Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1850-12-05
A Sketch OF German Life.

William Hewitt gives the following graph
&c sketch of life in Germany, which will,
perhaps, both amuse and inform our rea-
ders:
Each German has his house, his orchard,
his roadside trees, so laden with fruit, that
if he did not carefully prop up, and tie to-
geiher, aud in many places mold the boughs
together with wooden clamps, they would
be torn asunder by their own weight.
He has his corn-plot, his plo, for mangle-
wurtzel. for hay, for potatoes, fof hemp, etc.
He is his own master, and be, therefore,
and every branch of his family, have the
strongest motives for constant exertion.
You see the effect of this in his industry
aud his economy.
In Germany, nothing is lost. The pro-
duce of the trees and the cows is carried to
market Much fruit is dried for winter
use. You see wooden trays of plums, cher
ries, and sliced apples, lying IN the sun to
dry. You see strings of them hanging
from their chamber windows in the sun.
The cows are kept up for the greater
part of the year, aud every green thing is
collected for them. Every little nook where
the gross grows bv the roadside, the river,
and brook, is carefully cut with the sickle,
aud carried home, nn the heads of women
aud children, in baskets, or tied in large
cloths. Nothing of any kind that can pos
slblv be made oil any use is lost Weeds,
neitles, nay, the very goose-grass which
covers waste places, Is cut up and taken
for the cows. You see the children stand
ing in the streets of the villages, in the
streams which generally run down them,
busy washing these weeds before they are
gwen to the cattle. They carefully collect
the leaves of the marsh-grass, carefully cut
their poiaIoe tops Tor them, and even, If
other things fail, gather green leaves from
the woodlands. One cannot help thinking
continually OF the enormous waste of such
things ia England-of the vast quantities of
grass on banks. by the roadsIdes, in the o.
penings ofplantations, in lanes, in church.
yards, where grass from year to year
springs aud dies, but which if carefully cut,
would MAINTAIN many thousand COWS for
the poor.
To pursue still further this subject of
German economy. The very cuttings of
tue vines are dried aud preserved for WIN
ter fodder. The tops and refuse of the
hemp serve bedding for the COWS nay,
even the rough stocks of the peoples, az
ter the heads have been ga;herd for oil, are
saved, and all these are converted into ma
nure for the land.
When these are not sufficient, the chill
dren are sent into the woods To gather moss,
and all our readers flmiier with Germany
will remember to have seen them coming
homeward with large bundles of this ON
their heads. In autumn, the falling leaves
are gathered and stacked for the same pur-
pose. The fur-cones, which with us lie
aud rot In the woods. are carefully collect
ed and sold for lighting fires.
In short the economy and care of the
German peasant are an example to all Eu-
rope. He has for years-nay, ages-been
dong that, as ii regards agricultural man
agement, to which the British public is
but Just now beginning TO opel Its eye -
Time also, is as carefully econon lied
as every thing else They are early risers,
as may well be conceived, when the chill
dren. many Of whom Come from consIdera-
BILE distances, aie in school at SIX In the
morning. As they tend their cattle or their
swine, The knitting never ceases, and hence
the quantities ui stockings. aud other house,
hold things, winch they accumulate, are
astonishing.