No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 837 



liice the uuikiug uL' suyar or staiH-li or aleohoJ. There is also an 

 active live-stock iuterest; but horses and beef cattle and sheep re- 

 ceive most attention. There are mines in this region also, coal, 

 iron and lime, and numerous large manufacturing towns, such as 

 Amiens, Arras, Douai, Lille and St. Quentin, so that there are large 

 local markets for hay and all forage, and so far as there is dairying, 

 it is nearly all for making milk for town sui)ply. Yet this part of 

 France,* and particularly French Flanders, is the home of a race 

 of cattle not widely known, which furnishes by far the best dairy 

 cows in this part of Europe. These are the Flamandes, a large- 

 framed, rangey, dairy type of cattle, uniformly dark brown or almost 

 black in color, healthy, active but docile, good feeders and producers 

 of large quantities of rich milk. These cattle justly won the sweep- 

 stakes prize for dairy animals at the Paris Exposition stock show. 

 But it is said they always deteriorate rapidly when moved from 

 the comparatively small district in which they had their origin 

 or development, and this accounts for tlie breed being so little 

 known elsew^here. 



To find other interesting dairy districts in France one must, there- 

 fore, travel again to the south, and fully half way from Paris to 

 the Mediterranean Sea. This brings one into the old province of 

 Auvergne, that very beautiful mountainous district which covers 

 the present departments of Puy-de-Dome and Cantal. It is an 

 elevated territory, near the center of the country, with the great 

 valleys of the rivers Gironde and Rhone on either side. It is a 

 favorite region v/ith tourists and with those who enjoy mountain 

 air and mineral water. The attractions are picturesque hills and 

 valleys, quaint towns and old castles, peaks like Mont Dore and Puy- 

 de-Domo (with its 25 famous springs), and numerous health resorts, 

 among which is Vichy, and its immense hot springs, whose waters 

 are known the world over. The dairying is influenced by the typog- 

 raphy of the country and the comparatively scattered population. 

 Aside from supplying local wants, the chief dairy product is cheese 

 and this is one of the only two parts of France in which a large 

 cheese is made. This kind is called the Cantal; in shape it is like 

 a cask, or an English Cheddar, often two feet high and eighteen 

 inches in greatest diameter. It is solid, well-pressed, but the curd 

 is not cooked and the body is soft and white, like an uncured Ched- 

 dar. The exterior of these cheeses is dressed so as to have a white, 

 chalky appearance; they weigh from sixty to one hundred pounds, 

 and are regarded as of second quality in the Paris markets. 



Passing still farther south, the Department of Aveyron is reached. 

 Here the country is still more mountainous and very rough, rocky, 

 bleak and unattractive. The high ridges are almost destitute of 

 trees and but poorly covered ^vlth verdure; the valleys are deep, 



