296 Gardening Visit to Paris, 



such trees can be seen. The reason is, large trees do not pay 

 so well as small ones; because, to become large they require to 

 stand many years, and the older they are the slower is their 

 increase. In France, woods and plantations are made and ma- 

 naged entirely with a view to profit ; and the most common 

 source of this profit being fuel, the trees are cut down when their 

 stems have acquired a diameter of 5 or 6 inches, or less. The 

 timber of construction is for the most part grown on better soils 

 than the high grounds which border the river. In England, 

 wood is seldom or never grown for fuel, and the timber for con- 

 struction is for the most part imported. Hence trees are grown 

 and preserved, by the possessors of estates, more as objects of 

 luxury than of profit. Hence, the wonderful difference between the 

 banks of the Wye, and other well known rivers in England, and 

 those of the Seine, and other rivers in France, which possess equal 

 geological advantages. A principal source of the variety and 

 beauty of the banks of the Seine depends on the Lombardy pop- 

 lars, which are sprinkled along its banks, more or less, during the 

 whole course of its length. These contrast with the round bare 

 hills and tame coppices, and enrich their appearance at the same 

 time. The worst feature on the banks of the Seine is the poor 

 appearance of the corn crops, owing to the soil not being stirred 

 to a sufficient depth. By this change alone, we should think, 

 the produce might be trebled ; independently of the additional 

 produce that would be derived from an increased supply of ma- 

 nure, and greater attention to destroying weeds. It is singular, 

 that though the French country labourer is fully aware of the ad- 

 vantages of deeply stirring the soil to vines, and keeping it clear 

 of weeds, he seems to think it of no importance to corn crops.* 



Several interesting villas are passed between Rouen and Pecq, 

 which we should have been glad to examine in detail. The 

 principal are Rosny, which belonged to the Duchesse de Berri ; 

 and Chateau Lafitte, which before the revolution belonged to 

 Charles X. when Monsieur, and is now on sale. There are a 

 number of small villas, many of them pleasingly situated ; some 

 surrounded by walled gardens, trelliswork covered with vines, 

 and verdant arcades, and one or two accompanied by terraces ; 

 but scaixely any one conveyed the idea to us of cultivated taste. 

 The facilities far artistical creations are so great, however, from 

 the variety of surface, the windings of the river, and the 

 abundance of building material, that, at no distant time, the 



* By a passage in Gerardin's work, Dc PInsh'iiction Publique en France, 

 quoted in the Qnarlcrh/ Review for December, 18+0, it appears that the pro- 

 duce of land under husbandry in England, compared with that similarly occupied 

 in France, is as 722 to 200. The English Agricultural Society will soon show 

 how the present produce of farm lands in iMigland, great as it is beyond that 

 of France, may l)e doubled, or even trebled. 



