C 12 j 
back to back ; these are raised so high that I con¬ 
ceived it hardly possible to eftect it with a plough, 
which they assured me was generally the only imple¬ 
ment made use of: However, I saw some instances of 
their rakine«oiit the intervals with hoes. In the man- 
o 
agement of the plough, they certainly are more skil¬ 
ful than in our country, or in any other I have 
seen, though their ploughs appeared to me as i!l« 
constructed loot ploughs with very long beamsd 
But as the season for ploughing was over, and the 
heavy rains had set in, I did not see them used. 
Permit me here to remark, that the practice of 
planting a few vines round the house, might be 
usefully followed by our small farmers; and 
though its product should not be wine, yet the 
fruit would add to their enjoyments and their 
health. The advantages of this mode of planting 
are, that by a straw mat, or by drawing the vine 
into the house during the winter, it might have the 
fullest protection fromi the cold—that if the stem 
is long, it Wyants none from cattle when growing— 
that the soil about the house is always rich and 
warm, and that the fruit will be secure from rob¬ 
beries : Add to this, that it adds much to the beaiN 
ty of a small house, and shelters it from the heal of 
the sun. 
After leaving the low lands upon the Loire, we 
enter a country of light loam, upon a bottom of 
white soft stone, which continues all the way to Pa- 
