280 Report on the Dairy-Farmivg of the North-west of France. 
scale as that on p. 279 ; and therefore I have calculated from 
official sources the actual extent of arable and grass-land in 
Imperial acres in the several departments of Normandy : — 
Departments. 
Arable. 
Permanent 
Grass and 
Orchards. 
Sheepwalks 
and 
Mountain 
Pasture. 
Seine Inferieme . . 
895,052 
769,570 
947,627 
904,592 
877,752 
200,295 
242,500 
83,100 
193,190 
193,402 
61,205 
15,000 
27,925 
28,825 
14,425 
It thus appears that in the two westernmost departments of 
Normandy — the celebrated dairy-departments of la Manche and 
Calvados — much less than one-fourth of the whole cultivated land 
is in permanent grass of all qualities ; in the Lower Seine and 
the Orne between one-fifth and one-sixth, and in the Eure 
scarcely more than one-tenth. In Brittany the permanent grass 
is even less extensive, but, on the other hand, the acreages of 
mountain pasture and sheepwalk (which were formerly included 
in the returns with the uncultivated land) are so large that, unless 
kept quite distinct from ordinary rent-paying grass-land, they 
would lead to an erroneous inference. 
On our side of the Channel the counties placed opposite to 
the Norman shore have the following acreages of arable and 
grass land : — 
Counties. 
Arable. 
Permanent 
Grass. 
Wiltshire 
368,289 
666,892 
283,735 
553,218 
233,865 

170,436 
457,661 
566,356 
196.185 
249,883 
Thus in Cornwall one-third of the whole cultivated are* is in 
permanent grass, in Devonshire the proportion is considerably 
more, and in Dorsetshire amounts to one-half. In Somerset- 
shire two-thirds of the agricultural land is in permanent grass, 
but in Wiltshire not much more than one-fourth. Therefore, 
on our side of the Channel, the least grassy of our western 
counties has a larger proportion of its cultivated area " with 
verdure clad " than the most pastoral of the French departments. 
It should, however, be added that the deficiency of permanent 
grass in France is to a great extent neutralised by the extensive 
cultivation of lucerne, which in favourable seasons gives three 
