340 HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



(bond in shops; and took a view of the Old Chinch, which 

 was built by the Spaniards. In this neighbourhood, pop- 

 pies and tobacco seem to form the staple crops of the farmer. 

 We passed many hundred acres of both, but the poppy 

 fields in general were the most extensive. The poppies had 

 in a great measure been cleared off; and the people were 

 now engaged in drawing the tobacco plants. In cultivating 

 tobacco, the central part of the plant is cut out, leaving only 

 six or eight of the exterior or lower leaves : this mode of 

 treatment, preventing the pushing up of a flower-stem, na- 

 turally causes the lower leaves to swell in size. When seed 

 is wanted, the operation of centre-cutting is of course omit- 

 ted, and the plants are allowed to spire. All the fronts of 

 the houses in the villages through which we passed, were 

 now hung with tobacco leaves, strung upon twigs and cords, 

 in order to their drying. We scarcely recollect to have 

 noticed any fallows in the Low Countries ; but now they 

 appear in every direction. 



In the Netherlands we had seen the crops nearly all 

 housed ; but between Arras and Corbie a good deal of oats 

 and barley still remained uncut ; and much more had been 

 cut down, which was still lying in the fields. 



Sept. 16. — We this day continued our journey through 

 Picardy. Amiens, the capital of the district, offered no 

 novelty in the way of fruit. It is a very ancient looking 

 town, finely watered by the Somme and its branches. The 

 streets are paved with sandstone, as is the case in all the 

 other towns in this part of France. Although a vast deal 

 of land is under crop in Picardy, and the corn-fields are of 

 great size, yet no farm-houses are to be seen : for a dozen 

 of miles together, you have the appearance of one intermi- 

 nable farm. This, at first, seemed extraordinary ; but we 



