AGRICULTIRE 0>' THE RI1I>E. 157 



chequered mass of religious and educational systems which 

 this land presented in the olden time. So surely are the 

 sins of the fathers visited on the children. 



It is certainly strange that the village peasantry', the 

 holders and owners of the smallest allotments that we 

 have described, should, in the immediate vicinity of the 

 larger farms, where so much intelligence is displayed in the 

 management of the soil, present the following curious pic- 

 ture. We extract it the more willingly from a v.ell-known 

 author rather than describe what we have often witnessed, 

 that we may not incur the reproach of being supercilious 

 strangers lowering the character of the peasantry of a 

 foreign land. In reading the following description of 

 the district of the Lower Moselle, by Schwerz, it must 

 be remembered that hedges for inclosure arc unknown : — 



•' Stall-feeding is general in the Moselle district. In 

 the autumn alone is there some pasturage on the stubbles, 

 and when the aftei'grass is cut the meadows are grazed 

 for a cou])le of hours daily. It is curious to see how the 

 quantity of cattle are fed which are kept on the numerous 

 little parcels of land. 



" In the spring the women and children range the 

 fields, cut the young thistles and nettles, dig up the roots 

 of the couch-grass, collect weeds of all kinds, and strive 

 to turn them to account. ^Yhat is thus scraped together 

 is well washed, mixed with cut straw and chaff, and, after 

 boiling water has been poured over the whole, it is given 

 to the cattle. A little later, when the weeds grow stronger, 

 they are given unmixed as fodder. The lucern comes 

 at length to help, and then the clover, which lasts until 

 the autumn, when "cabbage-leaves and turnips are to be 

 had. When these are scarce potato-haulm is taken to help 



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