130 CHYMISTRY APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE. 



his surprise at the vast extent of waste land over which he 

 had just travelled: he was answered thus; *' Give us a 

 canal to transport our manures, and to convey away our 

 produce, and in five years this sterile country will be covered 

 with crops." The canal was afterwards constructed, and 

 the promise realized in less than the required time. 



In the interior of France, where cattle subsist almost 

 entirely upon fodder, and are not, as in the northern coun- 

 tries, fed upon the mash from breweries and distilleries, 

 crops of the various plants used for their support should be 

 more extensively cultivated, and should occur more fre- 

 quently in the rotations. 



In all the compact and slightly argillaceous soils upon 

 my estates, if they are deep, after having had them well 

 "dressed with barn-yard manure, I commence my series of 

 crops with beets, to which succeeds wheat, which I sow 

 immediately after having drawn the beets, and without any 

 intermediate tilling; the wheat I replace by artificial 

 grasses, and these by oats. When the land is of very good 

 quality, I follow wheat by clover, and this in its turn is 

 succeeded by the grains, and by roots. 



In light soils, which are deep and sandy but fresh, such 

 as those upon the borders of the J^oire, which are sub- 

 merged once or twice every winter, I sow, first, winter 

 vetches, which produce abundantly, and these I replace by 

 beets. 



Independently of the use which I have for beets in my 

 sugar manufactory, I believe this plant may be cultivated as 

 food for cattle, more advantageously than any other. The 

 leaves of those that have completed their growth, may be 

 used as food for animals during the months of August and 

 September ; and the roots supply a quantity of nourishment 

 of from twenty to thirty thousand weight per acre, or more 

 than forty thousand per hectare. 



Lands of the best kind, that is to say, lands which, to a 

 good mixture and sufficient depth, unite a favorable ex- 

 posure and suitable manures, may receive into their series 

 of crops all the plants adapted to the climate ; but there are 

 not many soils possessing all these qualities. 



In the siliceous, and calcareous soils, as they are gener- 

 ally dry, may be alternated crops of rye, barley, and white 

 rye, with those of sainfoin, lupines, lentils, French beans, 

 chick peas, radishes, woad, buckwheat, potatoes, &c. 



Preference should always be given to those crops which 



