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RECENT.REPORT ON THE SUBJECT OPF AGRICULTURE; DE- LIVERED AT THE PUBLIC SITTING OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF LA SARTHE.
N ütty communications that have been made to this Societ ] on Aoriculture, the mozt important of all the arts, and the great Source ol national opulence, we discover all the details that are either necessary or desirable. They contain obser- vations on every different Soll prevailing in the department, on the culture most adapted to each, and on the means of bring- ing them to a state of perfect fertility. A particu!ar account is given of the Successful experiments which have been made on the various kinds of foreign grain, and among these, on he wheat of Spain and Siberia, and on the rye of Russia. The resources of the department for the public Subsistence, and the projects most beneficial for rural establishments, Kave neither of them been neglected. Vines have been par- tieularly attended to, and not less, the art of converting their produce into that generous Juice, 80 conducive to the health, comfort, and enjoyment of man. The«cultivation of hemp has been deemed a desideratum of peculiar conse- quence, and numerous trials have been made on a smal]l Scale, to obtain from this vegetable two harvests in the Same year. The Society is 80 fully convinced of the magnitude of this object, that it has determined to renew the experiments on an exiensive Scale. But the application of their funds will not be confined to these: the members are Seusible, that the torests of the country have been neglected, and wish to adorn the provinces by plantations of wood suited to tbe respective s0i1s, and they are constantly desirous of renderibg the pro- duce of France equal to ils own consumption, not only in the essential articles of human Subsistence, but in every variety of vegetable growth at all congenial to the climate.
As the knowledge of nature very much depends upon the aPpropriate names or Signs She receives, the appellations of exotic trees and plants cultivated by the Society, with their qualities in medicine, and for the purposes-of the arts, have been distinguished in Latin, French,-and in the language of which ihe productions are native. Those have been cowment- ed upon which are capable of being cultivated on French ground, either in a less perfect tate, or with all the force, vi- gour, and luxuriance of their original climate. Nor has politica] arithmetic on this Subject been torgotten 3 its principies have been correetly applied, in orderto convinee goyernment of the large exzpence that will be avoided by preferring interior cul- tivation to foreign importation under Such CIrCUMStanges,
The advantages of the pine tree, and the numerous purposes to which it may be applied, were material Subjects of enquiry in a department where it preyails in Such great abundanuce,


