e, sometimes
varied by a crop of clover, and very often they fallow for two years
together; they have no idea of leguminous crops as winter provision for
their cattle, and of the advantage to be derived from stall feeding they
are quite ignorant, except in a few provinces, as a part of Normandy and
Brittany. The same with regard to the drill system; they mostly plough
very shallow, and do not keep their land very clean, with a few
exceptions; the consequence is their crops are generally very light.
Thanks to the natural richness of their meadows in Normandy, they do
certainly produce some beasts of an immense weight for the exhibition
annually held on Shrove Tuesday. There are generally about a dozen
brought to Paris, and the finest is the one selected to be led about the
streets; the one chosen last year weighed 3,800 French pounds, and as
there are two ounces more than in the English pound the immense size of
the animal may be imagined. In the winter, they fatten their beasts with
hay, clover and corn, but oilcake is not known except in a few
instances, when beasts are fattened for prizes or exhibitions. Their
agricultural implements are in keeping with the rest of their system; I
have seen them ploughing even in the lightest land, with the great old
heavy turnwrest ploughs and four bulky horses, which might have been
effected just as well with a light Rotherham plough and one horse.
Recently, however, I have seen some slight ameliorations, and those
parts of France which are nearest England one might expect would improve
the soonest. The farming servants are generally a hard-working, quiet,
sober people, contented with very little, their living costing them a
mere trifle; in harvest-time an Englishman will pour beer down his
throat that will cost as much as would keep a whole French family; there
is a natural economy in their habits that tends to making their wages
more than equal to their demand. An Englishman must have the best
wheaten bread, and when he gets a pound of meat he is ready to eat it
all himself; the Frenchman is contented with a cheap brown bread, quite
as wholesome as the finest, and to his portion of meat he adds some
vegetables with which soup is made, and it gives comfort to the whole
family; and it is quite a mistake to imagine that beer and animal food
produce greater physical strength, as I have in several instances proved
that the French porter will carry much more than the English. I remember