Rural Economij of France since 1789. 
543 
every bond of the smiling valley. These abodes of" the ancient 
nobility of Fiance, whether they now appear as ivy-clad ruins, 
or in their robust solidity display the traces of time without its 
decrepitude, and still harbour in their stately halls the sons of 
the ancient proprietors, — or whether the hand of modern restora- 
tion has combined the comforts of the present day with the 
stately majjnificence of the feudal ages, — these chPiteaux are alike 
attractive from their picturesque outlines and the reminiscences 
of the past which they awaken. 
4. South-Eastern Division. 
We now reach another region, as distinct from the last in 
respect to climate, race, language, traditions, as any two European 
provinces can be. Like the Western Division, the chief topo- 
graphical feature of the South-Eastern is a great valley, that of 
the Rhone. In an agricultural point of view, it holds only the 
fourth rank, but in general prosperity it is the second. The fact 
of its comprising such cities as Lyons and Marseilles, besides 
Saint Etienne, Nismes, Montpelier, Avignon, Grenoble — the 
well-known centres of French commerce and enterprise — easily 
accounts for this. 
Beginning with its most northern province, now the depart- 
ment of Ain, at the foot of the southern extremity of the Jura, 
we find there a remarkable mode of cultivating clay-lands which 
is happily unknown in this country. In the ancient principality 
of Dombes (the modern district of Trevoux), the soil is composed 
of a stiff and most impervious clay. This circumstance led, 
before the introduction of modern drainage, to a peculiar mode 
of management. The country is covered with artificial dams to 
hold up the water in ponds or meres. These meres perform a 
double office : they breed fish, and by their deposits enrich the 
soil. Every third year the water is drawn off, the fish are caught 
and sold, the land cultivated for one season, and then again 
abandoned to the waters. There are 50,000 such meres, covering 
50,000 acres ; but this curious rotation is now going fast out of 
favour, chiefly in consequence of the unhealthy influences which 
it creates. 
It is in a more southern part of this region that the cultivation 
of mulberry-trees for the production of silk chiefly flourishes ; 
and although attempts have been made to introduce this branch 
of industry in many parts of France, and especially in Dau- 
phiny, it is only in the Cevennes on the right bank of the Rhone 
that it has been attended with a full success. In 1789 the annual 
produce of the mulberry districts was about 6000 tons of cocoons, 
worth 600,000Z. ; in 1853, it had risen to 25,000 tons, worth 
