wheat is the chief, maize and oats coming next. Potatoes, vines and
tobacco are important sources of wealth. The best wines are those of
Clairac and Buzet. Vegetable and fruit-growing are prosperous. Plum-trees
(_pruniers d'ente_) are much cultivated in the valleys of the Garonne and
Lot, and the apricots of Nicole and Tonneins are well known. The chief
trees are the pine and the oak; the cork-oak flourishes in the Landes,
and poplars and willows are abundant on the borders of the Garonne.
Horned cattle, chiefly of the Garonne breed, are the principal live
stock. Poultry and pigs are also reared profitably. There are deposits of
iron in the department. The forges, blast furnaces and foundries of Fumel
are important; and agricultural implements and other machines are
manufactured. The making of lime and cement, of tiles, bricks and
pottery, of confectionery and dried plums (pruneaux d'Agen) and other
delicacies, and brewing and distilling, occupy many of the inhabitants.
At Tonneins (pop. 4691 in 1906) there is a national tobacco manufactory.
Cork cutting, of which the centre is Mézin, hat and candle making, wool
spinning, weaving of woollen and cotton stuffs, tanning, paper-making,
oil-making, dyeing and flour and saw-milling are other prominent
industries. The peasants still speak the Gascon patois. The
arrondissements are 4--Agen, Marmande, Nérac and Villeneuve-sur-Lot--and
there are 35 cantons and 326 communes.
Agen, the capital, is the seat of a bishopric and of the court of appeal
for the department of Lot-et-Garonne. The department belongs to the
region of the XVII. army corps, the _académie_ of Bordeaux, and the
province of the archbishop of Bordeaux. Lot-et-Garonne is served by the
lines of the Southern and the Orleans railways, its rivers afford about
160 m. of navigable waterway, and the lateral canal of the Garonne
traverses it for 54 m. Agen, Marmande, Nérac and Villeneuve-sur-Lot, the
principal places, are treated under separate headings. The department
possesses Roman remains at Mas d'Agenais and at Aiguillon. The churches
of Layrac, Monsempron, Mas d'Agenais, Moirax, Mézin and Vianne are of
interest, as also are the fortifications of Vianne of the 13th century,
and the châteaux of Xaintrailles, Bonaguil, Gavaudun and of the
industrial town of Casteljaloux.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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