THE WISCONSIN FARMER.




VOL. XV.      MADISON, DECEMBER 1, 1863.    No. 12.



IQ.IL R D. Holton in Switzerland.-Attends a Canto.
nal Fair.-The Swiss Enthusiasi for the North.
  My DEAR DOCTOR: -I ought before this
to have acknowledged your kindness in for-



warding to me the letters you did. I was
very sorry indeed not to have been able to
have gone to Hamburgh in July, when, I doubt
not, the letter from the Wisconsin State Agri-
cultural Society would have been of real ser-
vice iu promoting my opportunities for obser-
vation.  But I could not have gone there
without having been obliged to have mate-
rially modified my route of travel, and having
my family and others with me, I was obliged
to give up the Hamburgh show. In Paris, I
met Governor Wright, and spent a day with
him, and learned that it was not only a grand
occasion, but that Americans were sympa-
thized with and found fair play, so that
McCormick carried off the prize for reapers,
and a Vermonter the prize for sheep. At
Worcester, England, too, was a magnificent
cattle show that I desired much to reach; but
here, again, it could only be done by inter-
fering With plans already laid. And so I have
fallen in with no agricultural gatherings or
shows until yesterday.  I was pausing at
Lausanne for a few days, (where I have placed
our children for some months' stay at school),
And learned that the five Swiss Cantons,
speaking the French language, were to hold
an agricultural fair at the neighboring village



of Colombier, and was but too happy of the
opportunity of looking in upon it, and so
yesterday morning left home and came up.



Lausanne, I hoped that the storm had passed.
But no. It came on to rain, harder and hard-
er. I however pushed on and found the place,
and a very delightful one it would have prov-



ed, but for the rain.
  The ground chosen was very beautiful and
romantic. On the one hand was the charm-
ing Lake of Geneva while behind were
the mountains and the quaint old Swiss town
of Colombier, ornamented with the greatest
taste, and labor, with festoons and wreaths of
flowers running from door to door, and from
window to window, along entire streets.
Despite the rain, the good people would have
music and flags, and a gala time of it any
way, and their doors were liberally thrown
open to all who came.
  Within the grounds, the Managers of the
Society had made expensive and ample
arrangements for the comfort of man and
beast.  Sheds were duly provided for all
the animals, and an extensive eating house
had been erected with a cooking estab-
lishment on a large scale. To this I paid my
respects first, for I had been obliged to leave
Lausanne without my breakfast. A most ad-
mirable mutton chop with "pomme de terre,"
bread, butter, cheese, coffee and milk was sup-
plied with lavish abundance, and I wascharged
the moderate sum of one and a half francs.
But now I was prepared for business. I
was alone.  A gentleman from Lausanne,



who could speak both French and English,
I had expected would accompany me, but ill
health nrevented. so I was not onlv alone. brt-



The week bad been unpropitious, and as I left had no interpreter, and was
left to make my



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