Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-04-15
GERMAN ARMIES
FARMING INVADED
LANDS Of FRENCH
More Than 1900 Acres Under
Cultivation in District
Around Sedan.
DOUBLE YIELDS PRODUCED
Efficiency of Methods Shown-Dairy
Operated by Troops-If Peace
Comes, Civilians VIII Get
the Crops.
BY z. n. GAILOR.

In the New York World.
Bergen-Op-ZOOm.-In answer to a
question I had asked one Of the Off
GERS at Sedan about the German gov
eminent taking all the supplies Of
-four into its own hands, I was told
that the Germans had no fear of run
ming short Of food, and that they
thought the idea of the allies being
able to starve them out was absurd.
For instance" one Of the officers said
to me, ito show you how we Germans
look ahead, we have below here more
than $4,000 acres of land under cult
walton in wheat and potatoes. We
hope that the civilians will gather
this crop and that the war will be
over by the time Of the harvest, but
if it is not the army will reap the
benefit"
Two or three days later was taken
over the army farm" by the little fat
major who has organized and directed
the work. He was the bandmaster
rather than the military type of Ger
man and had been the manager Of q
large estate in Pomerania. Talk Of
the trenches left him cold, but at a
mention of the farm or its affairs he
became another person. His small
black eyes twinkled, his fifty yeaEs
seemed to become twenty-five, and he
went into ecstasies over the improve
ments Germany, and especially Pom
erania, had introduced in harvesting
machinery, fertilization or potatoes.
AS we rode along in a military auto
mobile from Sedan to Rethel, he kept
telling me of the primitive agricul-
tural methods he had found when the
German army first entered that coun-
try.
Planter Is Rewarded.
They don't know how it is to use
what they have got" he kept saying
as he pointed to a manure pile in
front of a cottage door or a clump of
trees standing in the middle of field.
They lose one-half of the fertiIizing
power by not having pits, and they do
not know forestry at all. You should
see Pomerania."
In the buttOnhole of his tunic he
wore the black ribbon with two white
stripes which represents the Iron
Cross, and I asked him if he had ever
been in the trenches. No was the
answer, but l planted these fields
and So increased the prospects for
food. 1t was taken as a mark of dis
tinguished service to the fatherland
and my general recommended me for
the honor The order is for distin-
guished service of any kind Ger.
many rewards its workers as well as
its fighters, and the fighters depend
on the workers for their living, as
they must have food I know farm
ing, so l am used for that Germany
never wastes its opportunities"
When we had passed Rethel and
gone south about six miles, we turned
east along the southern boundary of
the 75,000-acre farm that the soldiers
of the Third German army are work
ing. We passed many fields where
the soldiers and civilians were work
ing side by side, some where q soldier
was driving an army horse ard often
an army cart, and a civilian was walk
ing alongside, spreading the manure
with Il pitchfork. I asked some of
these civilians if the Germans were
forcing them to work. They all said
no, but that unless they used the army