DEC.J FATTING BEASTS. 5j3 



FATTING BEASTS 



Demand constant attention, as already so often 

 noted ; the effect of acid food in fatting swine has 

 been long well understood, and it is remarkable that 

 I found it applied in France to fatting bullocks. 



To fatten a pair of good oxen at la Ville Aubrun, 

 would take 45 cart loads of raves, a sort of turnip, 

 cut in pieces, and 2O quintals of hay : when the 

 raves are done, they give the flour of rye or other 

 corn, with water enough added to form a paste ; this 

 they leave four or five days to become sour, and then 

 they dilute it with water, thicken it with cut chaff, 

 and give it to the oxen thrice a day : when fed with 

 raves the oxen do not want to drink. 



At Bassie they finish with flour of rye, mixed as 

 before mentioned : they assert that the oxen like it 

 the better for being sour, and that it answers better 

 in fatting them. They eat about a boisseau a day 

 (weighing 22lb.) and never give this acid liquor with- 

 out chopped hay. It is proper here to remark, that 

 in coming from Paris, we have met a great many 

 droves of these oxen, to the amount, I guess, of 

 from 12 to 1500, and that they were, with few ex- 

 ceptions, very fat ; and considering the season, May, 

 the most difficult of the year, they were fatter than 

 oxen are commonly seen in England in the spring. 

 I handled many scores of them, and found them an 

 excellent breed, and very well fattened. 



Limoges. After the raves, give rye paste, as describ- 

 ed above, but with the addition oi" a Icucu (U-vain) to 

 the paste, to quicken the fermentation, and make it 

 quite sour : at first the oxen will not drink it, but 



they 



