Report on the Dairy-Farming of the North west of France. 281 
crops of green food or hay, and which in most districts can be 
profitably laid down for from seven to ten years.* 
The importation of French butter into England is, however, a 
great fact, although it is not due to the superiority or the extent of 
French grass-land ; and, what is more important still, the French 
product commands prices which cannot often be approached 
by any English butter offered for sale in large quantities on the 
Londcm market, where also Irish butter is fast becoming an 
article of mere antiquarian interest. The following Table gives 
the quantities and estimated values of French cheese, butter, 
and eggs imported into the United Kingdom in the years 1873 
to 1877 inclusive: — 
Imports of Cheese, Butter, and Eggs into the United Kingdom 
from France, from the years 1873 to 1877 inclusive. 
(From the English Official Statistics.) 
1873. 
1874. 
1875. 
1876. 
1877. 
Butter 
Cwts. 
4,819 
44G,550 
Gt. 100. 
4,307,468 
Cnts. 
5,487 
713,251 
Gt. 100. 
4,494,062 
Cwts. 
7,741 
567,560 
Gt. 100. 
4,835,103 
Cwts. 
8,744 
622,488 
Gt. 100. 
4,187,790 
Cwts. 
9,614 
606,762 
Gt. 100. 
3,678,166 
1873. 
1874. ! 1875. 
1876. 
1877. 
Butter 
Kgg3 
£ 
17,496 
2,409,861 
1,952,814 
£ 
20,741 
3,944.233 
2,018,725 
£ 
28,175 
3,387.219 
2,078,659 
£ 
33,291 
3,732,405 
1,864,135 
£ 
37,280 
3,054,488 
1,602,038 
* Artlmr Young devotes a chapter to lucerne, and, in siunming up his notes, 
makes the following statement : — " The culture of the plant under our considera- 
tion is one of the principal features of French husbandry. "We have gone to the 
French scliool for the culture of it, yet it is ill-managed, and with bad success in 
Enghmd, and has been so in every period ; but in France, even in climates similar 
to our own, it is an object of almost uniform profit ; and it must therefore be 
unfortunate indeed if we do not extract something from the French practice 
deserving our attention and imitation. The first leading circumstance that 
demands our attention is the unvarying practice of sowing it broadcast. The 
lucerne in Spain, which is of a luxuriance we have no conception of, and tlie 
little I h.ive seen in Italy, is all sown in the same way : a contrary practice, 
namely, tliat of drilling, has very generally taken place in England ; it has been 
repeatedly urged that the humidity of our climate renders hoting necessary to 
keep it free from the spontaneous grasses ; and, if hoeing is necessary, drilling is 
certainly so. But this necessity is not found to take place in the noith of France, 
'the climate of which very nearly resembles our own. After some yt ars those 
grasses destroy it there as well as here ; but the French think it much more 
profitable when that happens to plough it up, than to insure a longer po.sscssion 
by perpetual expense and attention." See also the late Mr. John Ohiydcn's note 
on the growth of Lucerne in the first volume of the second scries of this Journal, 
18C5, p. S-VJ. 
