An agro-industrial complex in the Eure departement, France, in the early 20th century.

These Salers cattle belong to the Nassandres agro-industrial complex, made up of a sugar beet factory-distillery (in the Risle valley, between the Seine and the Eure) and six farms (Chrétienville, Les Rufflets, Bigards, Feuguerolles, Beauficel , Beaumontel), very close to the factory, representing some 645 hectares! The crops, or 473 hectares, consisted of a rotation of beets, wheat, oats or barley. The shallow land, converted into permanent grassland planted with cider apple trees, was devoted to feeding a global herd of 87 Normandy Cotentin cows which provided milk and butter (to which are added calves, heifers and 10 bulls, a total of 244 animals).

The farm’s livestock also included (since 1898) 400 ewes of the Berrichonne sheep breed, a fairly variable number of fattening sheep purchased in Beauce and 8 Southdown rams. At the Rufflets farm, where a model henhouse was built, the farmyard included chickens of the Crève-Coeur, Faverolles and Houdan breeds, Duclair ducks, turkeys and guinea fowl.

Every week at the Chrétienville farm, a few sheep and pigs were slaughtered for staff food.

For the development of all these lands (a large role was also given to chemical fertilizers), considerable equipment was used, such as “Bajac” plows and harrows, “Adriance” or “Massey-Harris” harvesters, for example. For threshing, it was an English “Clayton-Shuttleworth” heavy-duty machine equipped with a binder (buncher) and a sheaf counter. The thresher was driven by a steam-powered traction engine made by English road locomotive “Burrell and Sons” (Charles Burrell of Thetford, England) which towed it from farm to farm (there were in fact 2 machines of this type on the farm).

The beets were unloaded using wagons and “Decauville” tracks. Transport was carried out using large carts similar to those in Picardy. Eight came from the Thiberge house, in Courbevoie, the others (how many?) were built in the factory’s wheelwright workshops. Their capacity is approximately 8,000 kg. A forge maintained all the agricultural instruments and ensured the mechanics of the operation. There is also a saddlery workshop. The farm permanently kept 120 to 150 draft oxen, exclusively Nivernais (Charolais) and Salers. There were no horses. They harnessed 2 to 6 oxen depending on the ploughing to be done, generally 4 on the carts, 2 or 3 abreast at the harvester-binder, 2 in line at the beet harvester, only one for hoeing. The use of the single yoke then takes on its full meaning: it allowed you to make up all kinds of teams, including odd numbers, and to vary the “combinations.

Distributed to each farm, the oxen worked for around two years then were fattened and sold to the butcher. Their daily ration consisted of pulp (50 to 60 kg.), chaff (3 kg.), salt (up to 250 gr.), peanut and rapeseed meal (up to 750 gr.), crushed oats (500 gr.). For fattening animals, this ration was supplemented with corn and barley flour and linseed cakes was substituted for the peanuts.

Sources: Notes on the agricultural exploitation of Nassandres (brochure), 1905. Illustration: original photograph, Etienne Petitclerc private collection

Author: Etienne Petitclerc

Editor’s Note: special thanks to Bob Powell for helping correct technicals in the English machine translation