I 



Book I. AGRICULTURE IN GERMANY. 95 



either yards, rails, gates, gardens, or other enclosures. They seem to be so much 

 employed in providing the mere necessaries of life, that they have no time to attend 

 to its luxuries. A savage curiously carves the head of his war-spear, or the handle of 

 his hatchet, or he cuts his own face and head into pretty devices ; but no German 

 bauer ever paints his carts or his ploughs, or ornaments his agricultural implements." 

 (Vol. i. 246.) 



595. To improve the agriculture of Hanover, Hodgson justly observes, " the sim- 

 plest and most effectual way would be for government to sell all the domains by auction 

 in good-sized farms, as the Prussian government has done in its newly-acquired domi- 

 nions. This would end in introducing the Northumberland husbandry, to which, ac- 

 cording both to Jacobs and Hodgson, the soil and climate are well adapted, and double 

 the present produce would be produced." To these improvements we may suggest 

 another, that of limiting the rank of noble to the eldest son, so as the rest might, without 

 disgrace, engage in agriculture or commerce. This last improvement is equally wanted 

 for the whole of Germany. 



SuBSECT. 5. Present State of the Agriculture of Saxony. 



596. The husbandry and state of landed property in Saxony has so much in common 

 with that of Hanover and Prussia, that it will only be requisite to notice the few fea- 

 tures in which they differ. 



597. The culture of the vine and the silkworm are carried on in Saxony, and the latter 

 to some extent. The vine is chiefly cultivated in the margravate, or county of Tlieissen, 

 and entirely in the French manner. (407.) The mulberry is more generally planted 

 and chiefly to separate properties, or fields, or fill up odd corners, or along roads, as in 

 the southern provinces of Prussia and Hanover, and in France. 



598. The loool of Saxony is reckoned the finest in Germany. There are three sorts, 

 that from the native short- wooUed Saxon sheep ; that from the produce of a cross be- 

 tween this breed and the Merino; and that from the pure Merino. In 1819, Jacob 

 inspected a flock of pure Merinos, which produced wool that he was told was surpassed 

 by none in fineness, and the price it brought at market. It was the property of the 

 lord of the soil, and managed by the amptman, or farmer of the manorial and other 

 rights. Till the year 1813, it consisted of 1000 sheep; but so many were consumed 

 in that year, first by the French, and next by the Swedes, that they have not been able to 

 replace them further than to 650. The land over which they range is extensive and 

 dry; not good enough to grow flax, but a course of 1. fallow, 2. potatoes, 3. rye or 

 barley, was followed, and the show of the rye and barley with the potatoes, constituted 

 the winter food of the sheep. {Travels^ &c. p. 265.) 



599. The general rotation of crops in Saxony, according to Jacob, is two corn crops, 

 and a fallow, or two corn crops and pease. There are some exceptions ; and cab- 

 bages, turnips, and kohl rube are occasionally to be seen. The plough has two 

 wheels, and is drawn by two oxen ; " and sometimes, notwithstanding the Mosaic 

 prohibition, with a horse and a cow." There are some fine meadows on the borders 

 of the brooks near the villages; but they are in general much neglected, and for 

 want of draining yield but coarse and rushy grass. The houses of the farmers are 

 in villages, the largest for the amptman, and the next for the meyers and leibeigeners, 

 ** The whole tract of land, from Meissen to within two English miles of Leipsic, is a 

 sandy loam, admirably calculated for our Norfolk four-course system, by which it 

 would be enabled to maintain a great quantity of live-stock, and produce double or 

 treble the quantity of corn it now yields. In the whole distance from Wurzen, about 

 fifteen miles, I saw but three flocks of sheep ; two were small, the other, which I ex- 

 amined, consisting of about one thousand ewes, wedders, and tags, belonged to a count, 

 whose name I did not ascertain. As he is lord of a considerable tract of country, the 

 flock has the range of many thousand acres in the summer, and in the winter are fed 

 with chopped straw and potatoes. Upon our system, which might be advantageously 

 introduced, the same quantity of land would maintain ten times as many sheep, and 

 still produce much more corn than it does at present." {Jacob's Travels, 301. ) 



600. The cows near the villages, between Meissen and Leipsic, were numerous compared with the sheep, 

 but generally looked poor. " As I saw," continues Jacob, " no hay or corn-stacks in the whole distance, 

 I had been puzzled to conceive in what manner their cows could be supported through the winter. Upon 

 inquiring, I learnt a mode of keeping them, whicli was quite new to me, but which I cannot condemn. 

 The land is favorable to the growth of cabbages, and abundant quantities are raised, and form a mate- 

 rial article of human sustenance ; the surplus, which this year is considerable, is made into sour-krout, 

 with a less portion of salt than is applied when it is prepared as food for man. This is found to be very 

 good for cows, and favorable to the encrease of their milk, when no green food, or any thing but straw 

 can be obtained." {Travels, &c. 303.) 



601. The land within two miles of Leipsic is almost wholly in garden-culture, and is vastly productive of 

 every kind of culinary vegetable. The fruit-trees and orchards, notwithstanding many of them showed 

 vestiges of the war, surprised Jacob by their abundance. The inhabitants subsist much less on animal 

 than we do, but a larger quantity of fruit and vegetables is consumed ; and hence they have greater 

 inducements to improve their quality, and to encrease their quantity, than exist in those rural districts 

 of Great Britain which are removed from the great towns. ' 



