Foreign Notices : — France. 185 



than may be purchased for about 3s. This manure is said to have been 

 tried in England by H. Handley, Esq., M. P., and found effective ; but by 

 others it is represented as an imposition on the public. We have applied 

 to sources in France which will enable us, we trust, to state something 

 positive respecting it in our next Number. In the mean time, our readers 

 may refer to a pamphlet on the subject, of which we have elsewhere given 

 the title. That pamphlet, however, does not give the slightest hint as to the 

 ingredients of the ley. — Cond. 



Statistics of the Woods and Forests of Europe. — It has been ascertained that 

 forests occupy a third part of the soil of Russia, Sweden, Norway, and 

 Germany ; a fourth of Austria and Prussia, a fifth of Belgium, a sixth of 

 Switzerland, a seventh of France (4000 square leagues), a ninth of Italy, 

 and a twelfth of Spain. In the British Isles, they only occupy a twenty-fifth 

 ■part of the soil, which is fortunately the richest in Europe in coal-mines. 

 [UE'cho, Sfc., Jan. 10. 1838, p. 5.) 



The Surface imder Cultivation in Britain, Italy, Prussia, the Netherlands, 

 Austria, Bavaria, and Wiirtemburg, occupies a third of the soil ; in France, 

 more than the half (14,572 square leagues); in (Tcrmany, in the kingdom of 

 Naples, and in Sicily, a quarter ; in Austria and Illyria, less than a fifth ; in 

 Russia in Europe, and Hungary, a sixth ; in Sweden and Norway, a ninth. 

 The remainder consists of forests, or of barren and uncultivated tracts, 

 {L'E'cho, ^c, Jan. 20. 1838, p. 17.) 



Art. IL Foreign Notices. 



FRANCE. 



Cause of the Fertility of Sandy Soil in the Valley of the Loire. — J. P. 

 Leclerc Thouin has laid before the Academy of Sciences a notice on the 

 arable land of a part of the valley of the Loire in the neighbourhood of 

 Chalonnes. He endeavours to prove in this notice that the fertility of the 

 land does not entirely depend on the condition of its chemical or mechanical 

 composition; but also on certain meteorological circumstances, which have 

 hitherto not been taken into consideration. The soil of the island of 

 Chalonnes is one of the most fertile in France ; and, according to M. Leclerc 

 Thouin, is entirely composed of very fine silicious sand, with a little iron, a 

 very small portion of alumina, and scarcely perceptible traces of lime, like 

 the soil of all the alluvial valley of the Loire. From this the author 

 remarks, that the silicious sand, almost pure, which is completely sterile in 

 the south and centre of France, becomes fertile towards the north, where it 

 does not lose so much moisture by evaporation. {UE'cho, SiC., Dec. 13. 

 1837, p. 204.) Sir Humphry Davy had previously noticed the greater fer- 

 tility of sandy soils in moist climates : for example, those of Ayrshire and 

 Norfolk. — Cond. 



The Temperature of Pans, in January, 1838, was 14° below zero Reaumur, 

 which is only 4° less than it was in 1793, the coldest year in Paris on record. 

 These records as to temperature commenced in the year 1763; and in no year, 

 from that period to the present, except 1795, does the temperature appear 

 to have been so low as in January last. (L'E'cho, (^c, Jan 27. 1838.) 



A Caterpillar injurious to the Vine. — The caterpillar vulgularly known 

 under the name of conque, is produced by the pyrale (Pyralis i.), called 

 Pillerana from the name of the Jesuit Piller. Its pi'esence is so fatal to the 

 vineyards of Rives-altes, Espira-de-l'Agly, Salles, &c., that the loss caused 

 by this scourge in a single year has been reckoned at 13,000 hectolitres 

 (325,000 gallons) of wine. It appears, from the author's experience, that 

 rainy seasons are generally fatal to this pyrale ; and that, among the known 

 means of destruction, the most efficacious are : frequently digging the soil, 

 and covering it, about the month of November, with a layer of powdered 



