The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-04-11
FRANCE AS THE
SOLDIERS SEE|T
A DESCRIPTION OF THE FARMING
CONDITIONS AND SURROUND.
INCS THIS SPRING
WHERE THEY WILL ENJOY LIFE
Conditions OF Affairs In The Country
Swept BY War And Conditions In
Germany Now
BY II. c. EVANS
lCOpNrighted 1879

AS Seen, Somewhere in France
as ever the u shone on-and as pro.
life. Nowhere, not even in Switzer-
land, have ! scent such picturesque
homes and villages as beautiful as the
rolling prairies and fertile valleys of
this part Of France. The farmers live
in villages of from four to forty homes.
And such villages. The houses
are built Of stone or cement, with the
corners and cornices, window and
above castings, Of brick. The roofs are
of red tile. often overgrown with moss.
The different building material often
affords a variety of colors hat contrast
sharply with the somber red brick ten
ments of the villages of Germany.
Each house in the French village
has an individuality of it's own, and
is not directly connected with other
houses. The architecture varies from
the gothic to the bungalow. The glory
of these villages is in the homes, the
trees, the shrubs, the flowers, the stone
fences.
The best landscape gardner in Am.
erica can take lessons from the French
peasant. There is a great variety OF
beautiful s%hrubbery fashioned into
hedges and clusters. Nearly every
home is surrounded by an attractive
tone fence, often covered with ivy, all
combining to make a picture as allur.
ing as a pastel drawing.
And here live the farmers of France.
From these villages they go out to
their farms in the morning. The farm
ers Of Germany also live in villages,
but their villages are more like tene-
ment rows. The men who till the soil
of Germany do not own the land; they
are not ever tenants; they are hired
men. and there is little incentive for
them to beautify the houses and vii
lagos which are owned by their land
lords. They raise large families on IA
wage of fifty cents a day, a garden and
a cow. The farmers Of France own the
land they till, at least most of them do,
and the others rent. There are four
million land owners in Germany, and
eight million in France. and Germany
has twice the population Of France.
To a man accustomed to the black
loan OF the Iowa p~rairies the yellow
soil Of France, filled with gravel looks
ungenerOus. Yet it has been farmed
since the days Of Clovis, before Christ,
and still yields abundantly. On this
1st day Of February the farmers are
blowing. Their seeding and breaking Is
largely done in the fall. however. Their
fields are now green with wheat and
winter vegetables. There are fields up
on fields of Brussel sprouts, endives,
p%arsnips, etc.
Southern France is a vertiable ar
senal of food stuffs. Long trains OF
ears are constantly moving northward
armament and food trains. There
are train loads of food in sacks, cover.
ed with canvass; other trains, many of
them. loaded with hay. Hay stacks dot
every farm. Threshing machines are
still separating last years crop. About
all the depots are piled the products OF
the country, and at ports and bases of
supply the products Of other countries.
Among the products being moved, l no.
ted coal, telephone poles, railroad ties,
barrels Of wine and oil, wood, tiling,
paving blocks, vegetables, meats, grain.
hay, etc.
The amount, variety and quality of
foodstuffs everywhere is astonishing.
There is little control Of foodstuffs.
About the only things one cannot buy
in unlimited quantities are sugar, milk
and butter. Each cafe or hotel limits
you to certain amounts of butter, but
you can go from one cafe to another
all day long and buy the limit at each
place. When l was in Germany had a
provision card. and when / bought a
roll Of bread or a certain amount of
butter, my card was punched. and
when the card showed l had purchased
the limit, l could purchase no more
anywhere. And ! couldn't purchase
anything anywhere without. the card.
Today ! visited a market place in
a town Of $4,000. The market building
covered a quarter of a block and the
vendors spilled out in the streets over