SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
22! 
The yearly working consists of four labors, the first in the i ing were 15 years old, while those on the other side were 
fall after the vintage, when the ground is shoveled up into a hundred, but that the young were better — just as young 
beds 6 inches high between the alternate row of vines; in { men and horses were better than old ones. 
31arch the beds are changed, tlmt is, made in the alter- i The Chateau of Chambord is a Royal Castle built by 
nate rows which were left in the fall; the manuring which ! Francts 1st. and now nominally the property of Hknrs 
is done once in 5 years takes place at this time. The , Y of France, or, as he is called, the Count de Chambord. 
manure is placed between the beds in April and these are j The august Count, however, has nothing to do with his- 
thrown on it in May. The beds are shitted again in July 
W'hich constitutes the last working. Besides this, there 
remains only what is called the “accolage.” which con- 
sists in fastening the shoots to the stake when the vine has 
fully shot and the blooms have fallen — about June. M. 
Cabart told me that a man and his wife could tend G to 
7 acres, but at harvest it would require a much larger 
force. The great labor is the trimming, which occurs in 
the fall, as I have said. Of course this applies only to the 
Orleanais. In every district the culture differs. The 
wine here, when the vintage is good, does not, sometimes, 
exceed a few sous the elitre in price. I w^as struck by 
the number of little white snails that covered everything. 
There were three or four on every vine, and were so 
numerous that you would notice them even in passing in 
the cars. They eat the young buds, but do not do much 
harm. 
The next morning I took the cars for Blois, and got 
there to a nine o'clock breakfast. The country con- 
tinues much the same as at Orleans, but begins to be 
hilly ; indeed Blois is built upon a nest of little hills washed 
by the Loire, a rapid river about 200 yards in breadth 
here. We have still the limestone but the soil is red. 
I set out after breakfast for the Chateau Chambord, about 
twelve miles off. We skirted the Loire for 8 miles, cn a 
dam from ten to thirty feet high and wide enough on top for 
three carriages to pass abreast. Thi.c embankment also 
extends for many miles below Blois; it is said to have 
been commenced b}’ the Romans. At present it is sadly 
out of repair, and does not protect the surrounding coun- 
try from inundations. After leaving this dam, we passed 
through wine plantations ; the wine they yield is of an 
inferior quality, and all white. From what M. Cabart 
told me, I Avas prepared to believe this assoonas Haw the- 
vines. They are planted the sarnie distance as in the 
Loiret, but the stump or stalk is allowed to grow to the 
height of I foot to I 5 feet, and several large limbs are suf- 
fered to remain on it. Whenevei- the "taille,'' or trimming 
is defective in this region, to that extent, I am informed, 
wine is always white. However the white wine ofBouv- 
ray produced here, I think is much superior to the red 
wine of Beaugeney, generally esteemed the best of the Or- 
leans wines. They were driving down the “echoias," or 
stakes, as we passed, and I observed that they had per- 
formed an operation which is not customary at Orleans, 
but common enough in other parts, the “dechaufremeni” 
of the vines, which consists in digging away the dirt from 
the roots of the vine to the depth of 4 or 5 inches. Jt has 
two effects, it retards the budding until the frosts are past, 
and cuts away the superficial roots, of which the French 
agriculturists seem to have great horror. They insist 
strenuously upon the roots taking deep. 
A gentleman on the cars told me that when the strata of 
lime rock were placed vertically the vine and grapes grew 
well, however close the rock was to the surface: while 
when the strata were horizontal, they did not succeed at 
all, because the roots would not penetrate. In the former 
case, he said he had known the roots of Lucerne to be 
traced to the depth of 20 feet. He said, too, of Lucerne 
that when once sowm it lasted for 8 years. The Trifoil, 
however, which resembles it very much, must be sown 
every year. 
I got out of the vehicle— I really do not know what to 
call it, the people here say it is a cabriolet— to talk with 
one of the vignerons wdio told me the vines he was stak- 
propercy, of w'hich tne State appropriates the rents to 
making repairs. I W’as a little surprised to hear the peo~ 
pie everywhere speaking of him as Hexri V. It reminds- 
of an old cicerone showing us where the government had 
covered the Bouibon arms with painting in a church, but 
he informed us with a shrug that tha paint could be very 
1 easily washed off. 
I stopped the next day at Poitiers, having passed Tours 
1 without resting. The formation continues the same, ex- 
cept that the sand and lime come to the surface in man\' 
places and in others the soil is so thin as to be barren. The 
country is billy, the climate warmer and I have fairly 
reached the middle of spring. The vines around Poitiers 
have for the most part been pulled up during the last forty 
I jmars and grain planted, which pays better. The only 
j singularity in the culture of what remains is, that instead 
I of having stakes (which are one grand item of cost in 
' French vineyards) the bearing twigs are bent and their 
j extremities stuck in the ground. 
I Not to speak of the three great battles, the Roman remains 
and the ancient churches of Poitiers, the most singular 
thing I met with here w'^as a Pruidical remain situated on 
a hill at some distance from the town. It consisted of a 
j flat oval rock 15 by 20 feet large and 3 feet thick, resemb- 
j ling the top of an old-fashioned table raised on smaller 
j rocks set up perpendicularly to about the height of a 
j man’s breast. One e)-d has given way, and only three of 
i the legs or supports are standing. Some think it is an 
j altar, but who knows but that these old mystics might 
I have practiced gigantic table-tipping here 1 
I What even more than this interested me was the nexf 
j morning (market day) to see the peasants crowding from 
j the country. The young people of both sexes are hand- 
j some, especially th.e girls, who are remarkable for their 
j delicate feet and hands ; but as they grow older, poverty 
j and distress write deep lines upon their faces. It is sin- 
j gular to stand in a crowd of this sort and observe how dis- 
1 tinctly all the grades of poverty are marked ; not in the 
dress, but in the very expressions of the middle-aged per- 
sons. There is no mistaking for a moment the slovenly 
servant girl for the peasant in her market dress and clean 
face. The former is civilized, she has had meat once a 
day, while the knotted features of the other tells at once- 
j of those struggles, moral and physical, for bread, that 
j force to habits and acts which delhce and deform nature 
itself, a sort of education not so much to depravity as tO' 
deterioration. Montesquieu says that the young Jew- 
esses were rendered lovely by the divine hope each cher- 
ished that she might be the mother of the Messiah. So,, 
too, the young peasant girl of Poitiers^ with her quaint old 
, fashioned “bonnet” (cap) inspired by coquetry and 
i all the impulses of a heart whose destiny is not deter- 
; mined, is beautiful ; but some bright day when her fate 
i shapes itself and inevitable toil and penury stands be- 
; fore her, these, like two demons, transform the fresh young, 
j girl into the withered crone, while health and strength 
1 increasing every day does for her acquired ugliness- 
I what was never yet done for natural loveliness — enbalms- 
I and preserves it in the mummy state. Apropos of the caps- 
me more in the way of dress. They have been worn foi 
I centuries by their ancestors, and you will see correct pic- 
I tures of them in Froissart. 
j Last night I reached Bordeaux and went this morning 
to see the races, an undertaking which I consider by 
