ROUMANIA, THE PIVOTAL STATE 



373 



collection of recipes to be printed for 

 gratuitous distribution. Some benefits 

 must have been the result, for three years 

 later — the intervening time having been 

 sufficient to afford a test — we were deco- 

 rated for "distinguished services to the 

 kingdom." 



The government has established a sys- 

 tem of agricultural syndicates whose 

 members may acquire, by payment on the 

 installment plan, implements and supe- 

 rior wheat and corn for seed ; and the 

 crops can be sold through the association 

 directly to the consumer or to a whole- 

 sale dealer without passing through the 

 hands of middlemen. The various pro- 

 vincial syndicates are placed under a cen- 

 tral organization sufficiently close to the 

 national bank to have command of the 

 funds required. 



PLANTING BY SIGNS 



It is undoubtedly true that the fertility 

 of the soil and the ways of working it 

 are large factors in determining the mag- 

 nitude of the crop, but a good harvest 

 depends very much upon the weather, 

 and the anxious farmer is always con- 

 cerned for fear that it may not rain in 

 time, or that it will not stop raining, or 

 that the ripening grain may be beaten 

 down by hail. 



To relieve this anxiety, he has formu- 

 lated a number of signs in which not only 

 the moon, but all nature, takes part. 

 Thus, when the sparrows flutter about, 

 chirruping ; when the cattle show nervous 

 restlessness and the forest gives forth 

 unusual sounds ; when the cock crows all 

 day long, the ducks thresh the ground 

 with their wings, and the frogs croak in- 

 cessantly ; when the mist rises, the sun 

 sets in a cloud, and your ears itch, there 

 surely will be rain. 



When, on the other hand, the sparrows 

 take a bath in the dust, when the storks 

 stand quietly in the field, the lambs gam- 

 bol gaily, and the cat, after washing her 

 face, looks at the door, there will be fine 

 weather. 



But when the sparrows are hurrying 

 about looking for shelter ; when the lark 

 dashes against the window ; when cattle 

 bellow, looking up into the air, and the 

 pig goes about with a straw in his snout, 



then a storm is threatening. These are 

 some of the evidences of weather changes, 

 but it is possible, many believe, to bring 

 about the desired change, such as stop- 

 ping a disastrous rain, by interring a doll 

 at the cross-roads or throwing into a well 

 some holy image. 



However, unfavorable weather condi- 

 tions are noticed only in bad years ; at 

 other times the farmer will tell you, 

 "When God gives, there is plenty for 

 man and beast." 



The women, too, have their signs and 

 omens, and these are associated with the 

 moon. A brooding hen is not to be set 

 on her eggs at new moon, because the 

 chickens then will waste their energy in 

 shrieking ; the hair is not to be cut during 

 a waning moon, for then it will fall out. 

 The whitewashing of the walls, on the 

 contrary, should be done during a waning 

 moon, for then the troublesome insects 

 will be killed. 



The sowing of seed is also regulated by 

 the moon. If the root is the important 

 part of the plant, the seed should be sown 

 during a waning moon ; but if the part 

 outside of the earth is to bear fruit, the 

 sowing should be done during a waxing 

 moon. 



A LAND WITHOUT A SPRINGTIME 



The climate is not so mild as might be 

 expected from the low latitude of the 

 land, it being the same as that of northern 

 Italy. Coining under the influence of the 

 Mediterranean on the west and the 

 mountains to the north and east, the 

 kingdom is subject to the extremes of a 

 subtropical summer and a winter of the 

 Hungarian plains. "Roumania," says 

 Carmen Sylva, "has only three seasons, 

 and of these one alone — autumn — is fine; 

 in these parts there is no spring." 



The Roumanian is not a tradesman, 

 and his main interest lies in farming. 

 Even the selling of the surplus grain usu- 

 ally takes place at his farm to itinerant 

 buyers, for he seems to be wary of the 

 town merchant, and rarely trusts himself 

 to the wiles of the city, except on the 

 occasion of the annual fair. But still he 

 is an industrialist in his own way, and 

 almost everything about the house — even 

 not infrequently the house itself — is of 



