188 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER, 



Apeil 



part, although the whole field embraced an area 

 of four or five acres. Eleven large loads of hand- 

 some pumpkins were considered by my grand- 

 father as a weight of evidence m favor of his 

 theory (or in other words, his side of the corn- 

 field) which could not well be resisted. I believe 

 my father, ever after that, planted pumpkins 

 with his corn. 



It seems to me reasonable that a plant so well 

 adapted to the shade as the pumpkin, and one 

 which receives so large a share of its nutriment 

 from the atmosphere, can be planted with corn, 

 without injury to the latter, and without much 

 detriment to the soil. Indeed, it is held by some 

 intelligent farmers that the large leaves of the 

 pumpkin, by shading the ground, and thus pre- 

 venting the sun from dislodging the various gases 

 which decompose and foi'm soluble matter in the 

 soili to be taken up as food for the growth of 

 plants, are a direct benefit to the land, to say 

 nothing of the value of the pumpkin crop. It is 

 well settled, I believe, that pumpkins, fed out, 

 vjithout the seeds, in moderate quantities, to milch 

 cows, impart a rich flavor to the milk. It is also 

 conceded that they are very valuable in fattening 

 beef. Let them not, therefore, be given up, with- 

 out some tangible evidence of their inutility. 



Bomerville, E. c. P. 



For ilie New EiifiLind Farmer. 

 LETTER FBOM MH. FRENCH. 



Lyons, in France, jh(g., 1857. 



My Dear Bkown : — Perhaps it may not be 

 thought best to fill the agricultural part of the 

 Farmer with accounts of my wanderings, and I 

 will endeavor to hasten as rapidly as possible 

 over my journey from Leuk, or rather the Baths 

 of Leuk, for they are separate jilaces, on to my 

 present resting-place. There is a great deal that 

 relates to agriculture, in observations upon the 

 face of the country and the habits of the people, 

 the use of donkeys and men over mountains, the 

 railways and highways and rivers, though little 

 be said of plowing and hoeing, and I feel sure 

 that if I can but bring before the minds of our 

 readers the scenes that were all along presented 

 to me, they will have an interest and utility, 

 worth the space they occupy. At the foot of the 

 Gemmi Pass, after a Avalk of three or four hours, 

 although our labor had been far more severe 

 than on any previous day, we were all so fresh 

 and vigorous that we did not even sit down, be- 

 fore we made a visit to the Baths, the famous 

 Baths of Leuk. 



We entered a large stone building of no par- 

 ticular style of architecture, and were met at the 

 door by a man, who told us to take off our hats 

 when we entered, and be sure and shut the door 

 as soon as we passed through, and stay as long 

 as we pleased. We entered, and the sight that 

 met our vision was worthy of the times of the 

 Arabian Nights. 



The room is perhaps sixty feet square, and cov- 

 ered with water about three or four feet deep, ex- 



cept a walk of a yard or so in width through the 

 centre, leading to a door opposite. In this wa- 

 ter, which is as warm as one can conveniently 

 live in, were, when we entered, thirty-five per- 

 sons, with only their heads above the surface. 

 There were young men and maidens, children of 

 all sizes, old men and old ladies, all parboiling in 

 the same water. Two young gentlemen were 

 playing at chess, on a floating table, which was 

 level with their chins, two others were taking a 

 lunch of cake, with a bottle of champagne, occa- 

 sionally projecting a wet white hand from the 

 flood, taking a sip, or touching glasses in the 

 German fashion of drinking health. A young gen- 

 tleman and lady in a corner were evidently hold- 

 ing a confidential conversation, and a young girl 

 of five or six was frolicking with a gentleman, 

 probably her father, and making sjjort for others 

 around. These people were dressed in woollen 

 dresses of various patterns and colors, with bare 

 feet which glanced in the water like silver fishes, 

 as they moved about. 



Their locomotion seemed neither swimming 

 nor walking, but a sort of gliding. They had, I 

 thought, a sort of float on which they rested, and 

 pushed themselves about with their feet. Occa- 

 sionally a side door would open, and in would 

 float a new personage, who would be politely 

 greeted by all in the bath, and another, perhaps, 

 wovdd go out, always with some sign of farewell 

 to those behind. 



The water is from hot springs, and is changed 

 every night, and sufl'ered to cool, it being too hot 

 as it comes from the mountain, for comfort. The 

 bathers come here for the cure of certain diseases, 

 rheumatic and cutaneous, as near as I could learn, 

 and they stay in the water, after gradually get- 

 ting used to it ten hours a day. Some of them 

 were swimming as if in a river, and many spirt- 

 ing water into the air, by squeezing their fingers 

 in a peculiar way. 



The young ladies looked several of them very 

 pretty and clean, and afterwards when I recog- 

 nized the same persons at the table at dinner, 

 clothed like other people, I could see nothing to 

 indicate any disease, or any effect of this singular 

 remedy, which, perhaps, is the best evidence of 

 their cure. We afterwards went into other baths 

 of the same kind, close by, and saw sixty or sev- 

 enty persons together in the same manner. 



On the same day, we walked two miles to see 

 "The Ladders," as they are called, an arrange- 

 ment as peculiar as the Baths. The Gemmi Pass 

 is said to be seven thousand feet above the level 

 of the ocean. The Baths are at the foot of the 

 Pass, but still some three or four thousand feet 

 above the sea. The village of Leuk is about nine 

 miles below the Baths, and is reached by a good 

 carriage-way, down a constant and rapid descent. 



