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CHAP. II.
What manner of tilling of arable grounds shall be intreated of in this Booke.
AS it is ordinarily seene that the complexions of people dwelling in the seuerall Prouinces of one great region and countrie doe differ one from another according to the aire, or aspect of the Sunne which is called the climat that they dwell in: so in like manner one may see the nature and fertilnesse of arable grounds to ingender and bring forth diuers complexions and sorts of ordering of the same more in one place than in another, according as the ground shall be moist and glib, grauelly consisting of fullers clay, brickie, stonie, or free and well natured: vvhich thing did necessarily compell our predecessors inha∣bitants of this countrie to alter and change the manner of ••illing, as also the fashion of the ploughs in France, and the con••ines of the same, as the high and base countrie of Beaun, the countrie of Normandie, and the confines thereof, Sangterre, Berrie, and Picardie: in like manner high and base Brie, Champagne, Burgo••gne, Niuernois, Bourbonnois, Rotelois, Forest, Lyonois, Bres••e, Sauoye, and againe in the countrie of Auuergne, Languedoc, Solongne (where there groweth no corne but Ri••) Bor∣delais, Rothelais, Vaudomois, Ba••adois, and generally throughout all the countrie of ••anguedoc, euen vnto Gasco••gne, Biscay, and Bearne, and not to leaue out Prouenc•• and Bretaigne, vvhich some call Gallo and Tonnant. To be short, beyond the coun∣trie of Mayne, Touraine, Poictou, Le Perche, and Conte d' Anjou, which are as it were the lands of promise in our Countries of France.
And as it is thus with our Countrie of France, so it is likewise with our neighbour countries, as both in great Brittaine and the Neatherlands, where, according to the attration of the soyles, so there is found an alteration in their tilling, the East part much differing from the West, and the North from the South, nay euen in one and the selfe same countrie is found much alteration in tillage, as shall be said here∣after.
Of all these sorts of tilling of arable ground vve haue purposed to intreat hereafter in short and easie manner, and that in regard onely of the husbandrie of the true and naturall France, vvhich vve vnderstand to containe all whatsoeuer is inclosed within the bounds and circuits of the riuers of Oyse, Marne, and Seyne: and our purpose is notwithstanding this to make the husbandrie thereof as a patterno for all other fashions and sorts of tillage vsed in all other countries, as well neere as those which are furthest off.