Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2Jefferson, Thomas
History
Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
packing wine, when bottled, is to lay the bottles on their side, and
cover them with sand. The 2d of April, the young figs are formed; the
4th we have Windsor beans. They have had asparagus ever since the middle
of March. The 5th, I see strawberries and the Guelder rose in blossom.
To preserve the raisin, it is first dipped into ley, and then dried in
the sun. The aloe grows in the open ground. I measure a mule, not
the largest, five feet and two inches high. Marseilles is in an
amphitheatre, at the mouth of the Veaune, surrounded by high mountains
of naked rock, distant two or three leagues. The country within that
amphitheatre is a mixture of small hills, vallies, and plains. The
latter are naturally rich. The hills and vallies are forced into
production. Looking from the _Chateau de Notre Dame de la Garde_, it
would seem as if there was a _bastide_ for every arpent. The plain-lands
sell for one hundred louis the _carterelle_, which is less than an acre.
The ground of the arsenal in Marseilles sold for from fifteen to forty
louis the square verge, being nearly the square yard English. In the
fields open to the sea, they are obliged to plant rows of canes, every
here and there, to break the force of the wind. Saw at the Chateau
Borelli pumps worked by the wind.
April 6. From _Marseilles_ to _Aubagne_. A valley on the Veaune,
bordered on each side by high mountains of massive rock, on which
are only some small pines. The interjacent valley is of small hills,
vallies, and plains, reddish, gravelly, and originally poor, but
fertilized by art, and covered with corn, vines, olives, figs, almonds,
mulberries, lucerne, and clover. The river is twelve or fifteen feet
wide, one or two feet deep, and rapid.
From _Aubagne_ to _Cuges, Beausset, Toulon_. The road, quitting the
Veaune and its wealthy valley, a little after Aubagne, enters those
mountains of rock, and is engaged with them about a dozen miles. Then it
passes six or eight miles through a country still very hilly and stony,
but laid up in terraces, covered with olives, vines, and corn. It
then follows for two or three miles a hollow between two of those
high mountains, which has been, found or made by a small stream.
The mountains then reclining a little from their perpendicular, and
presenting a coat of soil, reddish, and tolerably good, have given place
to the little village of Olioules, in the gardens of which are oranges
in the open ground. It continues hilly till we enter the plain of
Toulon. On different parts of this road there are figs in the open
fields. At Cuges is a plain of about three fourths of a mile diameter,
surrounded by high mountains of rock. In this the caper is principally
cultivated. The soil is mulatto, gravelly, and of middling quality, or
rather indifferent. The plants are set in _quincunx_, about eight feet
apart. They have been covered during winter by a hill of earth a foot
high. They are now enclosing, pruning, and ploughing them.
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