SECRETARY'S REPORT. 357 



is based, but which, for some reason or other, has not advanced 

 so far in the ap{»lication of those sciences as some other countries 

 whicli learned them first of France. 



Leaving Lombardy out of tlie question, and the rest of Italy 

 may take its place in the third rank, with France, in respect to 

 its agriculture ; and then would come the other nations, like 

 Prussia, Bavaria, Austria and the other kingdoms of Germany, 

 Spain, etc., and lastly, perhaps, Turkey and Greece. In this clas- 

 sification reference is had to production in proportion to extent 

 and population. In the culture of particular crops, it may be 

 that Prussia may equal some of the other nations. .In many 

 parts there are special cro])s, like the beet-root, cultivated for 

 sugar, and the vine, so luxuriant in the Rhenish provinces. 

 Neither of these have been, or could be, cultivated so success- 

 fully in England. France is largely engaged in both industries. 

 But it is the aggregate production of human food that furnishes 

 the basis of judging of the agriculture of any country, the 

 capability of supj)orting the densest population, and the perfec- 

 tion of the means by which this result is attained. 



The route from Berlin to Paris is by no means attractive, 

 though the soil in many parts indicates a capacity of production 

 not yet sufficiently developed. The country is, much of it, flat, 

 the scenery by no means picturesque, and the objects of attrac- 

 tion few. 



It is one full day to Cologne, and this brought me for the 

 second time to this old Roman city, and gave me an opportunity 

 to see it under greater advantages than at first. It has been 

 called the Rome of the North. The cathedral is the great centre 

 of interest, both from its antiquity, having been begun in 1248, 

 and its magnificence. It is one of the grandest and most 

 stupendous designs of Gothic architecture in the world, though 

 still uncompleted. It is in the form of a cross, supported by 

 sixty-four great columns and semi-columns, or, including the 

 portico, more than a hundred. The four columns in the middle 

 are no less than thirty feet in circumference. 



It was designed to have the two columns each five hundred 

 feet high, but they have not been finished. The great bell 

 weighs twenty-five thousand pounds. The length of the 

 body of the church is four hundred feet, and the width one 

 hundred and sixty-one. The shrine of the three kings, or 



