76. NOTES ON GERMAN MANGUVRES.. 
in bivouac for the sake of training in camp work, and the last two days 
of the manceuvres are generally devoted to movements where the whole 
force bivouacs in the open, but with these exceptions the troops are, as 
far as possible, billeted in the various villages in the neighbourhood of 
which the manceuvres are being held. ‘his system of billetting causes 
a good deal of trouble and inconvenience to the country people, and 
puts them to a certain amount of expense. All arrangements for billet- 
ting are made between the staff officer of the troops and the “ Schulze ”’ 
or government tax gatherer of the villages, who receives a notice to 
the effect that a certain number of troops, say one battery of artillery, 
one company of infantry and half a squadron of cavalry will be quartered 
m one of the villages in his charge for one or two days, and it is his 
business to distribuie the men and horses among the farm-houses in 
fair proportions. Asa rule, the officers are lodged together, and a fair 
sized farm may have to find accommodation for about twenty-four men 
and from twelve to twenty horses, but these numbers will vary with the 
number of men billeted on the village. ‘The men arrive at their billets 
during the afternoon, and as the commissariat will have distributed 
their rations during the forenoon, they expect to find their dinners 
ready. A householder is not legally bound to cook the soldiers’ 
rations, but it is the unwritten law of the land that this should be done, 
and to allow of weary men to cook their own food, would be an act of 
inhospitality which would be far from the mind of any German. ‘To 
cook-for. twenty men is no light matter, as out of this number there 
are probably two “‘avantageurs”’ or candidates for commissions, who 
must of course have their food apart from the others, there will also be 
the “‘ einjahrige ”’ or one year’s men, who, coming from a higher social 
class than the common soldiers, expect a separate mess ; three different 
sets of meals will therefore have to be prepared. The rations are both 
in quality and quantity inferior to ours, and the men expect the house- 
holders, on whom they are billeted, to supplement them considerably 
from their own larders. The soldiers generally expect to have their 
ration bread exchanged for the home-made bread of the farmer. 
The quality of the flour from which the ration bread is made is good, 
but the bread is often badly baked and sodden. Should a bye-day 
from’ manceuvre work occur, three meals, breakfast at seven o’clock, 
dinner at noon, and supper will have to be prepared, so that the farm 
establishment will spend most of its day in cooking for the soldiers 
quartered on them. 
The “avantageurs ” and “ einjahrige ” are, when possible, put into 
rooms or out-buildings, apart from the other men. Most farm-houses 
seem to possess an infinite number of mattresses, these are filled with 
straw and make excellent beds, while all the spare blankets, quilts, and 
every kind of covering, are called into requisition, without which the men 
would often pass an uncomfortable night. Officers are provided with 
accommodation in the owner’s house, though two or three may at times 
have to share the same room ; the men are put into the barns and out- 
houses, where, with the help of spare mattresses borrowed from the 
house, and unlimited straw, they make themselves very comfortable. 
At the recent Guard manceuvres a barn was set on fire by some of the 
