Book I. AGRICULTURE IN GERMANY/ 89 



or three years' rest ; but in rich lands, in the south-western districts, green crops or 

 legumes intervene with those of corn. 



552. The best pastures and meadows are in Holstein, and along the margin of the Ger- 

 man Ocean ; and for the same reasons as in Holland and Britain; viz. the mildness and 

 moisture of the winters. There are also good pastures and meadows on the Danube, in 

 Hungary ; but the great heats of summer stimulate the plants too much to send 

 up flowers ; and the culture there is not so perfected as to regulate this tendency by 

 irrigation. Irrigation, however, is very scientifically conducted in some parts of Hol- 

 stein, and on the Rhine and Oder. 



553. The operations and implements of German agriculture vary exceedingly. They 

 are wretched in Hungary, and some parts of Bohemia, where six or more oxen may be 

 seen drawing a clumsy plough, entirely of wood, and without a mould-board. In 

 Denmark, Hanover, and in Prussia, they use much better ploughs, some of which have 

 iron mould-boards ; and in many places they are drawn by a pair of oxen or horses. 

 The plough, in the more improved districts, has a straight beam, two low wheels, a share, 

 which cuts nearly horizontal, and a wooden mould-board, sometimes partially shod witli 

 iron : it is drawn by two horses. In Friesland, and some parts of Holstein, the Dutch 

 swing-plough is used. The common waggon ' ^^ 



is a heavy clumsy machine on low wheels {Jig, 

 69.) The theoretical agriculturists are well 

 acquainted with all the improved implements 

 of Britain, and some of them have been in- 

 troduced, especially in Holstein, Hanover, and ^^ 

 Westphalia ; but these are nothing in a gene- ^- 

 ral view. Horses are the most common 

 animals of labor in the north and west of 

 Germany, and oxen in the south. Fallows are rarely well cultivated ; and nothing can 

 be worse than the mode of resting lands, and leaving them to be covered with weeds, 

 during two or three years in succession. 



554. Of the live stock of Germany, the best breeds of working horses and of oxen are 

 in Holstein, and some districts between Hamburg and Hanover. The best saddle- 

 horses are reared in Hungary. There are also excellent oxen and cows reared in that 

 country, and exported to Italy and Turkey. The best sheep are in Saxony and 

 Prussia, where the Spanish breed has been naturalised. Swine are common ; but the 

 breed is every where very indifferent. Goats are reared in the mountains ; and also 

 asses and mules. The forests are stocked with wild deer, boars, stags, hares, and other 

 game. Fish are carefully bred and fattened in some places, especially in Prussia ; and 

 poultry is every where attended to and carried to a high degree of luxury at Vienna. 

 Bees are attended to in the neighborhood of the forests ; and silkworms in the 

 southern districts, as far as Presburg. Canary and other singing birds are reared in 

 Westphalia, and exported to most parts of Europe. 



555. The culture afforests is particularly attended to in Germar^y, for the same reasons 

 as in France, and the details in both countries are nearly the same. The number of 

 German books on Forst-lVissenschaft is astonishing, and most of the writers seem to 

 consider woodlands in that country as a more eligible source of income than any 

 other. 



556. The common agriculture of Germany may be considered as every where in a state 

 of gradual improvement. Both governments and individuals have formed institutions for 

 its promotion by the instruction of youth in its principles and most enlightened practices ; 

 or for the union of men of talent. The Imperial Society of Vienna ; the Georgical 

 Institution of Presburg, and that of Professor Thaer, in Prussia, may be mentioned 

 as recent efforts. The farmers in Germany are particularly deficient in breeding and 

 rearing of horses, cattle, sheep, and swine. Of the two latter, they require new breeds 

 from judicious crosses; and the former require also selection, and much more care in 

 rearing. The implements of husbandry require also to be improved, and the importance 

 of working fiiUows in a very different manner from what is now done inculcated. If 

 peace continues, there can be no doubt that these, and every other amelioration, will go 

 rapidly forward, for the spirit of agricultural improvement is at present, perhaps, more 

 alive in Germany than in any other country of Europe. 



557. In noticing some traits of agriculture in the different states of Germany, we shall 

 begin with Denmark at the most northerly extremity, and proceed in the order of geo- 

 graphical position, to Hungary in the south. 



SuBSECT. 2. Agriculture of the Kingdom of Denmark ^ including Greenhmd and Iceland, 



558. The improvement of the agriculture of Dcninark may be dated from 1660, when 

 tlie king became depostic, and was enabled to carry measures of national benefit into 

 txccution without the jarring interference of councils. The slaves of the crown were 



