THE FRENCH FARMS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 290, 13 September 1915, Page 7

THE FRENCH FARMS.

\SV* PKj.FXOE to shell fire. Lieutenant Shennau, oi thi Ktjal Engineers (son of Mr Watson Shenn.ui, oi! Dunedin) gives in a roc) it loiter, an account of the manner u which the cultivation of the flirts :'s !,eiag carried on in France in sp.t-} iff i.he war. He writes: "It is extraordinary the way the farmers cutivate. The land vi/»tt up to within a very short d'Staiicj of the treucfiies :s completely unde);* cultivation. It is mostly wheat, bux ]erhaps a fourth is oats, and l loro ; re som e clover and potatoes. The ch>"er ■ j is almost all cut, and the craps, v.i ich are splendid—-hardly a poo;* Held ci.ywhere —are fulljy grown. Tt should te mostily cut by the end of July, lhero are no very big fields, but then* -.ain a g*r;eat deal by having no fences; they plough right up to the e« s ;,e of the roads or ditches. "The farms aro rather iu:\ jns.Thf y mostly consist of a big con .■+,au* 1 v It.'i buildings on a!;i sides. In th* •niddlo Is a sunk square, and all the ma uve is filled in there, and lies till the ploughing—and smells besides, bringing l'.es abot, but the farmers do not s.een io mind. Besides, a French far-nhous.i '.s very clean and the gardens are usually beautiful, but the outsides ar> no.orally filthjy. We very often j.'u the horses in the orchards, where Ih »v ore pretty well out of sight and veil a 1 elter,ed. while the men sleep : n b<r'ns rr in their bivouajes.. "To show you 'how the French people wjvlc, i »va.*s laying a line about two miles behind the trenches today, I and people were working away heeling between rows of potatoes, when a j shell came along and made a hole in the road less than 100 yarrls f.-'om us —a really b:'-g one, too. It ivoul.-] have taken two or three cartloads of gravel to fill it. The work peoplle looked up and then calmly went on. I laid'my line very quickly for the next bit. and then had to go and pick it up agani, as the brigade headquarters which 1 had just left had been shelled to bits and they had to move."