FRANCE. 263 



tricts containing more than 1,000 inhabitants, 147 pounds; and 176 

 pounds in Paris. In England the average consumption of meat per 

 head is about 180 pounds. This estimate of consumption must be still 

 cut down, for it would require upwards of 6,600,000,000 pounds to fur- 

 nish this quota, but the actual consumption only reaches 2,600,000,000 

 to 2,800,000,000 pounds, of which about one-tenth is imported. Italy 

 contributes largely of this amount, in the exceptional year of 1878 fur- 

 nishing to France 72,661 oxen, 41,775 cows, and 230,000 sheep. Algeria, 

 as noted before, gave 42,250 oxen in that year; Belgium furnished 5,000 

 oxen and 37,000 cows; Switzerland some hundreds of oxen and thou- 

 sands of cows and sheep ; Germany, besides 1,135,000 sheep, sent some 

 hundreds of oxen and thousands of cows. The United States, up to that 

 time, had sent only 659 oxen. Many American cattle find their way 

 through Belgium into France, owing to greater facilities for shipping 

 by the Belgian lines. In regard to the amount of this traffic the in- 

 formation can be furnished by consuls of French ports in regular steam 

 communication with the United States. 



A deficiency of the home supply of meat exists in France, yet the 

 Government has been called upon to play the role of Providence and be- 

 come responsible for unfruitful seasons, and is expected to solve the 

 problem of rendering a high price to the farmer for his meat and grain, 

 while furnishing cheap bread to the laborer. A large number of the 

 more intelligent of the population, influenced in some degree, perhaps, 

 by private interests, consider the public consumption of food as limited 

 and incapable of extension, and that increased exertion is alone neces- 

 sary to supply the home demand. They therefore conclude that the im- 

 portation of foreign food is directly hostile to the rights of the French 

 producer, and, relatively, curtails labor. 



When they prohibit and restrict the free entry of articles of food, they 

 seem oblivious to the fact that, while they can do little more to increase 

 the supply, the ordinary increase of population demands greater supply, 

 and that in cheapening the necessaries of life they increase the moral 

 and physical vigor of the workman, and enable the poor consumer to 

 apply the difference to other wants. This policy weighs heavily, and 

 inflicts cruel sufferings every day upon the manufacturing districts and 

 affords no relief to the farmer. 



CATTLE-FEEDINGS IN FRANCE. 



Stall feeding. In the north fattening is done largely in cattle-sheds 

 near sugar-houses, or in dairies near towns. The residue of sugar 

 works, distilleries, and breweries, also oil cakes of oleaginous grains, 

 form the principal base of their diet. 



Farinaceous food takes but a secondary place and is only used as an 

 accessory. The pnlp of the beet-root takes the principal place in the 

 fattening. It is difficult to form any idea of the enormous quantities of 

 food that the sugar works and distilleries of beet-root afford for fatten- 

 ing purposes. 



At present France produces 432,000 tons of sugar, for which it requires 

 7,987,500 tons of beet-root, one-third of which, 2,662,500 tons, pressed 

 pulp of beets after the saccharine matter is extracted, is used for fatten- 

 ing cattle. 



Pasture feeding. It is said that the scarcity of farm labor is circum- 

 scribing the limits of this industry. In the description of many of the 

 different breeds mention was made that pastures abounded especially 

 In Normandy, the north, Charolais, Nivernais, Auvergne, Franche 



