EXHAUSTION OF RHENISH BAVARIA. 245 



have been removed. Tliis coinpeiisatioii is facilitated by 

 the breeding of cattle, in proportion to the extent to 

 which this is carried, and especially wlien tlie cultivator 

 is acquainted with the operation of manure. In the 

 time of Charlemagne this Avas well known, for the winter- 

 crops were maniu'cd with dung, distinguished as cattle- 

 dung (called gor) and horse- dung {dost or deist). Besides, 

 the practice of marling was then common m Germany. 



With regard to the special instance of Ehenish Bavaria 

 as proving the inexhaustibility of the soil, I liad an 

 opportunity last autumn, at a meeting of the Society of 

 Naturalists at Spires, of making particiQar inquiries 

 about the actual condition of the neighbourhood. Ehe- 

 nish Bavaria, from the slopes of the Hardt mountains to 

 the Rhine, comprises a district of great fertility: the 

 region is inhabited by an extremely industrious popula- 

 tion, distributed in small towns and villages. Almost 

 every artisan, even to the tailor and shoemaker, possesses 

 a small plot of ground, on which he raises his potatoes 

 and vegetables. The export of corn from this district is 

 never thought of, but on the contrary corn and a large 

 quantity of manure are imported from Mannheim, Hei- 

 delberg, and elsewhere. The manuring substances ob- 

 tained from the houses of the towns and villages are 

 carefully treasured and employed, so that there can be 

 no fear of exhaustion, since the removed nutritive sub- 

 stances are restored to the fields. In spite of all this, in 

 no part of Germany is the want of inanure more felt 

 than there. On the highwa3^s children are constantly 

 seen with httle baskets, following the horses and swine, 

 to gather the manure dropped by those animals. In the 

 year 18-40, during the political agitation in the Palatinate, 

 the peasants had no more urgent request for the im- 

 provement of their condition to lay before the magistrates, 



