fmprir to imprair* % farmer, tljt flatter, att^r X\t (S'arimr. 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHY, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN. -Washington. 
ORANGE JUDD, A. M., 
CONDUCTING EDITOR. 
Published Weekly by Allen &Co., No. 189 Water-st. 
i UNDER THE JOINT EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF 
A. B. ALLEN & ORANGE JUDD. 
VOL. XIII.—NO. 22.] 
NEW-YORK, WEDNESDAY, FEB. 7, 1855. 
[NEW SERIES.— NO. 74. 
-for prospectus, ®crms, $tc., 
Cg?* SEE LAST PAGE. ^3 
Every one writing to the Editors or 
Publishers of this journal will please read 
“ Special Notices," on last page. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
GERMAN AGRICULTURE. 
Munich, Bavaria, Dec. 26,1854. 
I propose to tell your readers of some 
things which have interested me in German 
agriculture, as I have seen it. These will 
probably not be new to you, for good observ¬ 
ers have been over the ground many times, 
and given their observations in many forms 
to reading people; but I think there are 
many particulars in which you will be inter¬ 
ested, and principles of practice which we 
may with profit apply. 
One sees in Germany little of the high, 
scientific book farming, which we hear of as 
being so profitable and so much followed by 
the rich tenants and land-holders of Great 
Britain, for the people are poor and the land 
is poor, I mean as to capital, when compared 
with England. The farmer has much to 
contend with ; and we may probably learn 
from him by observing how he overcomes his 
difficulties. 
The tone of lecturers and writers on agri¬ 
culture has been too much that of upbraiding 
practical farmers for old fogyism, for hang¬ 
ing back and letting the rest of the world 
get ahead of them in the grand rush, which 
our day sees, to apply science to the arts of 
life. Whether it be true or not that farmers 
are more behindhand than others in this 
matter, I can not say, but here, as elsewhere, 
that is the expression of public opinion. 
People seem not to take into consideration 
the mass of difficulties which present them¬ 
selves to the practical man to be encountered. 
If they do disappear when once grappled 
with, they appear real enongh in the distance. 
With very many things too, it is just as it is 
in the case of shrinking pork; it is a great 
deal easier and one is much better contented 
to account for the fact by supposing that it 
was killed in the wane of the Moon, than to 
search for the trouble in his own pot and 
pork barrel. 
In visiting a new country, indeed, in re¬ 
ceiving new impressions of men and man¬ 
ners any where, one is apt, unless the good 
greatly out-weighs the evil, to see at first 
that which strikes him unfavorably almost 
to the exclusion of what is really commend¬ 
able. So when he views here the clumsy 
utensils, sees every thing possible done by 
hand, women and cows laboring in the field, 
and observes the very inconvenient and une¬ 
qual division and subdivision of the land, the 
close crowded villages, and the great num¬ 
ber of poor people, all together, these things 
make the first impression, and one is likely 
to overlook much that is very pleasant and 
commendable. I fear it is through these first 
impressions that we in America have re¬ 
ceived most of our notions of Germans and 
German farming. 
The fact is, a gradual change is taking 
place almost all over Germany. Farmers 
are begining to think more, and so to elevate 
their profession and themselves. Still this is 
but a beginning ; the mechanical way of 
producing is still here as it is with Us, the 
rule for the multitude. One finds the same 
distrust of new ways, the same unwillingness 
to change or to know the reasons for the 
ways followed. The advance made by the 
German farmer is naturally enough in a 
quite different direction in which we have 
improved our farming; and consequently it 
is all the more interesting to notice, and the 
facts which it has brought out, are all the 
more important for us to apply if we can. 
The dense population consumes most of 
the agricultural produce, and rigid care is 
taken by the government that the price of 
the necessities of life shall not rise above the 
means of the poorer classes. Speculation 
in articles of food, fuel, etc., is prevented as 
far as possible, and the price of bread and 
many other kinds of food, as well as the 
quality, is subject to accurate police regula¬ 
tion. Labor is cheap both because of the 
number of laborers and because no great 
wages are necessary to live somewhat com¬ 
fortably. This state of things of course af¬ 
fects all classes of society, the relations of 
employer and employed, producer and con¬ 
sumer, in fact all the commercial and finan¬ 
cial affairs of the State. 
In the German language farmer is called 
econone, that is, an economist; and the rigid 
economy observed by rich and poor, is a 
subject of surprise to those accustomed to 
the fair-and-easy way of living of the New- 
England farmer. One sees this economy in 
every thing almost; in food for man and beast, 
in fuel, in land, in labor of animals, in every 
thing except what we economise most in— 
in the labor of man and in time. Labor is 
cheap, and there is always time enough ; in 
fact the reputation which the Germans as a 
nation have for deliberation, is richly de¬ 
served. This economy is shown, very strik¬ 
ingly in many farm arrangements. The land 
is of too great value even to be fenced, for 
by this means much land is rendered unpro¬ 
ductive ; and one may travel hundreds of 
miles through the most highly cultivated 
districts without seeing any thing of the 
kind, except inclosing now and then gardens 
near the villages. When cattle, sheep or 
swine are pastured, they are always attended 
by a herder, and they are seldom seen on the 
plains or cultivated land till the crops have 
been removed in the autumn. This state of 
things would naturally lead to the practice 
here universally prevalent, of stalling cattle 
throughout the year ; but the advantages of 
this mode of proceeding do not end with the 
most obvious one of convenience. The same 
amount of arable land supports more ani¬ 
mals, by whose manure it is kept in better 
care, yields greater crops, demands more 
labor, and thus supports more people ; this 
too, when managed with only ordinary care 
and skill. The practice is of great advantage 
besides, in requiring the production of a 
peculiar series of crops, such as may be cut 
green and fed to the stocks, and roots to 
supply the place of green- fodder in the win¬ 
ter. The favorite green crops, as you know, 
are those of the leguminous family, namely, 
clover, luzerne, zeparzette, several kinds of 
vetch, etc. Of the roots, the beet is by far more 
extensively cultivated than any other for 
cattle ; carrots, turnips, etc., are also exten¬ 
sively employed, as are, of course, potatoes; 
moreover, peculiarly adapted to this purpose, 
and much praised by those who have used it, 
is the artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus). It 
grows often well where hardly anything else 
will, and besides its roots, the leaves and 
softer parts of the stems are eaten readily by 
cattle and sheep, and make a good fodder 
when mixed with other things. The num¬ 
ber of other crops, to the cultivation of which 
this practice of soiling cattle conduces in 
i one or another district, according to cli¬ 
mate, exposure etc., is perfectly immense. 
The advantage of thus being able to cultivate 
with advantage many more kinds of standard 
crops than we do at home, is not to be over¬ 
looked. It can not be said to be appreciated 
here but by very few, and certain it is that 
in New-England it is far less understood. 
The subject of succession of crops is one pe¬ 
culiarly fascinating, and I would gladly de¬ 
vote the rest of my sheet to it, but I do not 
want yet to launch into a theoretical subject 
so deep and wide. 
It does seem to me, although the contra¬ 
ry is often said, that the stall-feeding of cat- 
