Book I. AGRICULTURE IN FRANCE. 71 



is in England. It is either planted in large plots, in rows three or four feet apart, and 

 the plants two or three feet distant in the row ; or it is planted in double or single 

 rows altem>ating with ridges of arable land. In some cases, also, two close rows and a 

 space of six or seven feet alternate, to admit a sort of horse-hoeing culture in the wide 

 interval. Most generally, plantations are made by dibbling in cuttings of two feet in 

 length, pressing the earth firmly to their lower end ; an essential part of the operation, 

 noticed even by Xenophon. In pruning, a stem or stool of a foot or more is left above 

 ground, and the young shoots are every year cut down within two buds of this stool. 

 These stools get very bulky after sixty or a hundred years, and then it is customary, 

 in some places, to lay down branches from them, and form new stools, leaving the old for 

 a time, which, however, soon cease to produce any but weak shoots. The winter pruning 

 of the vine generally takes place in February : a bill is used resembling that of Italy 

 (Jig. 36. ) ; the women faggot the branches, and their value, as fuel, is expected to pay 

 the expense of dressing. In summer, the ground is twice or thrice hoed, and the young 

 shoots are tied to short stakes vdth wheat or rye straw, or whatever else comes cheapest. 

 The shoots are stopped, in some places, after the blossom has expanded ; the tops are 

 given to cows. In some places, also, great part of the young wood is cut off before 

 vintage for feed for cows, and to let the sun directly to the fruit. The sorts cultivated are 

 almost as numerous as the vineyards. Fourteen hundred sorts were collected from all 

 parts of France, by order of the Comte Chaptal, and are now in the nursery of the 

 Luxembourg : but little or no good will result from the collection, or from attempting to 

 describe them ; for it has been ascertained that, after a considerable time, the fruit of the 

 vine takes a particular character from the soil in which it is planted ; so that fourteen 

 hundred sorts, planted in one soil and garden, would in time, probably in less than half a 

 century, be reduced to two or three sorts ; and, on the contrary, two or three sorts planted 

 in fourteen hundred different vineyards, would soon become as many distinct varieties. 

 The pineau of Burgogne, and the auvernat of Orleans, are esteemed varieties ; and these, 

 with several others grown for wine-making, have small berries and branches like our 

 Burgundy grape. Small berries and a harsh flavour are universally preferred for wine- 

 making, both in France and Italy. The oldest vines invariably give the best grapes, and 

 produce the best wines. The Baron de la Peyrouse planted a vineyard twenty years ago, 

 which, though in full bearing, he says, is still too vigorous to enable him to judge of the 

 fineness and quality of the wine, which it may one day afford. " In the Clos de Vovgeot 

 vineyard, in which the most celebrated Burgundy wine is produced, new vine plants have 

 not been set for 300 years : the vines are renewed by laying (provigner) ; but the root 

 is never separated from the stock. This celebrated vineyard is never manured. The 

 extent is 160 French arpents. It makes, in a good year, from 160 to 200 hogsheads, of 

 260 bottles each hogshead. The expense of labour and cooperage, in such a year, has 

 arisen to 33,000 francs ; and the wine sells on the spot at five francs a bottle. The vine- 

 yard is of the pineau grape. The soil, about three feet deep, is a limestone gravel on a 

 limestone rock." (Pej/rouse, 96.) 



415. The white mulberry is very extensively cultivated in France for feeding the silkworm. It is placed 

 in corners, rows along roads, or round fields or farms. The trees are raised from seeds in nurseries, 

 sometimes grafted with a large-leafed sort, and sold generally at five years, when they have strong stems. 

 They are planted, staked, and treated as pollards. Some strip the leaves from the young shoots, others cut 

 these off twice one year, and only once the next ; others pollard the tree every second year. 



416. The eggs of the silk-vioth (J?6mbyx mhr'i) are hatched in rooms heated by means of stoves to 18 of 

 Reaumur (72^ Fah.). One ounce of eggs requires one hundred-weight of leaves, and will produce from 

 seven to nine pounds of raw silk. The hatching commences about the end of April, and, with the feeding, 

 is over in about a month. Second broods are procured in some places. The silk is wound off the coccoons, 

 or little balls, by women and children. This operation is reserved for leisure days throughout the rest of 

 the season, or given out to women in towns. The eggs are small round objects ; the caterpillar attains a 

 considerable size ; the chrysalis is ovate; and the male and female are readily distinguishable. -, 



417. The olive, of which the most luxuriant plantations are between Aix and Nice, is treated in 

 France in the same way as in Italy. (288.) The fruit is picked green, or, when ripe, crushed for oil, 

 as in the latter country. 



418. The fig is cultivated in the olive district as a standard tree ; and dried for winter use, and 

 exportation. At Argenteuil it is cultivated in the gardening manner for eating green. 



419. The almond is cultivated about Lyons, and in different parts in the department of the Rhone, as 

 a standard, in the vineyards. As it blossoms early, and the fruit is liable to injury from fogs and rains, it is 

 a very precarious article of culture, and does not yield a good crop above once in five, or, according to 

 some, ten, years. 



420. The caper is an article of field culture about Toulon. It has the habit of a bramble bush, and is 

 planted in squares, ten or twelve feet plant from plant every way. Standard figs, peaches, and other fruit 

 trees are intermixed with it. 



421. The culture of the orange is very limited; it is conducted in large walled enclosures at Hieres and 

 its neighbourhood. The fruit, like that of Geneva and Naples, is very inferior to the St. Michael's and 

 Maltese oranges, as imported to Britain ; but the lemons are good. 



422. The winter melon is cultivated in different parts of Provence and Languedoc, and especially in the 

 orange orchards of Hieres. It forms an article of exportation. 



423. Various other fruits are cultivated by the small proprietors in all the districts of 

 France, and sold in the adjoining markets ; but this department of rural economy belongs 

 rather to gardening than to agriculture. 



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