1S39] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



185 



way you can give them as much as they will eat, 

 and they will make no oris. 



From Arthur Young's Travels in France, ("in 1787, '88, '89.) 



ON THE CULTURE OF SILK IN 

 FRANCE. 



QuERCY. — Caussade. — In the avenue leading 

 to this town, two rows of the trees are mulberries, 

 and these are the first we have seen. 



Montauban. — Many mulberries here, in rows; 

 and under some of them four rows of vines, and 

 then six or seven times the breadth of corn. 

 When the leaves are not in time lor the worms, 

 or are destroyed by frosts, they are led with let- 

 tuce leaves ; and if no lettuce, with cabbage; but 

 the silk is so worthless, that the failure is reckoned 

 nearly equal to having none at all. 



Toulouse to Noe. — Mulberry trees are here 

 worth from 6 sows to 20 sous, and 30 sous each, 

 per annum, according to their size. 



Noe. — Mulberries worth up to 3 livres per free, 

 per annum. But silk worms have missed much 

 for three years past. 



Norbonne. — Many mulberries; all with pruned 

 flat heads. 



Pinjean. — Olives are a beneficial article of cul- 

 ture, but ihey prefer mulberries, because ihey 

 yield a crop every year. On four seterees of land 

 they have sixty trees; and at the same time the 

 land yields barley or oats, mown for forage, of 

 which the four seterees gives 60 quintals, that sell 

 at 33 sous the quintal. Single mulberries have 

 paid as far as two louis each, and many one louis. 

 If tour seterees equal two acres, there are thirty 

 trees on an acre, and the acreable produce of forage 

 will he 52 livres, or 2£, 5s, 6d. 



Nisiues to Sauve. — Seven mulberries on an En- 

 glish rood. 



Qiesac. — Mulberry leaves sell commonly at 3 

 livres the quintal. A tree yields from one to ele- 

 ven quintals: two, three, and fjur are common. 

 Gathering the leaves cost 12 sous the quintal. 

 Fifteen quintiils of leaves are necessary ibr one 

 ounce of grain, [the seed or eifgs ol the vvorni] : 

 20 livres the mean price of silk per lb.: reckon 

 that an olive tree pays as well as a mulberry. 



Many mulberries about Quesac, and sonift on 

 very poor dry laud. In grass- fields the ground is 

 kept dug arounii them, as far as the branches ex- 

 tend. Remark some stones laid around many 

 trees, for soaie distance from ihe stem. 



Eight trees in somethiriir less than an EnHish 



o o o 



rood. 



By infiirmation, ahuonds, in Rouverge, pay bet- 

 ter than mulberries, and with much less expense 

 and aitemioii ; 3, 4, 5, and 6 livres a tree. 



Gange. — iSlany fine mulberries about this 

 place, whiidi yiehi fi"om 3 livres to 8 livres a tree 

 in comnioi!, young ont-s exclude. I. They \ieid 'o 

 twelve quintals of leaves ; in general, three, (bur, 

 or five. The price varies fi-oin 3 livre-i to \Qlivres 

 the i]iiiiital. They are much more valual)le than 

 olives. Tins yciu* the great cold in Aj)ril destroy- 

 ed tlie younsj buds and hurt the crop irrpailv. 

 They never think olgivnitr any thing to worms b(.i 

 the leaves ; have heard of iweu'y thiuijis, hut treat 

 the idea with the irreatest contempt, knowinir as 

 they do, by the fabric, the worthlessness of silk, 

 if the worms au so led. 



Lndeve, — Mulberries are more profitable than 

 olives; yield three, lour, and five quintals of leaves, 

 which fell, in common, at 3 livres. 



Mirepoix. — Mulberries are here, but none after, 

 in going from Carcassonne to St. Martory. 

 Auck. — A lew mulberries near the town. 

 It is here to be noted, that from Mirepoix to 

 Bagnere de Luchoii, and from thence by Pau to 

 Bayonne, and back by Dax to Auch, a line of 

 much more than 300 miles, 1 savv no mulberry 

 trees. 



GuiENNE. — Leyrac. — Some few mulberries. 

 Aiguillon. — A Itiw trees for some miles before 

 this place. Behind the chateau, in the town, is a 

 large plantation, formed by the late duke; which, 

 being in the fine vale of the Garonne, the land is 

 cultivated as the rest, under hemp and wheat ; but 

 both those crops are less than middling, the ex- 

 pression of the person who gave us the informa- 

 tion, on account of the roots and shade of the 

 trees. The duke gives Ihe leaves to the people 

 in the town, furnishing also the wood, boards, 

 grain, and whatever else is necessary for (he busi- 

 ness, and has in return the third part of the silk 

 they make. Every one in the place, and all round 

 the country, say that he loses considerably by it; 

 asserting, that the land thus occupied is worth 

 500 louis a year ; that the crop of silk is so preca- 

 rious that he has had eight quintals, and in other 

 years only three, two, and even one; so that on 

 an average, his third part gives only 150 louis, 

 and the crops under the trees cannot make up one- 

 half of the deficiency. They also maintain, that 

 the land is too rich for mulberries ; and, to prove 

 that they are right in their ideas, they quoted ma- 

 ny srentlemen in the neighborhood, who have 

 grubbed up their mulberries.* 



Tours. — They have in the neighborhood of 

 this city many mulberries, insomuch, thai the 

 value of the raw silk has amounted, as they as- 

 sert, in a good year, to a million o\' livres. I walked 

 several times into the country to view Ihe trees and 

 make inquiries. Many of Ihe corn-fields are re- 

 gularly planted all over ; the gardens are surround- 

 ed with I hem ; and the roads and lanes have rowa 

 ol them. The large good trees, in a favorable 

 year, give to the value of 4 livres, but not in com- 

 mon. I viewed several plantations; containing 

 old, young, good, and bad, that gave on an aver- 

 age, one with another, 30 sous, which seemed, 

 from various accounts, to be a general medium; 

 it, however, excludes very bad years ; such, for 

 instance, as last spring, in which they had no crop 

 at all, the frosts in April (note, this is certainly one 

 of the finest climates in France,) having entirely 

 destroyed.it. I saw several trees which gave to 



* All the places before named, are in the southern 

 extremity of Fiance. Toulouse is as far south as the 

 northern shore of the Mediterranean, near Montpel- 

 lier. Tours, in Touraiiie, the next named place, is on 

 the Loire, and about midw ly between the northern 

 and southern extremities. Since Young's account was 

 written, the mulberry plantations and silk-culture of 

 Touraine have greatly diminished, as appears horn an 

 inquiry into the causps, instituted by the Royal and 

 Central Agricultural Society of France, as published 

 in the .dnnales de l\/Igriculivrc Francaise, for 1834. — 

 See page 257. — Ed. Fak. Kkg. 



