238 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
The Peasantry (Small Farmers) of Au¬ 
vergne, France. 
Our small farmers should know liow supe¬ 
rior their condition is to that of the French 
farmers of similar holdings, even when ours 
have just begun operations, and have no 
better lodging for themselves and animals, 
than log houses and sheds. The French 
peasantry are so ignorant and prejudiced, 
they cannot be induced to adopt improved 
implements in the cultivation of their land. 
In the harvesting 
and threshing of the 
crops, they continue 
to keep in use heavy, 
bungling, imperfect 
implements, like 
those only known 
hundreds of years 
ago. The men con¬ 
fine themselves to 
the light work of the 
farm, leaving the 
heavy to the women 
and the cows. Ex¬ 
cept when the 
men resort to the 
spade, these latter 
do all the plowing, 
cart work, drawing 
manure, etc., while 
the women generally 
plant, cultivate and 
harvest most of the 
crops. In this re¬ 
spect they are treat¬ 
ed very much as the 
wives of our Indians 
in their savage state. 
The habitations of 
these people are 
shared with their 
cows. They are com¬ 
fortless in the ex¬ 
treme, being more or 
less open in the sides 
and roof to the 
weather, and have 
only a pane or two 
of glass for a win¬ 
dow. They have no 
other fuel growing 
upon their land than 
shoots trimmed from 
their grape vines in 
winter. This gives 
them hardly enough 
to do their little 
cooking, and being 
too poor to buy other 
fuel,they often suffer 
so much from cold in winter as to be compell¬ 
ed to go into the stables and herd with the cows 
for warmth. Some cottages are without shelf 
or cupboard, the floors strewed with onions, 
dirty clothes, sticks, and rubbish, making up 
a general nastiness of every kind. Fleas in¬ 
numerable abound here, and the whole place 
is dirtier than out-doors, for there the soil is 
comparatively fx - ee of foul stuff and smells. 
The children are very frequently brought up 
in ignorance, and follow their parents, mak¬ 
ing no improvement in their condition. If 
they fall ill no doctor is sent for, and they 
die or get well as it may happen. We do 
not see how France can expect to become a 
stable and enlightened Republic, when the 
small farmers of a large Department like 
that of Auvergne, are kept in ignorance and 
all uncleanness. Their food is chiefly a soup 
made of onions, cabbage, radishes, and lard, 
with rye bread. L. R. L. 
Planting the Pear Orchard. 
BY A PRACTICAL. GROWER. 
Many trees that fail to grow have been 
planted by careless or inefficient persons, and 
to this cause can be attributed the death of 
most of the trees wliich fail after they are 
AU 
VERGNE PEASANTS GOING TO WO 
Engraved after Millet for the American Agriculturist. 
set out in the orchard. The first step is to 
have the land laid off with a two-horse plow 
into good sized furrows (returning in the 
same furrow to clean it out and widen it), 
twenty feet apart, for standards, and fifteen 
feet for dwarfs. When this has been done, 
with a light one-horse plow, draw shallow 
cross-furrows the same distances apart. As 
soon as the marks are made, commence the 
planting. Before the trees are taken to the 
field, have all bruised and broken roots and 
limbs carefully pruned with a sharp knife. 
Put the trees into a cart, wagon, or barrow, 
and cover them up with bagging, as the high 
winds dry out the roots even more than does 
the sunshine. In the middle of the field, 
where it will be equally convenient to all 
parts of the ground, have the trees hauled*, 
and also provide a tub or half barrel, filled with 
thick mud. Just before planting, immerse 
the roots of each tree in this mud, which will 
materially assist in insuring the growth of 
the trees, causing the surrounding earth to 
adhere to the roots. By adopting this means 
we have lost less than one per cent, of the 
large numbers of pear trees we have planted- 
When the trees have been thus prepared, 
have a boy carry the trees along the rows, 
dropping them only as fast as they can be 
planted, at the in¬ 
tersection of the fur¬ 
rows. Two men 
follow, and, while 
one holds the tree in 
its proper place and 
position, spreading 
the roots well, the 
other throws a cou¬ 
ple of shovelfuls of' 
fine earth on the 
roots, packs it down 
well with his feet, 
puts on some more 
earth and packs as. 
before. Another man 
follows and banks up 
around the trees, or 
else when a row is- 
set out, a one-horse 
plow throws two 
furrows, one from 
each side, up to the 
trees, making a ridge. 
Packing the soil well 
around the trees, 
while planting them, 
is a very important 
item, and must not 
be neglected on any 
consideration, while 
care should also bo 
taken to keep the 
trees straight in their 
respective rows, to 
give the orchard a 
neat, trim appear¬ 
ance, as well as to 
facilitate thorough 
and close cultivation 
with horses without 
endangering the 
trees in any way, 
from plow or whif- 
fle-tree. The desire 
to have large trees 
has induced many 
inexperienced plant¬ 
ers to set the trees. 
with their full heads 
on. The heavy tops give the high winds a. 
chance to unsettle the young trees before the 
roots have taken enough hold of the ground 
to insure their growth or stability. The trees 
should all be headed back severely and ju¬ 
diciously before being set out, and new 
heads formed from the growth made in the 
orchard and not in the nursery rows. We 
would also caution those w T ho put out market 
plantations of pears not to plant standards 
and dwarfs alternately in the rows, as the 
different habits of growth of the two will 
materially interfere with cheap and thor¬ 
ough cultivation. It was tried in my first 
orchard, but in subsequent plantations we 
gave each class of pears a separate field, 
and they are much more satisfactory. 
R K. 
