FRANCE, AGRICULTURE OF. 



vegetables of all kinds is much greater in 

 France than in England; and the same remark 

 applies to bread, the price of which, in Paris, ; 

 is regulated by the public authorities. 

 The care which i> taken in France, by the ( 

 nient, to husband every particle of or- 

 ganic manure, is well worthy of the conside- 

 ration of the public authorities in England, for ; 

 i-i- is there a greater waste of the richest 

 fertilizing matters than from the large cities 

 arM towns of England ; a great and public loss, 

 to whi.-h Dr. (Jraimitie, in his report to the 

 Thames Improvement Company, thus alludes : 

 part of France, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, 

 Bohemia, Prussia, Saxony, the Confederated 

 States of Germany, Holland, and Belgium, is 

 there a city in which, as in London, the gene- 

 ral mass of filth, of every description, created 

 by a vast population, is first allowed to enter 

 the river which may happen to traverse that 

 city, and is then returned, diluted with the 

 water of that river, to the houses of the inhabi- 

 tants, to be used either for domestic or culinary 

 >s : although, by avoiding the latter dis- 

 : alternative, foreign cities are less free 

 f rom unpleasant smells than London is. In this 

 espect it may bo truly said, that foreigners smell 

 the filth of their cities, but do not swallow it; 

 whereas the Londoner swallows it, but seldom 

 smells it. 



-In no large city of that part of Europe 

 which I have recently visited, possessing a 

 river, is any portion of the contents of closets 

 and cesspools suffered to find its way, or to be 

 emptied into it ; except at Amsterdam, Ant- 

 werp, Brussels, Stuttgard, and Leipzig ; and 

 even there, only in a partial manner. In Paris 

 the Seine is contaminated by one large drain 

 only, conveying the urine from the large reser- 

 voirs of night-soil at Montfaucon, and by two 

 smaller ones proceeding from cesspools. To 

 convey generally, or to empty, even partially, 

 any such matter into the river, is a practice 

 against which the laws have provided by heavy 

 fines and incarceration ; and such is the pre- 

 sent feeling of all the governments on that 

 subject, even in the great cities I have just 

 enumerated as exceptions, that the authorities 

 are seriously engaged in devising means for 

 preventing, in future, every possible infraction 

 of those laws ; not because it is desirable to 

 preserve pure the water of such rivers (since 

 no domestic use is made of it), but on account 

 of the loss of a material, deemed most valua- 

 bly which such infractions must necessarily 

 entail 



" In Paris extensive improvements in regard 

 o drainage arc now in progress, at the conclu- 

 ~ion of which, that capital will have subterra- 

 neous drains and sewers in as complete a state 

 as those of London, and something better. 

 More than two-fifths of that city are now so 

 drained. When this great undertaking was in 

 agitation, it w:; I that all the latrines, 



public as well as private, should, as in London, 

 communicate, by proper drains with the great 

 sewers, which are intended to be emptied into 

 the Seine. As the project of supplying pure 

 water, direct to the houses, is simultaneously 

 to be earned into effect, and as the water for 

 that purpose is to be derived from other 

 506 



FROG OF A HORSE. 



sources than the river, there could have been 

 no objection on that score, to the adoption 

 of so general and so complete a drainaj,;. 

 But when scientific men, agriculturists, anu 

 political economists were consulted, it was 

 agreed that, by adopting the London system, the 

 city would lose a revenue of nearly 800,000 

 francs, and agriculture the means of producing 

 four times as much. The government, there- 

 fore, came to the resolution of not suffering any 

 portion of the contents of the latrines to enter 

 the common sewers ; but, alive to the great im- 

 portance of saving them, enacted a police 

 regulation, strictly enjoining that every house 

 should have its cesspool (whether new or old, 

 and within a given time) made water-tight, in 

 order that none of those contents should be 

 wasted. In consequence of this regulation, 

 all cesspools must be emptied once in four 

 years." 



FRANKLINIA (Gordonia pubescens'). This 

 species of Gordonia, appears to be restricted 

 by nature, within very narrow bounds, having 

 hitherto, says Michaux, been found only on the 

 banks of the Altamaha, in the state of Georgia- 

 It was discovered there in 1770, by John Bar- 

 tram, who gave it its specific name. In height it 

 rarely exceeds 30 feet, with a diameter of 6 

 or 8 inches. It blooms in Carolina about 

 the beginning of July, and a month later near 

 Philadelphia. The flowers are more than an 

 inch in diameter, white, and of an agreeable 

 odour. They have a slight resemblance to 

 those of the cbgwood (Cornus Florida). Like 

 those of the Loblolly bay (Gordonia lasynnthus), 

 they open in succession during two or three 

 months, and begin to appear when the tree is 

 only 3 or 4 feet high. The fruit is in the form 

 of round, ligneous capsules, which, when ripe, 

 open, at the summit in four seams to release 

 the small angular seeds. 



Although the Franklinia is found 2 or 3 de- 

 grees farther south than the Loblolly bay, it 

 appears to be far less sensible to cold, and 

 stands the climate well near Philadelphia, and 

 will perhaps resist the winters higher north. 

 (Michaux.) 



FRENCH BEANS. See BEANS. 



FRENCH CLOVER. See LUCERNE. 



FREE-MARTIN. A name given by breed- 

 ers to a twin cow calf born with a bull calf, 

 which generally proves an hermaphrodite, and 

 therefore barren ; but in some cases, there not 

 being this admixture of the organs of different 

 sexes, or those of the female prevailing, she is 

 capable of breeding. (Youatt on Cattle, p. 539.) 



FRINGE-TREE (Chionanlhus Virginica), a 

 beautiful, small, American tree, abounding in 

 the Southern States, and as high up as the vi- 

 cinity of Dover, in the state of Delaware. It 

 has been even met with on the banks of the 

 Brandywine. The specific name is derived 

 from its snow-white flowers, which are pendu- 

 lous and fringe-like. There is another variety 

 in the United States (the maritima of Pursh), 

 which Lindley considers a distinct species. 

 (Flor. Cestrica.) 



FROG OF A HORSE. In farriery, is a tri- 

 angular portion of horn projecting from the 

 sole almost on a level with the crust, and de- 

 fending a soft a d elastic substance called the 



