The chief cereals grown are wheat, oats and barley, and pota toes and mangels also give good returns. Much hemp is grown in the valley of the Loire, and the vegetables, melons and other fruits of that region are of the finest quality. Good wine is pro duced at Serrant and other places near Angers, and on the right bank of the Layon and near Saumur, famous for its sparkling white wine. Cider apples, and fruit generally, are produced. Woodland, chiefly of oak and beech, covers large tracts. The fattening of cattle is an important industry round Cholet, and horses are reared. There are important slate quarries near Angers, tufa is worked in the river valleys, and freestone and other stone, iron and coal are also found. The manufactures are linen and woollen stuffs, ticking, gingham, etc., umbrellas, calicoes, handker chiefs, etc. The department is served by the railways of the State and of the Orleans company. The Mayenne, the Sarthe and the Loire, together with some of the lesser rivers, provide about 13o m. of navigable waterway. In the south-east the canal of the Dive covers some Io m. in the department.
There are four arrondissements—Angers, Cholet, Saumur and Segre, with 34 cantons and 381 communes. Maine-et-Loire
belongs to the academie (educational division) of Rennes, to the region of the IX. army corps (Tours) and to the ecclesiastical province of Tours. Angers (q.v.), the capital, is the seat of a bishopric and of a court of appeal. Other important places are Cholet, Saumur and Fontevrault. For architectural interest there may also be mentioned the châteaux of Brissac (17th century), Serrant (15th and 16th centuries), Montreuil-Bellay (14th and centuries), and Ecuille (15th century), and the churches of Puy-Notre-Dame (13th century) and St. Florent-le-Vieil (13th, 17th and 19th centuries), the last containing the fine monument to Charles Bonchamps, the Vendean leader, by David d'Angers. Gennes has remains of a theatre and other Roman remains, as well as two churches dating in part from the 1 oth century. Ponts-de-Ce, an interesting old town built partly on islands in the Loire, is important, because till the Revolution its bridges formed the only way across the Loire between Saumur and Nantes.