young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

658

Great wade, and mount a hill, from whence an extenfive view ; all the country alike,.,no wood ; and not one acre in ten cultivated. Pafs four or five cream coloured bul-locks, and one or two blood-coloured. I note them, having feen fo few in fo manymiles.

French beans, eighteen inches by twelve; a good deal of cultivation ; but vafl wades,and country of a rocky, favage afpeft ; many pines, but poor ones. Within four hoursof Montferrat, vines at fix feet afunder, the fird we have feen planted in that manner,which fhews the proprietor content with having one product only on the ground.

Wades continue ; not one acre in a hundred cultivated. All broken country, andfcarcely any vales of breadth.

At the bottom we came again to olives. Meet two very fine cream-coloured oxen,which the owner fays would fell for about eighteen guineas; feeds them with draw,but gives oats or barley when they are worked ; they are in fuch good order, that thedraw mud either be much more nourifhing than ours, or their work very light indeed.From the marks in the pine-trees, conjedture that they draw refin from them.

Pafs Orevoteau, where is a hedge of aloes about four feet high. A gradual defcentfor fome time on a wretched doney defert, of nothing but aromatic plants, thin, andfcattered with the difrnal ever-green oaks, more dull and difagreeable, if poflible, thanthe olives.

Near Efparagara, vines at five or fix feet, which cover the ground ; red loam, mixedwith dones. This town is the fird manufa&uring one we have met with, or which' feemed to be animated with any other indudry than that of cultivation. The fabric iswoollen cloths and duffs. Spinners earn bf. a day, and food. Carders, 11 f. Theyhave alfo many lace-makers, who earn 9 f a day. Thefe are Spanifh money ; their folis fomething higher than the French , which is our halfpenny.

Fallow every where, yet many of the dubbles full of weeds. Corn yet in the field,and poor. Some vines promifcuous, at four feet; fome in rows, at fix feet. Countrydifagreeable ; many beds of torrents, without a drop of water, and fhocking to the eye.Apricots, plumbs, melons, &c. ripe, fold in the dreets, from the open ground. A pairof very fine cream-coloured oxen, 24I. Englifh : the amazement is, how they can bekept in fuch order, in a country fo arid and defert, and that has not a pound of hayin it.

The country now is far more populous and better built: many vines and great culti-vation, but with fallows. The foil all a drong red loam ; a way cut through avineyard of this foil, which fhewed it to be feven feet deep ; at the bottom was a cropof fine hemp ; indeed the foil to the eye was as good at the bottom as on the furface.

They plough with mules abread, without a driver, having a line for reins, as in Eng-land ; the beam of the plough is long enough to reach to the circular iron, about nineinches under the yoke, to which the mules are collared. The yokes are like thofe inwhich oxen are worked, only with collars indead of bows. This method, which is verycommon in France alfo, has both its advantages and difadvantages; it will be a lightdraught, when the pitch of the beam is proportioned to the height of the mules, butif the Ihare mud be raffed or lowered according to their height, it will be bad both forfhe land and the animals. To have the line of traftion, from the draught to thebody of the plough, is not quite correct, but it is much better than the common ploughbeams, made either too long or too fhort: in this cafe the length of the beams is afcer-tained ; but the chief origin and intention of it is cheapnefs. The mould-board of theplough here has no iron on it, and is fixed to the left fide ; the (hare is double, as if towork with a mould-board on either fide j this is a great fault j only one handle. It