in Denmark J Sweden, and Russia. 403 



without concern on a spot which a sudden inroad of the sea on a 

 stormy night might entirely swallow up.* 



During my short stay at Hamburg I visited a dairy-farm at 

 Ham, a few miles from the city, occupied and apparently well 

 farmed by Mr. Hymers. This farm contains 260 scheffels/l^ a 

 little more than as many acres, of light land, some of it poor and 

 sandy, but which nevertheless grows wheat better than rye. On 

 this extent of land, which is chiefly in grass, are maintained from 

 120 to 130 cows, all in milk, but they are partly fed on the 

 refuse of a distillery established "on the farm. These cattle are 

 milked till the spring, when they are gradually sold off to the 

 butcher, and replaced by others which have newly calved. They 

 are milked during the whole time of fattening ; but their beef, as 

 we should expect, is of an inferior quality. In the market it 

 brings only 10 dollars for 100 lbs., or one-sixth less than the fat 

 oxen from the marshes. I believe a considerable quantity of this 

 second-rate beef from the numerous dairy-farms is sold in the 

 German markets. The milk and cream produced at Ham are 

 carefully bottled and sealed, and are thus sent to the houses of 

 the customers in Hamburg. The former is sold at Ihd.:, the 

 latter at 6d. a- quart. By this method of bottling, the character of 

 the dairy is maintained, the buyer is secured from fraud, while 

 the milk itself, being less agitated in coming from the country, 

 arrives in a sweeter and sounder state at the house of the 

 consumer. 



As good pasture is on this farm of so much consequence, great 

 attention is paid to the top-dressing of the grass-land. The liquid 

 manure is conducted from the large and spacious cow-houses into 

 a cistern outside of the buildings, which is arched over and 

 planted with shrubbery, a square trap-door being left for the 

 insertion of the pump. This cistern is 100 feet long, 14 feet 

 broad, and 8 feet deep, apparently a large size, yet too small still 

 for so numerous a farm-stock. It is capable of containing the 

 produce of three months, which in most cases would appear 

 sufficient, since it is seldom that there is any serious winter 

 before January, so that if the cistern were empty when the cattle 



* "In 1421 the sea broke in at Dort, drowned seventy-two villages and 

 100,000 people, and formed the Zuyder-Zee." This part of Holland, it is 

 supposed, may have originally been in a similar situation with the Wilster 

 Marsh — since it is recorded by an old Dutch writer that in 1420 the pro- 

 prietor of a farm on the tract of land, which was swallowed up, found a 

 herring in his ivell ; and, thinking it unsafe to remain where the sea was evi- 

 dently undermining him, sold his farm, and removed to another part of the 

 country. The following year the catastrophe came. 



t Scheffel usually denotes a bushel measure. It is in this neighbourhood 

 used to express a quantity of laud equal to 200 square poles (rute?i). 



