SECRETARY'S REPORT. 307 



oats, wheat, beans, vetches, beets, clover and lucerne are culti- 

 vated successfully. Sorgho is also acclimated there, and gives 

 good crops. The situation of the estates is picturesque and 

 beautiful. 



Arab horses are raised for the saddle, and a half-blood for 

 draught. These latter are of two classes : one white, a cross 

 with the English horse ; the other black. The king got first a 

 pure Arabian stallion in the East. This was brought home in 

 181T. He was white, and said to have been of rare beauty. 

 He was kept as a breeder to the age of twenty-four, and died 

 at twenty-six. He is said to have got not a single inferior 

 horse. Subsequent importations have also been made. It is 

 claimed that pure Arabians, which are now quite numerous in 

 those long-continued establishments, are not only not inferior 

 to the pure Arab of the desert, but that their size is increased, 

 and their form more perfect ; their beauty in every respect 

 equal. Much of it is due to better feeding, probably. 



The white half-bloods have turned out very fine horses. 

 They are got by crosses with vigorous English and Irish mares 

 with an Arab stallion. There are public sales of horses at the 

 royal stables twice a year : one in April, at the time of the 

 horse fair in Stuttgart, and the other on the SOtli of September. 

 At Weil and Kleinhohenheim are also large dairies of cows, 

 many of them of a Swiss origin, others probably of Dutch, 

 but there are many different breeds. 



The general diffusion of intelligence among the people of this 

 kingdom, is a striking feature as compared with that of France. 

 Probably the system of primary instruction is more complete 

 here than in any otlier part of Germany. I recollect that in 

 going from Ulm to Stuttgart, we fell in with a common 

 practical farmer and his son, who left the train with us at the 

 latter city, and kindly volunteered to be our guide through 

 some of the principal streets, pointing out as we went along 

 many of the prominent buildings. He had a farm in the 

 neighborhood, and was on his way to it. These, and all in the 

 same class whom we happened to meet, were well informed, 

 and I learned much from them of the condition and character 

 of the country through which we passed, and of the inhab- 

 itants. There is not a peasant, however low, who docs not 

 know how to read, write, and cipher. Many of the women 



