1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



485 



lections which industry has brought together in 

 our large cities; it will confine hands in the country. 

 But machinery itself is going to take possession 

 of the fields; the steam-plough will soon open the 

 furrows ot England; the human intellect will bor- 

 row more and more, from nature her powerful co- 

 operation; the inheritors of labor will respond 

 in the fields to this same cry of fright that the 

 work-shop utters, at the view of this unexpected 

 disturbance, of these new means, which are com- 

 ing every where to take the place of muscular 

 strength; at first they will not understand, they 

 will receive only with fear, the noble gift of intel- 

 lect. Let us seek to prepare and to make compre- 

 hensible, this great and salutary crisis; let us pre- 

 vent, by an exposition of facts, and an explanation 

 of their consequences, the shameful leagues of 

 slavery and barbarism; let us smooth the way for 

 the conquests of science; let us establish the. true 

 principles of independence based on the ennobling 

 of humanity; and may the echo of our fields return 

 only a cry of liberty. 



But whatever may be the power of these ma- 

 chines; whatever maybe the force which they con- 

 ceal in their burning centres; with whatever un- 

 expected effects they may strike our attention, 

 they will not be able to surprise us who have long 

 possessed and enjoyed the effects of an engine, 

 simple, but greater, more prodigious than all that 

 the force of steam united to the most powerful le- 

 vers could ever produce; which rolls fertility and 

 abundance into our plains; which, at once, in- 

 creases ten-fold the value of our soil, and lavishes 

 upon us riches without labor. It is the inclined 

 plane. 



What people better prepared for the prodigies 

 of industry than the people of Y T aucluse, who borrow 

 from the Durance, from the Sorgues, and all their 

 tributaries, so much wealth and repose. In vain 

 might you demand from manufacture its most in- 

 genious processes, and apply them to the cultiva- 

 tion of your fields; would you ever make any 

 thing to equal our magnificent meadows? They 

 are as a constant precept, a living lesson that it is 

 not by his sweat, but by simple and rational com- 

 binations, that man establishes his empire. This 

 admirable and simple machine, the effects of 

 which we are about to describe, of which we in- 

 voke the influence, does not require, for its action, 

 extended space or wealth. Small with the small, 

 great with the great, it adapts itself to all, in every 

 proportion: with its simple or powerful apparatus, 

 it follows the levels traced out for it by intelli- 

 gence. 



It is on this magnificent amphitheatre which is 

 displayed from the summits of Ventoux to the 

 shores of the Rhone; in this country which pos- 

 sesses, on a limited space, from the alpine pas- 

 turages at a thousand fathoms above the sea to 

 the iands which sink almost to its level; it is on 

 this varied soil that, without passing beyond the 

 mountains, we may study the instructions of Italy. 



In traversing the department of Vaucluse, one 

 is struck with two very distinct kinds of agricultu- 

 ral success: the first which is united to what I 

 shall call the turbulent and bustling civilization of 

 the north, with its energy, its tools, its labors, 

 which swallow up every instant, overturns, breaks 

 up, undermines the earth: the other, the noble in- 

 heritance of antiquity, which reposes upon the her- 

 bage, invokes the aid of the streams, directs them 



tranquilly over the soil, and awaits their immense 

 results. It is this which we are now about to speak 

 of, because it accords with our principles, because 

 it is the civilization of happiness. It respects lei- 

 sure; and a simple, but heroic means, it comeshere 

 to supplant those complicated arrangements which 

 exhaust the human race. 



At Orange, the fiftieth part of the territory is 

 subjected to irrigation, and however small this ex- 

 tent may be, it becomes sufficiently important to 

 form a striking feature of our agriculture. Mea- 

 dows as beautiful as those of the Milanese, are 

 mowed three or four times a year — and rent for 

 850 francs the hectare; about a third of this sum 

 goes for the expense of cultivation. Such a pro- 

 duct represents from thrice to ten times the revenue 

 of soils identically similar under the ordinary cul- 

 ture; and when we reflect that such an advantage 

 is obtained almost without labor, we should con- 

 fess the superiority of this kind of cultivation. 



At Avignons this trait of our southern agricul- 

 ture is displayed on a greater scale. A canal from 

 the Durance, the waters of the Sorgues, and the 

 daily employment of these means, have extended 

 irrigation over a greater circle. The water here 

 also triples the value of the excellent lands which 

 surround the city. 



At Vaison, at Malaucene, irrigation raises the 

 value of soils, naturally interior, to 12 and 14,000 

 francs the hectare. 



At Cavaillon, where such various productions 

 are drawn from the soil; where the melon and the 

 artichoke are cultivated on a grand scale; where 

 corn, under irrigation, braves the greatest droughts, 

 the water of the Durance has in certain places in- 

 creased the value of the land ten-fold. Unculti- 

 vated tracts which were scarcely worth 500 francs 

 the hectare are now worth 5000. 



At Sorgues, a barren heath, which distressed 

 the eyes of the traveller, irrigated by these same 

 waters, has been centupled in price: smiling fields 

 worthy of Lombardy have replaced the desert. 



It is under feeble means, nevertheless, that these 

 riches of the soil are developed; it is almost only 

 at Cavaillon on the immediate borders of the Du- 

 rance that they have acquired a remarkable devel- 

 opement: every where else they rre trials, they 

 are as an example bequeathed to cur posterity, to 

 show them what they can, and ought to do; they 

 are traditions of antiquity, a recollection of Italy: 

 they are some scattered shreds which defend them- 

 selves from the encroachments of the plough. 

 Here, recourse is had to the waters of a fountain — 

 there, they borrow from a torrent, which the heat 

 of summer soon dries up. At two spots, feeble 

 brooks confined by dams, form useful reservoirs, 

 which constitute the prosperity of two villages. 



At Caromb, and at the Tour d'Aigues, the hand 

 of intelligent man has given a great example; it is 

 a seed which will produce its fruits when the di- 

 rection of agriculture shall cease to be confided to 

 the isolated efforts of our husbandmen; when go- 

 vernment shall comprehend their great mission, 

 and know that they are the only syndieship of a 

 population, scattered, without union, without 

 means of action, and reduced to individuality. 



This mission bas been understood by men, who, 

 without speaking of their lights, possessed them 

 in reality. We have added some technical words 

 to their vocabulary, but we are behind them in the 

 exact knowledge of their country. The code of 



