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

Austrian shells.
horses for their carts and blowing
they had no means of preparing the
ground for planting.
was told that the soldiers were
all doing this during their five days
rest from the trenches. They like it
because it gives them something to
think about besides the war and the
fighting"
Competition in Cultivation.
Many of the men of the army had
been farmers in North Germany, and
one Of the officers said: They can
fight, but they would rather farm"
I was shown pieces of land that
had been cultivated in competition
between different regiments. One
battalion of a regiment is resting
while the other is in the trenches, so
that about half are working all the
time. These fields had the regimental
flags flying and their owners had
fed from that part of the country
so that no civilians had had anything
to do with preparing the land.
At the time when I was taken over
the work blowing was still going on,
but all the ground was to be planted
by the middle of March. The crops
were potatoes and wheat The first
potatoes will be ready in June and
the first wheat later on in the au-
tumn. asked the major if he expect
ed to be in that country when the
crops came in. ooh, no." he said, I'VE
don't expect to have an army here
then. We hope that the war will be
over and the civilians can have the
full benefit of our work"
The land that the army is cult
waiting is some of the best land in
northern France, well watered and
well drained. The average yield in
wheat an acre has been in former
years about twenty-five bushels an
acre, but the Germans told me that
with their system" and care they ex-
pect 20 increase this to about thirty
five bushels an acre, counting in the
bits of land that are now being cult
waited for the first time. They have
about $4,000 acres under cultivation in
wheat, so the harvest should give
them about 1,750,000 bushels. Of
course, the civilians will have a share
of this, but even so there will be an
immense profit for German efficiency
and forethought.
At Attigny we took horses and rode
out across the fields to a kin on which
the soldiers were using one of the
French threshing machines for grain
that had been found in the fields when
the army arrived It was one of the
old type of machines with a horse
treadmill to supply the power Sol
diers were doing the work and the
first thing that ! noticed about these
soldiers was that they had on blue
uniforms instead of the usual gray.
I asked why, and one of the officers
said that it was a sentiment with
the soldiers. They were proud of the
impression the gray-green uniform
had made on the world ard would
not use it for anything but war. These
blue uniforms were the undress of
the army used at home when not in
| active service.
No Civilians in Sight.
The threshing machine was work
| ing steadily, but there were no civil
ians in sight. I asked if the army
was going to have all this grain, and
was told that the soldiers got a third
and the other two-thirds was to be
| turned in to the mayor to be used for
the civilian population. This same
rule is carried out all over that part
of the country where wheat has been
| found in the fields.
From that threshing machine we
went to another, which the major
| proudly told me was made in Ger
many" It was placed in a nearby
village under a shed, and a crowd of
peasants had gathered around to
watch it work. Some of them told
me it was the first that had been seen
| in that part of the country. It was
run by little steam donkey engine,
/ and would be the usual sight in any
| wheat country in the United States,
| but its capacity was five times that
of the horse machine we had exam
med first. and its output something
| like ten times as great.
There was a baling machine at
tached to make up bundles of straw
| for the men and horses in the
| trenches.
From, there we went along through
| the village to an Enclosure where
many farming machines had been col
lected from the fields. For the most
part they we're plows and harrows
! that had been brought in from miles
around, and the names Of the makers