490 Horse Labour in France. 



custom is for them a sheer necessity. If we look at the slow 

 growth of their breeds of cattle, the difficulty of feeding them for 

 the butcher, the want of root crops and other artificial forage, it 

 is obvious that the farmers are obliged to get something besides 

 manure and meat out of their cattle, and that is labour ; for 

 were it not for this, no French farmer could keep a single cow 

 in the districts above mentioned, the return in meat, milk, and 

 manure being totally inadequate to repay even the scanty keep 

 which is provided for them. In fact there are few districts in 

 which a farmer can breed, rear, and fatten. There are depart- 

 ments where stock-farming principally consists in breeding calves, 

 which are sold to other provinces where they are brought for 

 labour, and when old they are sold to other districts where they 

 are grazed. In very few places are these operations combined, 

 owing to the scarcity of fodder (itself a natural consequence of a 

 scarcity of manure), and the slow growth and coarseness of the 

 breeds. 



In Normandy, where horses are bred and cattle grazed, it is 

 difficult to ascertain the value of horse labour, because every 

 farmer is a horse-breeder and dealer, and seeks to make a profit 

 in that branch of trade. The French government, in order to 

 encourage improvement in the breeds of horses, grants a premium, 

 varying from twelve to twenty pounds, to the owner of a good 

 stallion approved of by the Government Inspector, and l^esides, 

 every season there are sent to various districts stallions from the 

 government establishments, called Haras, which serve brood 

 mares at a trifling charge. 



In Normandy horses are fed in the usual manner with hay 

 and com when at work, and when out of work they are turned 

 into the pastures to graze. 



From this want of uniformity in horse-keeping, as regards 

 agricultural labour, it is impossible to give anything like a 

 correct estimate of the cost of horse-keep in Normandy, but it 

 can differ very little from what it is in other districts to which 

 I shall presently allude. 



In the department of Seine et Marne, not far from Paris, where 

 high farming may be said to be as well understood and prac- 

 tised as in England, I know a gentleman holding 550 acres, Avhose 

 course of cropping is the four-course system. He keeps 15 horses 

 and 16 oxen. Every year he fattens and sells off 8 oxen; so that 

 his ox teams are renewed every two years. In summer his horses 

 work from five o'clock in the morning to seven at night ; the 

 times of rest being half an hour or three quarters of an hour at 

 seven in the morning, from eleven till one at noon, and half an 

 hour or three quarters at four in the afternoon. In winter the 

 labour continues from half-past eight till half-past four. These 



