226 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



To tlic west of tlie chateau is a little building designed to 

 furnish the pupils the means of cultivating a field of exercise 

 and study. This building includes a stable and six head of 

 cattle, a little barn, a collection of implements, another of cul- 

 tivated plants, a granary and slaughter-house. On this place 

 the students manage as they wish, going through all the opera- 

 tions incident to a large estate. Close by is a shed for making 

 drainage tile, and a beet-root distillery, a starch manufac- 

 tory, &c. 



Depth of ploughing on the one hand a^d the abundance of the 

 manures applied, as well as the character of the croppings and 

 the rotation, distinguish the cultivation of Grignon over that of 

 the general farming of France. They plough np tlie stubble as 

 soon as possible after harvesting. This ploughing is designed 

 for the destruction of weeds. The work is done with the 

 double or triple plough, which is considered best for this pur- 

 pose. The second ploughing is done with the ordinary plough, 

 and when it is designed to sow colza or roots, another horse 

 subsoil plough follows the third ploughing. 



As they make about 6,750,000 pounds of manure a year, 

 they use nearly 70,000 pounds per acre. This manure is half 

 decomposed and buried to the depth of the ploughing to compel 

 plants to push their long roots down towards the subsoil. 



The domain is divided into nine courses, one of which is in 

 natural meadow ; that is, cultivated with the natural or true 

 grasses ; two for artificial meadows, lucerne, sainfoin and clover ; 

 one for annual forage, vetches, pease, Indian corn, &c. ; and 

 one for roots, the products of which are all consumed by the 

 cattle. So that five-ninths of the area are designed to keep up 

 the fertility of the soil, while four-ninths only are reserved for 

 exhausting plants, the cereals and colza.. Adding to this the 

 fields lying along the brook, we see that the course of cropping 

 adopted is decidedly ameliorating. They feed 900 pounds live 

 weight of cattle per acre, on an average. Nor is the rotation 

 adopted less calculated to improve the soil than the course of 

 cropping, because it places the artificial meadows — clover, 

 lucerne, <fec., — in the most favorable conditions, close to the 

 root crops, which are abundantly manured, and it alternates 

 carefully the cereals with hoed crops which clean the land and 



