The Prize Farm of M. de Behaque. 
21 
The period of irrigation should perhaps be added to this series, 
whicli Avill work a greater change in our supply of forage than 
alternate husbandry has effected, whenever we can shake off" the 
trammels of custom, the conflict of private rights, and the obstacles 
imposed by legal embarrassments. 
It was M. de Behaque's fortune to be at once the pupil of 
M. Dombasle at Roville, and the neighbour and friend of M. 
Royer ; and thus, while he became popularly known as the ex- 
hibitor of high-bred stock and a pattern for high farming, he 
■chiefly prided himself on being a sound rural economist, and 
pointed with especial satisfaction to his woods waving over 
Moque-gueule (Baulk-throat), once a dreary tract, where to the 
far horizon no sign of vegetation or of man was perceptible. The 
•estate, then, contains specimens of land of all kinds, worth from 
101. per acre on the banks of the Loire, to 3/. in the back 
country ; and the management and capital employed vary with 
the soil. Here 16/. per acre is invested, and a bullock or its 
equivalent in live stock * kept on every hectare (2J acres) ; there 
the outlay is 155., and the crop, fir-trees. 
In 1826 M. de Behaque found that part of his' estate which is 
called Dampierre, 1440 acres in all, divided into sixteen holdings, 
which together paid 362Z. a-year. Of these lands the 1040 acres 
i(arable and gi-ass), now included in the farm, are charged with a 
rent of 682/., and the yearly increase in the value of the planta- 
tions which he has made, is set at about 8s. per acre, or 150/. a- 
year for 380 acres. At that time the corn grown hardly sufficed 
for home consumption ; the live stock were few and wretched, 
fed on the waste, to the injury of the woods, which were maltreated 
an every way. The course pursued was to select the best lands 
for culture and plant the rest, doing justice to both. 
The farm consists of portions varying in extent and quality : — 
Acres. 
The Hill Farm coiitaiDS 470 arable 
The Valley Farm 170 ,, 
The Chenoy Farm 100 ,, 
740 
To which must be added — 
Sheep-walk, often flooded by the Loire 150 
Pastures, chiefly recently laid down 155 
Paddocks, &c 50 
1095.t 
The soil being chiefly a mixture of sand and clay, devoid of 
lime, with an impermeable wet subsoil of tufa, these lands were 
• In France, 10 sheep or 5 pigs are considered as equivalent to one bullock or 
Jiorse. 
t This total seems to include some small additions to the original purchase. 
