STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 17 



Cihe turnips are drawn in the winter, and the flax in 

 the spring. 



Besides the application of ordinary manures, the 

 lupine is ploughed down when in flower ; a practice 

 that began with the Romans : Columella says, u of 

 all leguminous vegetables, the lupine is that which 

 most merits attention, because it costs least, employs 

 least time, and furnishes an excellent manure" The 

 culture of this vegetable is different, according to 

 the purposes for which it is raised ; if for grain, the 

 ground has two ploughings and twenty-five pounds 

 weight of seed to a square of a hundred toises [about 

 640 feet] : if for manure, one ploughing is sufficient. 

 Like our buckwheat, its vegetation is quick and its 

 growth rapid ; whence the farther advantage of sup- 

 pressing, and even of destroying, the weeds that 

 would have infested any other crop. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Florence, they are in the practice of 

 burning the soil; which they do by digging holes, 

 filling them with fagots, and raising the earth into 

 mounds over them. The fagots are then inflamed 

 and burned, and with them the incumbent earth, 

 which is afterward scattered, so as to give to the 

 whole field the same preparation. 

 I III. " The countries," says Arthur Young, " the 

 most rich and flourishing of Europe, in proportion 

 to their extent, are probably Piedmont and the Mi- 

 lanese. We there meet all the signs of prosperity, 

 an active and well-conditioned population, great ex- 

 ertions, considerable interior consumption, superb 

 roads, many opulent towns, a ready and abundant 

 circulation, the interest of money low, the price of 

 labour high ; in one word, it is impossible to cite a 

 single fact that shows that Manchester, Birming- 

 ham, Rouen, and Lyons, are in a condition equally 

 prosperous as the whole of these duchies." Their 

 population is stated at " 1,114,000, and the territory 

 at little more than two millions of arpens (acres). 

 Wheat, rye, Indian corn, flax, and hemp, the vine 

 B2 



