286 Report on the Dairy-Farming of the North-west of France. 
is charged with humus ; and the better it is covered with a thick vegetation, 
the longer will it retain its freshness. If, on the contrary, the soil is very 
tenacious, although rich in vegetable matter, the water will remain on its sur- 
face for several months ; then again it hardens and cracks during the summer, 
the grass becomes tough, and it fattens the cattle slowly and imperfectly. 
1'hc pastures upon the Dive clay in the valley of Auge and upon the Liassic 
clay in the Bessin are the most productive. 
The beautiful valley of Auge is divided into several secondary valleys, 
known as the valleys of Livarot, of St. Julien, of Crevecoeur, of Corbon, of 
Lisieux, of Pont I'Eveque, &c. In these valleys of Lower Normandy, two 
kinds of oxen are fed every year; namely, those of the district (Norman 
breed), and those brought from other departments of France. 
Towards the end of the winter or the beginning of spring, a little earlier 
or a little later, according as vegetation is more or less forward, the graziers 
and cattle-dealers frequent the lean-cattle fairs. The earliest-bought oxen 
frequently arrive before the pastures are sufficiently furnished with grass ; 
they are then, if necessary, fed with hay, care being taken to gradually diminish 
the quantity given them as the pastures come on. Generally, grass feeding 
is in full operation in the month of May, the purchases having arrived some- 
what as follows : — In March, the oxen bought at the fairs in the departments 
of la Manche, la Mayenne, la Sarthe, I'Orne, lUe-et-Vilaine, and Calvados ; 
in April those purchased in the districts of Avranchin, Perche, Brittany, Anjou, 
and the Department of Mayenne ; in May further purchases from these same 
districts and from Poitou. The best feeding beasts come from la Manche, 
Calvados, Orne, and Mayenne, districts where the Shorthorn is often crossed 
with the native breeds. The oxen which fatten the most slowly are those 
which have been bought in the Loire-Inferieure, the Deux-Sevres, and the 
Indre et Loire. 
The following is the usual order of proceeding in grazing beasts in 
Normandy : — 
From the 15th of October to the 1st of December, according to the nature of 
the soil and the abundance of grass, the oxen which have been bought lean 
at the autumn fairs of la Manche, Calvados, and Orne, are put on the pastures 
where they will pass the winter. These oxen find a sufficient quantity of food 
in the fields ; but, nevertheless, when the weather is bad and the land is 
frozen, each ox is given two " bottes " of hay per da}'. The hay is placed in 
a rack attached at the back to the end of the stable, and having a roof forming 
a pent-house, or in a wooden cage, or a kind of crate. In this latter case, the 
worst parts of the pasture are chosen, and the position of the cage is changed 
when the land has been much trampled if the weather is very wet. No matter 
what the weather, the beasts are never put under cover. 
The number of oxen that can be wintered on the land varies very much ; 
but it is rare that more than one-fifth of those that can be fattened during the 
year can be kept. There is, however, the certainty that the grass is sufficient 
to support them but not to fatten them. In the spring, after the temperature 
has risen so that vegetation becomes active under its influence, the grass soon 
grows and the oxen begin to fatten. These winter-kept cattle can thus be 
sold generally towards the end of May and in June, and they are nearly always 
lieavier than summer-fed beasts. 
From the middle of April to the middle of May, when vegetation is fully 
active, and the winter-kept cattle are tolerably well advanced, and when the 
grass begins to gain upon them, the total number of cattle which the land will 
carry is bought in, generally from 6 to 20 oxen, for each farm, according to 
the extent and the quality of the pastures, and the probability of a good crop 
of grass. If the year should turn out favourable, these animals are sold fi-om 
the middle of September to the middle of October. 
