The Canal De La Sauldre and the Nineteenth-Century Improvement of the Sologne
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A French Agricultural Canal--the Canal de la Sauldre and the Nineteenth-Century Improvement of the Sologne By KEITH SUTTON HE role of canals in the early stages of jeers wlffch in the seventeenth and eighteenth the Industrial tkevolution has been fre- centuries were largely to supplement and es- T quently documented both for France pecially to link existing natural waterways, and and for elsewhere.1 A four-point appraisal of so promote their conunerce wlffch in the nine- the use of canals by Thomas Telforcl in the teenth century became increasingly of an in- early x8oo's emphasized their ftmction as a dustrial nature. Thus the significance of the means of conveying minhlg produce to the Canal de la Satddre, a minor, localized water- coast, fuel and raw materials to manufacttrdng way in the Sologne region to the south of ceutres, and manufactured goods, groceries, Orleans, lies in its function as primarily an agri- and other merchandise to markets. Firstly, cultural callal for the transport of marl. How- Tel ford itenffzed their role of"conveying Fuel ever, in its origins it approaches the more for Domestic Purposes; Manure for the pur- general, commercial conception of other poses ofAgrictdture; transporting the produce French waterways. of the Districts through which the Canalpasses, As a region of low naturalfertility worsened to the different Markets; and promoting Agri- by inadequate internal coxmmmications, a the ctdtural Purposes in geueral. ''~ Despite tiffs Sologne had prompted several schemes for early reference, Hadfield considered that "the improvement, sometimes involving canals. value of water carriage in enabling lnanure-- Although these plans proliferated in the eight- to use the old word--to be applied by farmers eenth and ~.ineteenth centuries with the wave to their land has hardly been given its right of new ideas and teclmiques of the Agricultural importance in the history of that revolution in tkevolution, a notably early sixteenth-century agricuhural methods that went on in Britain at project, conceived arotmd a central canal, was the same time as the Industrial tkevolution.''3 put forward by the savant, Leonardo da Vinci, The transport of marl--which is synonymous who passed the last few years of lffs life as a with the term manure in both these quotations protdgd of Francis I at Amboise on the western --suffered from high transport costs as much margins of the Sologne. Da Vinci's proposed as other bulky goods in the days of wagons and canal through the Sologne was part of a larger pack-horses. Early examples of the applica- waterway scheme oflffs to link the Touraine, tion of canals to agricultural purposes in Eng- lffs adopted home, with his native Italy. His land include the Basingstoke Canal which was manuscript notes and sketch-maps are far from enacted in W78 mid the Bude Canal wlffch was clear about the proposed route. Starting from designed to carry sea-sand as a marl into the Tours, or perhaps Blois, the canal was to pass interiors of Devon and. Cornwall. through P,.omorantin and then to take a direct Sinfflarly, agricultural considerations played mute to the River Allier rather than follow the little part in instigating early French canal pro- course of the River Chef. Undoubtedlyin part 1 A. L. Dunham, The Dldustrlal Revolution in France 1815-48, I955, pp. 2,8-48. " C. Hadficld, British Canals--An Illustrated History, i966, pp. 33-4, quoting T. Telford, A Survey and Report of the proposed extension of the Union Canal from Gumley Wharf, in Leicestershire, to the Grand Junction Caual, near Buckby-Wharf, in Northantptonshire, I8o4. Hadfield, op. cit., p. 98. 4 K. Sutton, 'La Triste Sologne. L'utilhation du sol dans une rdgion fran~aise ,~ l'abandon au ddbut du ,i XIXe si~cle', Norois, 6L I969, pp. 7-3o. 5I I J 5~ THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW this scheme would have ixlvolved the waters of for the transport of marl fromarourid Aubigny the River Sauldre. ~deed da Vinci considered and Blancafort. A cubic metre of marl at that by diverting water from the Loire tribu- Aubigay cost ~ frallcs, while at 8-I2 kin. tary (AUier or Cher) into the Sauldre ("le distance it had risen to 6-8 francs, so high were fleuve de Romorantin") the canal "would enrich transport costs. Furthermore, about I5 cubic the lands wlfich it irrigates, and would fertilize metres were required to marl each arpent (about the countryside; it would secure food for the I" 25 acres). If such a canal proved to be too inhabitants arid serve also as a navigable canal expensive, Soyer suggested the canalization of for commercial traffic." Thus agricultural as the Grande Sanldre river, either scheme profit- well as commercial justifications were in- ing from integration with a network of rail- voked? After daVinci's death his Sa6r~e-Loire ways. These two early rthleteenth-century link-up was proposed by Adam de Crapone projects would appear to have been the direct and the late eighteer~th century saw proposals precursors of the Carial de la Sauldre. to the Provincial Assemblies of Berry and Pleas for a more organized effort at im- Orl~anais for a Loire-Cher link-up ternfinat- provement of the whole Sologne were to some Lug at Vierzon, analogous to the earlier Canal extent answered in I848 when the central de Briaire cormecting the Loire ~d the Seine. ~ government set up the Service SpgciaI de la Other late eighteenth-century improvement Sologne as a regiona] amalgamation of the pub- schemes involvillg canals were more parochi- lic works authorities of the three departmellts ally concerned with the econo1~c and par- ofLoiret, Loir-et-Cher, and Cher to cover their ticularly agricultural development of the solognot sections as one admi~fistrative refit. In Sologne. Thus d'Autroche's plan, which won part, the Sologne was benefiting accidentally the prize offered by the Soci~t~ P,.oyale d'Agri- from a state political move in which the real culture d'Orl~ans in I876, included proposals ftmction of the Service SpgciaI was to look after for the state to provide a complete network of the Ateliers Nationaux in the area in all attempt roads supplemented by a canal either paraUel to direct tmemployed and potentially revolu- to the River Beuvron or by rendering the river tionary workers away from Pat'is by using navigable. "It is only by means of a canal that them in public works constructions. To tlfis orle can hope to drag the whole central part of end 4,ooo francs were granted in May I848, to the Sologlle out of its state of inertia and begin studies of a canal project across the death-like trance in which it is plunged. ''3 Sologne, and some rather haphazard ilfitial Some fifty years later in I836 the same excavations were started, e By October I848 Soci~t~ tkoyale again offered a prize for the these works had been completely abandoned, best me'moire o1~ the area's agricultural situation but the Service Spdcial continued and was to a_~d the means to improve it. The winner, make a siglfificant contribution in the area. Bourdon, continued to include a canal in his Numerous studies were made by these pub- projected scheme of communications, specify- lic works authorities for canal schemes, fre- ing a waterway to transport marl from the quently based on a major canal linking the Sa~cerrois, the region to the east.~ A more Loire and the Cher through the Sologne. A detailed scheme of improvement based on just report hi I85z (table I) showed the prolifera- such a canal from Sa~xcerroishad for long been tion of these schemes, v To this list one could suggested by Soyer. ~ As well as irrigating a have added the Canal du Berry which had considerable area it would principally serve been opened in I835 along the Chef Valley, 1 p. Guillaume, La Sologne au cours des sixties, I954, pp. 48-53, quoting British Museum, Arundel MSS. No. 263, fol. 2o7v. Guillaume, op. cir., p. 53. 3 L. d'Autroche, M~moire sur l'am3lloration de la Sologne, I787, p. 73. 4 M. Bourdon, M3moire sur la situation agricole de la Sologne, I84o. 5 Capt. Servier, M3moire sur lapartie est de lafenille de Gien, I839. Archives du Minlst~re de la Guerre, M.rz. l~.econnaissance Iz53. e Archives Nationales, Paris (hereafter A.N.), FIo-z348-I. 7 A.N. Fro--z346-7 Rapport sur l'amdlioration de la Sologne d'une Commission compos4e de MM. Frissard, l~obinon, Avri], Gayan et Darcy, zg-4-I85z. A PRENCH AGRICULTURAL CANAL. 53 o~ o ~ = u e0,.~."°.: 0°.S ~ °'"'*" °°'°'" "*'"' ,o,,Oo,,,o"° I :. : ~ ~ :" ,,, "., -~ ,,,,°*° .... - ~ .., - ~ " ......... : ".... :°o, u ,'° ".... ..." ~ "" .: = •. ;. o .:..." : ~ ; .° 0. ,. o , oo .,o ,~,o ,,,, ," °° "',,.o'~,,% :i ...... E~ °° o.. ,O,Oo w .ooO'" ~. ~°,o °'o,°,°. ...... m > , "°.,°Oo,°,~" + ". ~, Z~ "°,ll~ ~"o,,j,ooo" ~,,°'"'"'%%%, 54 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW but this was reaUy only peripheral to the So- ally it followed the Saul&e as far as Brinon logne. Of these schemes the report placed the where it crossed over to the Beuvron Valley Canal de la Sauldre first in order of priority. using the Etang du Puits as a reservoir. Soon after the completion of this section, the grand T.~Br.z I canalization scheme was abandoned as being CANAr. VROJ~CTSn~ rim SOr.OGN~, I85z too costly, and in I86I the idea of a network of Estimated cost local roads superseded it. Consequently the Length (thousand extension of the canal westwards to the railway (kin) francs) was replalmed, taking a more northerly line from the original scheme. It was not tmtil 1869 Grande Canal xSI I7,5oo that the second section of I3 km.