1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



305 



GERMAN AGRICULTURE. 



Each German has his house, his orchard, his 

 road-side trees, so laden with fruit, that if he did 

 not carefully prop up and tie together, and in 

 many places hold the boughs together with wood- 

 en clamps, they would be torn asunder by their 

 own weight. He had his corn plot, his plot of 

 mangold wurtzel, or hay, for potatoes, for hemp, 

 &c. He is his own master, and he, therefore, and 

 every branch of his family, have the strongest 

 motive for constant exertion. You see the effect 

 of this in his industry and his economy. 



In Germany nothing is lost. The produce of 

 the trees and the cows is carried to market ; 

 much fruit is dried for winter use. You see it 

 lying in the sun to dry. You see strings of them 

 hanging from their chamber windows in the sun. 

 The cows are kept up for the greater part of the 

 year, and every green thing is collected for them. 

 Every little nook, where the grass grows by road- 

 side, and brook, is carefully cut with the sickle, 

 and carried hoire on the heads of the women and 

 children in baskets, or tied in large cloths. Noth- 

 ing of any kind that can possibly be made of any 

 use, is lost ; weeds, nettles, nay, the very goose 

 grass which covers waste places, is cut and taken 

 for the cows. You see the little children stand- 

 ing in the streets of the villages, in the streams 

 which generally run down them, busy washing 

 these -weeds before they are given to the cattle. 



They carefully collect the leaves of the marsh 

 grass, carefully cut their potato tops for them, 

 and even if other things fail, gather green leaves 

 from the woodlands. One cannot help thinking 

 continually of the enormous waste of such things 

 in England — of the vast quantities of grass on 

 banks, by road-sides, in the openings of planta- 

 tions, in lanes, in church-yards, where grass from 

 year to year springs and dies, but which, if care- 

 fully cut, would maintain many thousand cows for 

 the poor. 



To pursue still farther this subject of German 

 economy. The very cuttings of the vines are 

 dried and preserved for winter fodder. The tops 

 and refuse of hemp serve as bedding for the cows ; 

 nay, even the rough stalks of the poppies, after 

 the heads have been gathered for oil, are saved, 

 and all these are converted into manure for the 

 land. When these are not sufficient, the children 

 are sent into the woods to gather moss, and all 

 our readers familiar with Germany will remember 

 to have seen them coming homeward with large 

 bundles of this on their heads. In autumn, the 

 falling leaves are gathered and stacked for the 

 same purpose. The fir cones, which with us lie 

 and rot in the woods, are carefully collected and 

 sold for lighting fires. 



In short, the economy and care of the German 

 peasants are an example to all Europe. They 

 have for years, nay ages, been doing that, as it 

 regards agricultural management, to which the 

 British public is but just now beginning to open 

 its eyes. Time, also, is as carefully economised as 

 everything else. They are early risers, as may 

 well be conceived, when the children, many of 

 whom come from a considerable distance, are at 

 school at six in the morning. As they tend 

 their cattle or their swine, the knitting never 

 ceases, and hence the quantities of stockings and 

 other household things which they accumulate, 

 are astonishing. — Howitt. 



CISTERNS. 



Explanation op Fig. 1. 



G, is the pipe for conducting tlie water into the cistern; F, 

 pump pipe, for drawing the filtered water; A. B, C, D, E, 

 layers of charcoal, gravel and sand. The black square dots 

 seen at the bottom of the partition are to admit the passage 

 of the water from one part of the cistern to the other. 



Every man who regards the comfi)rt and con- 

 venience of his wife and daughters, will see that 

 they are provided with plenty of soft water ; and 

 as we do not all have it in our wells, and have 

 no floAving streams or limpid springs at our com- 

 mand, it becomes a question of some importance, 

 how we shall obtain a plentiful supply in the 

 cheapest and most convenient way. In most ca- 

 ses, we believe it may best be done by conducting 

 the water from the roofs of the buildings into a 

 cistern placed under ground, and there preserved 

 for use as it may be required. 



In Allen's American Farm Book there are the 

 outlines of two cisterns which are represented, 

 with slight alterations, above. 



The first, with a flat bottom, shows how the 

 water may be filtered, so as to be fit for cooking 

 purposes, or drinking. The 'explanation above 

 will show the operation of the filtering materials. 



Some years ago we constructed one to contain 

 5000 gallons, and had it built egg-shape, believing 



