Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN FRANCE. 



45 



67 



burning heats which turn verdure itself into a russet brown : no ardent rays that oppress 

 with their fervour in summer, nor pinching tedious frosts that chill with their severity in 

 winter, but a light, pure, elastic air, admirable for every constitution except consumptive 

 ones." This climate, however, has its drawbacks ; and is so subject to violent storms of 

 rain and hail, that " no year ever passes without whole parishes suffering to a degree of 

 which we in Britain have no conception." It has been calculated, that in some provinces 

 the damage from hail amounts, on an average of years, to one tenth of the whole produce. 

 Spring frosts are sometimes so severe as to kill the broom : few years pass that they do not 

 blacken the first leaves of the walnut trees ; the fig trees are protected with straw. 



390. Of the vine and maize climate {c,f, d, i) some account is given by M. Picot, Baron 

 de la Peyrouse, an extensive and spirited cultivator. He kept an accurate account of the 

 crops and seasons in his district for twenty years from 1 800 ; and the result is, twelve years 

 of fair average crops, four years most abundant, and four years attended with total loss. 



391. In the olive climate (o, e) insects are incredibly 

 numerous and troublesome, and the locust is injurious to 

 corn crops ; but both the olive and maize districts have 

 tliis advantage, that two crops a year, or at least three 

 in two years, may be obtained. The orange is cultivated 

 in so small a proportion of the olive climate as scarcely 

 to deserve notice. The caper (Capparis spinosa) (fig. 46.) 

 and the fig are also articles of field culture in this climate. 



392. The climate of Picardy and Normandy is the 

 nearest to that of England, and is rather superior. 

 The great agricultural advantage which France possesses 

 over Britain, in regard to climate, is, that, by means of 

 the vine and olive, as valuable produce may be raised on 

 rocky wastes as on rich soils ; and that in all soils what- 

 ever, root weeds may be easily and effectually destroyed 

 without a naked fallow. (Young^s France, ch. iii.) 



393. The lands of France are not generally enclosed and subdivided by hedges or other 

 fences. Some fences are to be seen near towns, and in the northern parts of the kingdom 

 more especially : but, in general, the whole country is open ; the boundaries of estates 

 being marked by slight ditches or ridges, with occasional stones or heaps of earth, rows of 

 trees, or occasional trees. Depredations from passengers on the highways are prevented 

 by gardes champetres, which are established throughout all France. Fanns are sometimes 

 compact and distinct, but generally scattered, and often alternating in the common field 

 manner of England, or run-rig of Scotland. The farm-houses of large farms are gene- 

 rally placed on the lands ; those of smaller ones in villages, often at some distance. 



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