suited. In addition, the mashes had been cooked over an 

 open tire up to this time, which endangered burning when they 

 were too thick. But these difficulties were solved by the de- 

 velopment of stronger ferments, which fully fermented the 

 starch in thick mashes, and by the introduction of steam cook- 

 ing apparatus. Through these improvements it was soon pos- 

 sible to mash as thickly as in the ratio of one part of dry sub- 

 stance to six or seven of water, while the ratio assumed by the 

 law was one to eight. In other words, from every one hun- 

 dred quarts of mash not the legal four but from six to eight 

 quarts of alcohol were produced. 1 But the small, particularly 

 the agricultural distilleries, could not make such rapid ad- 

 vances as the industrial, and many of the improved appliances 

 were too expensive as well as not economic in a distillery of 

 small capacity run only a few months of the year. In addi- 

 tion, the revenue officials recognized that the improved technic 

 had rdally lowered the tax; so through the Cabinet order of 

 January 10, 1824, an attempt was made to aid the farmers 

 and also to raise the tax, which was fixed at 62 marks a hecto- 

 liter, or the yield taken as 2.4 per cent, of pure alcohol. The 

 farmers using only grain or potatoes were taxed one-eighth 

 less. 2 



In spite of the technical and mechanical disadvantages un- 

 der which the country distillers worked, the natural advan- 

 tage coming from their connection with the soil were sufficient 

 to impart great elasticity and competitive strength to them. 

 As long as distilling paid for itself production could be con- 

 tinued, for the advantage of the fodder and the manure re- 

 mained. The small city distillers, on the other hand, pos- 

 sessed no such advantage and when the large firms lowered 

 the price of alcohol they were in most cases forced to discon- 

 tinue. 



A great assistance was given to the country distillers about 

 this time by an agricultural revolution, accomplished largely 

 through the efforts of Albrecht Thaer, 3 the great agricultural 



1. Glaeser, Die Steuer-Systeme bei der Branntweinfabrjkation. Brieg, 1868, 

 p. 33. 



2. Heckel, in Hwb. der Staatswissenchaften, 2 ed., vol. ii, p. 1063. 



3. For an account of Thaer's life and services, see Meitzen, pre cit. vol. ii, p. 14. 



