FRANCE. 273 



"high above ground; 77 very thick bones and strong limbs; thick mus- 

 cles, long body, well supported; deep but rather narrow chest, flat ribs, 

 rather thick neck, fore quarters more bulky and heavier than hind onesj 

 rather flat thighs; thick skin, thick flat horns bent forward and gener- 

 ally downward. 



This fine breed forms the wealth of the Southwest of France, to which 

 it gives its work and meat. Strong, docile, and handy, it works well 

 and much, but with a slow pace. 



The ox takes flesh easily; the cow hardly has milk enough to feed her 

 calf. 



Raising Garonnaise calves. It the calf is intended to make a beast of 

 burden, he is fed, until four months old, by his mother and at the same 

 time by a Brittany cow used as assistant nurse (that cow assists in feed- 

 ing three calves), then he receives a little bran until six months old, when 

 he is weaned. He is then sent grazing all day and stabled at night; he 

 receives besides green or dry forage, according to the season. Such is 

 the diet he will follow up to his last day. When thirteen months old, 

 he is castrated and begins to be broken to the yoke; from that age to 

 that of two years and a half, he is employed to do the light work of the 

 farm ; from two and a half to five or six years old, he is put to the coarser 

 works of agriculture, then stabled to be fattened. The fattening begins 

 in February and is finished at the end of September. The animal re- 

 ceives at first radishes and turnips, which are chopped with straw, then 

 purple clover and corn fodder; to that green forage is added bran, corn, 

 flour, and rape or linseed cake; during all the time of fattening the ox 

 is not allowed to go out. 



A calf three and a half or four months old is sold for the stall at from 

 818 to $30. 



If the calf is intended to be kept for reproduction, he is weaned only 

 when nine months old, and up to that time has three nurses besides a 

 special food of meal or flcury substances; he is then sent grazing dur- 

 ing the day and stabled at tiight; when ten or eleven months old ho may 

 be" sold for $GO or $70; he begins to serve when fifteen months old, and 

 when he reaches the age of thirty months he becomes too heavy for cover- 

 ing; he is then fattened without being castrated, and sold to the butcher 

 at the price of 7 cents per live pound. The cows are covered when fif- 

 teen months old; they go to pasture during the day, and receive a ration 

 i the stable where they are kept at night; this ration consists of green 

 ^r dry forage according to the season. 



Working Garonnaise' cattle. The cows work like the oxen. When 

 farrow or too old to work, they are fattened and sold to the butcher, 

 who pays about 7 cents per live pound. 



An ox at the age of maturity, five or six years old, weighs 1,100 or 

 1,200 pounds. After having been taken away from the work and fat- 

 tened he weighs from 1.300 to 1,400 pounds. He is then sold to the 

 butcher at from $150 to $175, and yields 55 per cent, of the live weight 

 in meat. When specially fattened for the stall the ox weighs up to 

 2,500 pounds, at about four years of age. Its flesh has a fine grain. 



A pair of working oxen, from four and one-half to five years old, 

 are sold at from 82CO to $300. 



A pair of Garonnais oxen can pull a cart-load (two- wheeled cart) of 

 10,000 pounds weight for 12 miles in one day, but can work at that 

 rate only three times a week. The working pace is about 1} miles per 

 hour. The working animal is fed on bran, dry hay, and sometimes a 

 little ration of oats. 



H. Ex. 51 18 



