330 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Oct, 
Notes of a Tour in Europe-—No. 2. 
Eds. Cultivator —We spent one day looking over the 
city of Madrid, while our courier was getting our pass¬ 
ports vised, preparatory to leaving the country. This 
has to be done, as well to leave as to enter. This pass¬ 
port system is a very great annoyance, which every one 
will find out soon enough who travels in countries where 
they are required. My passports cost me considerable 
money, besides several days delay. It would have taken 
two days to have got them through the different offices, 
if our Minister had not interferred. By his assistance 
we were enabled to get them through in one day. The 
fees were between three and four dollars. Madrid is full 
of soldiers, like all other places where royality is sup¬ 
ported. To go through the Palace and Queen’s stables, 
and see the enormous amount of money it takes to sup¬ 
port royality, and then consider that this vast amount 
of money comes from the pockets of the poor people, 
and then to contrast these with our plain republican in¬ 
stitutions, must lead one, I think, to detest such govern¬ 
ments, and lead him to appreciate and love his own. 
Through the politeness of our Minister, (who accom¬ 
panied us,) we were admitted to see the Queen’s stables. 
We went first, partly through the carriage houses 
where we examined as many as 50; they were for differ¬ 
ent uses and times; some are private carriages, others 
for travelling, others for hunting, and others riding in 
state on different occasions; one which they showed us, 
they said cost eighty thousand dollars. We next visited 
the stables. I should judge there were 100 horses in 
them. They were for different purposes—for the car¬ 
riage, hunting, riding, and for racing. They were noth¬ 
ing more than a middling lot, take them together. There 
were some very good animals, some English, a few Ara¬ 
bian, but mostly a mixed breed. I saw some fine mules 
in Madrid, and some in the teams in the north part of 
Spain, very large and strong. As a general thing the 
mules are quite small. They feed these horses and 
mules, as far as I could learn, wholly on cut straw and 
barley, dry—the barley without grinding. 
We started from Madrid 21st of March, five o’clock 
in the morning, on our return to France; came back the 
same way we went—arrived at Paris the 26th, at nine 
o’clock in the evening—stopped one night on the way. 
We were gone from Paris 22 days; I never saw as great a 
change in the looks of a country, as there was in France 
while we were gone. There had been a good deal of 
rain, and grain had come up, and the grass had started 
and looked very green and fine. 
We now concluded to shape our course for Stuttgart, 
Germany, where Charles L. Fleischman, Esq., resides, 
as American Consul, wishing to secure his services, as 
his intimate knowledge of the country and the different 
flocks of sheep, would make them valuable. We went 
from Paris to Strasburgh, a strongly fortified town on 
the Rhine. We went part of the way by railroad, and 
the rest by diligence. We were two nights and one day 
on the road, therefore it did not give us a very good op¬ 
portunity to see the country; what I saw was hilly and 
poor. 
We crossed the Rhine on a bridge of boats. The river 
was very high at the time, the country on the Rhine 
being much under water, but the land must be very rich 
and fine. We crossed from Strasburgh to Khel, from 
Khel to C.arlsruhe by railroad, which runs along on the 
borders of the Rhine, from Carlsruhe to Stuttgart by 
stage coach. It takes about 12 hours from Carlsruhe 
to Stuttgart. There is a good deal of orcharding in the 
south part of Germany; there is generally a row of ap¬ 
ple trees on each side of the highway. The land is all 
occupied; the hill sides are generally terraced and plant¬ 
ed to grape-vines. Every few rods there are stone steps 
from the bottom to the top. The way they manure the 
vines, is to haul manure and leave it at the bottom of 
the hill, in piles; it is then carried up these steps by 
men. I saw a good many at work at it. 
We had the good luck to find Mr. Fleischman at home, 
and he was very ready to do anything to benefit an 
American. His attachments for this country are very 
strong. I found him very much engaged in getting up 
a work on cattle—a work which I think must be very 
valuable. He has drawings of the different kinds of 
cattle and descriptions of them, as to their value for 
different purposes—for beef, milking qualities, oxen. 
See., and the adaptation of different breeds to different 
locations, a subject that is much better understood and 
practiced upon in some parts of Europe, than it is in 
this country. I noticed this particularly in England. 
In the poor parts you will see the South-Down sh'lep; 
where the land is of medium quality, you will find a 
mixture between the South-Downs and Leicesters; 
in the rich parts, the Leicesters. 
Mr. Fleischman was very busy, and hardly knew how 
to leave, but to accommodate us and benefit his adopted 
country, he consented to accompany us through Ger¬ 
many. We first paid a visit to the Agricultural School 
at Hoenlieim, said to be one of the best in Germany. 
We were very kindly received and accompanied through 
the establishment by one of the professors. The stu¬ 
dents are taught agriculture, both scientifically and prac¬ 
tically. We found them out at work on the highway. 
We found everything well arranged. The stock is all 
housed, and the farmers are as careful to save the urine 
as any part of the manure. The stables^ for the cattle 
are all arranged with gutters to carry the liquid into 
cisterns. They have some very good cattle, but noth¬ 
ing superior. The sheep are mostly fine wooled, small, 
and light fleeced. They have wool on cards from every 
sheep of every year since they commenced, which shows 
a great improvement in the quality. They have large 
quantities of samples from different parts of the coun¬ 
try. They have all kinds of grain, seeds, and all kinds 
of farming implements. They have shops for the manu¬ 
facture of all kinds of farming tools, carts, waggons, &c. 
The plows which they manufacture are of lighter and 
better patterns than any I saw in Europe, except in 
England. They have a large cabinet of minerals, also 
the skins of animals and birds stuffed, and most kinds 
of insects preserved, and the bones of most kinds of do¬ 
mestic animals. They have several professors who give 
lectures on farming, and the treatment of animals in 
sickness, and health. 
The country around Stuttgart is in a high state of cul¬ 
tivation. We started from Stuttgart March 2d, to go 
north, as Mr. Fleischman informed us we must, to find 
