Brittany, projecting into the Atlantic, is as rainy as Ireland or Cornwall. Normandy, with part of Pi cardy and French Flanders, may be compared to our inland counties. In the interior of France the rains are less frequent, but far more heavy ; so that there is much less difference in the quantity of rain that falls in the course of the year than in the num • ber of rainy days. The atmosphere of France is much less cloudy than ours. The most frequent wind in the north of as in Britain and Ire. land, is the south-west ; it prevails also, but to a less degree, in the central part of the kingdom. In the south of France the more common winds are from the north.
The difference of temperature between London and Paris is not considerable, nor is the degree of heat found to be intense along the west coast of France, until reaching or rather passing Poitou. In the interior it is much more perceptible, being strongly felt at Lyons, and still more in the latitude of Nismes, Aix, Marseilles, and Toulon. On the whole the variations of climate between the north and south of France are considerably greater than between the north and south of Britain, where the effect of difference of latitude is so much modified by the vicinity of the sea. We know, besides, of no such variation as the very material one indicated by the diagonal line from east to west, the latter being two degrees colder in consequence of the breezes and vapours of the Atlantic.
The harvest begins in the north of France between the 20th and 25th July : in the central part about the middle of that month : in the south in the end of June. September and October are the months of vintage. The great hazard to the corn of the cen tral part of the kingdom arises from violent storms of rain and hail ; in the south from the want of rain in spring. In winter the vent de bite proves often destructive to the olives. The great heats are in July, August, and September ; a time of much an noyance in the south of France from gnats, flies, and stated at 72s. 9d. the acre ; but as this includes house Situation, rent, and is altogether a peculiar case, we proceed to the next great division of open country.
Alsace, though in some parts mountainous, is, in others level and fertile, particularly adapted to pas ture and the culture of wheat.
other insects ; scorpions even are found in that warm latitude.
To exhibit a classification of the different kinds of soil is a task of difficulty in any extensive coun try, and in none more than in France, where a strik ing difference prevails not only in contiguous de partments, but in contiguous districts of the same department. In Flanders, Picardy, Artois, Nor
mandy, and the Pays de Beance, a fertile tract to the south of Paris, the soil consists frequently of a loamy mould ; in ;he central and southern parts of the kingdom it is often lighter ; while the greater part of Brittany, and of the departments along the western coast, have a heathy soil naturally un productive, but capable of considerable improve. anent. But these collective estimates are liable to great deductions ; and the attempts made by Arthur Young and other statistical writers to calculate the proportion of the different descriptions of soil, whether loam, heath, chalk, gravel, &c. are con sidered by the French as far from successful ; even the more systematic effort made by their own go vernment, in the beginning of this century, to com pute the value of land by masses de culture, that is, by classing all kindred soils under one head, prov ed, altogether abortive. We shall forbear, therefore, all such vague calculations, and proceed to state the value of annual produce in the different departments, endeavouring to class the latter in lots, according to their position and relative productiveness.
Average annual income of the various departments of France, computed by the English acre, and in Sterling money, taking the words " Annual in come in the most extensive sense, as comprising the rent of land, the farmer's profit, and the house rent of houses in towns. • The fertility and high state of cultivation of French Flanders, and the near approach made to it by part of Normandy and Picardy, are apparent from the following returns. The chief objects of culture there, as in England, are wheat, oats, barley, and rye ; the pasturages are extensive; the horses, cattle, and sheep numerous.
The inland province, called formerly, from the ri vers along its circumference, the Isle of France, comes next in the list of relative productiveness. The objects of culture are similar to those of Flan ders and Normandy, viz. wheat, oats, and barley ; but the pasturages are less rich and extensive.