The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-06-19
LETTER FROM DH. GOLDSMITH

DRESDEN, May %,

in this country which may interest our far
mers at home.
SaXony so far as have seen it is u jewel
of country for farming. The lilacs are
just coming into bloom. The rye is just
heading out. mention these facts that
is advanced.
Here, more than anywhere that ! have
been, the farm lands are without fences.
In this part of SaXony you see no sheep or
cows AT pasture. The only COWS you see
at all (and they are mostly lIollanters) arc
III the yoke, sometimes sngly and some
times double, and YOU see almost rs many
yoke of cows rs you do OF oxen, and
don't see but that they are put 10 just as
| heavy work.
You see as you ride over the country the
lands are divided apparently into small
and large lots. There are nothing but
| The plough lands are all marked into mar
row strips generally Of about equal width,
say four or six rods wide and about twenty
iods long. One such strip will have rye on
ii, another will have what appears now TO
! be barley, another will have potatoes, and
still another or rather two others will have
cloyer. Some wide fields, generally places
too low for ploughing are in grass, appar-
emily grass like our old meadows
The rye is twice us thickly seeded as ours
is, and this is so Of all grain. Potatoes
are planted in burrows as deep as those can
be ploughed. The burrows or rows of
potatoes are from IS to 90 inches apart,
mostly the former, and the potatoes,
almost always small ones, are planted six
inches apart Sometimes the potatoes,
afler Icing dropped, are covered lightly
with hoe sometimes they are ploughcd
| in. In any case, rs soon rs the weeds
start, fine harrow is run over the piece
across the rows, if the piece is wide
enough, or obliquely, il narrow crosswisc
Is the way When the weeds start again,
the harrow starts again, and se this goes on
until the ground is left level The harrow
is run through and over the growing vines,
and you can't see that it hurts them at all.
the labor that we do.
You see working in the fields and in the
quarrics as many women rs men, and a
great many more women than men har-
messed with dogs, drawing little wagons
The clover is evidently being cut, for
just before five you will see women, with
or without the help of a dog, sometimes
with basket, sometimes a wagon drawn
by cows sometimes you see a wagon
drawn by pair of horses all this appar-
ently-according to the size of the dairy or
the farm stock--all intent upon the clover
patches, which they cut with grass hooks
or scythes. The clover thus cut is carted
off TO the village, for you must know that
the country looks like prairie with little
villages here and there dotted over it. The
farmers and all their servants live in these
villages, and the stock as well. There is
seldom seen a farmstead, as in England and
in some parts OF northern Germany.
The farmers, yesterday, saw were cut
ting grass, not clover for hay IeXaminet
the hay field. The heads OF herds gras,
were just beginning to shoot. The Glove
is not more than eight inches high Wheth
or or not this is the best time to cut hay
don't pretend to say, for if did | SHOULD
expect Jesse Billings to make a speecl
against it. But one thing is certain, thes
people, who are much better farmers thai
ours-and there is no gansaying that-fo
they raise more from the land, they keel
= their fields cleaner, their cattle, sheep ant
horses are iatter, know better than ours
y. the time when il is most profitable to har
: vest their crop. They have a funny wa
. of Harvesting up their farm teams. In tn
= first place the wagons are diminutyes o
/, Just such wagons as are used to haul chal
=. coal with amongst us, having high flarin
boxes or rather cribs. They run from tha
4 size fitted for two horses to that fitted fo
"a a dog TO pull When onc.horse WACO
NJ is hitched up the one horse rs hitched o
!, one side Of the pole You must think tbs
nj the other horse is sick no such thing-tl
cr horse on the side Of the pole is the regult
thing. SO with the COW. Not in shafts
m sheen one side of just such n pole {
IN tongue as in use for pair. In the woma
m and dog team, the dog is always the o
=, horse If the work is hard sometimes q
10 old woman, stout and stocky, pushes b
. hind. When the team goes down hill, a
on hands dog and all get on board. I'll
81 woman straddles the tongue to guide Il
wagon and away they go the dog yelpn
the women yelling like children slidil
down hill
he These SaXons are thrifty people. Abo
III Dresden the only animals see at pastu
IN were geese and hogs-included in the latt
nd the Kings wild bears. All of these, c
be cept the boars, had herd girls waiting
he them. The wild bears were grazing un;
of tended, in the Mariatzing hunting pai
not AT five o'clock they come up to be fed.
he wondered how hunt was ever to be {
IN out of these snoopy looking craft, r
led Martin that we couldn't devise any meth
eg- which seemed to me practical, unless
tn could invent big tin pan, with OIL
horse fre-cracker attachment, TO be tied