DISPOSAL FOR FOOD. 167 



help them out in their replacements in districts of horses 

 requisitioned for military purposes. Subsequent events showed 

 how necessary this was, and how correct the view of the French 

 Ministers of War and Agriculture. So great was the drain on 

 their own resources in France that by November 1917 not 

 only had 1,188,539 animals been bought in America and Spain 

 to supply wastage (Journal of Eoyal United Service Institution, 

 May 1919), but for rehabilitation at the end of hostilities they 

 took as many animals as we could dispose of, and could have 

 taken many more. 



However, on the representation of the French Government 

 the order for destruction was rescinded in favour of sale of 

 suitable animals to agriculturists and breeders at the rate of not 

 more than two animals per person, the bmia fides of each person 

 being certified by Mayors of Communes. This continued until 

 the cessation of hostilities when, of course, very serviceable and 

 good animals were put on the market under the measures of 

 demobilisation. 



The average price of cast horses and mules taken together 

 sold to Farmers and Breeders during hostilities worked out at 

 about £22 per head. A statement of the turn-over will be given 

 later on in the section. 



Chapter IV. 



DISPOSAL FOE FOOD. 



Excepting for dogs and cats, the flesh of horses in England 

 was not used as food previous to the War. On the Continent 

 it is different. In France, Belgium, and Germany it is quite 

 commonly eaten, both in the form of sausages and as prime 

 cuts. The law demands that it should be sold as horse flesh, 

 and the shops are all distinctively designated, e.g., Boucherie 

 Chevaline. In Paris there is a special and well ordered 

 Abattoir Hippophagique, with cubicles for' slaughter and 

 dressing of the carcases and stabling for about three hundred 

 animals. This abattoir was our principal centre for the 



