GARD. In this department of the South of France, iron, coal, and silver-lead mines are worked. Silver, copper, and calamine are found ; but the working of the mines has been abandoned. Sulphate of iron, manga nese, kaolin, antimony, fuller's and potter's clay, plaster of Paris, building stone, &c., are also found. The sheltered hills and the plains are devoted to the cultivation of the vine, the olive, the mulberry, and the almond. The vine is extensively cultivated all through the department, which yields annually 25 to 80 million gallons of good strong wine, one fourth of which is consumed at home, one sixth is distilled into brandy, and the re mainder is exported through Cette, chiefly for the purpose of mixing with the poorer wines of more northern departments. The olive, too, is carefully cultivated in sheltered spots, and on the southern slopes of the hills ; the oil of the department is in high repute. The cultivation of the mulberry, which here be comes a large and beautiful tree, is very ex tensive.
The industrial products of the department are varied and important. The principal are
silk textures of all kinds, the chief seat of :which is Nimes ; cashmere shawls, made of a mixture of Tibet wool, silk, and cotton; silk and cotton hosiery of every description ; table covers, carpets, &c.; woollen cloth, swanskins, blankets, shoe and glove leather ; silk hats ; ribbons and gloves ; iron, steam machinery, wine casks; pottery, tiles, and bricks ; glass, paper, cards ; nails, plaster, and lime; cotton and woollen yarn ; salt, soda. The commerce of the department consists of the various pro ducts already mentioned. The number of wind-mills and water-mills amounts to nearly 800; iron forges and furnaces about 150 ; fac tories and workshops, of different kinds, 500 to COO.
At Calvisson a good deal of cream of tartar is made, and the town gives name to a deli cious claret. Roqumzaane has silk-reeling fac, tories, brandy distilleries, hydraulic saw-mills, and a great manufacture of wine-casks, of which 20,000 are made annually.