38 THE "BACK TO THE LAND" MOVEMENT 



place is secure from trespass . . . The outbuildings are also substantially 

 built with the second floors supported either by heavy timbers or by iron beams. 

 The storehouse is used for storing the crops from the fields, there being no 

 buildings of any kind on the land. The stables are used for the milch cows 

 and for the beef cattle being fattened, as well as, of course, for the necessary 

 horses. It is one of the peculiar customs of Germany that wherever the soil 

 is rich and is highly cultivated the cows and hogs and beef cattle are never 

 taken out of the stables after once being put in. They are literally in for life. 

 Green food is brought to them daily, and they are well taken care of. Cattle 

 are chained to their stalls, each with its drinking trough, and they are daily 

 cleaned off and bedded down knee deep in straw. Hogs are kept in the same 

 way. Once in their pens they remain there till sold to the butcher; they eat 

 and sleep and grow, nothing else. This system, while apparently very trouble- 

 some, is in vogue for two reasons; first, the land is too valuable for pasturage, 

 as well as being in too small tracts, and secondly, by keeping livestock in 

 this manner every bit of manure is saved, and manure, as one farmer aptly 

 stated, is the life of German agriculture. 



"Saving Fertilizer. The method of saving this manure is an excellent one, 

 and is one that could be used to great advantage by our farmers. In the center 

 of the court around which stands the buildings is a large square pit about five 

 feet in depth. On one corner is a runway by means of which a wagon can be 

 run into the pit to facilitate loading. This large pit is for the dry manure, 

 and into it is thrown everything with any fertilizing value. 



"Between this and the stable is a deep concrete-lined well, much deeper 

 than the dry manure pit, and this is used for collecting the liquid manure. 

 This well is made water tight, and into it lead drains from all the stables and 

 pens, as well as from the dry-manure pit. The liquid thus collected is pumped 

 from this well into tanks and taken to the fields, where it is sprayed on the 

 land. It can be stated here that this economical, thrifty, and intelligent use 

 of natural fertilizers has made Germany a farming nation which, with a country 

 smaller than the State of Texas, and with one-third of its area covered with 

 forests, produces 95 per cent of its own food products, and its population is 

 around 65,000,000. 



" Women do the Work. In Germany, it must be understood, the greater 

 portion of the farm work is done by the women. It is a common sight to see 

 women hoeing or pitching hay or spreading manure, and they do it well and 

 cheerfully. The girls of the poorer families go into service as maids, which 

 means that they do not only a share of the housework, but also their full 

 proportion of the work about the stables and in the fields. For this service 

 a girl of, say, sixteen or seventeen years will receive wages of three dollars a 

 month, with board and lodging. She becomes a member of the family and is con- 

 sidered and treated as such. It would be an interesting experience for some of 

 our farm workers to try to keep up with one of these young girls in a day's work. 



"The tendency in Germany is away from tenant farming and towards 

 ownership. This movement is of course encouraged by the Government, 

 which, in many cases, provides the medium for the conversion of large estates 

 into small holdings, extending at the same time a helping hand to the small 

 farmer in the purchase of the subdivisions. Other than this breaking up of 

 large estates, real estate transfers in agricultural Germany are the exception 

 rather than the rule. In fact, it is frequently impossible to buy from the small 

 farmers their holdings. Instances are common where two or three times the 

 value has been offered and refused." 



In Australia. Let us turn now to a country of large holdings, 

 Australia. This country is generally recognized as one having too 

 large parcels of land in its " farms." This feeling led the Legis- 



