(858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



341 



For the New England Farmer. 

 LETTER FROM MR. FRENCH. 



Waterford, Ireland, August, 1857. 

 My Dear Brown : — To show that America is 

 not the only country where one who is so dis- 

 posed may find the means to "go ahead," I will 

 tell you how rapidly I overcame space to reach 

 the show of the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 Ireland. I was at Lyons, in France, on the Sab- 

 bath of August 16th, and having before seen 

 Paris and London to my satisfaction, I took the 

 quickest conveyance to Waterford, in Ireland, 

 where the exhibition was to be held on the 

 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday following, 

 about one thousand miles from Lyons. At forty 

 minutes past seven. A, M., I took the train for 

 Paris, three hundred and twenty-six miles, and 

 arrived at that beautiful city at half past six in 

 the afternoon of the same day. 



As we left Lyons, we found the land more lev- 

 el than it was before we reached that city, and 

 grapes are growing finely over large tracts of 

 even surface, extending through fields apparent- 

 ly of fifty or more acres. 



This was to me a new feature. All along the 

 Rhine, and through the valley of the Rhone, the 

 grape is usually grown upon the sunny declivity 

 of steep hills, very often terraced, and supported 

 by stone walls at great expense of labor. Here, 

 however, the vineyards are wide spread over rich 

 fields, like our fields of corn, and wine is the 

 principal product of the land, though Indian 

 corn, which is nowhere seen in England, Scotland 

 or Ireland, is seen here flourishing in small 

 .matches. Oxen, along this route, are worked upon 

 the plow and cart, in pairs, drawing usually by 

 the head ; the yoke, if such a thing may be called 

 a yoke, being laid across their foreheads and 

 bound to the horns with leather thongs. 



One Avould suppose that cattle thus harnessed 

 could perform but little labor. I watched them, 

 carefully, both on the plow and on the cart, and 

 really could not see but that they carried their 

 load as easily and comfortably, as if yoked in 

 New England fashion. They hold their heads 

 fully as high as our cattle, and walked very 

 steadily, and I noticed one yoke in particular, 

 hauling a load of split stones on the highway, 

 which I thought would make a heavy load for 

 oxen of the same size in America. 



Men, women and children all carry heavy bur- 

 dens on their heads in all these countries, as 

 heavy as our men can bear on their shoulders. 

 On the whole, I am inclined to think that both 

 men and beasts are stiff'-necked enough to take 

 along any burden by the head, which they can 

 carry in any other way- In some districts through 

 which we passed, oxea were seen yoked both 



ways in the same field, so that if it were found 

 that one mode is really much better than the 

 other, one would suppose it would be universally 

 adopted. We remained in Paris till Tuesday at 

 half-past one, and then took the train for Lon- 

 don by way of Boulogne. 



The distance from Paris to Boulogne is not 

 far from cne hundred and eighty miles. The 

 first part of the route is through market-gardens 

 finely cultivated and very productive. Soon, 

 however, the scene changes, and the land be- 

 comes level and low, and we passed through a 

 wide extent of country devoted to pasturage. 

 Large herds of cattle were seen grazing in the 

 meadows, many of which appeared as if kept 

 green by artificial irrigation. Some flocks of 

 sheep were observed watched by shepherds with 

 their faithful dogs. Hemp is cultivated to a large 

 extent, and grows very tall and heavy. I noticed 

 some tracts in which men were at work among 

 the hemp, which reached a foot or two above 

 their heads. Wheat and oats were just at har- 

 vest time, and looked well, though cultivated in 

 small tracts, and a few lots in tobacco seemed to 

 indicate that the most useless of all weeds might 

 thrive in this part of France. At Boulogne, we 

 crossed the channel to Falkstone in England. 

 We embarked at about eight in a small steamer 

 and touched English soil at about ten, where we 

 soon took the train in the darkness for London, 

 where we arrived at about one at night, making 

 the distance from Paris to London in less than 

 twelve hours, about three hundred miles. On the 

 whole, the French railways are as well conducted 

 and as comfortable as any I have seen. Their 

 second-class cars are cushioned and stuff'ed, and 

 good enough for anybody. The English first 

 class carriages, as they are always called in Eng- 

 land, are very luxurious, but the second class 

 are without cushions or stuffing, and a bare board 

 for seat and back is all they aff'ord. The price of 

 the second class in England is somewhat higher 

 than the first class in America, and of the first 

 class about fifty per cent, higher than the second. 

 It is respectable, though not very comfortable, 

 for a gentleman, to take the second class. We re- 

 mained in London till Wednesday afternoon,when 

 we took the Great Western broad gauge railway 

 for Waterford. We arrived at Milford Haven, 

 on the extreme western coast of England at 

 one in the night, having run two hundred and 

 sixty miles in the time, some part of the way, 

 at the rate of fifty miles an hour. At Milford 

 Haven we took a steamer ninety miles for Water- 

 ford, where after a comfortable sleep, rocked in 

 the Cradle of the deep, I arrived at about noon 

 on Thursday, having made the distance of one 

 thousand miles in a little more than three days, 

 besides passing a good part of a day in Paris, 



