30S 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Oct. 
AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY OF EUROPE. 
LETTERS FROM PROF. NORTON. 
NO. VIII. 
Steamer Washington, July 22d, 1847. 
Messrs. Editors —I take the opportunity of a 
eisure hour on my homeward voyage, to continue 
my notice of Dutch Polders, &c., began in your last 
number. 
I had just finished my description of the drawing and 
laying out of Polders. These tracts of reclaimed land 
are not usually plowed, being principally devoted to 
grazing—for this reason North Holland, being chiefly 
composed of Polders, is one of the richest dairy dis¬ 
tricts in the world. The cows are generally in fine 
condition, and the pastures kept in good order, although 
in some places the butter cups were rather too abun¬ 
dant. Great pains is taken to preserve the manure in 
handsome heaps; but, by a strange inconsistency, these 
are almost always on the banks of some canal or ditch 
into which they drain, and color the water deeply with 
valuable enriching materials. Large flocks of ducks 
and geese are kept in the ditches of these polders, and 
straw pots are placed in situations convenient for their 
nests. Swans are also quite frequent. 
The Wurmer polder is, I should think, three miles 
in length, and at one of its angles we found the town 
of Purmerende. This town is situated in the midst of 
three large polders—the Purmer, the Wurmer and the 
Beemster. Its location renders it a great centre for 
the cheese trade. There is a fair once a week, and 
we happened to visit the place on that day. The 
whole space allotted to the market was filled with 
piles of cheeses, all of them round, and from six to 
eight inches in diameter. No flat cheeses are made 
in this section. The sale seemed to be going on 
briskly. Each lot bought was immediately transferred 
to the town scales and weighed. Beside the cheese 
fair, was one for cattle and pigs, in another part of the 
town. The number of cows for sale was very great, 
consisting almost without exception of the usual large 
Dutch black and white breed. The pigs were all en¬ 
closed in wicker baskets, something in the same man¬ 
ner that fowls are brought to the New-York markets. 
I found that the Purmer polder was richer and more 
prosperous than the Wurmer, and the Beemster is said 
to surpass almost any other in Holland. 
We obtained admission to one dairy farm, and got as 
much information as we could upon the actual statis¬ 
tics of their business. The farm was one of about 
eighty acres. Thirty-two cows were kept upon it, 
beside a small flock of sheep. At the time of our visit, 
they were making one hundred and twenty cheeses a 
week, weighing about five pounds English, each ; be¬ 
side this they made from 20 to 25 pounds of butter. 
The dairy itself was very neat, indeed scrupulously 
so. In the first room, a very long one, stood the ves¬ 
sels with milk, the churns, &c., while on shelves above 
were placed cheeses to dry. There were numerous 
little places like stalls, along the sides of the room, and 
the floors of these were strewed with shells, while 
around the sides were shelves covered with china. 
These places were entirely for ornament, the china 
only fleing taken down occasionally to be cleaned. 
The salting is performed in a separate room. There 
were two vats of pickle—one very strong, and the 
other a little weaker; in this latter they are first placed. 
Each cheese is fitted into a little round tub of just the 
proper size to receive it. These tubs allow the upper 
part of the cheese to appear above the surface of the 
pickle. Each cheese is turned over several times dur¬ 
ing the day, and a little salt always placed upon the 
exposed part immediately after turning. 
The churn was of the common barrel form, worked 
by means of a wheel, and the cheese press of a rude 
construction, being a large stone at the end of a lever. 
This dairy was in the lower part of the house, and 
here appeared to be the dwelling place of the whole 
family. The sleeping rooms were on the uppermost 
floor of all, and must have been very dark and un¬ 
pleasant. After seeing the dairy, the damsel who was 
our conductress, informed us that the best rooms were 
yet to be seen by going up a ladder of four or five steps 
from the dairy. Before ascending this, she took ofF 
her shoes, and presented a mat for us to wipe ours. 
The rooms that we now entered were very handsomely 
furnished—the Chests, drawers, the bureaus, &c., be¬ 
ing of mahogany, and the shelves loaded as usual with 
useless china. Every portion of the floor that was 
visible, was polished with frequent scrubbing. Unless 
on occasion of a death or marriage, or some very unu¬ 
sual festivity, this part of the house was never open. 
The family lived in dark, unpleasant rooms, and only 
entered there once a week for the purpose of a thorough 
cleaning. The same system prevails in a great major¬ 
ity of Dutch farm-houses, and to a great extent even 
in the cities. 
Some of the dairies of North Holland do not make 
cheese, but send their milk to Amsterdam on the ca¬ 
nals—a boat calls for the- full vessels in the morning, 
and leaves them empty on its return. It is carried 
about the streets by women, ordinarily in pails. 
I must now, for the second time, close a series cf 
letters from abroad, and do so with the hope that I 
may, at some future time, be able to send you similar 
series and contributions, referring to the agricultural 
peculiarities and improvements in different sections of 
our own country. I am, gentlemen, yours truly, 
John P. Norton. 
RURAL NOTICES ABROAD.— -By Ik. Marvel. 
NO. VIII. 
A Frencij Village. —There are no white wood 
houses, with green blinds, and cherry trees in front, 
and capacious wood sheds behind, belonging to a 
French village. It is indeed as unlike as possible to 
an American’s idea of a village. 
You have been riding, perhaps, or walking along a 
straight, Macadamized thoroughfare, very broad, and 
very hard, and in summer very dusty, and you have no¬ 
ticed with your American eye, at first that there are 
no fences between you and the waving fields of grain, 
or the fluttering leaved vineyards. Again, you have 
noticed that there was no apparent division in the 
property, and that the laborers, men and women, were 
working quietly-—save an occasional laugh or song— 
one party among the grain, and another among the 
vines. Further, you have noticed occasional rows of 
trees planted beside the route, and sometimes, though 
rarely, a thicket-of tall thickly growing wood; then 
you see what seems the strangely fashioned tower of 
a church, appearing in advance among the trees upon 
the right, or the left, and, as at home, you count it as 
a sign of an approaching village. 
Presently, you reach a little white, low cottage, 
standing a dozen feet back from the road, with a slat¬ 
ternly kept yard before it, in which, perhaps, are two 
or three plum trees, or possibly a pear. In the garden 
