I

young’s TRAVELS IN TRANCE. jg t

A gen. —Hemp yields ten quintals per carteree, at 40 livres the quintal, paid de table(iy\. ics.), which carteree is fown with two hundred and feventeen pounds of wheat.This is probably about ij Englifh acre.

Agiullon. —The hemp is every where watering in the Garonne ; they do not leaveit in more than three or four days.

Tonneim. —The whole country, from Aguillon to this place, is all under either hempor wheat, with exception of fome maiz ; and its numerous population feems now em-ployed on hemp.

La Morte Landron. —It yields ten to twelve quintals, at 36 livres to 45 livres thequintal.

Soissonois. — Coucy. —Hemp cultivated in the rich vales, in the courfe,—1. hemp;2. wheat. It yields five hundred bottes, at 25 livres the hundred, reckoned on the footbefore watering.

St. Aviand. —The carteree of land, of one hundred verge of nineteen feet (thirty-fixthoufand one hundred feet), under flax, has this year a very good crop, on accountof the rainy weather ; it has been fold at 1200 livres, or very near the fee-fimple of theland (55I. 1 is. 3d. per Englifh acre). This amazing value of flax made me defirousof knowing if it depended oh foil, or on management. Sir Richard Wefton, in thelaft century, who-has been copied by many fcores of writers fince, fpeaksof poor fandyland as being the belt for that flax of which the fine Bruflels lace is made; confequent-ly this is made from land abundantly different from what produces the Valencienneslace, if that aflertion were ever true. The foil at St. Amand is a deep moift friableloamy clay, of'vaft fertility, and fituated in a diftrift where the greatelt poflible ufe ismade of manures; it therefore abounds very much with vegetable mould. Flax isfoum on the fame land once in twelve to fifteen years; but in Auftrian Flanders, oncein feven or eight years. Advancing and repeating my enquiries, I was allured thatflax had been raifed to the amount of 2000 livres the carteree (92I. 15s. 6d. per Eng-lifh acre). The land is nearly the fame as above deferibed, and lets, when rented, at36 livres the carteree (il. 13s. 3d. per Englifh acre). They fow two raziere of feed,each holding fifty pounds of wheat per carteree; and a middling crop of good flax is from3} to four feet high, and extremely thick. They water it in ditches, ten, twelve, andfourteen days, according to the feafon; the hotter the weather, the fooner it is in aproper flate of putrefaction. After watering, they always grafs it in the common me-thod.

Going on, and gleaning frefh information, I learned that 1200 livres may.be efteem-ed a great produce per carteree; the land all round, good and bad, of a whple farm,letting at 30 livres and felling at 1200 livres. Nothing can fhew more attention thantheir cultivation: befides weeding it with the greateft care while young, they placepoles, or forked flakes, amongfl it, when at a proper height, in order to prevent itsbeing beaten to the ground by rain, from its own length and weight; without this pre-caution it would be flat down, even to rotting.

Orchies . —A carteree of flax, of forty thoufand feet, rifes to the value of 1500 livres,and even more (63I. 18s. qd. per Englifh acre). They fow fuch as is intended for finethread, as foon as the frofts are over, which is in March; but luch as is for coarferworks, fo late as May. Never feed their own-flax, always ufing that of Riga . Theyprefer for it an oat-fiubble that followed clover; and they manure for it in the whites,preceding the fo wing. Wheat is, in general, better after flax than afler hemp.-

Lille —Flax in common, is worth 90 livres the centier , or 360 livres the carteree(15I. 6s, 3d. per Englilh acre): this is excluding uncommon crops.

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Artois.