THE GERMAN FARMER 37 



underlying principles and unyielding circumstances which control German 

 agricultural operations are made clear, and that an idea is obtained of the 

 reasons which make necessary their peculiar methods. 



" It must be borne in mind from the first that Germany is a country, not 

 of farms, or even small farms, but of patches of land. A German farmer may 

 own as high as 100 acres of land, but instead of lying in a body, as with us, 

 and being cultivated in large fields with modern tools, his entire holding will 

 be broken up into innumerable small plots with, perhaps, no two adjoining, 

 and these plots scattered over the country on all .sides of the village in which 

 he makes his home. The entire country is therefore divided into small tracts, 

 generally oblong in shape, ranging from 15 to 20 feet wide and from 200 to 

 400 feet long. These tracts are never separated from each other by fences, 

 for fences are an almost unknown quantity in agricultural Germany. The 

 dividing line between two tracts is marked by a stone set in the ground, and 

 so closely are they planted that if three adjoining tracts were planted in the 

 same grain crop it would be impossible for a stranger to definitely locate any 

 one of the three without hunting up the boundary stone. It is rarely the case, 

 however, that adjoining tracts are planted in the same crops, for they belong 

 to different owners who plant independently and what they wish. In walking 

 through the country it is therefore quite a usual sight to see a plot of land 30 

 feet in width, and perhaps 300 feet in length, planted in rye, adjoining it one 

 12 feet in width and of the same length planted in stock beets, then one 20 feet 

 wide of the same length in oats, then one 40 feet wide, same length, in potatoes, 

 then one perhaps 25 feet wide in wheat, and so on through the entire fist of the 

 various crops grown in that particular section. These tracts may each belong 

 to a different farmer in that community, and each farmer there will own from 

 20 to perhaps 100 such tracts scattered all over the 'Bezirk' or locality in 

 which he lives. In the hay country, for instance, it is a common sight to see 

 what appears to be a field of 40 acres or more of hay, which at first glance 

 would appear to be a very respectable hay field, according to our ideas. A 

 walk into it, however, will show that it is dotted all over with boundary stones 

 showing that it is owned, not by one man, but perhaps by fifty, each of whom 

 when the time comes will cut his little patch out of the field whenever he is 

 ready, and moreover, will cut it with a scythe as his forefathers have done for 

 generations. The value of such land ranges from $300 to $1000 per acre . . . 



" How Germans Live. Having thus given a brief outline of the peculiar 

 system under which the German farmer operates, let us follow one to see 

 where and how he lives, for it is apparent that he does not live on the land 

 among his crops. 



" Germany is literally dotted with villages, and these villages are so unlike 

 anything in our country that they must really be seen to be appreciated. Rang- 

 ing in size from 10 to 200 homes and with a population of from 50 to 1000, 

 they are scattered all over the country as if sown there by some giant hand. 

 Rarely as distant one from the other as two miles, there are often two or three 

 clustered almost within a stone's throw of each other, and they are as peculiar 

 and as striking in their difference from our country towns as are the methods 

 under which their inhabitants work from ours. 



"Throughout almost entire Germany the ground plan of the farmer's 

 home is the same. The buildings are always of brick or stone (the very old 

 houses being made of a framework of timbers with a rubble plaster filling), 

 and the stables and storehouses are also built of the same lasting and non- 

 combustible materials. Roofs are of tile, it now being against the law to use 

 thatch. The house always fronts on the street or road. Built against one wall 

 of this is the storehouse, a continuation of this is used for stables, and from 

 this again continue the sheds for tools, etc. This group of buildings is built 

 up on four sides of a square, forming in the center a large court. On one side 

 of the house is the gate opening into the road, and when this is closed-the whole 



