214 
THE POULTRY BOOK 
It must, in fact, have been due to their being more carefully fattened with buck- 
wheat meal and milk than their competitors. The National Poultry Company, 
which has paid much attention to these French breeds, has imported a number of 
the La Bresse fowls ; hut they are very inferior to the other French varieties in its 
possession. In fact, the La Bresse appear to have no special characters whatever, 
but look like ordinary single-combed, speckle-feathered, farmyard fowls. As stated 
before, their triumph at the fat poultry show must have been owing to their being 
very highly fattened — a conclusion which is supported by the fact that in cooking 
they lost more than the other breeds. 
M. Dubose, a strong advocate for the La Bresse fowls, has written the following 
account of the district and its poultry ; this was translated by Mr, Frere, and ap- 
peared in the J ournal of the Boyal Agricultural Society, from which we extract it : 
‘‘La Bresse, which now constitutes the ‘ arrondissement ’ of Bourg in the 
department of Ain, extends from the banks of the Saone eastward to the spurs of 
the Jura, and consists of three very distinct districts. The western district joining 
the Saone is populous (having 97 inhabitants to 100 acres) ; the lands, which 
mostly belong to the occupiers, are worth from sOSO to dBlOO per acre, more than 
half being in excellent pasture, and much stock is kept ; in the district on the 
extreme east, adjoining the mountains, the population (23 to 100 acres) is alert, 
hard-working, and frugal, but hardly live at ease ; there are 100 acres of arable to 
22 of meadow, for which the vineyards are but a poor substitute ; much of the land 
is still waste. 
“ The central region (which includes the towns of Bourg and Coligny) is in most 
respects midway between the other two ; most of the soil is reclaimed or on the 
point of being so, and the rents (now 24a, to 32a. per acre) have doubled since the 
old French Kevolution. No region has had greater difficulties to surmount than 
this ; none has combated them more vigorously. 
“ The land was flat and impermeable, destitute of lime, covered with stagnant 
pools of water, and the roads were proverbially bad. To get rid of the water, the 
arable fields have, with incalculable toil and perseverance, been raised at the 
middle so as to slope to the four borders, and intersected by a network of open 
drains at right angles one to the other. Leases some centuries old contain 
covenants that the farmer shall cart 2,000 to 3,000 cartloads of earth yearly. The 
work seems to have been completed in the early part of the eighteenth century. 
After this, beds of marl were found and applied generally to the land ; since 1836 
the roads have been set to rights. 
“ Alternate husbandry with crops of roots and clover followed, stolen green 
crops being obtained. One peculiarity that attracted the special attention of M. de 
Lavergns was, that the growth of maize is combined with that of buckwheat. 
“By the end of the eighteenth century the district had established its repu- 
tation for capons and poulardes : about the same time the growth of maize 
became general, for consumption by oxen and pigs as well as poultry. 
“ The rearing of fovJs in La Bresse is one of the staple occupations of the 
