prevents either railroads, canals or rivers being the avenues of trade. Roads supply their place. Some of the finest roads of the world are found here, renowned for their perfection. Some of these are carried over mountain passes to great heights, skilfully engineered and constructed at great expense, some costing even $20,000 per mile. These roads connect the country with those outside, and also the different valleys and sections of the interior, and on them is carried all the trade and commerce the land requires, This necessitates much very heavy teaming, and for this use immense draught horses are used of the same breed (Flemish?) which one sees in the adjoining countries; horses of great size and strength, but clumsy and slow. The wagons used are very heavy, with wheels five or six inches broad, and whole construction very stout. One meets many of these, laden with four to eight tons of merchandize drawn by as many horses. For this work these large horses are admirably suited. For regular roadsters, posting, traveling by diligence, and such uses, a lighter breed is used, of no marked character. These are also used on the smaller farms where grain is raised. For use on the mountains another breed is common. Many of the passes are inaccessible to carriages; mere paths, often narrow, steep and dangerous, winding along fearful precipices at great heights, and crossing deep chasms and swift torrents on narrow bridges. These passes are the most common ones; more than fifty of this character are found in the country, some of them ascending to the height of 9,000 feet, and yet over these is carried much of the traffic of the country. The horses used here are small-known as mountain ponies, and are admirably adapted to their use. They are har dy, stout, and very sagacious; indeed sagacity is their most marked characteristic. One meets trains of them laden with packages of grain, wine, cheese, merchandize or traveler's baggage, toiling up the steep path with slow and sure step, with head low, and nose near the path to the better observe it. If they wind along a precipice, they walk along the outer edge of the path that their packs may not hit the rocks at their sides and jostle them over. They cross narrow bridges but a few feet wide, over fearful chasms. They often carry travellers, who are not allowed the reins; the sagacious animal knows better his

course than does his inexperienced and frightened rider. On one of the southern passes I was both amused and interested in seeing a train of horses laden with boards and lumber to be carried up for building a house on the summit of the pass. The boards were much longer than the animals, and projected far before and behind, and the dexterity with which they managed their inconvenient load was truly wonderful. These horses are used for all the purposes for which beasts of burden are needed, and these uses are numerous. Many of the upper Alpine villages are entirely inaccessible to wheeled vehicles and everything transported must be done on the backs of men or horses. Hay is so transported as well as merchandize, and is so carried from the field to the barns.

Mules are used on some of the southern passes, those leading into Italy, but are seldom seen in the north. In some of the larger cities asses are met with, but they are nowhere abundant. Hogs are rarely seen; they do not constitute any considerable item of food. Scarcely any were seen in the mountains; in the valleys a few are seen, mostly uncouth animals, coarse, and of a sandy color.

When speaking of the agriculture of Germany, the subject of the treatment of manures was purposely omitted, to be spoken of here in connection with the same subject in Switzerland. In passing through those districts that are best cultivated, the traveler is struck with the care that is taken of the manure. Nearly every house (which is also barn and stable,) has its dung-hill in front, often beside or before the principal entrance to the dwelling. Its presence does not appear to be a source of annoyance. The manure, as it is taken from the stall, is piled in a neat cubical pile, with alternate layers of straw, which are folded in on the edges so as to preserve the form, precisely on the plan of a "cheese" of pummice and straw in a cider press. The pile is cubical or rectangular, its sides square and perpendicular, and often the straw is not only neatly, but even tastefully worked in. On this is spread a few inches, sometimes a foot or more of soil, to absorb the gasses escaping during the fermentation, and often a few vines or beets are planted on this covering of dirt, where they grow very luxuriantly. The manure is applied in the fall and spring, generally as a top-dressing, both

to grain and grass land. In Germany the same plan essentially prevails, save that it is not so carefully done. The exception to the rule in the application, is in the case of vineyards, already alluded to, where the manure is applied unfermented. Always beside the compost heap is a hole or tank, sometimes a mere hole in the soil, but often carefully stoned to protect the sides, and into this drain the juices that flow from the pile, and to this also are added the slops from the house. This liquid manure is considered very valuable, hence the care with which it is saved. It is either pumped out with a rude pump, or dipped out with a pail on the end of a long handle, to be wielded by both hands. It is carried to the field in a cask made for the purpose, which rests on a wagon. If applied to the whole soil, it is done by allowing it to flow out on a slanting piece of board, which spreads the stream; it is, however, often dealt out in portions from a pail, with a dipper, especially if applied to tobacco or crops planted in hills or drills. In Germany the liquid is often carried to the field in a cask on a hand-cart, or in a tub hung between the handles of a wheelbarrow.

From the scale on which farming operations are carried, in this country, these methods might hardly be practical. It would be easier to use the liquid by first absorbing it, yet it might pay well on small pieces of root crops, corn, or on the garden.

In Switzerland and Tyrol, where there is a scarcity of straw for litter, the young branches of a fir tree, much resembling our hemlock, is used. In Germany, and near large forests of diciduous trees, large quantities of leaves are gathered in the autumn, and after being used as litter, and mixed with the dung of animals, forms the best of manure.

The general tone of agriculture in Switzerland appears to be better than in Germany. The people are better informed, or at least are more awake to progress. This is hardly the place for a political essay, but I cannot help thinking that a great element in this better condition is the greater political freedom, which allows of freer thought, and this is exercised in other directions. as well as in that of politics. The Tyrolese are a noble and brave people, similar to the Swiss in many respects. They inhabit a similar country, and follow similar pursuits, yet among

them agriculture is far lower. They, as subjects of Austria, are much less free that the Swiss, and this fact is stamped on the very soil they till.

In Switzerland there are still many customs that to some extent oppress the peasant-customs that have their origin in earlier and less favorable times. However, the cause is progressing, and means are being taken for the better education of the people.

I cannot leave this country without alluding to one school and its effects, formerly located at Hofwyl, near Berne. This school was established in 1799, by a Mr. Fellenberg, and was continued until his death, in 1848. Although a private school, it received encouragement and I think some aid from the government, and established for itself a world-wide reputation. It consisted of

"1st. A seminary for young gentlemen, and a separate school for the instruction of school-masters.

"2d. A school for the poor, who were taught according to the system of Mr. Fellenberg, with the double object of instructing farmers, and introducing agricultural implements.

"3d. An agricultural establishment, consisting of an academy. for practical husbandry; a model farm, an experimental farm, an extensive collection of agricultural implements, and a manufactury for making them."

This was in practical operation for nearly fifty years, and produced great results. A personal acquaintance of some of the students educated there, convince me of its efficiency, and its influence on the surrounding district is very obvious. "The surrounding district was little better than a bog when Mr. Fel. lenberg settled here in 1799; but he gradually brought it into cultivation." The region now about Hofwyll is the best culti vated of any I saw in the country. The land has been drained, the systems of cultivation are better, the crops look heavier, the implements are better constructed; and this is traceable directly to the influence of this school.

In Switzerland, both the prices of land and wages for labor are very variable. The land in the richer valleys, tilled both in grain and grass, is held at very high prices, $100 to $200 per

acre. Some was pointed out to me in Canton, Berne, as worth $240 (1,200 francs), which did not seem extra valuable. The pasture lands on the mountains are held at vastly lower prices; tolerably good pastures are held at $25 to $30 per acre, while immense tracts are valued at less, or is not owned by individuals, but lies in commons, on which the villagers of the valleys pasture their cattle. The value of these lands are so modified by their elevation, exposure, fertility, and situation, that no price can be given as an average. Some of the best ones, at elevations of between 2,000 and 3,000 feet, are held at high prices, as on them is made the most valuable cheese.

Wages are as variable as the prices of land. Good farm hands often receive as high as fifty cents per day, but less by the month or year. The cowherds who attend the cattle on the high pastures, get much less; sometimes a stipulated sum, three or four dollars per month, is considered very much. But oftener they have the use of one cow of the herd, the milk and cheese of which supply him with the most of his food, and then his other wages amount to a mere pittance-but a few dollars per year-merely enough to supply him with the merest necessities of life.

Wages are generally higher in the northern and western cantons than in the southern and eastern. Women work in the fields and receive less than the men; generally about two-thirds as much. Those who labor as house help or servants get still less; a dollar or dollar and twenty-five cents per month is considered good wages for such women. It is still lower in the adjoining states of Southern Germany, Wurtemburg, Bavaria, Tyrol, &c. Here, $10 per year is considered good wages for servant girls in families.

France. The general climate of France is dryer and warmer than that of Germany, but there is great variety, as the country extends from the warm Mediterranean to the cool Channel, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic. With some limited exceptions, the whole country belongs to a geological formation of comparatively recent date, which has no representative in the United States, chalk and the other members of the tertiary. The most of this furnishes, by its decomposition, a very fertile soil.