SECRETARY'S REPORT. 371 



stant moisture. Hence the great success iu raising root crops, 

 which grow very far north in great abundance, and oats, which 

 do best in a moist climate and soil. Oats sometimes weigh 

 there as high as forty-eight pounds per bushel, and generally 

 from forty to forty-two pounds, I believe ; while with us it is 

 rare that they reach over thirty-two pounds, and if we should 

 use Scottish seed the grain would not fill out as it does in the 

 moist, cold climate of Scotland. When I was there, towards 

 the last of August, there was scarcely a day when it was com- 

 fortable without an overcoat, and frequently a shawl was needed 

 in addition. The oats were as green as with vis early in July, 

 and the wheat had hardly begun to turn. The grasses were 

 luxuriant. Indian corn, the pride of American products, the 

 king of cereals, could not, of course, ripen in such a climate, 

 nor is there a complete substitute, but root crops supply its 

 place to some extent among stock growers. 



With regard to the agriculture of the Continent, the traveller 

 cannot avoid the impression that the system of standing armies 

 is drawing the bone and muscle from the cultivation of the 

 soil, creating large bodies of consumers out of a class which 

 would otherwise be producers, and leaving the land to be 

 worked chiefly by the hands of women. A low state of agri- 

 culture in countries naturally rich and favored by a propitious 

 climate, is the consequence. Suppose the six or seven hundred 

 thousand young men drafted from the country into the Austrian 

 army to live in habits of idleness, could be left on the farms, — 

 would they not add very largely to the material wealth of the 

 country ? This is the case, to greater or less extent, in most 

 parts of the Continent. 



Thus I have tried to give a plain and truthful sketch of what 

 I saw in a trip to Europe. I have written chiefly from notes 

 hastily taken down, with no view to publication, and often when 

 mind and body had been tasked even to exhaustion. It has 

 been my desire to keep the account within the proper limits of 

 a report, and this has prevented the full development of parts 

 on which I might have dwelt with satisfaction. I have occa- 

 sionally gone aside from the farm, and described sights and 

 scenes other than agricultural, to give interest to details which 

 I feared miuht be tedious. 



