250 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



land directly about them is held very high, or commands a 

 very high rent, while the more distant farms requiring expense 

 of cartage, are cheaper. 



Within, these clumps of rural dwellings present many 

 curious and characteristic scenes of domestic and country life. 

 As the shades of evening deepen, the cows begin to come in 

 from all sides in considerable herds, stopping to drink at the 

 large fountains, and then marching off to their well-known 

 pens, often in the basement of the house, -or in a yard close to 

 the door ; and at morning, at the sound of the herdsman's 

 horn, they start out from this door and that, to join the flocks, 

 and be off to the distant pastures. In Switzerland and 

 northern Italy, particularly among the valleys of the Alps, I 

 have seen flocks of as many as four hundred goats coming in 

 at dusk under the charge of shepherds or goatherds, the bells 

 all tinkling in merry but inharmonious music, and shooting 

 into their own well-known doors, sometimes one or two at a 

 house, sometimes a dozen belonging to one owner. They feed 

 in common upon the mountains, and come home to be milked. 

 But in these rural villages of France, fewer goats are kept. 

 Flocks of sheep often come in with the herds of cows, and 

 start off again in the morning. At harvest-time, great loads 

 and little loads, of wheat, and hay, and oats, on ox-carts, and 

 horse-carts, and donkey-carts, and on the heads of women, will 

 be seen coming into these little villages from all points of the 

 compass. The workmen, the vine-dressers and the ploughmen 

 start off together in the morning to the scenes of their daily 

 labor, and return together at night. 



I could not help thinking that this mode of life, so common 

 in the rural districts of France, accounted in a great measure 

 for the characteristic social element in the people of this 

 country. At night, when the work of the day is over, the 

 whole population of a large neighborhood is collected together ; 

 the men to sit in great crowds over their wine and their pipes, 

 talking over the adventures of the day ; the women, perhaps, 

 with their knitting or their sewing, and plenty of good-natured 

 babies. The whole scene is one of sociability and genial 

 fellowship. This constant mingling together and comparing 

 notes, really constitutes a farmer's club, meeting every evening, 

 in summer as well as winter, and has the eifect of keeping its 



