VISIT TO A FRENCH FARM.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 114, 12 May 1909, Page 3

VISIT TO A FRENCH FARM.

GROWING POPULARITY OF ENGU LISH METHODS.

(By W. Beack Thomas). I was present recently on one oi the niost^erfectly equipped oi.trench farms at the very crisis ot the lambing season, and in no place or country is the tendence of animals better understood. „ , In the annals of the farmer's year oao event has a more concentrated interest than the fall of the lambs; nor •does any event more closely touch trie imagination of the public. In France artists are peculiarly fond or representing the penned sheep and the tiny lambs, regarding the scene as characteristic of maternity among domestic animals. They are right. The snow was still deep, but melting rapidly and reducing the plough land to a state of pulp peculiarly inimical to the health of animals; and sheep, especially fitted for resistance to high degrees of cold, are almost as sensitive to wet as are young partridges. The sheep were, therefore, penned in a barn. The barn itself was worth a visit to France. It was erected at a cost of 3ust over iIUUU, though the only materials were wood and corrugated iron, and the whole -of one side was open. The height was sixty feet, the breadth about the same, and the length double. A quarter of the space was filled with hay, green almost as fresh grass, falling the air with the unmistakable scent of hay which has kept its proper juices and suffered neither trom rain nor excessive pressure. It was, in fact carted into the barn almost direct from behind the mowers, and, piled thus loosely and easily, had not heated for a moment. A small, portion was rolled up into loosely fagsoted bundles, with the ends twisted in after the neat and workman-like fashion of the country The space was sufficient to hold a full crop from 250 acres. SHEEP FROM OXFORDSHIRE AND NORFOLK. The remaining floor space was entirely occupied by the ewes, who had been brought in from ihe miry pens, outside. One had expected to see Dishley Merinos, or some of _ the small sheep that have been especially favoured in France, but the flock were purebred Oxfordshires of the most distinctive quality, some imported direct from Norfolk farms, some descended fl°How tliey^ourished! In the corner of the first pen that caught my eye was a ewe with three lambs not an hour old. Two were already on their le^s jerking themselves with that precocious and aimless activity peculiar to Down lambs. The third was wrestling ambitiously to raise itself with the help of the prop of the hurdle, and was just succeeding in its nrst athletic venture. The ewe, m the state that only the French painter dares to reproduce, was almost dazed with the number of her family, licking first this lamb, then that, but with the full instinct of maternity, which is marked in sheep above most other animals, paid most attention to the little thing that was leaning its stained yellow back against the hurdle and struggling to straighten the abnormal length of its legs. "Ihey will all do well," said the shepherd. "I never saw such a lambing. *Rom another ewe, also with three strong lambs, one had been successful^ transferred to a foster-mother. The fall of lambs was not yet complete. Ihe shepherd would not have a night s rest for another week, but already it was a lambing to rejoice over. The percentage of twins was 28, and there was scarcely a calamity. # At a lambing some pitiful sight is inevitable. A lamb, whole and healthy to all seeming, is born without an .instinct towards its mother, who tends it and noses it and licks it to no purpose. The lamb grows feebler with every hour, the mother accepts fate and leaves it lying on the ground, every limb extended. The poor thing looks almost flat, and only a small periodic heave of the flank tells that it is not yet dead. ' 'There was no saving it," said the shepherd. THE COMING OF THE LAMBS. What is the secret of a successful lambing? On a neighbouring farm nearly all the lambs were dying. Here even the triplets were all strong and healthy. The smell of the bank of green hay fragrant from the other end of the barn itself suggested health, and the rations were carefully given out, with additional sustenance to the ewes with two or three lambs. The manager of the farm attributed all his fortune to the open air and to the dryness of the quarters. As the whole of 'one side of this lofty barn was open the sheep enjoyed as free a "wash of air" as they would get in the open field, with the addition of underfoot

conditions of the best and. veterinary help at hand. Over all this farm these two points of view were in evidence. All pampering was forbidden. For example, the farmer possessed St. Damien, the most famous of steeplechase sires. This stallion, as small and neat in the head as a pony, and as thick in the bone as a heavy hunter, had just come in from the field, and was muddy and unkempt as any rough carthorse foal; yet in spite of twenty years of age. he looked a young horse, and much better preserved than the animals which are cloaked and walked about by grooms and coddled in every way on most stud farms. Two sorts of English sheep are becoming popular in France: the Southdowns and the Oxfordshires, especially the Southdowns. But this year the breeders of the Southdowns are in despair. The lambs die one after the other. They are born strong and lusty, and pine and perish within a f«w days for no reason that veterinary science can give. But in all the cases that I could hear of, these sheep were shut in and cosseted with a luxury that was probably fatal. The fresh air of the Downs are the life of these animals; and, indeed, all sheep, for all their tameness nad, to some eyes, sluggish ways, seem to be peculiarly a part of the country they belong to and the fields they feed in. Indoor airs are as fatal to them as to consumptives. ENGLISH LESSONS TO FRENCH FARMERS. The introduction of purebred English sheep to the French farm is one sign of great development in French farming. Much scientific knowledge and large capital are being put into farming. On this farm the veterinary equipment suggested the latest additions to our best hospitals. TKe corners of the rooms were rounded to make cleaning easy, the taps were made so that the water could be turned on without using the hand, and every antiseptic precaution was taken. These modern French farmers are studying in an admirably scientific spirit the progress of farming in the different countries of Europe and America: but especially in England, the home of pedigree stock. They mean to do business with the Argentine and America in breeds of which we have at present almost a monopoly. It would perhaps be as well if our farmers—though doubtless they are in many respects the best in the world—would study Continental and American farming in the same spirit of inquiry that inspires the visits of French, Hungarian, and American farmers to our farms and showyards. Perhaps no country has advanced more rapidly in agriculture than France during the last twenty years; and the progress is not less apparent on the multiplying small holdings than

on the bigger farms of the sort that I visited last week.—Daily Mail.