208 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 4 



The dog's-tooth grass, (chiendent,) agrosLis 

 stolonifera, herbe trainasse, the little motherwort 

 (matricaire) prey upon this land and impose on 

 it, as an absolute condition of production, the ne- 

 cessity ofa very careful cultivation; such is, mostly, 

 the great plateau, which extends from the gates of 

 Lvons into three departments, the Ain, Saone-et- 

 Loire, and Jura; such are nearly, also, Puysaie in 

 Yonne, a part of the plain of Forez in Ilaute- 

 Loire, and the part of Sologne in the Cher and 

 Loire, where fish-ponds are found. 



But if this soil, to yield produce by cultivation, 

 requires to be carefully drained, the necessity for 

 this is almost as great to produce woods with ad- 

 vantage, especially in the most clayey variety; 

 without this, on its surface covered with little 

 pools, without mellowness and without strength, 

 the greater number ol" large vegetables languish; 

 the oak. particularly, is frozen on it almost every 

 year. Then it becomes necessary that ditches, 

 judiciously placed, may collect and carry off the 

 superabundant waters of the surfice: with this 

 care, the aspect of the soil changes, large vegeta- 

 bles grow with natural vigor, and are no longer 

 subjected to any other than the great general ac- 

 cidents depending on temperature and climate. 



XVI. The elevated parts o? e^oh plateau , '-vhen 

 the waters have had less etiljct, are generally ofa 

 level and sandy soil on the borders, the lower parts 

 are the most accklentees and of stiffer soil. Thus 

 in the great plateau or basin of which we speak, 

 Bresse is more moist, more clayey, move accident ee 

 than Dombes, which is at once more elevated and 

 more sandy than it; and it is the same case else- 

 where in the same soils. 



But this irreat plateau which belongs to the ba- 

 sin of the Rhone, appears to be the most wet of all 

 those of the same nature which are met with on 

 the French soil; novvhere is it necessary, as with 

 us, in order to derive a profit from the soil, to cut 

 it by perpendicular ditches into small pieces ridged 

 in the middle, to increase thus the natural declivity 

 by artificial slopes, and finally, to add to all these 

 labors, cultivation by bedding or water-furrows. 

 But what increases still more in our country the 

 difficulties of cultivation, are the rains, amounting 

 to 45 inches annually, which keep the surface ofa 

 soil, that does not allow the water to penetrate to 

 the interior, in a state of inundation, unless the 

 flowing off of the moisture is hastened by artificial 

 means. And what is very remarkable, is, as we 

 have just said, that the soil is more clayey in the 

 low parts of the plateau, where the waters appear 

 to have carried off a greater thickness of the strata. 

 Thus, the soil of Bresse is more clayey and more 

 troublesome, and dilffcult to cultivate than that of 

 Dombes; in Dombes artificial ridging is less ne- 

 cessary; ploughing in raised beds is generally suf- 

 ficient to drain ofl' the water; and sheep succeed 

 there, while they perish almost every year in 

 Bresse. 



Fish ponds succeed well only in this clayey va- 

 riety of soil; the greater part of those which were 

 in a calcareous soil, are now dried, and yield a pro- 

 duce in grain and Ibrage much superior to what 

 they did in fish. 



XVII. Two conditions are absolutely necessary 

 for this manner of employing land, (for fish ponds,) 

 and these are l()und unliod only in the clayey va- 

 riety of this soil. The first condition is a very 

 great slope, and (he second, an impermeable sub- 



soil. For a good pond of some extent, there 

 should be 8 or 10 feet of water near the dam, and 

 consequently, at least 8 feet of slope in the surface, 

 fr-om the commencement of the pond to the dam; a 

 slope certainly very great, and which is hardly to 

 be found except in the beds of torrents. 



To keep the pond full during the summer, 

 when there is little rain, which is absolutely neces- 

 sary for the preservation of the fish, it is in a man- 

 ner indispensable, that the inferior soil should re- 

 tain the water, and should, consequently, be im- 

 permeable. 



XVIII. Most frequendy, when the soil is light, 

 the surface is level, it is hardly ever inclined : 

 there is only a slight slope on the nearest water 

 courses; consequently, in such places, there are no 

 fish ponds; the soil, indeed, still rests, almost al- 

 ways, on the impermeable stratum ; but it is often 

 at so great a depth, that the surface which suffers 

 from wetness in rainy weather, suffers also from 

 drought in dry, warm seasons. 



These two varieties of land, the clayey and the 

 light, although of the same nature and of the same 

 formation, may be distinguished from each other, 

 the first by the name of argilo-siliciovsj and the 

 second, by that of silicio-argillaccmis soil. 



Fish ponds in the plains of the light or silicio- 

 argillaceous lands, are evidently impossible, unless 

 they could be established on the water courses 

 which traverse them; which would destroy all the 

 resources of the country in forage, by covering all 

 the meadow lands. 



It is of this variety of soil that is formed, in part, 

 the plateau which separates the basin of the Seine 

 from that of the Loire, which contains such vast 

 extents of wood, and some cultivated parts; on 

 this plateau are found the forest of Fontainebleau, 

 and that of Montargis. 



Such is also the part of Sologne, in the basin of 

 the Loire, fi-om Gien almost to Bourges, and 

 which separates the Cher fi-om the Loire: it forms 

 a great plateau, which rises on one side above the 

 vale of the Loire, and on the other, above the ba- 

 sin of the Cher; such are all the landes [sandy 

 plains or deserts] of Bourdeanx, and a great part 

 of those of Bretagneand of Maine. In this kind 

 of soil, rye, buckwheat, and some fields of pota- 

 toes, are almost the only productions of the culti- 

 vated lands. 



Sheep, which succeeded ill. or not at all, on the 

 argilo-silicious lands, are often in the silicio-argi- 

 laceous lands, the only means employed to derive 

 a profit fi'om the soil. On these, the oak often 

 succeeds well, and suffers less than on the other va- 

 riety of soil, but the chestnut is the preferable 

 tree. 



XIX. On all the varieties of this soil, provided 

 it is drained, resinous trees seem to become natural- 

 ized, and often grow even more riq)idly than in the 

 mountainous countries where nature seems to 

 have placed them exclusively. In this soil, where 

 the richest harvests are refused to the cares and 

 labor of man, all the liunilics of resinous trees oflen 

 prosper better than in our gardens The larch and 

 the f()rest pine (sylvestre) the sea-pine and the 

 laricio grow vigorously over the whole extent of 

 this soil, when it is laid dry, and the pine du lord 

 seems of all to be that which best withstands the 

 wetness. These make an excellent alternation with 

 the deciduous (yeM?7/t;s) trees. A single genera- 

 tion of these large trees, after having enriched 



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