120 TRAVELS THROUGH 



without keepers. Thefe woods are reckoned 

 to pay the proprietors who manage them 

 with judgment 2os. an acre clear profit; 

 they are in regular cuttings, and the profit- 

 able management is, to let the wood be of 

 a good age before it is cut. Befides the 

 poles they yield every time the underwood 

 Is cut, a growth of timber for cafks, which 

 is taken upon the principle of thinning the 

 trees ; from twenty to twenty-five years 

 growth is the proper age for props \ fo that, 

 in a wood of twenty- five acres, there is one 

 acre cut every year: 



Finding no accommodations that pleafed 

 jne at Ay, I advanced to Efpernay. There 

 I took up my quarters at the houfe of a con- 

 liderable overfeer of vineyards, who had 

 one of five acres belonging to liimfelf. 

 He feemed well inclined to be hofpitable, 

 and readily accommodated me, my fervant, 

 and four horfes, and the whole family 

 feemed very well fatisfied upon my hinting 

 that I mould make them a fatisfadion for 

 the trouble I mould give them. I found 

 that all this country, upon the Marne, from 

 Ay quite to Meaux, produced what they 

 called vin de la riviere ; whereas the wines 



