The area of the department is about 1,450,000 acres, of which about 600,000 acres are under the plough. The soil of the Plain is tolerably fertile; but the produce in corn is inadequate to the supply of the dense population. The principal crop is of oats ; barley, wheat, and marlin (wheat and rye mixed), are also grown, and hemp and hops. The grass-lauds amount to ;80,000 acres, and the heaths and open pastures to about 90,000 acres. The number of horned cattle is very considerable. The dairy is well attended to, and cheese and butter are made in large quantities. Horned cattle are small. Horses too are of inferior size but numerous. A great number of pigs is reared.
The vineyards cover about 11,000 acres, and the orchards and gardens occupy about the same space. The produce of the vineyards is about 5 million gallons a year of ordinary red wine. The quantity of stone-fruits grown is considerable ; among them are the queteh or German plum, and the cherry from which kirschwasser is made.
The woodlands have an area of above 300,000 acres, and the forests and wastes 170,000 acres. More than 300 saw-mills, moved by water, are employed in sawing deals, which are floated down the Meurthe and the Moselle to Metz; and staves, which are floated down the Coney into the SaOne. Game and fish are plentiful.
The department of Vosges is one of the principal manufacturing departments in France. In the arrondissement of Epinal are iron works, numerous paper-mills, saw-mills, potteries, and tanneries; in the arrondissement of Mirecourt are glass-works and iron-works, and a considerable manufacture of lace and musical instruments; in that of Nenfehatesu are oil-mills, paper-mills, saw-mills, iron-works, and manufactures of musical instruments and shoes; in that of Ilemire mont, potash and other chemical products, kirschwasser, and paper are made; and in that of St.-Di6 wooden shoes, wooden wares, cotton yarn and other cotton goods, paper, and wrought iron. The exporta tion of cheese and timber from the department is very great.
The department is divided into five arrondissements, which, with their population, are as follows :— 1. In the first arrondissement the chief town Is Epinal, which is also the capital of the whole department. [EPINAL.] Ranberrillers, a well-built town with 4800 inhabitants, is situated on the right bank of the Mortagne, over which is a atone bridge communicating with a suburb on the opposite bank. The townsmen manufacture coarse woollen-cloth, linen, paper, leather, earthenware, madder. iron, and jewellery. Considerable trade Is carried on in corn, hemp, iron, paper, and hops. The town has an hospital and a publie library of 10,000 volumes.
2. In the second arrondiasement the chief town, Illisteourt, on tho Madon, 17 miles N.W. from Epinal, has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a pubio library of 7000 volumes, and 5194 inhabit ants. The town is in a pleasant and highly-cultivated district, but is ill built. The townsmen ars chiefly engaged in the manufacture of musical instruments; &great number of church organs and bird-organs, and of base-viola, violins, guitars, and other &triaged instruments are made. Lace, leather, and wooden wares are also manufactured ; and trade is carried on in wine, brandy, and sheep. There are four yearly fairs. Mireccrurt has several fountains, and a handsome hospital Channes, on the left bank of the Moselle, over which is a handsome bridge, has a population of about 2000, who trade in corn, wine, wood, hides, gypsum, and lace, and manufacture lace, kirschwaaser, and leather. Fontenoirle-Ch&eau, on the Coney, and !Sarney, on the Saone, were formerly places of strength.
3. Cu the third arrondissement the chief town, Neafehetteau, on the Mouton, near its junction with the Manse, 37 miles N.W. from Epinal. has a tribunal of first instance, a college, a public, library of 8000 volumes, and 3589 Inhabitants. It Is a well-built town, and stands on a small eminence surrounded by loftier hills. The townsmen manufacture coarse woollen-cloth, awanakin, cotton counterpanes, wicker ware*, and nails and brads; and trade In wood, iron, and hard wares. La-Marche, near the source of the Mouzon, has about 2000 inhabitants, wrought-iron works, and oil-mina It was the native place of Guillaume do la Marche, who founded the college of Ls Marche at Paris. The village of Dontrenti, on the left bank of the Meuse, close to the north-west border of the department, possesses historical interest as the birth-place of Jeanne or Joan of Aro (1412): it takes from this circumstance the distinctive epithet of Domremt-la-Pacelle.
The house in which Jeanne was born is still standing near the church, and I. easily recognised by its gothic doorway surmounted by three escutcheons with fleurs-de-lis, and by an ancient statue representing the maid covered with her armour. It has become national property by purchase, and near it a school for the girls of the village has been built, and placed under the direction of the Sisters of Charity. A monument in honour of Jeanne d'Aro was inaugurated in 1820: it consists of a fountain with a quadrangular base, from which rise four isolated pilasters supporting an entablature with two fronts, and sur mounted by a bust of the heroine. It stands in the public place of the village, and has this simple inscription : "A In ra6moire de Jeanne d'Are"—" To the memory of Jeanne d'Are." 4. In the fourth arrondissement the chief town is Remiremont, which &tends on the Moaelle, at the foot of the Pencilled Mountains, 27 miles S.E. from Epinal, and has 5191 inhabitants. Remiremont takes its name from 10maric, a noble of the early Frankish period, who had a castle on an eminence near the town. He founded on the eminence two abbeys (an. 620), one for monks, the other for nuns, and en dowed them with all his possessions. These abbeys having been destroyed in the 10th century, were rebuilt in the plain. The most important of tho two was that for lady-canonesses, who were not bound by a monastic vow, but none were admitted who could not prove tho nobility of their family for four generations : the abbess was a princess of the empire, and enjoyed the prerogatives and main tained the state of a sovereign. The abbey was rebuilt iu 1752, by Anne Charlotte of Lorraine, then abbess. The abbey church, now the parish church, is a handsome structure in the Italian style. The principal streets of Itemiremont are watered by a brook which flows into the Moeello : the houses are old and not well built, but there are some pleasant promenades. There are a college, a public library of 5000 volumes, an hospital, and a tribunal of first instance in the town. The manufactures comprise cottons, paper, leather, wrought-iron, potash, and kirschwasser; tho trade in wood, iron, hemp, cattle, cheese, and medicinal herbs is important. There ore numerous saw mills driven by water-power in the neighbourhood. Plombilres, a small village situated in a vale-head of the Faucilles Mountains, is celebrated for its warm mineral springs, and for a beautiful church, built by Stanislas Leckzinski, duke of Lorraine.
5. In the fifth arrondissement the chief town, St.-Die, is situated en the Meurthe, and has a tribunal of first instance, a public library of 10,000 volumes, an ecclesiastical college, and 8602 inhabit ants. The town, which is well-built and surrounded with a wall, gives title to a bishop, whose diocese is the department of Vosges. Cotton fabrics and potash are manufactured, and in the neighbourhood am paper-mills, iron-works, and wire-factories. Among the other towns, all of which are small, may be named llaan L'Etape, on the Meurthe, population 3500 for the whole commune ; Senones, N. of St.-Di6, on the Rabodot, population 2500 for the whole commune ; and Gleardmer or Girome, on the Valogne, population 5625 for the whole commune. Racal l'Etape is an old town, poorly built, at the foot of a hill. G6rardmer has considerable trade in cheese, and iu wooden wares and wooden shoes made in the neighbourhood. It consists of a number of hamlets and country houses built without regularity, in a valley on the eastern shore of the Lake of Odrardmer, 14 miles S. from St.-Did. In the middle of n long irregular street stands a handsome pariah church. In the commune are many saw-mills driven by water power.
The department constitutes the diocese of SL-Did, the bishop of which is a suffragan of the archbishop of Besancon : it is iu tho jurisdiction of the Imperial Court, and within the limits of the Uni versity-Academy of Nancy, and is comprehended in the 5th Military Division, of which the head-quart3rs aro at Metz. It returns three members to the Legislative Body of the French empire.