Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1851-07-04
Agricultural.
Gerrnan AgricuIture.

i Each German has his house, his orchard his road
side trees so laden with fruit that if he did not care
fully prop up and tie together, and in many places
hold the boughs together with wooden clamps, they
would be torn asuHder by their own weight. He
has his corn plot, his plot of mangold wurtzel,
hay for potatoes, for hemp, &C. He is his own mas
ter, and he, therefore, and every branch OF his fam
ly. have the strongest motive for constant exertion
You the effect of this in his industry and his
economy.
In Germany nothing is lost The produce of the
trees and the COWS is carried to market, and much
fruit is dried for winter You it lying in the
sun to dry You see strings of them hanging from
their chamber windows in the sun. The
kept up for the greater part of the year. and every
green thing is collected for them Every little nook
where the grass grows by road side, and river and
brook ia carefully cut with the sickle. and carried
home the heads of the women and children in
baskets tied in large cloths. Nothing of any kind
that can possibly be made of any use is lost; weeds
netles nay the very goose grass which covers waste
places. is cut up and taken for the cows. You see
the little children standing in the streets of the vii
lagos, in the streams which generally down
them, busy washing these weeds before they are Civ
en- to the cattle.
They carefully collect the leaves of the marsh
grass carefully cut their potato tops for them and
even if other things fall gather green leaves from
the woodlands. One cannot help thinking contin-
ually of the enormous waste of such things in Eng
land-of the vast quantities of grass ON banks by
road sides in the openings of plantations, in lanes
springs and dies, but which. if carefully cut would
maintain many thousand cows for the poor
| 10 pursue still further this subject of German
economy. The very cuttings of the vines arc dried
and preserved for winter fodder. The tops and
refuse of hemp as bedding for the cows, nay,
even the rough stalks of the poppes after the heads
have been gathered for oil: saved and all these
are converted into manure for the land When these
are not sufficient the children into the woods
to gather moss, and all our readers familiar 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 stock
ed for the same purpose. The fir cones, which with
us lie and rot in the woods, carefully collected
| and sold for lighting fires.
In short, the economy and care of the German
peasants are example to all Europe. They have
for years. nay ages been doing that as it regards
agricultural management, to which the British pub
lie is but just beginning to open its eyes. Time.
also is as carefully economised everything else
They are early risers, may well be conceived,
when the children, many of whom come from con-
siderable distance in school at six in the morn
ing. AS they tend their cattle or their swine the
knitting never ceases, and hence the quantities of
stockings and other household things which they &C.
cumulate are astonishing -Houtn