No. 144.J 159 



thirteen millions of England. The climate there and the soil are 

 far from being superior to ours — yet France is far behind the 

 United Kingdom in productiveness. 



Sheep.— For the last one hundred years France and England 

 have maintained an equal progress in numbers. It has doubled 

 in both countries. In 1750 each possessed between seventeen and 

 eighteen millions, and now each has thirty-five millions. This 

 apparent equality conceals a serious inequality. The thirty-five 

 millions of French sheep live on fifty-three millions of hectares, 

 while the British sheep live on thirty-one millions of hectares. 

 So that if we would equal the British in numbers relative to our 

 area, we ought to have sixty millions of sheep. The wool of 

 France is about 130 millions of pounds. That of Great Britain 

 about the same. 



But England takes the lead in an enormous ratio when mutton 

 is taken into the account. 



About ten millions of sheep are slaughtered annually in the 

 British Isles, of which eight millions belong to England alone. 

 Their Aveight equals (at the average of seventy-six pounds each) 

 about 740 millions of pounds weight, while those of France (eight 

 millions slaughtered) have an average of thirty-seven pounds of 

 nett weight, equal to about one half of the w^eight of the English 

 sheep. The figures, says Lavergne, are not of mathematical ex- 

 actness, but are near enough to give a general idea. 



France hns ten millions of cattle ; Great Britain has eight mil- 

 lions— of which England and Wales have five millions, Scotland 

 one million, and Ireland two millions. France has four millions 

 of cows, but three-quarters of them are not truly milch cows, and 

 almost all the English cows are. If English cheese is generally 

 better than French, French butter is much better than English. 

 The English cows give about three thousand millions of quarts of 

 milk — of which one- third feeds the calves — about one thousand 

 quarts for each cow, while the French get but five hundred quarts 

 for each cow. 



