; for mowing, making, cocking, and 

 carting, 10 liv. the arpent ; all is boiled in the field. 

 They are now (July 3,) mowing the first growth, 

 but some has been cut some time; nothing, they 

 say, improves land so much ; all the good oals 

 that Mr. Gibert showed me, at Neufmouiier, were 

 after lucerne; the difl^erence between those, and 

 the other crops after wheat, being thai of yellow 

 and green. 



Daupiitne — L' OneZ.— Prepare for it with the 



spade, at the expense of 12 liv. the septeree ; dung 



well; lasts five years; after that time, if they 



would preserve it, they plough it across with a little 



Vol. VIII.— 77 



plough, called a binet, to destroy the grass, and 

 then it succeeds lor two years more. When they 

 break it up, they lake five crops of wheat in suc- 

 cession. I expressed my amazement at this ex- 

 ecrable management; and Mons. Faujas de St. 

 Fond attested the truth of the fact. If wild oats 

 came the third year, they sow oats or rye in- 

 stead of wheat, on that account. 



Provence. — Avignon. — Much; it is usually 

 sown alone in March, 5 lb. of seed per eymena of 

 21,600 feet (10 lb. per acre) ; cut four, five, or six 

 times, and lasts seven or eight years if much wa- 

 tered, ten or twelve if less ; they then plough it, 

 and find the amelioration so great, that they take 

 five, six, seven, and even eight crops of wheat in 

 succession ! But, bad as such management may 

 be, it is not, however, to be classed with a similar 

 rotation among us, for water works miracles : and 

 the wheat harvest is so early, that it affords time 

 for what they please. Lucerne suits light rich land 

 best; the produce at every cutting twenty-five 

 quintals (3 tons 3 cwt. per acre); but for this it 

 must be dunged as well as watered, which must 

 be done in winter, after the fi-osts are gone ; if no 

 dung fifteen quintals (1 ton 5 cwt. per acre) ; the 

 price 40 to 50s. the quintal, being 10s. below 

 meadow hay. They reckon the hay bad for 

 horses, blowing them up too much, but excellent 

 lor all otiier animals: 1 saw some of it at Avig- 

 non so beautifully green, that I fell it to ascertain 

 if it were really hay, and not, as my eyes told me, 

 fresh cut; it is sometimes let, and rents from 20 to 

 60 iiv. the eymena (60 liv. is 4Z. 12s. 9(Z. per acre) ; 

 at five cutimgs the produce per acre in money is 

 £21. 13s. 2d. 



Hyeres. — I viewed a new plantation making by 

 Mons. Batlaile; the piece contained one and a 

 half acre English, and he was worlcing it at the 

 following expense: First digging, 96 liv. — Burn- 

 ing roots, weeds, clods, &c. 96 liv.— Dunging 120 

 liv.— Second digging, 96 liv,— Seed, 60 liv. — 

 Total, 468 liv. or 13/. 13s. per acre. It was left 

 quite smooth and fine to the depth of a f(iot, free 

 li-om every sort of root weed, and laid in beds 

 ready for watering, and now (September) sowing; 

 next year he will cut it four times, afterwards five, 

 and perhaps six ; it will last fifteen year?, and 

 possibly twenty ; could let it at 400 liv. a year 

 (IH. 13s. 7</. per acre), and the produce gross' 500 

 liv. (14/. lis. \\d. per acre) ; and when broken up 

 it will give great crops of wheat. 



Observations. — The culture of the jilant under 

 our consideration, is one of the principal features 

 of French husbandry. We have gone to the 

 French school Ibr the culture of it, yet it is ill 

 managed, and with bad success in England, and 

 has been so in every period ; but in France, even 

 in climates similar to our own, it is an object of 

 almost unilbrm profit; and it must therefore be 

 unfortunate indeed, if we do not exiractsomething 

 from the French practice deserving our aitention 

 and imitation. The first leading circumstance 

 that demands our attention is the unvarying prac- 

 tice of sowing it broadcast. The lucerne in Spain 

 which is of a luxuriance we have no conception of, 

 and the little I have seen in Italy, is all sown in 

 the same waj'; a contrary practice, namely, that 

 of drilling has very generally taken place in Eng- 

 land ; it has been repeatedly urged, that the hu- 

 midity of our climate renders hoeing necessarj'' to 

 keep it free from the spontaneous grasses; and, il 



