The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-04-17
FRENCH FARMING.
The Everyday Life OF the Farmer Their
Homes, Food. Manners and Customs.

peTS Monthly gives us some very clear
pictures of agricultural life IN the North
of France. It differs from that in the
South, and perhaps also from that of
other portions. The farmers family,
with whom the writer stayed, were pros
perous-the grandfather having made
considerable money and bought a house
once belonging to a noble family. A
widow and three sons now own it, rent
ing part of it to a farmer on shares,
who Is called a granger. If he paid his
rent IN money ne would be called a
renter.
The house is of one story; the walls
are twenty-eight inches thick; there is a
kitchen and four large rooms. The
floors are all of brick or tile. There is
not carpet and but one looking-glass
in the house. The garnet is used as
granary. At the front of the house is
barn-yard, woodward and well-yard.
The well stands in front of the door.
The farmers cottage is of stone, one end
Of it being the stable.
The family has hot coffee, vegetable
soup, toast and wine for breakfast. The
sons sit down to it with their hats on.
They bake sixteen-pound loaves of
bread every two weeks, the loaf meas
dring half a yard across. They have
dinner and q 4-o'clock lunch of bread,
wine and piece of pie; and supper of
vermiceli, warmed-up beef, goats milk
cheese and cherries. The cooking is
mostly done on the hearth, the chimney
being large and old-fashioned. They
have a range with five small CRATES IN it.
They use charcoal and use it very spar
ingly. In winter there is a stove in the
mothers sleeping-room and then the
whole family lives there. They keep
Good Friday, and one of the boys goes
a-fshing-that is, he draws the water
from little pond near by, and picks
the fish out of the mud at the bottom.
| They have blue berries and omelet and
| cooked prunes. On Sunday they have
vermicelh soup, boiled beef and carrots,
| cabbages stewed with one or two little
| pigeons taken off of the nest, and chick
ems. black coffee and rum.
They dance on Sunday afternoon, al
though the priests are opposed to it.
| Hired women get from $50 to $50 a
year, but they do not get as much to eat
as they do in the United States. All
| the family wear wooden shoes, costing
about IL cents pair. They can wear
them a month. They make a great
Gathering on the tile floor.
The farmer rents eighty acres, and
can put by something every year. He
is bachelor, and his family consists of
his mother, brother and uncle. Hired
men get $50 a year. The farmer and
his family had good business habits,
but they cannot read nor write. Their
fuel is of the trimmings of trees, oak
saplings, and broom or furze. They
have no moving or reaping machines,
but during harvest hire eleven men.
These men have soup, omelet, bread,
cheese and salad meat once a day, pork
or bacon, and wine at all four meals.
When it is hot they take off their shirts
and work with their bodies thus stripped
even in the presence of the hired
women. After the harvest they viii
have a revel, when there viii be boiled
ham, rabbits stewed with wine, bread
and salad and wine. The hired hands
work until Sunday noon, then they be-
gin to drink and keep 1T up until Mon
day evening. The well-to-do farmers
have neither tomatoes, cucumbers nor
melons. It would require the labor of
another man.
The women help" or domestics,
spend a good share of the day watching
the cattle while they are grassing, for
there are no fences. She comes home
her knitting and even her distaff for
spinning into the field with her, and
she milks the COW or the goat three
times day.
One of the sons keeps a hunting dog
and horse, but no buggy, for in France
it would be scandalous to take a girl
out riding.
The farm is planted in the following
manner: In vines, about ten acres; in
meadow there are twenty; In wheat, five;
in potatoes, five; in oats, two and half.
Maize or Indian corn Is also sOwn, but
only to be fed green TO cattle. 1t Is cut
at the height of about two and a half
feet, when quite tender, and is given to
the animals in 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 animals
craze under the care Of a shepherd or
shepherdess and generally Of a shep-
herds dog. Pierre values his shepherd
dog at 100 francs; but his mother tells
me that he Is worth about half that
sum; that her son puts that value on
him because he loves him; he was worth
il once, but now he Is getting old. The
shepherd dog is only taxed 1 franc a
wear, the others B. Meadows IN France
and never TILED. They endeavOr to
water them, and n there is no stream
they try to find a spring, where they
make deep hole or pond, and thence
conduct the water by means of little
bitches or canals. You can see mead
ows on the sides of the hills crossed
lengthwise by these bitches. Those
meadows are rarely MANFRED, the
manure being wanted 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, one in June |
and July, the other In September and |
October; but if not well-enough grown |
it can be pastured. Some meadows |
have not been plowed for 800 years, and |
some have not been broken up for q |
thousand.
His Private Band.
A friend of ours, having determined |
to give a musical party, looked about |
amongst his acquaintance for suitable /
guests, and after considerable cOgitatiOn |
and inquiry made up his mind to invite /
the following:
Jones, because he was so clever IN /
blowing his own trumpet.
Brown, because he possesses the
ability to harp on one string.
Smith, because, even If you stopped /
II E = h