222 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The widow of Bessi^res sold it to Charles X. The Duchess 

 d'Aiigouleme visited it in company with the Duke of Bordeaux, 

 and afterwards the Duke of Orleans and the Duke de Nemours 

 paid their respects there. 



The soil near the brook in the valley is, in part, a rich allu- 

 vial deposited by the stream. This rests on a white chalk, 

 colored with black silex, which constitutes the bottom of the 

 valley. Plastic clay occurs a little higher up. Coarse lime- 

 stone rises above this clay, and contains marl very rich in 

 shells, perfectly preserved. Six hundred varieties are found in 

 it. This land is very rocky. The calcareous parts of the soil 

 are wanting in depth, and become extremely dry and hard in 

 summer. They are valued in the neighborhood at from sixteen 

 to forty dollars an acre. The climate is good. It is seventy- 

 five or eighty miles from the sea. Peaches, trailed up in espa- 

 lier fashion on the garden wall, were in full bearing when I was 

 there. 



The buildings are arranged in a manner little adapted to the 

 objects of the institute. They are 1,200 feet from the lowest 

 part of the valley, and separated from most of the farm by 

 steep slopes, which adds so much to the labor account, that 

 Tliaer said he would never have consented to undertake to cul- 

 tivate in such conditions. The chateau is of very simple and 

 solid architecture, built of stone and brick, in the style of Louis 

 XIIL, the time when it was constructed. It forms an open 

 square to the north, at the angles of which there are four pavil- 

 ions. The principal body, towards the south-west, comprises, 

 on the ground floor, the vestibules, the chapel, the eating 

 saloons and the collections. On the second and third stories 

 are the dormitories. Tlie south pavilion contains the kitchen 

 below ground, the offices of the agricultural society at the 

 entrance, and those of the school and of the director on the 

 second floor. The body of the wing and pavilion is appropri- 

 ated to the director and his family. 



The west pavilion and west wing include the halls and recita- 

 tion rooms, the north pavilion the apartments of the assistant- 

 director. There are open courts on the two sides, at the south- 

 west of the chateau. The farm buildings, since they have 

 been occupied by the society, have become quite insufficient, 

 and many additions have been required in the shape of grana- 



