220 HIEUDICULTURE. 



women, are almost doubled ; and they are constantly 

 employed, the one in taking care of the basins and the 

 horses, and the others in catching, cleaning, and main- 

 taining the leeches. The rearing of leeches, according 

 to the mode practised in La Gironde, by necessitating, 

 for the purpose of feeding them, the employment of a 

 great many horses unfit for anything else, gives rise to 

 a kind of fattening so considerable as to deserve to be 

 regarded as one of the most important and useful nov- 

 elties which have arisen in favour of agriculture. A 

 leech can live in water without food; but it grows lean, 

 and loses its strength and activity. Besides, an ill-fed 

 leech does not reproduce itself, or does so imperfectly. 

 It is of importance to feed these annelides. Their di- 

 gestion is very slow, and they do not require to be fed 

 more than twice or thrice a-year. M. Borne does not 

 go beyond that, and he takes three years, at the most, 

 to make a leech. The people round Bordeaux profess 

 to make a leech in eighteen months, and even in a year 

 an assertion not easily admitted by one who has paid 

 some attention to leeches ; and yet the fact is demon- 

 strated in the marshes of M. Franceschi, one of the 

 breeders in La Gironde. Different modes are resorted 

 to in order to produce rapid growth ; but the best mode 

 of feeding, and that which alone is to be employed if 

 we wish to carry on operations on a great scale, is to 

 gorge the leeches by living animals. Warm blood 

 drawn from the veins of an animal, through the skin, is 

 admitted to be that which best suits the leech, and is 

 followed by the most remunerative result. Throughout 

 La Gironde, horses, asses, mules, and cows are made to 

 enter the marshes as food for leeches. The disturbance 

 caused by their entrance attracts the leeches, which 

 come forth from their retreats, and fasten and gorge 

 themselves on their living prey. Bridges lead to the 

 different divisions of the ponds into which the animals 

 are driven, and are immediately covered with vast 

 numbers of leeches, which never leave their prey until 



