FRANCE. 201 



crop before the fun and winds had fvveetened 

 it confiderably. He tried oats and rye, after 

 two crops of potatoes; yet was not the pro- 

 duce worth reaping. This convinced him 

 that the foil was improper for corn, and ac- 

 cordingly ftuck only to potatoes during four 

 fucceffive years, which he multiplied in 

 fuch a manner, that he could not get cattle 

 to eat them ; yet he kept a vaft number of 

 breeding fows, and preferved their pigs, in 

 order to raife a great number of young hogs. 

 He found, that he could not fatten thefe 

 upon potatoes; but they brought them into, 

 and kept them in very fine order, fo as to 

 be ready to fell at market to fuch as wanted 

 them for fatting ; a fyftem which, upon 

 the whole, he finds more profitable than 

 any thing he can do with other forts of 

 cattle. Thus he feeds his fows upon them, 

 and their pigs ; and, when he weans their 

 pigs, gives nothing elfe to both pigs and 

 fow ; and thus he goes on, as long as his 

 flore lafts. Upon my afking-him, how he 

 fupported them the part of the year when 

 he could not have potatoes, he replied, 

 that had diftrefled him inconceivably at firft, 

 fo that, the firil Summer he had many, he 



loft 



