290 Report on the Dairy-Farming of the North-west of France. 
so much better than feeding beasts, until he hit upon a means of 
economicatlj manuring the land. His estate near Livarot lies 
for some distance along the course of a river, which in winter 
is charged with a large quantity of mud brought down from 
higher ground. This river he tapped at its highest point on 
his estate, and besides using some of its muddy water for 
winter irrigation, he conducted a portion of it along a canal to 
a reservoir, where it formed a lake and deposited the suspended 
material, the effluent water being comparatively clear. In the 
spring this sediment was spread over the land, enormously 
increasing its productiveness, and rendering it much less tender. 
Livarot is now in the heart of the principal Camembert district, 
besides having a special skim-cheese called by its own name. 
In the treatment of dairy-cows, the farmers of each district 
pursue the same method ; but there is the greatest possible 
contrast between the practices of the grass-land and the arable 
dairy districts. In the best district for Camembert cheese (Pays 
d'Auge) and in the butter district of Isigny (le Bessin), the 
cows are always kept on the pastures, except for a short time 
before and after calving. On the other hand, in the arable 
regions of Eastern Brittany and in the neighbourhood of Paris, 
cows are kept in the sheds all the year round, except for a 
short time in the morning and afternoon in summer. Again, 
the food is nearly always the natural produce of the soil, the sub- 
stances generally known as " artificial " foods being seldom used 
in France for dairy-cattle. Bran, however, is largely used in 
the arable districts, where also the whole of the natural grass 
and a large proportion of the lucerne are always reserved for hay. 
M. Paynel has a farm of about 500 acres, close to the station 
of Mesnil Mauger, near Lisieux, in the Pays d'Auge. It is all 
in grass, and the rent averages three guineas an acre. He 
keeps 80 cows, and feeds annually about 120 beasts. The cows 
are never in the stables except at calving-time ; but from the first 
appearance of frost to the end of the cold weather they get hay 
in the fields. The hay is given in boxes divided into par- 
titions, to ensure as far as possible that each cow gets its fair 
share. The whole of the grass-land is fed more or l^ss until 
May, when about one-third of it (taken in rotation) is reserved 
for hay. The feeding-beasts are bought in April or May and 
sold the folh)wing August or September, being generally five- or 
six-year-old Norman bullocks. 
Considerable attention is paid to the rolling of grass-land in 
this district, and M. Paynel uses a roller of his own construction, 
namely, a cart with th<? roller in ])lacc of wheels. In this manner 
he has sf)lved his previous difficulty of regulating the weight of 
the roller. 
