THE OCCUPATION OF THE LAND 163 



a wilderness where hardship and hard labor was the 

 rule of daily life, the German could work and so 

 could his entire family, for that had been the prac- 

 tice in Bavaria and Saxony and would be no novelty 

 here. Intensive agriculture was the necessary regime 

 of old Germany, where every rod of ground must do 

 its bit in the maintenance of a large and increasing 

 population. The habit of thrift and industry learned 

 in the old home was steadily maintained in the 

 American home, and German farmers have habitu- 

 ally been regarded as good workers in Michigan, 

 They excelled as truck-gardeners, and while German 

 cookery did not always commend itself to the Yankee 

 palate, their sauerkraut and kohlrabi became domesti- 

 cated in many a home devoid of all other German 

 associations. It would have been well if the Old 

 World German practice of preserving the forest cover 

 on hilltops had been retained here to the advantage 

 both of our uplands and lowlands. The Germans 

 were religious and communities congregated here 

 and there throughout the State: Lutherans in Ann 

 Arbor, Eoman Catholics in Westphalia, Clinton 

 County, Mennonites at "Holy Corners," Kent County, 

 while Moravians, United Brethren and Dunkards 

 might arouse curiosity by rites unfamiliar to the 

 native churches. For German women to work in 

 the field was normal overseas but attracted disapprov- 

 ing attention here, where standards of life and think- 

 ing were different. However, this responsibility for 

 the common income raised the family from poverty 

 to affluence and furthered the economic well-being of 



