FRANCE. 109 



feflion of thefe farmers feemed to me to 

 have brought them all to an agreement in 

 this, from feeling the want of food for 

 cattle, while their old mode laded, which 

 was that of fallow, rye, barley, or oats, 

 which did not yield near fo much as the 

 prefent. The proprietors are gentlemen, 

 who keep their farms in their own hands* 

 and flock them for the farmers : the latter 

 find labour and fkill : the other land and 

 frock, and they divide the produce between, 

 them. This is called the fmall culture, 

 for what reafon I know not j in oppofi- 

 tion to the great culture, which is, where 

 the lands are let on leafe, and the farmers 

 find every thing but the land, as in Eng- 

 land. 



An hundred books of common geography 

 have given an account of Rherms, I maii, 

 therefore, detain the reader no longer 

 than to tell him it is an ugly town, but 

 very populous, from its numerous manu- 

 factories of wool : thefe have long ftourifhed 

 in almoft all the towns of Champagne. I 

 made a few enquiries concerning their pre- 

 fent ftate, and, if I can judge rightly by 

 the great numbers of people out of employ- 

 ment, 



