70 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



(//ulcus S6rghum L.), in the maize district. The flower-stalks and spikes of this plant 

 are sold at Marseilles and Leghorn, for making chamber-besoms and clothes-brushes. 

 The hop and the common fruit trees are cultivated ; and the chestnut is used as food in 

 some places. An oil used as Food, and also much esteemed by painters, is made from 

 the walnut. The other fruits of field-culture, as the almond, fig, vine, caper, olive, 

 and orange, belong to the farming of the southern districts. 



408. The forest culture of France is scientifically conducted, both in the extensive 

 national forests, and on private estates. The chief objects are fuel, charcoal, and bark ; 

 and next, timber for construction : but in some districts other products are collected, as 

 acorns, mast, nuts, resin, &c. The French and Germans have written more on this 

 department of rural economy than the English, and understand it better. 



409. A remarkable feature in the agriculture of France, and of most warm countries, 

 is the use of leaves of trees as food for cattle. Not only are mulberry, olive, poplar, 

 vine, and other leaves gathered in autumn, when they begin to change colour, and acquire 

 a sweetness of taste ; but spray is cut green in July, dried in the sun or in the shade of 

 trees in woods, faggoted, and stacked for winter use. During that season they are given 

 to sheep and cattle like hay ; and sometimes, boiled with grains or bran, to cows. The 

 astringency of some sorts of leaves, as the oak, is esteemed medicinal, especially for 

 sheep. Such are the outlines of that description of agriculture which is practised more or 

 less throughout France, but chiefly in the northern and middle districts. 



Scbsect. 4. Of Farming in the tuarmer Climates of France. 



410. The culture peculiar to the vine, maize, olive, and orange climates, we shall extract 

 from the very interesting work of Baron de la Peyrouse. The estate of this gentleman 

 is situated in the maize district at Pepils, near Toulouse. Its extent is 800 acres ; and 

 he has, since the year 1788, been engaged, and not without success, in introducing a 

 better system of agriculture. 



411. The farm-houses and offices in the warm d'istrkts are generally built of brick ; 

 framework filled up with a mixture of straw and clay ; or, en pise ; and they are covered 

 with gutter-tiles. The vineyards are enclosed by hawthorn hedges or mud walls ; the 

 boundaries of arable farms are formed by wide ditches ; and those of grass lands by fixed 

 stones or wild quince trees. Implements are wretched, operations not well performed, 

 and labourers, and even overseers, paid in kind, and 

 allowed to sow flax, beans, haricots, &c, for them-, 

 selves. The old plough (fig. 50.) resembles that used 

 by the Arabs, which the French antiquarian, Gouguet, 

 (Origine des Lois) thinks, in all probability, the same 

 as that used by the ancient Egyptians. They have also a light one-handled plough 



for stirring fallows, called the araire. 

 (fig. 51.) A plough with coulters 

 was first employed at Pepils ; and 

 a Scotch plough, with a cast-iron 

 mould-board, was lately sent there, 

 and excited the wonder of the whole 

 district. In nothing is France more 

 deficient than in suitable agricultural 

 implements. 



412. Fallow, wheat, and maize con- 

 stitute the common rotation of crops. 

 413. The live stock consists chiefly of oxen and mules; 



the latter are sold to the Spaniards. Some flocks of sheep 



are kept ; but it is calculated that the rot destroys them 



once in three years. Beans are the grain of the poor, and 



are mixed with wheat for bread. The chick pea (6'icer 



arietinum) (fig. 52.) is a favourite dish with the Provencals, 



and much cultivated. Spelt is sown on newly broken up 



lands. Potatoes were unknown till introduced at Pepils 



from the Pyrenees, where they had been cultivated for fifty 



years. In the neighbourhood they are beginning to be 



cultivated. Turnips and rutabaga were tried often at 



Pepils, but did not succeed once in ten years. Maize 



is reckoned a clearing crop, and its grain is the principal 



food of the people. 

 *414. The vine is cultivated in France in fields, and on 



terraced hills, as in Italy, but managed in a different 



manner from what it is in that country. Here it is kept low, 



and treated more as a plantation of raspberries or currants 



