Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1879-02-08
Weeklg gutelligeaem.
OFFICIAL COUNTY PAPER.
FRENCH FARMING.


from Harper's Magazine.1
On Sunday the farmers mo Their
comes into the yard and wants me to
ait down with n ,dame l.. and herself
for q little gossip. She wants me to
wear a cap. She says that l am thlh,
and I reprove her for not being COM
plimentary. She offers me a pinch
of SNUFF, and again wants to know
whether America is q part OF France
She does not work i'll the garden,
like our "Pennsylvania Dutch" wo-
men, but hers are working hands.
One day her son is very busy cutting
q large field of rye, and they have
eleven extra men. [ see none of our
great reaping and moving machines
here. Madame the farmer has a great
deal TO do this day. Her domestic
is in the field in the morning guard
inc the oxen, cows and calves tina
are grazing. While she is thus acting
as shepherdess she sews, knlts OF
spins tor the family. To see her 60
ing out with a distaf OF hemp was
quite novel to me. At eleven O'CLOCK
she comes in to help madame d
granger with the dinner.
will give the men vegetable soup, or
occasionally rice soup with milk IN
it. After the soup there Will pc
omelets-I am told that 1t will take
three or four for SO many en-au
there will be bread and cheese, salad
and wine. The cheese is made from
milk after the cream is taken on, or
from goats milk, pure. Ihe saiao is
dressed with vinegar, walnut oil,sait,
pepper and q little garlic. Madame
L. tells me that they are not Ill fed.
At noon the domestic milks the COWS
and the goats, Tor she does 1t three
times q day. At three she will go 10
the fields again with the animals.
This care must be used, rs there are
no fences. At four O'Clock the men
will have a lunch in the field ; some
one will como and help b mother
take it out. They will have bread,
cheese and salad.
"And wine 2" I ask.
ssThat is q matter of course. They
drink wine at the four meals /; but If
they are thirsty between, they lake
piQuette. They do not drink water ;
they don't like it," says Madame l..
Harvest hands get meat once a day
"a breakfast there is a bit of bacon
IN the soup, except on Friday-ssy
something more than a pound for 80
many men. Then there are bread
and cheese at breakfast. The supper
10 at eight, aud is soup, bread and
cheese again. MADAME LIS chesses
resemble Clutch cheese" or little
pats, made in Pennsylvania from
smearcase or cottage cheese.) After
harvest is finished they will have the
revel (rtvolle.) This is q supper
where madame the farmer will have .
ham or shoulder boiled-for they call
shoulders hams. Then they will have
some other meat if there are 80
many men, perhaps there will be q
couple of rabbits rabbits stewed
with wine ; and there will be more
over bread and salad and wine at the
riuolle.
The farm is planted in the follow
Ing manner: In vines, about ten
acres in meadow there are twenty ;
In wheat, five ; in potatoes, five ; Ill
oats, two and a half. Maize or In
dian corn is also sown, but only to
be fed green to cattle. 1t is cut at
the height of about two aud a half
feet, when quite tender, and is given
to the animals i'll their stables. Grass
seeds are never sown in this district ;
but when a field has been cultivated
and the harvest gathered, whether
Of wheat, oats or anything else, then
they do not fatigue the ground, even
In the plain, the second year, but al
low the natural grass TO grow, and
there animals Craze, under the care
of a shepherd or shepherdess, and
generally of shepherds dog. Pierre
values their shepherd dog at one
hundred francs;but his mother tells me
that he is worth about half the uIn
that her son puts that value on him
because he loves him ; he was worth
It once, but now he is getting old.
The shepherd dog ia only taxed one
franck q year, the others five.
I have spoken of there being twenty |
acres in meadow on the Lesmontagnes |
farm, and Pierre tells me that mead
0ws in France are never titled. They
endeavor to water them, and If there
10 no stream, they try to find q spring, |
where they will make a deep hole or
pond, and thence conduct the waters
You can see meadows Oh the sides of
the hills crossed lengthwise by these
bitches. These meadows are rarely
IL hAouulO OClu& "dbICu
for the vines, which pay better. One
third of the manure is put upon the
wheat, and two-thirds on the vines.
Generally by the beginning of June
the water ceases to flow through the
meadow bitches. There are usually
two cuttings of grass taken from the
meadows, IL in June or July, the
other in September and October;
but if not well enough grown, it can
be pastured. I have said that these
meadows are never titled. Pierre
thinks that theirs has not been