Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/154

Rh 138 V E N -V E N mild and damp, the temperature rarely rising above 77 or falling below 18 Fahr. 120 to 150 days of rain give an annual rainfall of 30 inches. The woodland is colder than the plain, and the marsh is damp and unhealthy. Out of the total area of 1,656,531 acres arable land occupies 1,023,275 acres, grass 290,503, vines 37,467, wood 65,853, and moor, pasture, and uncultivated land 136,432. In 1881 the live stock included 29,790 horses, 4500 mules, 1950 asses, 471,775 cattle, 379,950 sheep (10,000 being of superior breed ; total wool-clip 395 tons), 55,000 pigs, and 1625 goats. There were 10,000 beehives (49 tons of honey and 10 tons of wax). The agricultural products in 1884 were returned as follows : wheat 7,312,316 bushels, meslin 65,736, rye 218,720, barley 1,218,855, buckwheat 358,985, maize 33,000, millet 129,973, oats 2,815,436, potatoes 3,938,214, beetroot 324,601 tons, wine 15,569,312 gallons, colza seed 7790 tons, hemp seed 551 tons, linseed 991 tons, flax 1786 tons, and fodder 745,792 tons. The forests (oak, chestnut, pine, poplar, hornbeam, maple, ash, beech, and elm) yielded 3,180,000 cubic feet of wood, a third of which was applied to various industrial uses. Apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, and walnuts are the principal fruits grown. The salt marshes, 4572 acres in extent and employing 3500 work men, yielded 2436 tons of salt in 1882. In 1884 18,409 tons of coal were mined. Iron, antimony, lead, &quot;the Vendee diamond&quot; (a kind of quartz), china clay, and slate are obtained ; and granite, gneiss, slate schist, limestone, cement, millstones, and clay are objects of industry. The celebrated beds of sea- shells near St Michel-en-1 Herm 2300 feet long, 985 broad, and from 30 to 50 feet in depth show to what an extent the coast has risen. The wool spinning and weaving industry occupies 12,570 spindles and 520 hand-looms ; cotton, 3100 spindles and 5 looms ; linen, 388 spindles and 478 looms (80 being power looms). There are pot teries, paper-mills, tan -yards, dye-works, a glass-work, manu factories of hats, boots and shoes, and lampblack, flour-mills, dis tilleries, tile-works, and shipbuilding-yards, and sardines and tinned foods are prepared, in all 575 industrial establishments. The sardine fishery occupies 800 boats and 2000 men, and there are extensive oyster-beds near Sables-d Olonne. Corn, cattle, mules, fish, salt, wine, honey, wood, glass, and manure are exported ; wine, wood, building material, and coal are among the imports. The shipping places are Bouin and Beauvoir in the Breton marsh, and Noirmoutier, the island of Yeu, St Gilles-sur-Yie, Sables-d Olonne, L Aiguillon, and Lii9on in the Poitevin marsh. In 1882 a total of 391 vessels (130,688 tons) entered and cleared from all these ports. Vendee has 212 miles of railway, 335 of national and 2966 of other roads, and 82 of navigable rivers and canals. In 1881 the popula tion was 421,642, and in 1886 434,808, an increase of 191,382 since 1801. The department forms the diocese of Lu^on, has its court of appeal and academy at Poitiers, and is included in the dis trict of the Nantes army corps. There are three arrondissements (La Roche-sur-Yon, the chef-lieu of the department, with 10,991 inhabitants in 1886 ; Fontenay-le-Cornte, 9282 ; and Sables-d Olonne, 10,114), 30 cantons, and 300 communes. Lu9on (6285 inhabitants) is connected with the sea by a canal, and has a cathedral of the llth, 13th, 14th, 16th, and 18th centuries, with an elegant Gothic spire, a cloister of the 15th and 16th centuries, an episcopal palace, and a hospital, with portraits of the bishops of Lujon. VENDOME, a town of France, chief-lieu of an arron- dissement in the department of Loir-et-Cher, is situated on the river Loir, 109 miles south-west of Paris by the rail way to Tours, at the junction of the line from Blois to Le Mans. The abbey of the Trinity (12th to 15th cen tury) has a fine portal in florid Gothic style. A graceful balustrade runs round the building at the spring of the roof, and two rows of flying buttresses, themselves resting on other elegant buttresses, support the nave. The high gallery of the triforium, the rich traceries of the windows, and the modern fonts are worthy of notice. Part of the building is in the Angevin style of the beginning of the 13th century. In the choir are some fine stalls and glass of the 15th and 16th centuries. The steeple, 262 feet high, which stands isolated in front of the church, belongs to the middle of the 12th century, and is one of the finest examples of Transition architecture. The lower part is rectangular and the upper octagonal, with a stone spire. It has been recently restored. The church of La Made leine (15th century) is surmounted by a stone spire, an indifferent imitation of that of the abbey. The fine tower of St Martin (16th century) is all that remains of the &amp;lt;-hurch of that name. The town-hall occupies the old ^ ate of St George ; its river front is composed of two large crenellated and machicolated towers, connected by a pavilion. The ancient hospital of St James afterwards became a college of the Oratorians, in which Mascaron was a professor, but is now a lyceum the charming chapel, dating from the 15th century, in the most florid Gothic style, is still preserved. Parts of the chateau of the counts of Vendome are as old as the llth century. A public promenade leads to the curious vaults under the castle. Vendome is the seat of an archaeological and scientific society, possesses a library of 15,000 volumes and 305 MSS., and a museum, mostly archaeological, in front of which stands a statue of Ilonsard. There are some interesting houses of the 15th and 16th centuries, and near the town are the remains of a Roman theatre. The population in 1881 was 7913 (commune 9420), the corresponding figures for 1886 being 7843 and 9325. Vendome (Vindocinum] appears originally to have been a Gallic oppidum, replaced later by a feudal castle, around which the modern town has arisen. Christianity was introduced by St Bien- heure in the 5th century, and the abbey of the Trinity was founded in 1030. About the end of the 10th century Vendome became an independent county, and was raised to a duchy in 1515. It long belonged to a branch of the Bourbon family. During the Wars of Religion the town was sacked by the Protestants, by members of the League, and was finally taken by Henry IV. Since then its industrial and commercial importance (tanneries and manufactories of woollen stuffs and gloves) has fallen off. Marshal de Rocham- beau was a native of Vendome. VENEERING is the art of attaching thin sheets or leaves of wood, ivory, &c., to the surface of wood or other material of a less costly or less ornamental description. It is thus in connexion with wood, ivory, etc., equivalent to plating in the working of metals. The art is largely practised in cabinet-work. Veneers are either cut or sawn from solid blocks or planks. The ordinary veneer saw is a circular instrument of large diameter, made up of seg ments of thin steel bolted on a strong circular iron frame, which gives the requisite stiffness and rigidity to the saw edge. The teeth of the saw are minute and finely set, so as to waste as little as possible of the valuable material as sawdust. With such a saw from 8 to 16 leaves per inch may be cut out of a block of wood and as many as 30 leaves of ivory, one-third of the solid being reduced to sawdust. Veneers are also made from certain straight- grained and pliant woods with cutting tools, either by the process of planing or of turning. For these methods of veneer-making, the wood to be operated on is first reduced to blocks of a size equal to the cutting edges by which they are to be made into veneer, and are then steamed in a closed chamber to soften the fibre. In the plane veneer- cutting machines the block of wood may be stationary and the cutter movable, or vice versa, and the cutting edge is applied obliquely to the block. Immediately in front of the cutter pressure is applied to the block to keep the shaving from splitting up. With the planing machine from 100 to 1 50 veneer leaves can be cut from each inch of thickness. P&amp;gt;y the lathe-turning method continuous strips of veneer are obtained from circular blocks the width of the cutter, and it is possible to reduce the block till a core of about only 9 inches remains. In the cutting, as opposed to the sawing, of veneers there is no waste whatever of the solid material ; but cut veneers are not so serviceable, and the most valu able veneer woods, being hard, cross-fibred, and brittle, cannot be treated otherwise than by sawing. In veneer ing, the surfaces to be united, after roughening, so as to give grip, are coated with thin glue applied very hot, and then tightly pressed together in a veneering press, with heated cauls or plates of zinc applied to their surfaces, these cauls being contoured to the necessary outline when bent veneers are being planted. Should the veneer show any blistering after removal from the press, heat, damp, and local pressure are applied till veneer and wood are