AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 9T 



occasionally signals to his faithful dog. Animals are led along 

 the liighway, and the convenience of a drover is sacrificed to 

 his own convenience as a farmer as well as to the public welfare. 

 But it is not my object to delay you upon this point. 



The next lesson which tlie farmer may draw from the experi- 

 ence of Europe is the value of small farms. Whilst in Great 

 Britain and in parts of the Continent there are large landed 

 estates, the land is nevertheless generally tilled in compara- 

 tively small holdings, and, connected with these small holdings, 

 you must remember that agriculture is divided into specialties 

 much more than with us. It would perhaps be difficult to 

 decide which was most the result of the other ; whether the 

 small area of cultivation is rather the cause or the result of the 

 devotion of the farmer or the peasant to one or two crops only. 

 Perhaps each custom acts and re-acts upon the other, though 

 both are affected by other considerations. Each of these long, 

 narrow strips of land is a farm, and each is devoted as far as 

 possible to the production of a single crop. For this purpose it 

 may be necessary to vary the product by a certain rotation, but 

 nevertheless the general fact remains that specialties of culture 

 are the objects and the result of successful farming. Here is 

 a strip of vineyard, like a corn-field laughing in the sun ; next 

 to it grain is yellowing for the harvest. There is a strip red- 

 dening like a ribbon with clover heads, and beyond it the deep 

 green of the beet leaves shades the ground. This land, in the 

 open country in the neighborhood of Heidelberg, is worth, I 

 was told, 5,000 thalers a metzen, a thaler being about seventy 

 cents in gold of our money, and a metzen less than an acre. 

 But wherever it is possible the land is devoted to a single crop, 

 and one farmer is an orchardist, another is a vine-grower, a 

 third is devoted to flax, another to hops, beets, or the dairy. 

 When we speak of a mechanic we do not mean a man who is a 

 carpenter and a mason, blacksmith and machinist ; why should 

 we speak of a farmer as if he were all-wise in all the depart- 

 ments of his calling ? I say unto you, farmers, devote yourself 

 to some pursuit in agriculture. Raise Jerseys, breed Devons, 

 if you please, but be the genius of Jersey or of Devonshire. Be 

 a pomologist ; make yourself known and beloved the world over, 

 like our honored friend beside me. Devote yourself to straw- 

 berries or small fruits ; raise asparagus, train a vineyard, let 



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