SECRETARY'S REPORT. 228 



ries, pig-sties, sheep-folds, and a starch manufactory, which at 

 least double the former capacity of the farm. The new build- 

 ings are simple and well-adapted to the end in view. 



The stable is placed in the left hand side of the yard, the 

 same as that occupied by the former residents of the chateau. 

 It contains twenty, mares or gelded horses. The mare has 

 been preferred on account of her quiet docility and lower 

 price, and also because some attention is paid to breeding. 

 Most of them are Percherons, and crosses with Percherons and 

 Normans, and Bretons. Two are Suffolks, and two crosses of 

 Cleveland Bays and Suffolks. The ox-stalls have ten head of 

 the Swiss and Durham, Swiss and Limousin crosses. The 

 stables for the dairy are placed at the north side of the two 

 farm ways. They hold about a hundred head, of Normans 

 and Swiss and some Shorthorn and Norman crosses, some 

 Ayrshires, and some of the little Bretons. 



A long experience has shown that at Grignon, the Swiss, 

 which are the heaviest, are kept more easily than other races, 

 even when obliged to keep them on poor and insufficient pas- 

 tures, and that they are most profitable, that is, they give a 

 greater yield of milk in proportion to food and live weiglit. 

 The average yield of milk varies, generally, from six and a 

 half to eight quarts per head per day for the year. Milk is the 

 chief object of the dairy, because the production of milk gives 

 a larger profit from an acre of forage than beef; but they try to 

 combine the production of milk with a fat carcase, without 

 feeding so high, however, as to lay on tallow. Tlie bulls are 

 worked daily. The herd is fed in the stable, as far as possible, 

 but driven out for exercise each day, especially the young 

 cattle. A herdsman has charge of from eighteen to twenty- 

 two, feeding and milking them. 



A piggery has been built by the society. It keeps from forty 

 to forty-five sows, and four or five boars. They consist, mostly, 

 of the English Berkshires and Hampshires, which have been bred 

 at Grignon from the start. They are held in high estimation 

 and muclte sought after, both for breeding and fattening. They 

 have got up a white breed, which is a little more fine and delicate. 

 The Grignon breed is very hardy and prolific, the average of 

 pigs very rarely falling below sixteen for each female in a year. 

 That is the general average of the sties. It is easily fed and 



