224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



fattened. They easily obtain 270 pounds of pork, at eight 

 montlis, and 450 at a year old. Young choice pigs are readily 

 sold at $Q apiece, at four weeks old, and ordinary ones at i3, 

 for fattening. 



The sheep-fold was built for the purpose, and is capable of 

 keeping 1,200 sheep and their food. The larger part of the 

 flock is composed of a cross of Leicester-Merinos, in the pro- 

 portion of three-quarters Merinos and one-quarter Leicester. 

 This cross is now fixed at Grignon, and gives excellent results. 

 The sheep are generally fattened at two years, and give, at this 

 age, from forty-five to sixty pounds of mutton. The wool is 

 long and can be carded, and is sold from two to two and a half 

 francs the killogramme (of two and a quarter pounds.) The 

 average weight of the fleece is about nine pounds, in the grease. 

 They have also a small flock of South Downs, which is very much 

 esteemed for the quality of its mutton and its easy keeping 

 qu-alities. A shepherd has charge of from two to three hundred 

 head. 



They also keep some fowls and raise silk-worms, commencing 

 in June and ending in July, but only enough to serve the pur- 

 poses of instruction. 



A part of the yard which separates the cow stalls from the 

 hay and forage barn, is devoted to making manure, in platforms 

 on which it is worked over. The attention of visitors is espec- 

 ially called to tlie process of making manure, a thing too often 

 neglected in France ; and yet the great and single problem 

 to solve, in agricultural industry, is the economical manufacture 

 of manure. Quantity, quality and cheap fertilizing materials, 

 are the source of great profit and prosperity in farming. 



The choice of cropping and the low price of forage, the rations, 

 &c., modify the price of the yield and the quantity of manure 

 produced ; the process of manufacture acting directly on the 

 quality, it will be useful to indicate, in detail, the care devoted 

 to this preparation. 



One man has special charge of this work. The manure plat- 

 forms are sixty feet long and eighteen feet wide, and are«carefully 

 macadamized and made slightly convex towards the outer bor- 

 ders. A trench surrounds them and serves to conduct the 

 liquids, which empty into a kind of manure cistern, placed 

 between the two heaps. 



