The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-19
THE FARMER IN GERMANY
HE HAS GRIEVANCES LIKE HIS
BRETHREN THE WORLD OVER.
He GrOans Now Under the American
Sugar Tariff-ExceIs the English
in the Art of FrugaIity.
G. wv. steeveng. IN london Mail.


for the envy and imitation of our depressed
agriculturist at home. had vague idea
that from progressive Germany we i'm
ported everything, from fat beasts to the
stuff that beasts are fatted on. But now l
have lived and loafed about several agricul-
tural parts of Germany, and conversed with
land owners, farmers and laborers And the
record is still unbroken that in every part
of the world the agriculturist wears exactly
the same face of prosecuted merit, bemoans
exactly the same grievances, signs for ex-
actly the same consultations, and in every
several country believes himself to be the
one pre-eminent sufferer in the whole
world.
The bitterest cry in Germany comes from
the districts east of the Elbe, Prussia prop
er, Prussian Poland, and Silesia. My ex-
perience has him wholly to the west of the
Elbe, so that it is presumably a favorable
one Judging from the contempt expressed
by the farmers of Hanover for the farmers
of other parts, 1 infer that they fear no
comparison, which makes the experience
look more favorable still And in all dis
tricts, on all soils, under all systems of
tenure, they are depressed and complain.
1t is here as everywhere. Low prices are
the grievance overproduction is the prin-
cipal cause; protection is the popular cure.
On the rolling ridges of corn and beetroot
they cry out against the Russo-German
commercial treaty Of 1893, and especially
against the sugar-bounty system The first
swamped them with Russian corn; the sec
ond has raised up murderous competition.
1t is true that this year shows rise in
corn prices and a fairly good harvest, al
though the dry spring has locked the value
of the straw. But the rise is not likely to
be permanent one, and the farmer clam
ors for a high duty on corn Fanatics from
Prussia even want the state to fix price
naturally a high one; the state, with it's
eye on the consumer naturally refuses.
The leveler-headed see that the evil can be
stayed neither by the one cure-all nor by
the other. The fact that where duties have
gone down 10 marks prices have fallen 100
is evidence of that The German cane
grower is suffering along with his fellows
in every country round the globe
HIS OWN SUGAR DEAR.
In the case of sugar there is not even the
consolation that the consumer gets his
sugar cheaper. The bounty export is
taken out in taxes at home; consequently,
German sugar which the English house
keeper buys at 1Ad pound costs the Ger
man wife Sd. For the very exporter the
Austria has come in to compete with a
bounty of 1ad per hundredweight more than
his; Holland pays 4d more, Belgium sd more,
France Cd more Overproduction has again
led to disaster. And now. for the final blow,
comes the new American tariff. In 1896
Germany exported G2,2O0.O49 worth of sugar
to the United States. Now the new tariff
handicapS the German sugar, which re-
ceiyes the bounty on the finished product
be a
comes off scot free. ut was expressly
aimed at Germany growls the German
beet grower. And as prices go hopelessly
down taxes and wages go remorselessly up.
Things are not bad in the grazing dis
tricts. Oh, the wide fiat pastures that flank
the lower Elbe and the North sea coast
you hear tones less querulous. Stock does
not fetch what 1t did by a long way, but a
fat beast will still sen for SEQ, and it is not
so impossible to fat him. 1t is naked land;
the miles and miles of fiat grass country
are broken only by rare plantations, which
emboSom farmhouses, and by tall dykes,
which are the rampartS of the land. But for
the thick trees the bitter wind would blow
the houses to pieces; but for the dykes the
pastures would lie year in and year out I'M
der salt water. But in the summer the
pasture lies open to the SUM- and wonderful
pasture IL is. Thick, fine and tender, and
half made of clover, as the heavy soil holds
every drop of water; look at it, and you
long to have been born beast. Here is the
best bred stock in Germany. Hanover and
Celle are both notable centers of horse
breeding, and you may marvel all day to
see the long-barreled wel-coupled, square
quartered. blood-like beasts in the very
tradesmen's carts. But in this corner of
Germany you stumble upon thoroughbreds
round every corEer-thOroughbreds too, bred
not for strength and speed so much as for
beauty. The cattle are of Germanys best,
also, with a good deal of imported short
horn blood, as well as Ayrshire anG Gallo
way; for this the farmers have to thank the
late Count Bremen, an untirlng eXperimenter
and improver. Seeing how he has left his
mark the stock of wide district, you
understand what q public blessing good
landlord can be. For beef, Hamburg pro-
vides an inexhaustible market and distrib-
uting center. The sheep have been crossed
with English blood the large white pigs
are equal to Yorkshire's best; the very
ducks are often imported Aylesburys.
FINE CATTLE.
Only on one count so far L can see has
the British farmer to learn from these peo-
pie; in most he is their superior. Their
beasts are well bred, and enjoy magnifi-
cent pasture, but otherwise they are poor
ly fed. The farmers horses do not often see
much oats in their chopped straw. There
has been such a thing heard Of thirty
quart COW, but twelve to fourteen quarts
is q very high figure for cow in full milk
and not d butter COW at that. The Ger
man farmer regards q Shorthorn as we re-
gard a Jersey; good butter COW, he says,
but give him a heavy mixer. What he calls
a heavy mixer is a relative of the Dutch
cow we know in England-the sort that
gives per cent. of added water without the
aid of the pump. JAS for dairies, l saw one
this very day in what was by way of be-
ing a show farm. Every girl fit to call
dairymaid knows that a dairy should be
SpOtless, and should contain nothing but
milk and cream and butter. Here the
shelves We're not only wooden, but they
were decorated with paper frillings like
outlets collar, and the dust limited at the
time since they last were washed More
over the home brewed beer, strong cheese,
preserved hams and bacon lived in the dairy
with 1t. The butter, throughout all Ger
many, reSentS this treatment; it f1abbily de-
clines to taste of cream. 1t is true this
farmer had the ingenious idea to connect
get it turned by horse but the
churn itself was an old box, and not over
clean.
You seldom see a moving machine; they
to the sickel of their fathers. Fowls are
mostly Leghorns and Plymouth Rocks, but
also an understood, profitless bantam sort
of thing; and, not being able to get more
them himself And as for flowers, fruit and
VegetableS-weH, / have seen the horticul-
tural exhibition at Hamburg. and l may
fairly presume that this does Germany JUS
tice. If l wished to boast i should say
1 could go out into my own garden and cut
and dig up a better eN hibition before break
fast; as | do not, | will merely say l have
seen half a dozen village shows in England
burg would not have been allowed inside
the door.
And now the one point wherein the Ger
man puts the Englishman to utter shame.
You have guessed it. no doubt, there is only
one point left Economy. Economy in it's
active and its passive aspectS-hard work
and frugality, the German farmer excels in
both. The farmer l visited to-day is sew
7fxy-n or md has hGnn tic