> 
¢ 
559 
mals quite productive in the dairy. The mountain pasture lands are divided into tracts 
known as alpages, 4,559 in number, of which 54 per cent. are owned by individuals, 33 
per cent. by communes, 9 per cent. by corporations, and a few by the State. About 
150,000 milk cows are pastured, six acres being required for each cow; and a large 
number of other cattle are kept in these elevated pastures. The agricultural resources 
of Switzerland bear no comparison naturally with those of Colorado, or almost any equal 
portion of the Rocky Mountain region, notwithstanding the aridity of our great mount- 
ain areas. The abruptness of declivitous surfaces, and the poverty of the soil, in 
large portions of Switzerland, are in marked coutrast to the surfaces and soils of our 
mountain domain. 
Germany.—The German Empire exhibits to the world a miracle of industry and 
thrift in agriculture. The northern portion from Berlin northward is natarally little 
better than a desert of sand, and southward the improvement is small and slow until 
the neighborhood of Dresden is reached. Saxony and Bavaria are the most fertile prov- 
inces. Grains, potatoes, sugar-beets, forage-roote yield abundant returns for the pa- 
tient labor and constant fertilization required ; wheat does not equal the yield of En- 
gland, being at the rate of 17.1 bushels per acre, yet the wonder is that so large a pro- 
uct can be secured. The latest average for rye is 16.7 bushels; for oats, 32.9 bushels. 
As in Great Britain and other countries, there is a marked tendency to improvement of 
stock and the increase of meat supplies. Formerly wool was peemennt in sheep- 
husbandry, mutton being altogether subordinate. The original families of Spanish 
merinoes became founders of a new order of ovine nobility, the Electoral in Saxony, 
the Negretti in Mechlenburg, and the Electoral and Negretti in Silesia, which became 
famous throughout the world, ultimately supplying an extensive demand from Austra- 
lia, from South Africa, and South America, and a more limited demand from the United 
States, where the American breeders of the same Spanish families commanded the pre- 
ference of a large majority of wool-growers. Now, the production of fine wool isdeclining 
in Germany, and the Southdowus and Leicesters of Great Britain are eagerly sought. 
The present numbers are reported officially at 29,000,000, of which about 14,000,000 are 
merinoes and other grades, 7,000,000 of pure or partial English blood, and 4,000,000 of 
native races. The wool production is estimated at 120,000,000 pounds. It is found 
that the mutton-breeds are more profitable on the best lands and in the densest popu- 
lations, while in regions remote from market and sparse in population the merino 
still maintains its former sway. 
The cultivation of the vine ha become an extensive rural industry in Germany, re- 
quiring the use of 360,000 acres in vineyards in Saxony, Bavaria, the Rhine, and Moselle 
Valleys, and other portions of Southern and Western Germany. The business is char- 
acterized by increasing care, better culture, and superior skill. New varieties have 
been introduced, and improvements in the manufacture and treatment of wine. In 
Bavaria the practice of setting vineyards with poles and wires has obtained to a con- 
siderable extent. 
Flax and hemp are prominent products in Silesia, Westphalia, Hanover, and the 
Rhine Provinces; and hemp is grown extensively in Baden and Alsace. Foreign flax- 
seed is chiefly used, and the home manufacture requires an import of foreign flax. Re- 
cent improvements in machinery for preparing the fiber are giving an impetus to the 
business. Tobacco is a profitable crop in some sections; at Pfalz a tobacco of peculiar 
character is grown, valuable for wrappers, to the extent of more than 60,000 acres, 
yielding about 11 cwt. per acre. Hops are grown largely in Bavaria, Hesse, Posen, 
Brunswick, and Baden. Between 1850 and 1860 the business was extended too rapidly, 
resulting in low prices followed by a temporary check in production, which is now in- 
creasing again. The practice of training the vines on wires bas become very general. 
Diligence, patient persistence, a gradual but steady march of improvement appear to 
characterize every department of German agriculture. 
Avusrris.—The soil of Austria is far superior in fertility to that of Prussia, especially 
the valley of the Danube, a vast plain, inuch of it level as the prairies of Llinvis, and 
apparently equal in productiveness to average western lands. It has been subjected 
to a somewhat exhaustive system of cnlture feck long period, and it bears with remark- 
able success this test of ite capabilities. There is little waste Jand in Austria proper. 
With an area nearly three times that of the State of Ohio, or 75,000,000 acres, 69,000,000 
are productive, or 92 per cent. of the whole. These productive lands are divided into 
plow-lands, which ¢ggregate about 24,000,000 acres, nearly two-thirds of which are in 
Galicia and Bohemia; meadows and gardens, 8,500,000; vineyards nearly 500,000; pae- 
tures, above 13,000,000; forests, 23,000,000. Rice is grown to some extent on the coast- 
lands, and abont 40,000 acres are set in olive and chestnut orchards in Dalmatia. In 
a portion of the vineyard-land, olive and fruit trees are set at regular intervals, and a 
double crop obtained; and in the coast provinces there are 10,000 acres in which grass 
and grain are grown in the intervals of the vine-rows. Frnit-trees are also planted to 
some extent-in the pasture-lands, In the Alps there are tracts amounting to 210,000 
acres which are alternately plow-lands and pasture-lands. This alternation is now 
disappearing. In Moravia, in 1866, there were 146,000 acres of such lands, and in 1871, 
