The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1886-10-22
GLIMPSES OF HOLLAND.
THE COUNTRY OF THE WINDMILL
AND THE CANAL.

THE COUNTRY OF THE WINDMILL
AND THE CANAL.
Pretty Dutch Girls and Their Curious
Dress-The Fishwomcn Of scheveningen.
Dutch Country Scenes and Dutch Chill
dren-Holland and Egypt Compared.
Especial C0rrespon ience.I
AMSTERDAM. Oct. Holland Is the Egypt
Of Europe, and the country scenes of the
Dutch deltas are very similar to those of the
Nile. Egypt is made up of the alluvial de-
posits of the Nile Holland comes from those
Of the Rhine, the Mas and the other rivers
which empty into the North sea. Both coun-
tries are full of waterways and canals, and
both have soils as black as pitch and as
rich as guano. visited Egypt one January
and found miles Of fiat fields covered with a
luxuriance of verdure greener and fresher
than any had ever seen. Holland, now, is
fully as green, and the pasture has the color
Of rich American valley in springtime.
Neither Egypt nor Holland has any fences,
and the eye travels in Holland over miles of
green, broken here and there by the trees
which line the white roadways or the willows
which for miles in some places border the
canals. These canals take the place of fences.
They cut up the country into farms and
6el,ls, and though the smaller of them are not
over four feet wide and two or three deep,
the cattle do not seem to jump across them.
At some places they are crossed by bridges,
and these form the gates in and out of the
fields A bar or gate is fastened up across
the bridge, and through this the cattle are
driven.
Holland is noted as a grazing country, and
the whole territory seems one vast pasture
field, spotted with fat cows by the tens of
thousands The Dutch cattle are of speckled
white and black variety very large and very
fine looking They are here esteemed better
than the Holstein, of which they are a cross,
and they make excellent beef. The Dutch
take good care of their stock. Throughout
these thousands of acres of fields past which
I Travelled, big feeding tubs were scattered,
and the cows are regularly fed there. They
sleep in the fields in summer, and they are
MIXED in the pastures. In many cases the
milk wagon, filled with big brass milk cans
which shine under the rays of the setting sun,
is driven through the pastures, and the milk
poured into the cans as fast as it is drawn
from the cows. was at Rotterdam during
the cattle market, and saw some thousands of
beeves sold by the Holland farmers, who ap-
peared in their queer dress of caps, full
breeches and roundabouts. The cattle were
as smooth as SO many well groomed horses,
and noted that in many of the fields the finer
cows had blankets OH their backs to protect
them from the flies They were all clean,
and when the cows are in the stable, am
told that their tails are fastened to rings in
the rafters to keep them clean.
Holland is the lowest country in the world,
and the most of it lies many feet below the
level of the sea- The dykes which keep back
the waters are as carefully watched now as
in days past and a break would drown out
the country.
No Holland scene is perfect without its
windmills. These great round-towered, four
winged affairs are seen everywhere They
ding their great arms abovef the trees in the
distance. They rise in long rows from the
side of each large canal, and nearly every
farmer has little windmill of his own
These mills are far more substantial and pic
turesque than the American windmill. They
have towers so large around that in some
cases families live in their lower story, and
their arms are in some mills sixty feet long.
These arms are made of skeleton frame of
wood several feet wide, upon which is rolled
Q sail of canvas. When the mill is used these
sails cover the wood, and the arms 60 round
ut a lively swing, catching every breath of
air and doing all sorts of work. They pump
water, run sawmills, grind wheat and corn,
give the power for paper mills and do much
of the work which steam has to do for us.
They appear like live things as one sees them
tossing their long arms about, and it is not
surprising that the crazy brain of Don
Quixote took one of them for giant enemy
whom it would be credit to vanquish. |