488 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



tNo. 8 



of riches at their feet, but it is necessary to seek 

 for elevated levels, and these are distant. In the 

 small rivers, which rush more immediately from 

 the mountains, might be found available upper le- 

 vels; and whilst we should be obliged, on the 

 Rhone to seek them at Viviers, and to overcome 

 all the obstacles of a * * country, the Gardon, 

 at 17 miles from the head of the Camargue of- 

 fers a sufficient height to conduct its waters over 

 the country. We must imitate the examples al- 

 ready given, and collect in winter in the depths of 

 the valleys those waters which are to refresh the 

 heats of summer. 



The Gardon might form three great basins of 

 irrigation, two above in the uncultivated valleys 

 which it traverses in the Lozere, at the Gardon d' 

 Alais and d'Anduze, and a third below, placed as 

 a regulator, between the bridges of Saint Nicho- 

 las and of Colias: the length of this last valley 

 confined within perpendicular rocks is more than 

 12,000 metres in a right line, but as its direction is 

 very tortuous, and the river there follows a series 

 of windings, many of which are at right angles, 

 its actual length may reach 20,000 metres: esti- 

 mating its mean breadth at 400 metres, and allow- 

 ing a depth of 5 metres, we should have the mass 

 of 40,000,000 cubic metres of water contained in 

 this single basin; and supposing besides that it 

 might be filled three times during the continu- 

 ance of the irrigations, we might, on this one 

 point, dispose of 120,000,000 cubic metres of wa- 

 ter. The upper basins would, together, easily present 

 the same results. We should have then at our 

 disposal 240,000,000 cubic metres of water. This 

 irrigation then, according to our calculations, might 

 be extended to 24,000 hectares of land. 



The Camargue is about 30,000 metres long, 

 with a mean breadth of 15,000: it contains then 

 45,000 hectares, from which if we take off the 

 immense pond of Valcares, and the marshes, 

 which in their actual state give a product which it 

 is not desirable to alter, we see that the mass of 

 liquid contained in the reservoirs will answer all 

 necessary purposes. 



This water would have a selling value of more 

 than a million, but this value would be tripled in 

 the profits of the proprietors who should use it on 

 their lands: thus, then there are three millions of 

 revenue which the Camargue may demand from 

 the Gardon. This is the future promised to those 

 who shall have to make three principal dams, some 

 works (diaphragmes de surete) for the safety of 

 the lower districts, six leagues of canals, and an 

 aqueduct bridge over the small branch of the 

 Rhone. 



This would have been the proper commence- 

 ment, if it had been seriously contemplated to rear 

 a breed of horses in this isle, and to find here those 

 military resources which have been solong sought: 

 an abundant nourishment would have created a 

 strong and numerous stock. In the Camargue 

 might have been found those active horses which 

 constitute the superiority of the Numidian race. 

 I join in favor of my system this consideration to 

 those which will be urged in my writings; argu- 

 ments should be adapted to every mind, and he 

 who would not dare to reconstruct Egypt, and to 

 geek his examples so high and so far off, may 

 wish, like Austria, to have his Buckowine, for re- 

 mounting his cavalry on a limited space; to be 

 able, fur this reason, to impress on the individuals 



a more regular and more nervous character, and 

 to profit by a singular combination of soil Knd cli- 

 mate to cause the Arab to bound over our territo- 

 ries; where may be found at once the immensity 

 of the Desert, the Egypt of the Delta, and Ara- 

 hia Petraea. 



By extending the works on the Gardon, (and 

 the margin is immense on the upper valleys,) Nis- 

 mes, which sighs for water, disinherited of the 

 works of the Romans, might, by constructions, 

 worthy of its founders, worthy of that municipal 

 wisdom which distinguishes its administration, 

 have recourse to the same sources; the verdure 

 from waters poured into lakes would adorn its in- 

 dustry. 



But there is a river which we could not pass in 

 silence without leaving incomplete the plan which 

 we have traced out for ourselves. The Ardeche 

 is loaded in its course with the most precious de- 

 posites. It Hows over volcanoes: pumice stone 

 floats upon its waters, and potash is dissolved in 

 them: but scarcely freed from its narrow bed of 

 rocks, it. is precipitated into the Rhone, bathing 

 some islands fertilized by its incomparable allu- 

 vions. On its course, the developement of basins 

 would be immense, it is necessary to seek the em- 

 ployment of its water. But it has a great part to 

 play: it may pass over the Rhone — an aqueduct 

 bridge can place it next to the Pont-St. Esprit, 

 and to mingle its waters in the plains of Vaucluse 

 with those of the Rhone and its tributaries, of 

 which we have already described the power. It 

 is from the simultaneous aid of so many elements 

 that we shall acquire, better than from irrigation, 

 the varied alluvions which will create the most 

 perfect of soils. The sand of the. Rhone, the cal- 

 careous clays of our alps of Dauphiny, the volca- 

 nic matters of the Ardeche will unite to effect mi- 

 racles of vegetation. Thus, blind chance, will no 

 longer dispose of the theatre of our agricultural 

 industry — we shall call upon the soil all the com- 

 binations advantageous to its cultivation, at our 

 voice, the weak or the strong, the stiff or the light, 

 obedient to the inspirations of genius, their Ibrms 

 and qualities will be modified under our hands. 

 We shall establish our empire no longer over a 

 vain extent of surface, but over docile elements 

 ready to receive a body and a life. No longer 

 with the sweat of the brow, and the cracking of 

 whips, the sand and the marl will come to be uni- 

 ted on the fields — but by the simple current of the 

 brooks, with the murmur of '.he cascade, under a 

 cool atmosphere, in the shade of the greenest fo- 

 liages, in the view of an exalted nature, of a re- 

 generated land, which will come to attest that a 

 new era has commenced; that man henceforth is 

 associated with creation — that he is no longer an 

 exile living in proscription, axe in hand, but the 

 lawful heir, and that the hour of redemption has 

 struck. 



I can here only indicate, without describing the 

 works; so many elevated considerations, rush into 

 my mind, in the perspective of a possible futurity 

 of which the results overpower me, that I cannot 

 find a moment to devote myself to those consider- 

 ations of description which ought to precede them. 

 It would be a great and useful task to fix upon and 

 describe the places, to give the levels, to ascertain 

 the dimensions of the basins, and point out the 

 means of construction: but at present it would be- 

 come fatiguing to follow the course of our torrents, 



