canal from Nantes to Brest. The Sèvre is hemmed in by picturesque hills; at the point where it enters the department it flows past the beautiful town of Clisson with its imposing castle of the 13th century. Apart from the Loire, the only navigable channel of importance within the department is the Nantes and Brest canal, fed by the Isac, a tributary of the Vilaine, which separates Loire-Inférieure from Ille-et-Vilaine and Morbihan. The climate is humid, mild and equable. At Nantes the mean annual temperature is 54.7° Fahr., and there are one hundred and twenty-two rainy days, the annual rainfall being 25.6 in.
Horse and cattle raising prospers, being carried on chiefly in the west of the department and in the Loire valley. Good butter and cheese are produced. Poultry also is reared, and there is a good deal of bee-keeping. Wheat, oats, buckwheat and potatoes are produced in great abundance; leguminous plants are also largely cultivated, especially near Nantes. Wine, cider and forage crops are the chief remaining agricultural products. The woods are of oak in the interior and pine on the coast. The department has deposits of tin, lead and iron. N.W. of Ancenis coal is obtained from a bed which is a prolongation of that of Anjou. The salt marshes, about 6000 acres in all, occur for the most part between the mouth of the Vilaine and the Loire, and on the Bay of Bourgneuf, and salt-refining, of which Guérande is the centre, is an important industry. The granite of the sea-coast and of the Loire up to Nantes is quarried for large blocks. Steam-engines are built for the government at Indret, a few miles below Nantes; the forges of Basse-Indre are in good repute for the quality of their iron; and the production of the lead-smelting works at Couëron amounts to several millions of francs annually. There are also considerable foundries at Nantes, Chantenay, close to Nantes, and St Nazaire, and shipbuilding yards at Nantes and St Nazaire. Among other industries may be mentioned the preparation of pickles and preserved meats at Nantes, the curing of sardines at Le Croisic and in the neighbouring communes, the manufacture of sugar, brushes, tobacco, macaroni and similar foods, soap and chemicals at Nantes, and of paper, sugar and soap at Chantenay. Fishing is prosecuted along the entire coast, particularly at Le Croisic. Among the seaside resorts Le Croisic, Pornichet and Pornic, where there are megalithic monuments, may be mentioned. The department is traversed by the railways of the state, the Orléans company and the Western company. The department is divided into five arrondissements—Nantes, Ancenis, Châteaubriant, Paimbœuf and St Nazaire—45 cantons and 219 communes. It has its appeal court at Rennes, which is also the centre of the académie (educational division) to which it belongs.
The principal places are Nantes, the capital, St Nazaire and Châteaubriant, which receive separate treatment. On the west coast the town of Batz, and the neighbouring villages, situated on the peninsula of Batz, are inhabited by a small community possessed of a distinct costume and dialect, and claiming descent from a Saxon or Scandinavian stock. Its members are employed for the most part in the salt marshes N.E. of the town. Guérande has well-preserved ramparts and gates of the 15th century, a church dating from the 12th to the 16th centuries, and other old buildings. At St Philbert-de-Grandlieu there is a church, rebuilt in the 16th and 17th centuries, but preserving remains of a previous edifice belonging at least to the beginning of the 11th century.
LOIRET, a department of central France, made up of the
three districts of the ancient province of Orléanais—Orléanais
proper, Gâtinais and Dunois—together with portions of those
of Île-de-France and Berry. It is bounded N. by Seine-et-Oise,
N.E. by Seine-et-Marne, E. by Yonne, S. by Nièvre and Cher,
S.W. and W. by Loir-et-Cher and N.W. by Eure-et-Loir. Area,
2629 sq. m. Pop. (1906) 364,999. The name is borrowed from
the Loiret, a stream which issues from the ground some miles
to the south of Orléans, and after a course of about 7 m. falls
into the Loire; its large volume gives rise to the belief that it is
a subterranean branch of that river. The Loire traverses the
south of the department by a broad valley which, though
frequently devastated by disastrous floods, is famed for its rich
tilled lands, its castles, its towns and its vine-clad slopes. To
the north of the Loire are the Gâtinais (capital Montargis)
and the Beauce; the former district is so named from its gâtines
or wildernesses, of which saffron is, along with honey, the most
noteworthy product; the Beauce (q.v.), a monotonous tract of
corn-fields without either tree or river, has been called the granary
of France. Between the Beauce and the Loire is the extensive
forest of Orléans, which is slowly disappearing before the advances
of agriculture. South of the Loire is the Sologne, long barren
and unhealthy from the impermeability of its subsoil, but now
much improved in both respects by means of pine plantation
and draining and manuring operations. The highest point
(on the borders of Cher) is 900 ft. above sea-level, and the lowest
(on the borders of Seine-et-Marne) is 220 ft. The watershed
on the plateau of Orléans between the basins of the Seine and
Loire, which divide Loiret almost equally between them, is
almost imperceptible. The lateral canal of the Loire from
Roanne stops at Briare; from the latter town a canal (canal
de Briare) connects with the Seine by the Loing valley, which
is joined by the Orléans canal below Montargis. The only important
tributary of the Loire within the department is the
Loiret; the Loing, a tributary of the Seine, has a course
of 40 m. from south to north, and is accompanied first by the
Briare canal and afterwards by that of the Loing. The Essonne,
another important affluent of the Seine, leaving Loiret
below Malesherbes, takes its rise on the plateau of Orléans, as
also does its tributary the Juine. The department has the
climate of the Sequanian region, the mean temperature being
a little above that of Paris; the rainfall varies from 18.5 to 27.5
in., according to the district, that of the exposed Beauce being
lower than that of the well-wooded Sologne. Hailstorms
cause much destruction in the Loire valley and the neighbouring
regions.
The department is essentially agricultural in character. A large number of sheep, cattle, horses and pigs are reared; poultry, especially geese, and bees are plentiful. The yield of wheat and oats is in excess of the consumption; rye, barley, meslin, potatoes, beetroot, colza and forage plants are also cultivated. Wine in abundance, but of inferior quality, is grown on the hills of the Loire valley. Buckwheat supports bees by its flowers, and poultry by its seeds. Saffron is another source of profit. The woods consist of oak, elm, birch and pine; fruit trees thrive in the department, and Orléans is a great centre of nursery gardens. The industries are brick and tile making, and the manufacture of faience, for which Gien is one of the most important centres in France. The Briare manufacture of porcelain buttons and pearls employs many workmen. Flour-mills are very numerous. There are iron and copper foundries, which, with agricultural implement making, bell-founding and the manufacture of pins, nails and files, represent the chief metal-working industries. The production of hosiery, wool-spinning and various forms of wool manufacture are also engaged in. A large quantity of the wine grown is made into vinegar (vinaigre d’Orléans). The tanneries produce excellent leather; and paper-making, sugar-refining, wax-bleaching and the manufacture of caoutchouc complete the list of industries. The four arrondissements are those of Orléans, Gien, Montargis and Pithiviers, with 31 cantons and 349 communes. The department forms part of the académie (educational division) of Paris.
Besides Orléans, the capital, the more noteworthy places, Gien, Montargis, Beaugency, Pithiviers, Briare and St Benoît-sur-Loire, are separately noticed. Outside these towns notable examples of architecture are found in the churches of Cléry (15th century), of Ferrières (13th and 14th centuries), of Puiseaux (12th and 13th centuries) and Meung (12th century). At Germigny-des-Prés there is a church built originally at the beginning of the 9th century and rebuilt in the 19th century, on the old plan and to some extent with the old materials. Yèvre-le-Châtel has an interesting château of the 13th century, and Sully-sur-Loire the fine medieval château rebuilt at the beginning of the 17th century by Maximilien de Béthune, duke of Sully, the famous minister of Henry IV. There are remains of a Gallo-Roman town (perhaps the ancient Vellaunodunum) at Triguères and of a Roman amphitheatre near Montbouy.
LOIR-ET-CHER, a department of central France, formed in 1790 from a small portion of Touraine, the Perche, but chiefly from the Dunois, Vendômois and Blésois, portions of Orléanais. It is bounded N. by Eure-et-Loir, N.E. by Loiret, S.E. by Cher, S. by Indre, S.W. by Indre-et-Loire and N.W. by Sarthe. Pop. (1906) 276,019. Area, 2479 sq. m. The department takes its name from the Loir and the Cher by which it is traversed in the north and south respectively. The Loir rises on the eastern border of the Perche and joins the Maine after a course of 195 m.; the Cher rises on the Central Plateau near Aubusson, and reaches the Loire after a course of 219 m. The Loire flows through the
