BRITISH AND FRENCH AGRICULTURE. 169 



in agriculture is included in the horses returned, in 

 France a large proportion of the cattle are utilised for 

 work as well as for beef. In 1892 the number of working 

 oxen was returned as 1,387,050. It may be noted that 

 this fact probably serves to swell the number of cattle 

 returned, as compared with this country, as a working 

 ox no doubt lives longer, and consequently figures more 

 often in the annual census than a steer in this country. 



It is many years since the question of the advantage 

 of employing oxen for farm work was debated and 

 finally settled in this country. Here and there it is 

 still possible to find, even in southern England, a team 

 of oxen ploughing, but the sight is so uncommon as to 

 attract attention by reason of its rarity. To the vast 

 majority of British farmers the superiority of horses over 

 oxen for farm work is as much a settled question as the 

 superiority of the threshing machine over the flail. But 

 in France, the relative economy of ox and horse labour 

 is a question of very living interest and frequent dis- 

 cussion. Certainly nothing could be further from the 

 truth than the assumption that those who employ ox 

 labour are in any sense unprogressive or unintelligent. 

 They have a very intimate appreciation of the arguments 

 for and against, and their practice is based on a careful 

 calculation of the financial considerations involved. On 

 the estate of Vicomte de Chezelles, previously mentioned, 

 both oxen and horses are used sixty of the former 

 and forty of the latter. In one field of wheat on that 

 farm three McCormick sheaf-binders were at work, each 

 drawn by three horses. Ploughing and water-carting 

 were being done by oxen. The cost of keeping an ox, 

 especially on an estate where sugar-beet is extensively 

 grown, and where he is fed largely on the pulp, which is 

 in effect a bye-product, is very small, and much less than 

 that of a horse. Then again, he is reared to a working 

 age at less expense and with less trouble ; if he goes 

 wrong at any time, or meets with an accident, he is not, 



