Horses Treadixg out Corx. 



121 



moorlands, and that does not suit the agricultural economy of the little farmers of the district, 

 although the climate is most favourable to stock-breeding of every kind. 



These semi-wild horses were in past time, and are still to some extent, employed in the 

 primitive operation of treading out the corn, a labour of a most exhausting nature. 



" At about four or five o'clock in the morning, the sheaves having been thrown in a huge heap, 

 the horses are driven on them, and sinking in the straw until only their heads and backs are seen, 

 are forced round struggling as if in a morass. This work is continued until nine o'clock, nearly 

 five hours, when they are let out to drink, and rest for half an hour. Then they are again compelled 



A-/,*-''?'J- 



BRETO.N MARES BY A PERCHERON SIRE. 



to mount the pile and trot round and round until two o'clock in the afternoon, when they rest an 

 hour. At three they begin again, and are kept at a sharp trot until si.x or seven o'clock, when the 

 straw is expected to be broken into lengths of about si.K inches. They get nothing to eat except 

 what they can pick up under the sharp eye and whip of the driver. This operation is continued in 

 the Camargue for nearly a month, of course not alwaj's with the same troop of horses. The work 

 of treading-out done, the herds of horses are driven back to the marshes until the next harvest." 



Such is, or rather was, the principal value of the Camargue pony, which under the modern 

 system of agriculture is being superseded by the flail and the threshing-machine. 



The modern Lorraine horse, which before the era of good roads, diligences, and carriers' 

 wagons, showed strong traces of Eastern blood, now converted into a heavy harness-horse, still 

 exhibits some of the quality of its ancestors, and trots freely. 



The Lorraine farmers have given up riding on horseback, says Professor Moll, but they go 

 Q 



