THE FARM.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 637, 24 January 1914, Page 7

THE FARM.

FRENCH METHODS AND CUSTOMS.

As one who knows dairyfarming through a lifstime of close contact, and who has had the privileges for the last two and a half years of investigating the methods and customs in vogue in France, I may he permitted to show what necessity has compelled all through the French provinces. In the first place, it has compelled the French dairy-cow proprietors, which practically means every small owner and occupier of lend, to stall-feed their cattle. What grass land there may be on the holding is always under the scythe. Grass and its usually accompanying herbaee grows very early and comes al.ng very quickly. In France ona may sec sccoryi-crop grass in full bloom anl o.loriferous with pollen by the middle of June in some parts. Here near where this note is being written, a water meadow on the outskirts of the town has been unier its fourth heavy crop of lucerne grass. Yet here the late drought has been fully as severe and the heat much more intense tharf it has been in England. Here necessity has compelled. The land is all practically under special crops, such as tobacco, grapes, and beet, or green-cut, root, and corn. The grass) on the meadows is never trampled to waste by the hoofs of the cattle, nor is it otherwise soiled. A French peasant farmer would hold up his hands in holy horror at the sight of a herd of cows in England on an aftermath. "Why, they are trampling the good grass to waste," would be his amazing exclamation,; "thosel mad English !" And possibly, as the old man stooped m'ilking his sheep the first evening after his return from his trip to rural England, he would speak to his old wife in similar tones of amazement as he -related the fact. Yes-,, the peasantry of France all and always milk their sheep. Why not ? Ah ! they are epicures in France, and a sheep's-milk cheese, which is made in a little pat and costs ljd. is one of the dainties ! Of course, the lambs are not kept on after a week or a month at the utmost, unless one or two are required to replenish the fioek of ewes. Even those are hand reared in. the way that one has seen the cottagers in East Norfolk rear calves —a little slop, a little meal, plenty of water, a pinch of sugar, and a dash of skim milk. The flocks of the peasant farmers may not average a dozen ewes, taking the country through. It is in these many littles that the French farmer scores. He may have but three or lour cows per example, but he will .make as much of and by them as his British confrere will with twice as many. One does not find perhaps a bad milker here and there nor now and then a dairy-show cham-i pion, but they all yield well, the milk is of good, high quality, and the flow is heavy to the last. . And he invariably sells his milk himself, either vending it direct ir.' the nearest town or by co-operating with a neighbour. When too distant for carting.to a town he makes butter, or he keeps fewer milk -co's.R. B. Brooke, in the "Outloo'i."