horses has been understated in the preceding estimate, and that of the English increased. Such an assertion I consider without foundation. Doubtless all the English horses are not race-horses; if they were, they would be

The value of the English

worth more than 300 francs. race-horse is quite fanciful, but it is taken upon a small number; and so far it is in many respects justified by the high value which the English set upon everything capable of improving their breeds. It is entirely owing to the enormous sums paid for first-rate stallions that the breeders of Great Britain have been enabled to improve their common horses in the way they have done. Each species of domestic animal has its special use—that of the horse is for purposes where strength combined with speed are required. The English seek to develop these two properties in their horses, although the first expense is considerable; and, in the long run, it is found that power and speed together do not cost them more than it does us, because they concentrate as much as possible their means of production and their care upon choice individuals, in place of lavishing these on animals of no value.

Besides their celebrated saddle-horses, they have breeds for draught, which are equally valuable. Such, for example, are the plough horses, the best of which perhaps come from Suffolk. We have already observed that tillage with horses has been generally substituted by the English for that of oxen: they thought, and with reason, that the quicker action of the horse made its work more productive. But they have done more; they have even substituted horses for men wherever manual labour-the most expensive of all-could be replaced by a machine set in motion by horse-power. The amount of agricultural work executed in England by horses is therefore very

considerably more than in France; and the number of these animals employed in agriculture has not been increased in proportion. The reason of this is, that their teams, more choice and better kept than ours, are more vigorous and active.

The brewers' horses, and those used in coal waggons and for other heavy draughts, are celebrated for their strength and bulk. The best fetch very high prices. It is the same with the carriage horses: the breed of Cleveland bays from Yorkshire is reckoned one of the most perfect which exists for carriage work.

As for the race-horse, and his rival the hunter, everybody knows by what a combination of efforts the English have succeeded in producing and keeping up these superior breeds. They are productions of human industry, real works of art, obtained at great expense, and designed to gratify a national passion. It may be said, without exaggeration, that all the wealth of Britain seems to have no other object than the keeping up of studs from whence these privileged creatures emanate. A fine horse constitutes with everybody the ideal of fashionable life; it is the first dream of the young girl, as it is the latest pleasure of the aged man of business: everything which relates to the training of saddle-horses, to racing, hunting, and all exercises which display the qualities of these brilliant favourites, is the great business of the whole country. The common people, as well as the wealthier classes, take great interest in these matters, and the day on which the Derby is run at Epsom is a general holiday. Parliament does not meet, no business is transacted, the eyes of all England are directed to that course where a few young stallions run, and where millions are gained or lost in a few minutes.

We are still far from this national infatuation, and

certainly it is not because our own breeds are without value; they are, on the contrary, possessed of natural merits, which art alone has communicated to the English horses. The truth is, that production with us is never below consumption; but what is needed for the improvement of our breeds is, that we learn to pay a price for good horses. This is the great secret. Nothing is more expensive to produce than a good horse. As long as our first object is cheapness, handsome and good horses will be the exceptions with us, although it would be an easy matter to multiply them. Our Percherons, our Boulonnais, our Limousins, Bretons, and Béarnais, afford already excellent types, which might be easily spread and improved if our breeders could obtain sufficient remuneration for their trouble.

English pigs, on an average, are not larger than ours, but they are much more numerous, and are killed younger -exemplifying always the great principle of precocity, contended for by Bakewell, and applied to all kinds of animals destined for food. England alone feeds as many pigs as the whole of France; those of Scotland and Ireland are over and above, and very few of these animals are kept alive beyond a year. They are all of breeds which fatten rapidly, and whose shapes have been improved for a lengthened period. Official statistics make the annual production of pork in France two hundred and ninety millions of kilogrammes. This figure must be much under the real amount, a great many of these useful animals being killed and consumed in country households, without any account of them being taken; but even extending it to four hundred millions, the United Kingdom produces double: a superiority, again, which causes no surprise to any one who has witnessed with what ability the piggeries of our neighbours are con

ducted. Farms where pigs are fattened by hundreds are not rare, and almost everywhere they figure among the principal branches of farm revenue.

Such, at a rough estimate, are the advantages obtained by British agriculture in the rearing of domestic animals. It is true that France retaliates in another branch of animal products, which is hardly reckoned in England, and is very considerable with us that of the poultryyard. The English rear few fowls, the dampness of their climate being unsuitable for it; and notwithstanding the endeavours which wealthy amateurs have been making for some time past, this occupation has hitherto obtained little favour. The most to which statistics bring the annual value is twenty-five millions (one million sterling) derived from this source; whilst in France the annual production of eggs alone is estimated at one hundred millions, and that of all kinds of fowls at an equal sum. A large portion of the population live upon poultry, especially in the south, and this addition partly makes up for what we lack in butcher-meat; but while rendering every justice to the real importance of this too often neglected resource, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that it but imperfectly makes up the deficiency.

We shall see, in treating of the crops, what are at once the causes and consequences of this large animal production.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE CROPS.

THE object of all cultivation is, to produce the greatest possible quantity of human food upon a given surface of land: to attain this object, several widely different means may be adopted. French agriculturists are greatly prepossessed in favour of the production of cereals, because these serve directly for the food of man; but it is different in England, for, owing to the nature of the climate, and upon a careful consideration of the subject, agriculturists there have been induced to take a more circuitous course, which does not arrive at cereals until after having passed through other crops, and it is found that this indirect way is the best.

One great drawback attends cereals generally, which has not been sufficiently appreciated by the French cultivators they exhaust the soil which bears them. This defect is scarcely perceptible upon certain favoured lands, capable of producing wheat almost uninterruptedly; it may be of little consequence, also, where land is plentiful and population scanty, for there corn need be grown only on the best soils, or that which is inferior may be allowed to rest for several years before being again brought under the plough; but as population increases, a different system must be adopted. If attention is not given to restoring the fertility of the soil, in proportion to its