Newspapers / The Carolina Union Farmer … / Nov. 28, 1912, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page Two THE CAROLINA UNION FARMER [Thursday, November 28, 1912. Studying Agricultural Europe Henry A. Wallace in Wallace's Farmer. One of the most beautiful palaces in all the world is at Versailles, twelve miles from Paris. Here Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI lived. It is said that over two hundred million dollars was spent in building the palace and laying out the grounds. For more than a hundred years the French nation has owned the palace and the grounds, and have made of it a beautiful museum and park where people of all nations may come. The palace is an immense af fair, containing gallery after gallery of big paintings, sculpture work, tap estry, mirrors, etc. Nearly every room has its history. In this one Marie Antoinette lived; in that one the queen’s guards stayed when the revo lutionists invaded the palace; in an other Louis XVI dined in State; while in still another the King of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor of Germany at the time of the Franco- Prussian War. , In their way the grounds are just as wonderful as the palace. There are thousands of trimmed trees set in rows; there are fountains, and statuary, and beautiful avenues. In out-of-the-way spots you happen on little temples or columns or statuary set in the midst of the green forest, or perhaps on an island in a quiet pond. Then there is the small palace of Marie Antoinette, known as the Petit Trianon, and a bit farther on are some old farm houses where Ma rie and her court ladies used to pre tend that they were dairy-maids. It is all very beautiful and unusual, and the man who knows French history must enjoy himself thoroughly in a place like this. For my part, I didn’t remember as much about the differ ent kings and their various queens and mistresses as I might have, and as a result, I tired after two or three hours, and began to think of the hor rible waste of such a place. No won der the French people at last became tired of supporting a king and re volted. Then I thought: “Would we in the United States allow any one to take from us millions of dollars every year to build pleasure places and art galleries which no one but himself and his favorites could see?’’ Of course not, and then I thought again and wondered if some of our millionaires were not doing that very thing. At the present time the Ver sailles palace and grounds may be worth while. They make every Frenchman proud of his nation, and they draw thousands of tourists from abroad every year to see them. Who knows? There is a fine horticultural school near Vesailles, which we must visit It is built on the spot where Louis XIV had his gardens. Here we see pears, apples and peaches trained against the wall like grapes. In an other place they are spread out like a vase. And again we see pear trees trained somewhat after the manner o fthe prongs of a pitchfork. There are beautiful tree roses with a straight trunk about three feet long before they spread out and com mence to bloom. Everything is on straight lines. There are straight walks, straight borders, straight walls and straight rows of trese. The branches of the trees are straight, and come out in just the proper place. Every plant looks as though hours of study and work had been put on it by the gardener. Much of the fruit is tied up in bags, and the professor who is showing us around says that in this way the value will be increased two or three times over. One man can put on a thousand paper bags in a day. He can do such fast work be cause he uses a special kind of lead wire that needs not tying. We ask about the students, and find that there are one hundred and twenty taking the three-year course. Most of them are sons of gardeners and will become gardeners themselves. Each day they spend four hours studying the theoretical side of gar dening, and six hours actualy work ing in the garden. The school and the grounds were very fine, indeed, but it made me laugh when I tried to think of what practical benefit such a school would be to an Iowa farm boy. Then I thought again that it would be a fine thing if there were a little more of the fine horticultural work done on the farms of Iowa. It would make the farm so much more attractive if we only had the time to train a pear tree against the south walls and grow some pretty roses and dahlias, and keep things generally straight and neat and clean. North and west of Paris are four big farms, containing altogether 12,- 000 acres, which are watered and fer tilized by the sewage from the city. We visited the sewage plant, where we saw a big canal filled with the fil thy refuse of the city. Corks by the million were bobbing about in it. The water goes through a sort of sieve, and the old rags and other solid mat ter are taken out. The rest is raised fifteen feet by means of electrically driven pumps, and sent by under ground canals to the different farms. We visited the nearest farm, which was 2,300 acres in extent.. Here we saw the sewage water being spread over in much the same way as it is on an irrigated farm in Colorado. The principal crop grown was pears. For some reason the trees did not look as healthy as they might. But we were assured that they returned a profit of sixty dollars per acre each year. About 18,000 cubic yards of the sew age water is spread on each acre of land every year. In another place we saw some fine potatoes being grown with the sewage water for fer tilizer, and were told that such pota toes yielded on the average about 460 bushels per acre, which is about six times as much as the average acre yield in Iowa. After the potatoes are taken off, they put in some other crop, such as cabbage, turnips, or head let tuce. I was not sorry when we left Pa ris and went east to visit the grape growing districts around Epernay For many miles the farming country appeared to be much the same as in western France. No fences were to be seea anywhere, and the houses were hJ). in villages. Also, the typi cal farm-house and barns were shap ed like a hollow square, with a paved courtyard and a manure pile in the center. The cultivated land was most ly in wheat and oats, which seemed to look a little but not very much better than the small grain of Iowa. There were some sugar beets, and here and there some timber. All in all, the farming country between Pa ris and Epernay did not look quite so good as that in western France around Chartres. Suddenly on looking out of the car window we noticed that the country had become rougher, and the hill sides were covered with grapes. Then we came to the town of Epernay, where we were dated to visit the champagne firm of Moet & Chandon. Back in 1743 this firm was founded, and ever since they have been stor ing bubbly wine away in their cellars Twenty miles of cellars have been carved out of the chalk rock. It wae interesting to visit these vast cellars and have the process of manufacture explained to you while you looked at the rows on rows of bottles along the wall. It seems that the grape juice ! IS corked up in the bottles and put in : the cellars, to ferment for three years. I Jach year it is given a thorough shak- ! ing, and then during the last year it: IS turned upside down so that the im-: purities will settle near the mouth. Then the mouth of the bottle is froz en, so that the impurities may be taken out. The bottles are re-corked and after being labeled are ready for sale any time during the next fitty years. Champagne is said to improve each year until it becomes fifteen years old. We saw hundreds of men and women working with champagne bottles, wheeling them around, wash- ng them, bottling them, labeling them and packing them away to send to the United States or England, where hundreds of thousands of bot tles are drunk each year at an ex pense of $5 a bottle. We were told that altogether about 6,000 men were employed by the Moet & Chandon people. After we had been through the cellars, which, by the way, the great Napoleon visited in 1807,, we were taken to a sort of banquet room, and the fizzy stuff was poured out be fore us. Each had two bottles—one of extra dry and one of ordinary White Seal. Extra dry means that no sugar has been added to the grape juice. The connoisseurs of the party claimed to prefer the extra dry, but really I don’t think any of them had ever drunk very much champagne. Several of us merely pretended to sip the stuff out of courtesy to our hosts. They told us it was their practice when preparing for Americans to pro vide one-half a bottle, but when for Belgians to furnish two bottles. While we were drinking, our hosts told us how many bottles of champagne there were in the cellars. Afterwards we had a discussion as to what number had been given. One of the elderly members of the party, who had per haps been slightly too enthusiastic in his appreciation of the extra dry, de clared in favor of twelve hundred million bottles. As I myself remem ber it, the number was 1,200,000, while others say that twelve million is correct. As we left, a present of a cigarette ease and a knife shaped like a champagne bottle, and provided with a corkscrew, was given each of us. As we sat down to lunch at the Epernay railway station, we found twelve bottles of White Seal cham pagne provided for us. Even our most experienced wine tasters gave up at this point and declared in favor of water. At American prices, fully $100 worth of champagne must have been given us by the firm of Moet & Chandon. We appreciated their kind ly attitude, but some of us couldn’t help thinking of the horrible waste of labor, money, and health occasioned by the big firm. Thousands of peo ple no doubt enjoy champagne thor oughly ,and are very little harmed by it, but there are others who wake up with horrible headaches the morn ing after, and are not able to do good work for several days. More than 10,000 people and 30,000 acres of land around Epernay are devoted to the production of grapes and cham pagne. What is the net result to the world? A temporary and expensive good time, followed by headaches for certain brainless fools, and untold grief to their relatives. We visited an Epernay vineyard, where the Government and the firm of Moet & Chandon are co-operating in their experiments. The vines were in rows, running up and down the hillside, and about two and a half feet apart each way. All the culti vation is of course by hand. Every spring the vines are cut back to one bud. Every third year a fertilizer made of manure rotted in layers with sand is worked in around the plants. Some of the grapes were trained on stakes, while others were trained on Classified Advertisements Advertisements will be inserted in this column at the rate of 2 cents per word for each insertion. Minimum charge, 25 cents. Advertisements of Local and County Unmns (not individual members) will be inserts free, provided seal is on all t opy furnisheo. FOB SALB.—Everything a farmer needs to feed himself or his stock. Write for prUe list.—RICHMOND GRAIN & PROV. CO; Richmond, Va. Frost-Proof Cabbage Plants From seed grown by the ORIGINATORS of the Jersey and Charleston strain—the best ob tainable. Price list and cultivation sugges tions free. Send $1.25 for i,000, $3.25 for 3,000. Special prices in lots to Farmers Unions. Agents wanted. WAKEFIELD FARMS. CharloUe, N. C. I AM Selling Cheap to Farmers Union Members. I can save you money on watches, clocks, watch chains, lockets, bracelets, rings, emblew pins and every kind of jewelry. I will post paid, a Union Emblem Pm for 6 cents S® sure and write for catalogue and save money* WILL C. WAL&ER, Bntlcr, Tcnn. W A TVT Bookkeeping: Banking. I, iL J\. EC. Penmanship, Short* ^ hand. Touch typewrib ing and allied subjects at Kings’ Business College. King’s is recogn}*: ed as the most complete, thorough, influentlft* and successnil business college in North Car^ lina. Great demand for KING graduates. Post' tions firuaranteed. Write for catalog. KING’S BUSINESS COLLEGE. Raleigh. N. C. or Chartotte. N C. KITSELMAN FENCE We make yoo the same price we would make the Dealer or Jobber That is why we can save you money- Look at these very low prices. CQet 1+ Fr’Omj t/ie Factor,y ( Direct t J I CENTS A ROD 2 for 18-in. hog fence. 223(0. a rod for 47-ui. farm fenc^ 243(0 a rodfor 60-in. poultry fence. $1.40 for 80 rod spool of Id^ Barbed Wire. Large free Catalog showing IW styles of Farm, Poultry and Lawn Fence. KITSELMAN BROS. Box 13 ' Munote.iniil Veterinary Course at Horn® $1500 A Dr. E. H. Baldwin writes: •‘I took the course for my own benefit on the farm, but the success I had started me in practice and *«n I I K rwfu I ^0 now I am going night and “rjjg London Vetcrtfl^ d.y,Yourco„r,.h„b,.. ComspOttottd Loa^ Ontario, worth thousands to me, and will be to any .uan." .Joll>^ &. Wynne •Jewelry Co. Everything in Jewelry. 128 Fayettville St., Raleigh, N. ^ Prompt attention given to Mail Orders- wires. The soil which Is supposed be especially adapted to grape8» something like the wind-blown soil along the Missouri River in n® tern Iowa. But it is different ° ^ respect, for here the chalk comes within two or three feet of surface. One of the main things which they were experimenting the phyloxera. This is a plant which is death to the roots of grapes, but, strange to say, grapes are not bothered. For reason, the French Government is perimenting with different grafting French tops on Amer roots. —rViflr® From the top of the hill. the experimental vineyard Is P ed, we got a very good view. miles and miles about can be made by our Veterinary cou^ at home during time. Taught in 8i>^ lest EngUsh. Dipl®^ granted. Graduat^^. sisted in getting tions or positions. within reach d Satisfaction guarante®^ WRITS FOR RARTIC«I>** US we see the hillsides covered with and tucked In the valleys count twelve distinct villag®®*
The Carolina Union Farmer (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Nov. 28, 1912, edition 1
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