where before our eyes in traversing the country. The improvement
in agriculture, or to speak literally, in the method of tilling the
soil, is by no means great. The description of the methods pursued, and
of the routine of crops, given by Arthur Young, corresponds very exactly
with what we saw. It may be observed, however, that the ploughing is
rather more neat, and the harrowing more regular. To an English eye both
of these operations would appear most superficial; but it ought to be
considered, that here nature does almost every thing, little labour is
necessary, and in many parts of the country manure is never used: but
the defect in the quality of the cultivation is somewhat compensated by
the quantity. Scarce an acre of land which would promise to reward the
cultivator will be found untilled. The plains are covered with grain,
and the most barren hills are formed into vineyards. And it will
generally be found, that the finest grapes are the produce of the most
dry, stony, and seemingly barren hills. It is in this extension of the
cultivation that we trace the improvement; but there must also be some
considerable change for the better, though not in the same degree, in
the method of cultivation, which is demonstrated by the fact, that a
considerable rise has taken place in the rent and price of land. In many
places it has doubled within the last twenty-five years; an _arpent_ now
selling for 1000 francs, which was formerly sold for 500.

It is, however, extraordinary, that these improvements have, as yet,
only shewn their influence in the dress of the peasantry, and no where
in the comfort or neatness of their houses. Between Calais and Paris,
their houses are better than we found them afterwards on our way to the
south. In that direction, also, they were almost invariably well
clothed, having over their other clothes (and not as a substitute for a
coat) a sort of blue linen frock, which had an appearance of attention
to dress, not to be seen in other parts of the country, for the
peasantry in most other parts, though neatly clothed, presented, in the
variety of their habits and costumes, a very novel spectacle. The large
tails, which give them so military an appearance, and impress us with
the idea that they have _marched_, are by no means a proof of this
circumstance; for we were informed, that the first thing done in most
instances, was to deprive the conscripts of their superabundant hair.
But the long tail and