1822.] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HE following account of German 
husbandry, obligingly furnished 
at my request by the Count Veltheim 
de Harbké, together with particulars 
of the stock and management of his 
estate at Harbké, held in hand, I 
should have sent to the Magazine 
some time since, but I had mislaid the 
Count’s letter. J. LAWRENCE. 
Somers Town ; Sept. 11. 
“Our plan of cultivation is, with 
very few-exceptions, and under cer- 
dain modifications, dependant on local 
circumstances; the same with the an- 
eient Roman system, or the three-field 
eulture,—a method which in this coun- 
try is equally adapted to both large 
and small estates, ‘The first field, eall- 
ed winter-field, is sown with rye and 
wheat, and usually with equal portions 
of both sorts of corn. 
“The second field, called the sum- 
mer-field, is sown with barley and oats. 
Of the third field, called the fallow- 
field, two-thirds are sown with herbs, 
ligumes, and roots,—such as clover, 
lucerne, &c. pease, vetches, beans, 
lentils, cabbage, turnips, and pota- 
toes. The remaining third of the fal- 
low-field, in course, the ninth part of 
the whole arable ground, lies untilled, 
{in the English phrase, a naked fal- 
low,) and affords pasture for the sheep, 
which feed on it during the summer, 
as they do likewise on the wood pas- 
tures. There is, moreover, a propor- 
tional part of the whole estate appro- 
priated to permanent meadows. 
“On almost all the large estates in 
our parts, the whole stock of cattle is 
fed throughout the year in the yards 
or the stables; during the summer 
with clover, lucerne, &c.; the winter, 
with roots and greens, as turnips, po- 
datoes, cabbages, and clover-hay. The 
poorer husbandmen drive their cattle 
in summer chiefly to the wood pas- 
tures. The sheep generally, with the 
cattle, feed during the summer on the 
woods and fallows; during the winter, 
in stables, on clover-hay and pcase- 
straw, also with corn or pease, and 
sometimes oil-cake. On our great 
estates are generally found large-sized 
and improved breeds of cattle, cither 
of Swiss or Dutch extraction, with 
Merino sheep. Hogs, improved either 
by English or Hungarian stocks, are 
bred for sale on extensive estates, 
especially on those which have exten- 
Count Veltheim on German Agricullure. 
395 
sive breweries or distilleries; but 
small proprietors seldom breed more 
pigs than for their home consumptiou. 
“* System of Management at Harbke. « 
“This estate contains about 3000 
German acres of arable fields and 
meadows, and 4000 acres of wood- 
land and pasture; on which are now 
employed ten sets of working horses, 
four in a team. These are usually 
purchased, rising two years old, in 
Hanover, and are chiefly the produce 
of English Yorkshire half-bred_ stal- 
lions. Vhey are a large-sized, power- 
ful, and active, breed of horses, endow- 
ed with that degree of speed required 
by the present improved state of 
agriculture. 
“The cattle consist of 150 head, of 
the Swiss breed, from the canton of 
Freyburg. Their use consists in the 
produce of the dairy, and of beef and 
veal for the household; but oxen are 
not employed in tilling the ground. 
The flocks of Merino sheep amount 
to 2000 head. 
“Hogs 200, produced by a cross 
of large English boars with the Ger- 
man sows. The English boars have 
long pendulous ears, are very large, 
but fatten and propagate slowly. ‘The 
crossed breed is free from several of 
those defects, and: at the same time 
retains some of the superior qualities 
of the English boar. 
“The whole of this estate is ma- 
naged, under my own superintendance, 
by one principal and two subordinate 
stewards, having under their direction 
an adequate number of servants and 
day-labourers. There is moreover 
upon the domain a very considerable 
brewery, with brick and tile kilns, &c. 
Also a small stud of high-bred horses, 
oriental and English, and cight brood 
mares. 
“¢Tt may be necessary to advert toa 
branch of rural administration not 
usually annexed in’ England to the 
management of estates; I mean the 
care of woods and forests. As we are 
situated in the northern parts of Ger- 
many, almost entirely destitute of 
true pit-coal, as we do not abound in 
bovey-coal, or brown coal, and turf, 
wood is our chicf fuel; in course, the 
proper management and preservation 
of our forests is matter of equal neces- 
sity and profit. Im these parts we 
have loaf-wood, as oak, elm, beech, 
plane, and the superior timber. Our 
forests consist of both timber and un- 
derwood. As to the first, the foresi is 
divided 
