Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN SWITZERLAND. 



61 



about five feet broad and four deep, the bottom of which consists of three trees, the middle 

 one being a little hollowed; and small rills of water are conducted into it, for the pur- 

 pose of diminishing the friction. The declivity, at its commencement, is about 22^. 

 The large pines, with their branches and boughs cut off, are placed in the slide, and 

 descending by their own gravity, they acquire such an impetus by their descent through 

 the first part of the slide, that they perform their journey of eight miles and a quarter in 

 the short space of six minutes ; and, under favourable circumstances, that is, in wet 

 weather, in tlu-ee minutes. Only one tree descends at a time, but, by means of signals 

 placed along the slide, another tree is launched as soon as its predecessor has plunged in- 

 to the lake. Sometimes the moving trees spring or bolt out of the trough, and when 

 this happens, they have been known to cut through trees in the neighborhood, as if it 

 had been done by an axe. When the trees reach the lake they are formed into rafts, and 

 floated down the Reuss into the Rhine. 



340. Timber is alsojloated down mountain torrents from a great height. The trees are 

 cut down during summer and laid in the then dry bed of the stream : with the first heavy 

 rams in autumn they are set in motion, and go thundering down among the rocks to the 

 vallies, where what arrives sound is laid aside for construction, and the rest is used as fuel. 



341. The chamois abound in some of the forests, 45 

 and are hunted for their fat, flesh, and for their 

 skins, which are valuable as glove and breeches 

 leather. They herd in flocks, led by a female ; live 

 on lichens and on the young shoots and bark of 

 pines, are remarkably fond of salt, and require great 

 caution in hunting. [Simond^s Swilzerlandy vol. i. 

 p. 245.) The common goat is frequently domes- 

 ticated for the sake of its milk, and may be seen 

 near cottages, curiously harnessed {Jig. 45.) to pre- 

 vent its breaking through, or jumping over fences. 



342. The Swiss dairy is famous for its Gruyere 

 cheese, so named after a valley, where the best of that '. 

 kind is made. Its merit depends chiefly on the herb- <^isi^ 

 age of the mountain pastures, and partly on the custom of pressing the flowers or bruised 

 seeds of Melilotus officinalis {jig, 46.), with the curd before it is pressed. The mountain 

 pastures are rented at so much per cow's feed from the 15th 

 of May to the 1 8th of October ; and the cows are hired from 

 the peasants at so much for the same period. On the precise 

 day both land and cows return to their owners. It is estimated 

 that 15,000 cows are so grazed, snd 30,000 cwt. of cheese made 

 fit for exportation, besides what is reserved for home use. 



343. The establishment at Hofwyly near Berne, may be con-^ 

 sidered as in great part belonging to agriculture, and deserves 

 to be noticed in this outline. It was invented, and is conducted 

 at the sole expense of M. Fellenberg, a proprietor and agricul- 

 turist. His object was to apply a sounder system of education^ 

 for the great body of the people, in order to stop the progress of 

 error and corruption. Upwards of twelve years ago he undertook 

 to systematize domestic education, and to shew on a large scale 

 how the children of the poor might be best taught, and their 

 labor at the same time most profitably applied ; in short, how 

 the first twenty years of a poor man's life might be so employed 

 as to provide both for his support and his education. The 

 peasants in his neighborhood were at first rather shy of trusting their children for a new 

 experiment ; and being thus obliged to take his pupils where he could find them, many 

 of the earliest were the sons of vagrants, and literally picked up on the highways : this 

 is the case with one or two of the most distinguished pupils. 



344. Their treatment is nearly that of children under the paternal roof. They go out 

 every morning to their work soon after sun rise, having first breakfasted, and received a 

 lesson of about half an hour : they return at noon. Dinner takes them half an hour, 

 a lesson of one hour follows ; then to work again till six in the evening. On Sunday 

 the different lessons take six hours instead of two ; and they have butcher meat on that 

 day only. They are divided into three classes, according to age and strength ; an entry 

 is made in a book every night of the number of hours each class has worked, specifying 

 the sort of labor done, in order that it may be charged to the proper account, each par- 

 ticular crop having an account opened for it, as well as every new building, the live stock, 

 the machines, the schools themselves, &c. &c. In winter, and whenever there is not out-of- 

 doors' work, the boys plait straw for chairs, make baskets, saw logs with the cross-saw and 



