Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 3.djvu/689

Rh of these valleys. Let me sketch for you the one I know best, the one in which I was born. It is composed of ascents so steep that, when two neighboring houses are placed one above the other, the cellar of the upper one is on the same level as the garret of the lower one. There is not much earth on these declivities, and the rocks stick out everywhere. But it is, as it were, from the rocks themselves that our mountaineers make their mulberry-plantations. They proceed in this way: They first break up the rocks, and with the larger



stones so obtained they raise a wall; then, with the smaller pieces, they fill up the interval between the wall and the mountain. This done, they bring upon their backs, from the bottom of the valley, soil and manure enough entirely to fill the space. This is what is called a traversier, and it is in this soil that most of the mulberry-trees are planted. I have seen a bridge built across a mountain-stream expressly to give foothold for two or three of these precious trees. To pay for all this preparation the produce should be very great. The following figures give the average value of ground planted to mulberries for 20 years:

and even then the money yielded five per cent. This price, which some would not believe when I told them, has been officially confirmed by M. de Lavergne, in his remarkable writings upon French agriculture. This value of land, and the way it has been obtained, explain the nature of our country's wealth. With the exception of some families recently enriched by the silk-manufacture and the silk-trade, the level of this wealth, although very high, is more of the nature of general competence than of great fortunes. Industry and economy have