308 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



whom we saw at work in the fields, appeared from their dress 

 to be very poor. All the people have the same means of educa- 

 tion, and what is more, they are obliged to avail themselves of 

 the means offered them by the state. There is a kind of 

 affability, openness and simplicity about them, the laboring 

 classes as well as those in higher stations. A stranger has an 

 instinctive confidence and trust in travelling among them, as 

 in Switzerland, which contrasts very strongly with the natural 

 distrust one feels among the people of southern Italy. There 

 are no beggars here ; but honest industry, struggling no doubt 

 often against the frowns of fortune, appears to be the universal 

 characteristic of the poorer classes in Wurtemburg. 



Seeing some cows, yoked two abreast, at work in a field, a 

 thing we constantly saw both in Switzerland and Germany, I 

 asked my German farmer if he thought it was good economy. 

 His reply was that they were generally worked but lightly 

 when in milk, and that if pretty well fed, as they generally 

 appeared to be, they would not fall off very much in milk, but 

 still they do not give as much. Women do all kinds of farm- 

 work here. We saw them of all ages, loading hay, raking, 

 pitching on, mowing, digging potatoes, hauling out and spread- 

 ing manure, engaged in fact in all the hard labors of the farm. 

 We could not help asking ourselves the question, what could 

 be the condition of the houses and the housekeeping among a 

 class of people subjected to such constant drudgery, browned 

 and blackened by exposure in the field ? But this is the 

 common lot of the peasantry throughout Europe. 



But there is the school-house, the most comfortable and 

 remarkable for its neatness and elegance in the neighborhood, 

 and where this exists the labor cannot be wholly unintelligent, 

 especially where instruction is obligatory up to the age of 

 fourteen years. Each school is strictly watched by a commis- 

 sion of the leading men. The child is responsible to this 

 commission, and at the first and second offence or failure to 

 attend, lial)lc to be punished by the instructor. At the third 

 offence the j)arents arc liable to a fine, and again, after all is 

 over, when drafted for service in the army, if the son cannot 

 write the parents are liable to a fine in the same manner. 



The country for miles around Stuttgart is undulating and 

 picturesque, full of magnificent apple and pear orchards, which 



