v Ait is. 4QJ 



ers engaged in shaking down the fruit by means of long 

 sticks. We passed some pretty extensive orchards: all 

 the country roads and bye-lanes seemed fringed with fruit- 

 trees, and every knoll was crowned with them. In one 

 place we noticed a newly planted orchard ; and from its 

 appearance we ascertained, that the stocks are not only 

 first planted in the field, but are allowed to attain consider- 

 able size and vigour before being grafted. In this way all 

 the trees come to have tolerably high stems; the branches 

 and fruit are thus to a considerable degree removed from 

 the reach of cattle, and the plough can pass under the 

 boughs, and lay the furrows close to the trunks of the 

 trees. Those varieties, we may add, seem to be preferred, 

 which have a natural tendency to send their branches up- 

 wards : indeed, we do not recollect to have remarked a 

 single drooping tree. Many of the trees on the road-side 

 are large, and evidently of considerable age. The soil 

 seemed in general to be a light hazely loam. When the 

 plowing is performed with the charrue a versoir, neither 

 ridges nor furrows appear, but the whole has the aspect of 

 having been delved with the spade. 



We breakfasted at Magny, more than half way to 

 Rouen. Here we noticed the swallows congregating pre- 

 vious to their annual migration. We were now in Nor- 

 mandy, and the chalk country soon commenced. Many 

 of the garden-walls appeared to be constructed of clay., 

 mixed with straw, and they had in general a coping of 

 thatch. We saw several cottages constructed of the 

 same material, intermixed with boards to strengthen it; 

 but the walls of some of these had a coating of lime- 

 plaster over the mud. Many rich pastures appeared, 

 with large flocks of sheep inclosed in moveable folds ; and 

 we noticed that the sheep were sometimes folded on the 

 plowed land, evidently with the view of improving it by 



