No; Oaks, Ashes, Beech, And All The Light And
Graceful Tenants Of Our Woods Here Sported Luxuriantly.
I had not
observed many oaks before, for the greater part of the oak-planks, I
am informed, come from the westward.
In France the farmers generally live in villages, which is a great
disadvantage to the country; but the Norwegian farmers, always
owning their farms or being tenants for life, reside in the midst of
them, allowing some labourers a dwelling rent free, who have a
little land appertaining to the cottage, not only for a garden, but
for crops of different kinds, such as rye, oats, buck-wheat, hemp,
flax, beans, potatoes, and hay, which are sown in strips about it,
reminding a stranger of the first attempts at culture, when every
family was obliged to be an independent community.
These cottagers work at a certain price (tenpence per day) for the
farmers on whose ground they live, and they have spare time enough
to cultivate their own land and lay in a store of fish for the
winter. The wives and daughters spin and the husbands and sons
weave, so that they may fairly be reckoned independent, having also
a little money in hand to buy coffee, brandy and some other
superfluities.
The only thing I disliked was the military service, which trammels
them more than I at first imagined. It is true that the militia is
only called out once a year, yet in case of war they have no
alternative but must abandon their families.
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