ROUND THE WORLD.

Putaruru Press, Volume VIII, Issue 368, 11 December 1930, Page 5

ROUND THE WORLD.

A MATAMATA DIARY. Touring the Continent. The ninth instalment of Mr. W. S. Wilson’s diary covers Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Holland. It I reads as follows: 1 Next day we ran through some of | the farming country in Switzerland, which was mostly undulating to very hilly. How the people cut and harvest their hay here is something of a miracle. The hay is all cut with the scythe and raked by hand. We passed through a number of small towns, all with hotels, and one wonders what keeps them all going. I don’t think they can be doing the trade they did since the motor car came in. We pulled into a place called Gruijere and visited the old castle built in the year 400. It is built on top of a small hill, with a 25ft wall all round, and is still occupied, being used partly as a museum. The day we arrived was St. Feodore’s Day, named after the patron saint of Gruijere. Gruijere is the Swiss name for white crane and the white crane is the emblem of the town and is on everything belonging to it. It is the trade mark of the district to this day. In French Gruijere means stinking, but it does not apply here. From this on we travelled through fine farng country down to Palezieux, where we caught the train for Berne. This completed one of the best and most interesting tours on our trip. The scenery can hardly be described. Berne is one of the cleanest cities we have been in and there are fountains in the street every few chains. From Berne we visited the Swiss Government Agricultural Institute. This is the headquarters for marketing cheese in Switzerland. All the cheese from the different factories, after being ripened, is sent here for storage and sale. Most of the cheese we saw was about 2001 b in weight and the bulk is sent to Germany, the United States and Italy at a price of £l4O per ton. In the afternoon we visited the milking school where 20 cows are milked. The best cow gave 14,0001 b of milk with a 3.9 test. Continuing our journey, we stopped at a cattle-breeding farm and inspected the stock. The head of the herd was the bull Edel, awarded first prize at the Milan International Fair. It is a fine bull of the breed, with big bone, but a bit coarse. The cows did not appeal to the farmers in our party as we did not know much about the breed. Foot and mouth disease and tuberculosis are unknown in Switzerland as the keen air and high country prevents such diseases becoming established. Zurich we found to be a clean town with a population of 330,000. The buildings are clean and modern, and the town is one of the best we have been in. The railway station here is now being doubled in size. Next day we passed into iGerman territory and passed through fine land which was well tilled and growing good crops of all sorts. Women seemed to be the main workers in the fields and bullocks the main source of power. They were harnessed up to everything. Heidleberg is a nice town of 80,000, and has some , fine buildings. One of these is an old church half of which is used by Protestants and half by Catholics. The biggest castle in Germany is here, the walls of which are 16ft thick. It was started in 1200 and took 200 years to build. In 1689 the French almost demolished the town, l and the castle was ruined, though part has been rebuilt. The only thing of interest in the castle now is the cellar, which contains still two old wine barrels, one holding 1000 gallons and the other 49,000. Leaving Heidelberg we proceeded to Bihgen, where we boarded a boat and sailed 90 miles down the Rhine to Cologne. From Cologne we went to Brussels, where we arrived about 8.30 p.m. When we got to the street we were greeted by a great crowd. There were thousands of people in the streets and flags flying everywhere. We found out afterwards the people were celebrating the 100th anniversary of the independence of Belgium and there was a procession representing every new idea which came in since that time. In a drive around the city we inspected all the principal buildings and places of interest, including the monument erected by the British to British and Belgium soldiers, and the monument to Nurse Cavell. In the afternoon we left for the Hague, passing through level country which was a bit on the wet side. There were large herds of Friesian cattle as well as a few sheep. I saw more stock on this trip than on any trip since leaving New Zealand. , At the Hague we saw the Peace Conferencei buildings and other spots of interest. On the beach thousands of people were bathing and after some time here we drove over the Dutch Alps, the highest “ peak ” being 40ft high! This is a very nice drive, through bush which was planted by Napoleon’s orders, and though his name is as dirt here, they have to thank him for the foresight. On one avenue, which extends for miles, every kind of traffic is catered for separately—foot, bicycle, motor, tram, horse, and, lastly, but by no means least, back in amongst the 1 trees, lovers. At Sybrandaburen we visited a dairy factory where both butter and cheese are made. We have nothing : to learn from them as their methods are well out of date. We inspected * several farms and saw many good 1 cows. We also went to the Co-opera-tive Marketing Stores, which controls 120 factories, and has an output of 1 6000 tons of butter and 17,000 tons of cheese, about 80 per cent of which '■ goes to Germany. A train load goes I every day, one of 15 trucks being loaded whilst we were there.