young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.
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Prices. —Bread , 3/. per pound, of twelve ounces.
Mutton , 6 f per pound, of forty-eight ounces.
Pork, 15/ per pound, of forty-eight ounces.
Bottle of fweet white wine, $ f.
Bottle of fweet red wine, 2 f.
I lore they were threihing, by driving mules around on a circular floor of earth, inthe open air; a girl drove three mules round, and four men attended for turning, mov-ing away the ftraw, and fupplying the floor with corn. Their crops are all broughthome by mules or afles with panniers ; met feveral; they each carried fix (heaves, equalto twenty common Engliih ones ; where roads are bad, this is the only way in which itcan be done.
Pafs a great wafte of'argillaceous marl, in which are flrata of talc : much of it a foftwhite rock ; the ftrata in fome places clear and tranfparent, Ihining, break in thin flakes ;the country for many miles wafte, fo that there are not more, I guels, than one acre intwo hundred cultivated.
More deferts for feveral miles. Some alternate fallow hufbandry between vines, andthe crops fo contemptible, that they produce not more than the feed. Pafs fome vine-yards furrounded on every fide by deferts; no water, and yet the vines and grapes areof the mod beautiful luxuriance; from which I conclude, that immenfe tra&s of thefewafte lands might be applied with equal profit, if there were men and capitals enoughin the country.
Meet a farmer, who pointed out to us a piece of land, containing exa&ly a Catalonia journal, from which it appeared to be pretty nearly the fame meafure as an Englifh acre.They ftack their corn by the threfliing floor, drive mules, &c. around upon it, and drawthe ftraw, when cleared, with ropes by a mule to the ftack, in which it is depofited forwinter ufe.
To Beofca, moftly defert hills, but fome broad vales, which are cultivated; about thatplace many mulberries, vines, and corn, but all the laft gained by fallow. A farmerhere pays a feigneur, who lives at Barcelona, 2000 livres a year for his farm, which isreckoned a large one. Through all this country, they colled from every wafte fpotamongft their cultivated lands fhrubby wood and weeds, with which they burn heaps ofclods and earth, and fpread the afhes on the fallow as a manure for corn.
There feems every where to be inclofures fufficient for afeertaining diftind properties,but not for fecurity againfl any fort of cattle. No where any wood to be feen, exceptfruit trees, olives, or ever-green oaks, which are almoft as fad as the olive ; altogethernothing for beauty of landfcape. The hills all rocks, and the vales vines, fcattered withthofe trees. Some new plantations of vines. Towards Toora, the country is muchmore cultivated ; the fides of the hills covered with olives. The vale has many mulber-ries, and much tillage ; and for fome miles paft there are many fcattered houfes, whichhas not been any where the cafe before: remarked one great improvement, which wasa vineyard, with vetches fown in the alternate hufbandry between the rows, inftead of afallow, to be followed by corn.
Leave Calaff.—Crop and a fallow; fome vetches ; much cultivation; and better corntitan we have in general met with ; fome fown in fquares, as if in clufters, but could■not learn 'the fad. In fome parts many vetches, inftead of being fallow'; they areplanted by hand, and wheat fown after. The foil, a good adhefive loam, brown witha reddifh hue, better than the white land, which travelled with us fo long yefterday:molt of the corn cut.
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VOL. IV.
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