94 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



587. The large farmers of Hanover have in general extensive rights of pasturage ; 

 keep large flocks of sheep, grow artificial grasses, turnips, and even florin ; and have 

 permanent pastures or meadows. Sometimes a brewery, distillery, or public house, is 

 united with the farm. 



588. The farm of Coldingen, within eight miles of Hanover, was visited by Hodgson. 

 It contained two thousand six hundred acres, with extensive rights of pasturage : it 

 belonged to the crown, and was rented by an amptman or magistrate. The soil was a 

 free brown loam, and partly in meadow, liable to be overflown by a river. The rota- 

 tion on one part of the arable lands was, 1. drilled green crop; 2. wheat or rye; 

 3. clover; 4. wheat or rye ; 5. barley or pease, and 6. oats or rye. On another portion, 

 fallow, rape, beans, and the cabbage turnip or kohl-riibe ; flax and oats were introduced. 

 Seven pair of horses and eight pair of oxen were kept as working cattle. No cattle 

 were fattened ; but a portion of the land was sub-let for feeding cows. 



589. Of sheep there were two thousand two hundred, of a cross between the Rhenish or Saxon breed 

 and the Merino. No attention was paid to the carcase, but only to the wool. The " shepherds were all 

 dressed in long white linen coats, and white linen smallclothes, and wore large hats cocked up behind, 

 and ornamented by a large steel buckle. They all looked respectable and clean. They were paid in pro- 

 portion to the success of the flock, and had thus a considerable interest in watching over its improvement. 

 They received a ninth of the profits, but also contributed on extraordinary occasions ; such as buying oil- 

 cake for winter-food, when it was necessary, and on buying new stock, a ninth of the expenses. The 

 head-shepherd had two-ninths of the profits. 



590. Of the workmen on this farm, some were paid in proportion to their labor. The threshers, for 

 example, were paid with the sixteenth part of what they threshed. Other laborers were hired by the 

 day, and they received about sevenpence. In harvest-time they may make eightpence. Some are paid 

 by the piece, and then receive at the rate of two shillings for cutting and binding an acre of corn. 



591. The farming of the cultivators of free lands resembles that of England, and is 

 best exemplifled on the Elbe, in the neighborhood of Hamburg. A distinguishing 

 characteristic is, that the farm-houses are not collected in villages ; but each is built on 

 the ground its owner cultivates. " This," Hodgson observes, " is a most reasonable 

 plan, and marks a state of society which, in its early stages, was different from that of 

 the rest of Germany, when all the vassals crowded round the castle of their lord. It is 

 an emblem of security, and is of itself almost a proof of a different origin in the people, 

 and of an origin the same as our own. So far as I am acquainted, this mode is fol- 

 lowed only in Britain, in Holland, on the sea-coast, from the Ems to the Elb, to which 

 Holstein may be added, and the vale of Arno in Italj% It is now followed in America ; 

 and we may judge that this reasonable practice is the result of men thinking for them- 

 selves, and following their individual interest." (Travels, &c. vol. i. p. 247.) We may 

 add that it is also followed in great part of the mountainous regions of Norway, Sweden, 

 and Switzerland. ( See Clarke's Scandinavia and BakewelVs Tarentaise, &c. ) 



592. Many proprietors of free lands near Hamburg also farm them. Speaking of 

 these farmers, Hodgson observes, " compared with the other farmers of Germany, they 

 live in affluence and splendor. They eat meat three or four times a-day, and instead of 

 being clad in coarse woollen, which Jias been made by their wives, they wear fine English 

 clothes, and look like gentlemen. Their sons go for soldier oflBcers, and the daughters 

 are said to study the Journal des Modes. The proprietors ride into 'town to take their 

 coffee and play at billiards, and hear and tell the news, and at home they drink their 

 wine out of cut glass, or tea out of china. Their houses are all surrounded by lofty 

 trees and handsomely laid-out gardens ; the floors are carpeted, and the windows of 

 plate glass. The dwelling apartments, the barns, and the places for the cattle, are all 

 covered with one immense roof, and every house looks something like a palace sur- 

 rounded with a little park. The proprietors direct the agriculture, without working a 

 great deal themselves, and resemble much in their hearty manners English farmers. 



593. In Friesland they use a swing-plough, known in England as the Dutch plough, 

 the mediate origin of the Rotherham plough, and remotely of Small's Scotch plough. 

 Even the cottagers who rent free lands are totally different from the bauers. Their 

 cottages are white-washed ; and they have gardens neatly enclosed, planted with fruit- 

 trees, and carefully cultivated. Such is the influence of liberty and security. 



594. The farming of the bauers, like that of the meyers, is prescribed by the lease, 

 and consists of two crops of corn and a fallow. " Sometimes," Hodgson observes, " they 

 may sow a little clover, lucerne, or spergel (spurry) ; but they seldom have meadows, 

 and keep no more cattle than is necessary for their work, and those the common lands 

 can feed : sheep are only kept where there are extensive heaths ; one or two long-legged 

 swine are common; and poultry. The large farmers sometimes plough with two oxen ; 

 but the bauers, except in the sandy districts, invariably use horses. When they are very 

 poor, and have no horses, they employ their cows. Two or more join their stock, and, 

 with a team of four cows, they plough very well. Sometimes they work their land with 

 the spade. The houses of the bauers in Hanover, as in most parts of Germany, are 

 built of whatever materials are most readily come at, put together in the coarsest man.. 

 ner. They are seldom either painted or white-washed, and are unaccompanied by 



