158
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
until the stubble-turnips are fit. In winter cut straw is
mixed with the turnips, and warm feeding begins. In
the morning a mash of chaff, rape leaves, pea-pods, or
cut straw, with bruised turnips, potatoes, or oilcake,
boiled up together. Then barley or wheat straw follows
this meal, which is repeated at noon and in the evening.
In the middle of the day clover or meadow hay is occa-
sionally given to the cattle.
“ In larger farms where 10 or 15 cows are kept this
kind of mash is given only twice a day. The poor
farmér is obliged to be more economical, and must occa-
sionally try, by the choice of his ingredients, to make
good the quantity that he cannot bring together. Even
in summer he prepares a soup of this kind for his beasts,
but then adds clover, thistles, convolvulus bind, and other
wreeds, to the mixture. A portion of oilcake is added
while it is hot.
“ Turnips carefully preserved, mangel wurzel, turnip-
cabbage, potatoes, and Swedes play their part in the spring
and winter fodder. But this provision is not at the com-
mand of all that keep cows, and the industrious skill of
many often degenerates into actual robbery. In summer
many a cow is kept sleek on purloined goods, but in
winter, when such are not accessible, the animal pays the
penalty ; as its master has nothing but straw to give, and
that in such wretched portions that half the next summer
is spent before it recovers its strength.
‘ ‘ This brings me to a subject that I never lose an op-
portunity of noticing, for when evil habits accompany a
bad system it becomes a sin to keep silence. The fol-
lowing is the opinion of a man of weight in the Moselle
district : ‘ The pasturage of cattle is not common with
Agbicultuke on the Rhine.
159
us, but in autumn the stubbles are grazed down. The
disorderly habits that have such influence in after life,
it may safely be asserted have their root in the practice
of sending children to watch the cattle on the (un-
inclosed) stubbles. Big and little meet here together.
The cattle are allowed to graze for the most part on other
people’s lands ; little bands are formed, where the older
children teach the younger their bad habits. Thefts are
discussed and planned, fighting follows, then come other
vices. First, fruit and potatoes are stolen, and every
evening at parting the wish is entertained that they may
be able to meet again the next. Neither fields, gardens,
nor houses are eventually spared, and with the excuse
of this employment it is scarcely possible to bring the
children together to frequent a summer day-school, or
to attend on Sundays to the weekly explanation of the
Christian doctrines.’ ”
It appears, from this picture of village habits, that the
circumstance of every family living in its own house and on
its own small property is not a panacea for all social evils.
The colours of the sketch we have quoted might easily
be heightened, and the loose notions of honesty that pre-
vail in the business transactions of the largest class of the
people might be traced to a wider school than the vil-
lage pasture fields, were ½e inclined to dwell upon the
dark side of the picture.
In the sandy Mayfield, where grass is scanty and arti-
ficial grasses not sufficiently common, leaves are con-
stantly used for fodder. The poplar is the favourite tree
for this use, and the crown is cut off to allow the young
shoots to spring like osiers. These shoots are cut every
fourth year at Michaelmas, and tied up into bundles,