Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-04-15


| were Belgian, French and many of
them American. The officers told me
that they had been left in the fields
by the French soldiers at ascertained
distances apart so that the artillery
or aeroplanes making them out from
above as they were lying in the fields
and seeing soldiers near them could
get the range for the guns. The Ger
mans said that they soon "got wise"
to this system, and thereafter the
| soldiers Stunned the pIows as if they
were signs of the plague.
Many Motor PIows.
On the way back to Sedan they
showed US some of the Is motor plows
which the Third army has in opera
ton, and told me that more were be-
| ing sent on from Germany every day.
| They still did not have sufficient ma
| chimes for the number of men that
| they were able to spare for the work.
I was told that the army farther west
had 35 of these pIows at work during
| the month Of February, so I judged
| that extensive agricultural work was
| going on there as we'll. The plows are
| of German manufacture. They were
using six pillow points on the machines
| that I examined, and l was told that
| the engines were of 25 horse power.
| They could prepare about ten acres
| Of land a day with one of these plows,
and all the soldiers who were used
| for this work had had experience be-
| fore they Joined the army, so that
| they were proficient and able to work
| rapidly.
When we reached Sedan it was
| afternoon milking time, and I went
over the army diaries with the major
who was in charge. I could not help
! wishing that this farming and this
| dairying, so perfectly organized and
carried out by the soldiers, was the
| real object for which the German
army was trained and disciplined. The
! dairy at Sedan was the former stable
! of a French regiment of cuirassiers,
| but the Germans had put in concrete
! floors and partitions where none had
existed in the old days.
The large shedlike structure which
had been the regimental riding school
| had been turned into the army butcher
| shop, and $50 animals were butchered
| there every day for the use of the
men in and around Sedan. The
butchering for the men in the trenches
| goes on nearer the lines, where the
| transportation is easier and the meat
| fresher when it arrives to be prepared
for the men under fire.
Run Model Dairy.
! In the dairy there were some three
hundred cows-Swiss, Holsteins and
even Jerseys-that had been taken
from the country around Sedan. The
major showed me these COWS that
were giving milk for the sick and
wounded in Sedan and then took me
to a peasants stable and showed me
his cattle. Even the majors enthusi-
assn could not eXaggerate the superb
ority of the army COWS and their sur
roundings as far as cleanliness and
/ general hygiene were concerned.
Some of our COWS were just like
these two months ago." he said, "and
you see what our methods have done
here. We have doubled the quantity
of milk that the native COWS give and
we will also double the amount Of
wheat that their land will raise, if
our army has to stay here long enough
for US to gather in the crops"
From conversations I had with the
officers, I gathered that this work in
northern France is only an example
of what is going on all over the terri
tory occupied By the German army.
The army in Flanders is cultivating
on an even more extensive scale than
! that in France. In Belgium the sol
diers CHARTERED in the small towns
are overseeing the work of the peas
ants and themselves cultivating the
land that has been deserted. I do not
think I became prO-German on that
trip over the army farm, but I was
convinced that with the policy of
starvation alone, the allies would take
a long time to win this war.
That these men actively engaged in
the fighting and so near the center
of operations, are taking such thought
for the future, argues that those left
at home in Germany with nothing
to do but think of supporting their
armies are being even more careful
to make every acre count in the final
| decision.