MARNE, a department of the north of France, formed out of the parts of the ancient province of Champagne, called Remois and Perthois, and a portion of Brie. It extends in east longitude from 2. 20. to 4. 53. and in north latitude from 48. 4L to 49. 24. including a surface of 3399 square miles, or, according to the Descript. Topog. et Statis., 848,000 hectares. It is bounded on the north by the department of the Ardennes and the Aisne, on the east by that of the Meuse, on the south by the Upper Marne and the Aube, and on the west by the Seine-Marne and the Aisne. The land under the plough is 562,571 hectares, uncultivated 99,962, meadows 42,200, woods 84,554, vineyards 23,176, gardens 15,721; the rest forms the sites of towns and vil. lages, roads, rivers, and ditches. In the great plain which forms the centre of the department, the soil is either chalky or sandy, and very poor; the small villages are far from one another, and few trees are to be seen. It is only on the banks of the streams and on the borders of the department that any fruitful land is found. Much of the land requires a fallow of one, two, or three years, and, even with that, produces but scanty crops of corn. In general, wheat and rye scarcely yield four times the seed. That in the valleys is more productive; but the whole does not yield sufficient corn for its scanty population, which is about one person to five acres of land. The most esteemed product is that wine known through Europe by the name of Champagne, which is raised on the part called Champagne Pouilleuse. The best of the white wine is grown in Sillery, Marevil, Epernay, and Dizy; and of the red in Ber-zenay, Thaizy, Cumières, Ay Hautevillers, and Pierry. The operations of preparing and managing this highly esteemed wine require much care and attention, and are also very expensive; but the price at which it is sold enriches those who make it and those who deal in it. As the greater part is sold ready bottled, the glass-houses for making these bottles form an important branch of industry. A ccording to official accounts furnished by the director of the arrondissement of Rheims, it appears that the whole quantity of land devoted to the growth of these wines is little more than a twentieth part of the cultivated soil, being 9857 hectolitres, or about 24,840 English acres. The average produce of an acre of vines is about 156 gallons. The expense of cultivating an acre of vineyard is about L.9. 15s. exclusive of rent, which varies excessively. Few of the vineyards, however, are rented; they are by far the greater part cultivated by the proprietors. The value of vineyards varies, according to the quality of the wine they yield, in an excessive degree, some not selling for more than L.30, and others as high as L.500, the acre. An intelligent cultivating proprietor states, that “the vineyard proprietor who possesses from twelve and a half to fourteen acres, and who cultivates them himself, or carefully watches over their cultivation, may get a return of 6 per cent, on his capital; but he must be careful and economical, and have a small fund in reserve to help him over vicissitudes.”

. The quality of the red sparkling Champagne has been of late decreasing; as it is found more profitable to use the juice of these grapes formerly applied to make the red, to the making of the white wine.

Number of Bottles of Sparkling Champagne exported from the Department of the Marne in the year 1833.
[table]

The stock of these sparkling wines is supposed to be about equal to three years’ consumption. Besides the merchants, there are many proprietors who bottle their own wines, and even buy them of their neighbours; others, who are unwilling to incur the cost and trouble of bottling, keep their wines in casks, and thus replenish the stocks of the dealers. Such wines, if kept to the succeeding vintage, will not sparkle when bottled alone, but do so when mixed with new wine, whose quality they serve to improve.

Excepting the trade in wine, there is little of any other kind in the department. There are some manufacturers both of linen and woollen goods, who live almost wholly in Rheims or Chalons, and they chiefly supply the demands of the immediate vicinity. The department is divided[7:14:256] into five arrondissements, and these into thirty-two cantons and 699 communes or parishes. The principal towns and their populations are, Rheims, with 35,971 inhabitants; Chalons-sur-Marne, with 12,413; Vitry-le-Français, with 6976; Epernay, with 5318; and Saint Menehould, with 2933. The whole inhabitants of the department amounted in 1833 to 337,076.

Marne, Upper, a department of France, formed out of the Perthois, Vallage, and Bassigny, in the ancient ,Champagne, with some portions of Burgundy, of Bar, and Franche Comté. It extends in east longitude from 4.31. to 5.44. and in north latitude from 47. 4L to 48. 36., being 3721 square miles, or 642,600 hectares. The soil is classed in the following order by French authorities, viz. into ploughed land 332,463 hectares, meadows 30,610, vineyards 173,837, woods and forests 42,575, upland pasture 31,975, uncultivated land 1614; and the remainder is occupied by the sites of houses, the roads, or the courses of the rivers. The department is generally hilly, with fertile valleys between the ranges, which are part of them continuations of the mountains of Langres and others of the Vosges, but of the latter a few attain the height of 1450 feet. The soil is for the most part calcareous, but with a coat of clay, which requires great strength of draught cattle. It is the source of several rivers, most of which run into the channel or the German Ocean, but some to the Mediterranean. The chief rivers which have their source here are the Marne, the Meuse, and the Aube. The climate is, from the elevation, cold and sometimes foggy, and the frosts at a late period in the spring often injure the crops. One fourth part of the surface is covered with wood, which, by the rivers, is conveyed to parts of the kingdom where fuel is more scarce. The products of husbandry are the common grain of Europe, but not of the first quality, nor is more yielded than suffices for the consumption of the 230,000 persons who inhabit the department. The mines of iron afford some employment; and the working of the metal, and especially converting it into cutlery and other forms, maintains many families, who fabricate goods of that kind to the amount of two millions of francs annually. There are likewise manufactures of paper, earthenware, leather, and corn spirits, some cotton spinning, and some hosiery. The chief articles of which there is a surplus are, iron goods, wood, wine, wool, leather, and wax. The department is divided into three arrondissements, twenty-eight cantons, and 552 communes. It has few large towns. Chaumont is the capital, with 6500 inhabitants.