Arizona republican., 1907-07-30
DAILY Lift OF THE
FRENCH PEASANTRY
a lstter From General A. J. Sampson
Which Contains a Sermon on the
Subject of Good Reads.

The following letter from General
Sampson has been furnished The Re
publican for publication. II is written
under date of Paris. Franco. June 80.
1907:
My Dear Fraicr-I have written YOU
so much of the grand scenery of
mountain and plain. of castles and
novels, of cities and country. Of things
belonging TO the ages gone by and the
panorama Of the present. that / am
now going 10 tel you something of the
ordinary every day life views in for
eign lands. as seen between t.uccrne
and Paris.
Our three days Journey WAS most
pleasant, first on car. second on
steamer. and Third on car. All day
light; we DO no travelling at night.
While the country eas beautiful and
mostly cultivated To- the fullest extent.
] could see the soil was not as rich
az the agricultural parts of ARIZONA.
Ohio. Illinois, and other states. The
short grass and wheat and, at times,
gickly looking vegetation showed this.
The method Of farming in every
place was so differcn, from the home
land. Evidently many sections were
The holdings Of wealthy landlords and
the tillers E'cre renters. nearly all of
small interests. apparently: ] estimat-
ed, ten 10 twenty acres. or course no
fences separated thcse-almost an
imaginary line; a feW inches at most.
In one case ! counted thirty different
parties cutting grass or making hay
IN what seemed 20 b. one large field,
undoubtedly all the holding Of some
rich man. ighila those ut work repre-
scented different interests. Besides
those where Rafk was progressing
there weFe many other intervening
pieces of land who're haying ha9 not
yet commenced, or where a different
crop was grown. ar course these rent
ers can't build houses on the small
tracts of rented land. which results in
the establishment Of many small viii
lagos. where those farmers" live.
in some c1sEs they build and own
their homes. while in others the land
lord owns them and rents. Mostly
these seemed to D. comfortable looking
homes. though rather small. Nearly
all the has cutting was being done
by scythc or hand sickle. There We're
more women than men in the hay
fields. Often the men were working
bareheadci. while the women usually
had 4 bandana of some kind over the
head. Frequently when stacking hay
they had no horses 20 haul it. 4 man
would roll up an enormous bunch of
hay into 4 sopc. get it on his back.
completely hiding him. and carry it to
the place of stacking.
Mostly these tenents seemed Ia pre-
fer diversity Of crops as they would
have a small patch of hay. another of
potatoes. another pf wheat. another for
n garden. etc. IL didn'; seem possible
that a family could make a living off
Of such n small tract of land. You
can scarcely imagine how unlike
American farming the whole thing
was. During thfce days travel through
Switzerland. Germany and France we
saw hundreds Of places where they
We're cutting hay. but not more than
we didn't sea Bhem. a quaint scythe
was the rulo. Where they were doing
any hauling e seemed 10 be mostly
with oxen. fgx horses. And yet we
have never seen finer draft horses
than in these countries Frequently
we saw horse and an OK hitehed to-
gethcr hauling n heavy load. the OK
doing most OF the hauling. Once we
saw a man pulling a shovel pillow while
4 small boy was diligently trying to
hold II in the ground. but with poor
an OK pulling a heavy load. Free