PREFACE.

Ecclesiasticus, Chapter 7, verse 15.

It is easier to wish for, than to encounter, a place in the fields accomplished with every convenience—that is to say, one that is both good and beautiful, where Heaven and Earth, agreeing together, bring to man everything he could desire to live plenteously. But since God wants us to be content with the places He has given us, it is reasonable that, taking them from His hand just as they are, we use them as best as we possibly can, striving by skill and diligence to supply the lack of what they miss; following what the Oracle The "Oracle" here refers to the Holy Scriptures, specifically the Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus). says: DO NOT HATE LABORIOUS WORK, EVEN IF IT BE PAINFUL. FOR HUSBANDRY WAS ORDAINED BY THE SOVEREIGN. And this light of Truth is remarkable even among the Pagans.

Virgil, Georgics, book 1. "The Father himself willed that the way of cultivation should not be easy," etc.

The Father did not wish that rural labor
Should have so easy a path; rather, in Man he birthed
Both the art and the care for cultivating the fields.
And, being just, he denied the fruits to the idle,

HE who is deliberating on the purchase of some land has a much greater privilege than those who hold it by succession Inheritance., because with money he can choose and acquire it; and he would be ill-advised, having the power to choose, to take the worst. Let him be assured nonetheless that he will never be able to find a place (whatever search and choice he makes) entirely accomplished with everything that could be desired there. This is why those who love Agriculture must first, each in his own regard, well know the quality and particular nature of his Land, to help it by industry original: "industrie." In this period, the term referred to human ingenuity, cleverness, or technical skill rather than mechanized manufacturing. to conceive and bring forth its fruits, according as it is diversely capable. Art combined with diligence draws from the bowels of the Earth (as from an infinite and inexhaustible treasure) every kind of riches. And there is no doubt that whoever will carefully cultivate it will receive, in the end, a worthy reward for the time and care he has employed there, wherever it may be.

I do not mean to say that there is no difference from Land to Land. It would be to have lost common sense to equal all territories in goodness and fertility; but rather, that experience has not without cause made recognized the truth of this Proverb, One country is worth another. The Mountain, where there are trees and grasses from which many conveniences are drawn for various uses of very great profit, does not yield in revenue to the Valley and Countryside, which brings forth grain only with much expense and labor. This is seen clearly enough without searching for proof elsewhere than in our region of Languedoc, from where the largest and richest houses are found in the Mountains of the Vivarais and Gévaudan These are rugged, mountainous regions in south-central France; de Serres argues that even this "difficult" terrain produces great wealth through forestry and livestock..