A GREAT FARM 145 



ing alongside of her reverses that order, using the left 

 hand and the left foot where her companion uses the 

 right foot and the right hand. They work hard and 

 very swiftly, employing just sufficient force to get the 

 root up and no more. Sometimes it is dragged from 

 the soil by the hand alone, and sometimes the fork 

 must be used to help it forth. 



I borrowed the instrument from one of them and 

 took a turn at the business. As a result I found that I 

 broke about one root in three, which caused these funny 

 little creatures to giggle at my inexperienced efforts. 



Another girl followed the pair, piling the pulled 

 beet into heaps. When their tops have been trimmed 

 off they can lie in the open till the end of October, 

 after which, if they have not been conveyed to the 

 trucks and removed by the tramway, they must be 

 clamped to protect them from frost. Further on were 

 yet other women who were engaged in cutting the 

 crowns off the beet. 



Mr. Tesdorpf informed me that these Poles are very 

 superstitious, and entirely under the influence of their 

 " popes " or priests. Also their ideas as to the rights 

 of property are vague. Thus in walking through his 

 gardens I caught sight of an apple cunningly hidden 

 away. When I called his attention to it he said that 

 doubtless this was the work of one of the Polish girls, 

 who would come to fetch it at a convenient season. 



Leaving the sugar-beet, I visited some others of 

 the great fields on this remarkable estate. In one of 

 them fourteen horse teams were employed in plough- 

 ing a second-year clover lay for wheat, besides other 

 teams that were rolling, harrowing, and drilling the 

 wheat upon the further side of this particular plot 

 of 180 acres. After clover the custom here is to 



K 



