Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-09-03
From Our Regular Correspondent
Our European Letter.
LONDON, Eng, August Is, 1879.

!
gan to show traces of color. Lookin
across field upon a slope where tn
glance can travel along the tips of th
ears, u change of hue is visible. TIL
yellow indeed, has not yet come, but tn
green is going. Hard by, the barley, toe
has altered and grown little whittier as
waves in the breeze. Some few hours Q
sunshine have effected this, and give
hope not only to the farmer but to tn
agricultural laborer. For two month
those who every year look forward t,
hay making for the extra money ther
paid have been waiting and despairins
under almost continuous rain. Man,
men, women and indeed whole families
who have travelled by road long distance
from home to districts where hay crop
are usually forward, have had to live 70
weeks without work. Just as the whea
and barley in more favored districts begil
to show signs of ripening, the hay harves
has at last commenced, and not till now
Here in tho meadows the mowers are a.
busy as they usually are early in June
These travelling laborers have had to ell
dure much hardship-hardship that ha,
driven numbers of them away, unable tc
wait until the sun shone. The practice o
travelling about for employment has much
increased of late years among agriculture
laborers, so that the suffering from thi:
cause has been widespread. Again, thu
aged men in the villages who cannot worl
much look forward to spring and sum
mer as time when many tasks may fall
to them and supply some change of food
and other necessaries. But they have
this year had nothing to do. All the
early spring the frost and severe weather
prevented them working in the fields
Since then the rain has driven them back
The usual hoeing and wedding could mol
be done; and these poor old men, who
live a hard life at the best of times, lost
their usual opportunity. The same thing
happened with the women who go hay,
making, and who for the past two months
have been watching for the rain to cease.
Although far fewer women now work at
harvest in the field, yet TO those who still
continue to do so the weather has been a
serious matter. 1t is these people the
fringe as it were of the agricultural labor
ing class-who have hitherto suffered
most. The travelling families, the old
men and women, have lost months OF
time, and of course the equivalent in
money.
The regular agricultural laborers who
work from years end to years end on the
same farms have felt the stress of the
weather, but in different way. They
have received their wages, but these wages
have not been so profitable for the follow
ing reasons: The extreme length of the
winter caused the cottager to expend
much of his slender store, or to morl gage
his future harvest money for fuel, food or
clothes. Then the frost destroyed his hope
of good garden crop of green vegetables.
The laborcr is large consumer of such
vegetables, and that is why Il garden or
an allotment is of SO much Importance to
him and his family. To those who possess
a good income the scarcity of garden
produce in the spring and its high price
was 'only Il thing to grumble about. 1t
meant little more money to pay the
greengrocer, but it did not mean depriva-
tioa. The cottager, however, had to suf-
fer prvatiou, and indeed still at this
moment, in one Of his principal supports.
Though meat and bacon are more largely
consumed now than formerly, yet bread
and vegetables are still of the utmost i'm
portance. The garden spring crops failed,
and now it is by no M eans certain that
disease will not destroy the potato yield,
To those who have families this loss is not
easily supplied. Such of the children, too,
us had passed the school age could not
find employment, but were compulsory
idle. In these indirect ways the regular
laborer has had to endure certain amount
of discomfort. But what concerns him
most is the question of the future. viii
wages-not harvest but regular and win
ter wages-continue at their present rate?
The harvest protects the laborer from the
stress that has fallen upon the farmer, and
in sense upon the landlord. But the
approach of winter may put different
aspect upon the case. Then comes the
question of food. How fortunate it has
been for the laborer that the foods upon
which he relies, excepting garden produce,
have been so cheap and abundant, Bread
has been cheap; bacon and cheese cheap
so cheap that the English farmer can
hardly produce either of these three things
without loss at present prices. But il
wheat rises, bread of course must rise with
it, and this at once goes home to the cot
tage, where the loaf is all-important.
Next year will witness the celebration
of a jubilee festival in Bavaria, for which
as far as we know, the history of the
world furnishes no parallel. The fief o
Bayern was granted to Wittelsbach, in
the year 1880, by the emperor of the holy
Roman realm, so that twelvemontl
hence seven hundred years will have
elapsed since the lineal ancestor of The
fantastic poet king who now occupies tho
Havarian throne first assumed the duca
diadem which has, within the last century
been converted into regal crown. Dur
inc the interim one Wittelsbach has sue
ceeded another rs duke, elector, or king
with unbroken regularity. The Wittels
bachs were counts of Scheyern before they
became sovereign princes by the acquisi
ton of the Bavarian duchy; and it is pro
posed by the historical society of Upper
Bavaria to hold the contemplated festivities
at the monastery of Scheyern. formerly
the feudal castle of the Wittelsbachs, from
| ,uhirh thew took their first territorial lie,