New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1878-04-17
German Life.

William Hewitt gives the following
graphic account Of ssLife in Germany
which will. perhaps, both amuse and in
form our readers.
Each German has his house, orchard.
his roadside trees SO laden with fruit
that il he did not properly prop up and
tie together with wooden clamps, they
would be torn asunder by their own
weight. He has his corn his plot for
manglewurzel, for his potatoes. for
hemp, ect. He is his own master, and
he therefore, and every branch of his fam
lily, have the strongest motives for constant
exertion. You see the effect of this in his
industry and economy.
In Germany nothing is lost. The
produce of the trees and cows are carried
to market. Much fruit is dried for win
ter use. You see wooden trays of plums,
cherries and sliced apples lying in the
sun to dry. You see strings of them
hanging from the chamber windows IN
the sun. The COWS are kept up for the
greater part of the year, and ever9 green
thing is collected for them. Every little
nook where the grass grows is carefully
cut with the sickle and carried home on
the heads of the women and children,
IN baskets or tied in large cloths. Moth
ing of any kind that can possibly be
made of any use is lost Weeds, nettles,
nay the very good grass which covers
waste places is cut and taken for the
cows.
You see the children standing in the
streets of the villages, IN streams which
generally run down them, busy washing
these weeds before they are given to the
cattle. They carefully collect the leaves
OF the march grass, carefully cut their
potato tops for 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 in England-of the vast
quantities of grass on the banks by the
road-sides, in openings Of plantations, in
lanes, in church yards. where grass from
yearto year springs and dies, but which, if
carefully cut, would maintain many
thousand COWS for the poor.
TO pursue still further this subject of
German economy. The cuttings of the
vines are dried and preserved for winter
fodder. The tops and refuse OF the hemp
serve as bedding for the cows; nay, even
the rough stalks of the peoples, after the
heads have been gathered for oil, are
saved, and all these are converted into
manurefor the land. When these are not
sufficient, the children are sent into the
woods to gather moss; and all our read
ers familiar with Germany, will remem-
Der 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 purpose The
tir-cones, which with us lie and rot in the
woods, are carefully collected and sold
for lighting fires.
In Short the economy and care of the
German peasant are an example to. all
Europe. He has for years-nay, ages
been doing that, as regards agricultural
management, to which the British govern
ment is utjust beginning to open its eyes,
Time, also, is as carefully economical as
everything else. The Germans are early
risers, as may we'll be conceived, when
the children, many of whom come from
considerable distances, are in school at six
in the morning. AS they tend their cat
tie or swine, the knitting never ceases,
and hence the quantities of stockings,
and other household things which they
Accumulate, are astonishing