Franco-Swiss Dairij-Farming. 
87 
of water-meadows, but, generally speaking, those belonging to 
the peasantry are badly drained, with an exceedingly coarse 
herbage, much moss, and plenty of meadow saffron. Water is, 
wherever possible, conducted to the meadows for irrigation pur- 
poses ; and occasionally the urine from the stalls and the wash 
from the manure heaps are mixed with water and carried to 
the fields. In most cases the manure is wastefuUy exposed to 
continued washings by rain, and much valuable matter is lost. 
Farmyard-manure is reserved for the vineyards, and rarely finds 
its way to the meadows, although I have seen it carried thither. 
An artificial fertiliser is commonly used by the peasants for 
the meadows ; they say it is very dear ; they neither know of 
what it consists nor what it is called, giving it the general ap- 
pellation of " chemical fertiliser." I did not succeed in seeing 
any, but from the descriptions given, it is probably some bone 
preparation. The large proprietors use superphosphate. 
It is curious to see kitchen-gardens in the midst of meadows, 
without any partitioning fence. The hedge-rows are numerous, 
and they occupy too much of the already limited space ; but 
if anything is done to them it is to pull them up. Beyond 
what is necessary for their own immediate consumption, the 
peasants grow very little wheat or hemp, — the rotation of crops 
on the arable land being chiefly two cereal crops followed by 
one of potatoes, and occasionally one of clover. Rye is grown 
solely for the sake of its straw to bind the vines. Large pro- 
prietors grow maize and lucerne, which are given green to 
the cattle. At Marnex, near Commungy, the farm consists of 
35 acres, of which 27^ are under meadow, 5 under cultivation 
(wheat, potatoes, oats, clover, &c.), and 2^ under vines. This 
may be cited as a fair example of the relative proportion of 
land under meadow and cultivated land. 
The area under meadow necessary for making hay for the 
keep of a cow all the year round varies from 4 to 5 acres ; but 
where peasants or farmers send their cattle to the mountains for 
the four summer months, they only require a little over two 
acres and three quarters for their keep during the rest of the 
year. 
Going through the villages, or passing a farmstead, one is 
astonished at the extraordinary and apparently disproportionate 
sizes of the farmhouses in comparison with the area of the farms. 
These dimensions, however, are due to the fact that all cattle, 
utensils, and fodder, as well as the dwelling-apartments are 
placed under one common roof, there being no barns, store- 
houses, or byres apart from the one large building. The plan of 
a peasant's or farmer's house may be said to consist of a central 
archway, on either side of which the apartments are grouped. 
