The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1853-04-07
GERMAN AGRICULTURE.

d The account given by Mr. Hewitt Of
Il German agriculture cannot fail TO interest
our readers:
Each German has his house, bis garden,
his roadside trees, SO laden with fruit that if
he did mol carefully prop up and lie togetf-
er, and in many.instances hold tho boaghs
together with wooden clamps, they would
he torn asander BY their own weight. lie
mas bis corn plot, his plot Of mange!-murt.
Izel, or hedge Of potatoes, hemp, &c.
! He il his own master, and he therefore,
and every branch Of his family have the
strongest motive for constant exertion.-
You see the effect OF this in his industry and
4 his economy.
| In Germany nothing is lost. Tho pro-
duce Of the trees and tho cows is carried to
market; much lrui, is dried for winter use.
You see i, 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,
and every green thing is collected for
them. Every little nook where the grass
grows BY roadside, and river and brook, is
carefully cut with the sickel, and carried
home on the heads ofthe women and child
ren in baskets, or tied in large cloths
Nothing Of any kind that can possibly be
made of ang use is lost; weeds, net,les, hay,
the very goose grass which covers the
waste places, is cut and taken for the cows.
Toe see he little children standing lin the
streets Of the villages, in the streams which
generally run down them, busy washing
these weeds before they are given to the
cattle.
They carefully collect the leaves Of the
marsh grass, carefully cut their potato tops
for them, and even il other things fail, gath
er green leaves from The woodlands. One
cannot help thinking continually of the
enormous waste Of such things in England
-ofthe vast quantities Of grass on banks,
BY roadsides, in the opening Of plantations,
10 lanes, in church-yards, where grass from
wear 10 year springs and dies, but which, it
carefully cut would maintain many thou
sand cows Tor the poor.
To pursue still further the subject OF
German economy. The very cuttings OF
The vine are dried and preserved for winter
fodder. The tops and refuse of hemp serve
as bedding for the cows; nay, even the
rough stalks Of the poppies, after the heads
have been gathered for oil, are saved, and
al these are converted into manure for tho
land. When these are not sufficient, the
Children are sent into the woods to gather
moss, and all our readers familiar with Ger
many will remember to have seen them
commlng homeward with large bundles of
this on their heads. In autumn, the falling
leaves are gathered and stacked for tho
same purpose. The fir cones, which with
us lie and rot in the woods, ere carefully
collected and sold for lighting fires.
In short, the economy and care Of the
German peasants is an example 10 all Eu-
rope. They have for years, nay ages,
been doing that, as regards agricultural
management, to which the British public
il but Just now beginning to open itseyes.
Time, also, is as carefully economzed as
every thing else. They are early risers,
las NAV we'll be conceived when the chill
dren, many Of whom come from consid-
erabe distance, are in school at six in the
morning. As they tend their cattle or
swine, the knitting never ceases, and hence
The quantity Of stockings and other house
hold things which they accumulate is as
tonishng.