THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



pose to do still better by our subscribers ii
the future.

   Standing on a platform like this, and fulfill
 ing all our pledges, in spite of all the sacri
 fices we have made in these trying times o
 high prices of material, we feel that we ar
 entitled to the hearty co-operation of all whi
 are friends of the important objects it aimi
 to promote, and we believe we shall have it
   Only this one word more. Now is the tim4
 when outside publications have their agent:
 at work everywhere, and hence now is the
 time for the working friends of the FARMEE
 to do what they can for the upbuilding o:
 THER OWN HOME AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL.


 Editorial Notes of European Travel.-
 Down the Rhine to Cologne, June 4.-Who has
 not longed for a midsummer voyage on this
 glorious river ? Who that has read the pas-
 toral poetry and the rich legendary literature
 of classic Germany, has not often dreamed of
 its full-flowing tide, meandering its way
 through castle-crowned hills and vine clad
 slopes to the Netherlands and thence to the
 sea ?-of the warring strifes of feudal times
 -of the floral and autumnal festivities of
 later days? No matter who has not, I have;
 and here is the realization I Not the feudal
 strifes, nor yet the autumnal festive scenes:
 the one are long past; the other are only now
 in preparation. But here is the Rhine I-the
 same that vexed the Roman generals many
 long centuries ago, and has since been the
 witness of some of the greatest events of his-
 tory. Born of Alpine snows, but hence flow-
 ing through gardens, and vineyards, and
 Elysian fields.

 I have embarked, and am comfortably seat-
 ed on the covered deck of the little steamer
 that is to bear me to Cologne. Mayence and
 Casel recede, and countless villages approach
 and are passed in succession. The river is
broad from here to Bingen-in many places
2,000 feet wide-and itscourse is swift. Beau-
tiful little islands are sprinkled along like
tin   --I.al in a..dcls. .f ....1x  sa..- t



them set off with handsome shateaux, and
others rocky and but little changed from na-
tare. Bold bluffs rising, now and then into
the dignity of mountains whose lofty summits
seem ambitious of a place in the clouds, shut
in the swelling stream. Old castles in ruins,
from the highest points.on those bights look
down from the dark past of ten centuries ago.
Here and there a cleft in the interrupted
range allows the favor of a glimpse of what
lies beyond and within. Terraced vineyards,
such as, for steepness, difficulty of making
and the quality of the product, are found no-
where else in the world, astonish and delight
all the voyagers. And the villages, little and
large, are dotted in upon the slopes, at the
mouths of smaller tributary streams and albng
the narrow beach, as though all Germany had
made its abode on the borders of the favorite
river.

An excitement among the passengers for-
ward. No wonder; for just ahead, on our
left, is the beautiful, oft-sung "Bingen on the
Rhine I" Behind the town is a chain of moun-
tains covered with wood, and beneath them
is the Bingerloac. Ruined castles hang, as if
by some supernatural force, defiant of gravi-
tation, upon the rocky brow of the mountains;
towards which the river rushes with a wild
impetuosity, as though it would fain wash out
he feudal wrongs they represent.

Off again, and more to the northward, forthe
black mountains now on our left, and reeed-
ng, are sullen in their grandeur and would
not be washed out of existence even by the
ordly Rhine. More mountains, islands, vine-
yards and villages, with no possibility of
iring of the glorious panorama, and we are
greeted in the distance by the lofty and for-
midable citadel of Ehrenbrietstein, the strongest
ortification in Germany. A nearer approach
fords us a fine view of the old town at the
oot of the towering bluff on which the citadel
s built, together with the famous old Roman
ity across the river, and with which it is
onnected by a bridge of boats. It is here
hat the Moselle empties into the Rhine, and
Finns  I.h^a. At a 4o . the .tn .J CLt.



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