288 Report on the Dairy-Farming of the North-west of France. 
and for what I know, of all Euro])e. It is a vale of about thirty-five miles 
long, and from half a mile to two miles over, being a flat tract of exceediniily 
rich land, at the bottom of two slopes of hills, which are either woods, arable, 
or poor land ; but in some places the pasture rises partly up the hills. I 
viewed some of these rich pastures, with a gentleman of Font I'Eveque, 
Mons. Reval, who was so good as to explain some of the circumstances that 
relate to them. About this place they are all gi-azed by fatting oxen : the 
system is nearly that of many of our Ent^lish counties. In March or April, 
the graziers go to the fairs of Poitou, an 1 buy the oxen le^n at about 240 liv. 
(lOZ. 10s.) ; they are generally cream-coloured ; horns of a middle length, with 
the ti[is black ; the ends of their tails black ; and tan-coloured about the eyes, 
which are the distinctions about the Foitou breed. At Michaelmas they are 
fat, aud sent to the fair at Foissy, that is Paris : such as are brought in at 
240 liv. lean, are sold fat at 350 to 400 liv. (15?. 6s. 3d to 17?. 10s.). An 
acre of good pasturage carries more than one of these beasts in summer, besides 
winter fattening sheep. This acre is 4 verges, each 40 ]ierches, and the perch 
22 feet, or a very little better than 2 English acres. The rent of the best of 
these pastures (called hn-haijes here) amounts to 100 liv. (4.1. 7s. Qd.) per Norman 
acre, or nearly 2/. 3s. 9d. the English ; the tenant's taxes add 14 liv. (12s. 3d.), 
or 6s. l^d. per English acre. The expenses may be stated thus : — 
Value in English 
Money, according to 
Arthur Young's Table. 
Livres. 
£ 
s. 
d. 
4 
7 
6 
14 
0 
12 
3 
Suppose li ox fattened, bought at 240 livres 360 
15 
15 
0 
474 
20 
14 
9 
.. 23 , 
1 
0 
1^ 
Total .. ,. 
.. 497 
21 
14 
m 
Say 
500 
21 
17 
6 
562 
24 
11 
9 
500 
21 
17 
6 
2 
14 
3 
Which is about 1?. 6s. 6d. per English acre profit ; and will pay a man well, 
the interest of his capital being already paid. As these Nonnan graziers are 
generally rich, I do not apprehend the annual benefit is less. In pieces that are 
tolerably large, a stock proportioned to the size is turned in, and not changed 
till they are taken out fat. These Foitou oxen are for the richest pastures ; 
for land of an inferior quality, they buy beasts from Anjou, Maine and Bretagne. 
The sheep fed in the winter do not belong to the graziers, but are joistCd ; there 
is none with longer wool than 5 inches, but the pasture is equal to the finest 
of Lincoln. In walking over one of these noble herbages, my conductor made 
me observe the quantity of clover in it, as a proof of its richness ; it was the 
white Dutch and the common red : it is often thus — the value of a pasture 
dc])ends more on the diadelphia than on the triandria family. 
To Lisitux. — This rich vale of the Pays d'Auge some years ago was fed 
almost entirely with cows, but now it is very generally under oxen, who are 
found to pay better. Whatever cows there are, are milked three times a day 
in summer. 
To (Jam. — The valley of Corbon is a part of the Pays d'Augc, and sai\l to 
be the richest of the whole, lu this part, 1 acre of 160 perches of 24 feet, or 
