STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 25 



" Their rotation of crops always begins with the 

 culture either of some leguminous plant or profita- 

 ble root, and generally with the potato, as the best 

 preparative of the ground. Whatever may be the 

 grain which follows, whether wheat, rye, &c., &e., 

 it is generally sown with red clover ; and, where it is 

 not, the stubble is ploughed in immediately after 

 harvest, and a crop of turnips taken, and either con- 

 sumed on the ground or housed for the winter. A 

 single department (that of Zealand) obtains, by the 

 culture of madder alone, an annual profit of six mill- 

 ions of florins, nearly three millions of dollars ; 

 while that of Brabant boasts its twenty thousand 

 beehives; in a word, this commendable nation, 

 upon an extent of surface not exceeding seventeen 

 hundred square leagues (the greater part of which 

 has been redeemed from the ocean), counts two 

 hundred and forty-three thousand horses, seven 

 hundred and sixty thousand horn cattle, about a mill- 

 ion of sheep, from ten to twelve thousand goats, 

 four hundred and eighty-nine thousand hogs, and 

 about three millions of poultry of every species. 

 Their stock of manure is necessarily great, and is 

 both well understood and well managed." 



IX. Physical and moral causes operate against 

 the existence of a productive agriculture in Den- 

 mark and Sweden; and these are, severity of cli- 

 mate, poverty of soil, and vassalage of tenants.* 

 Their resources are also alike, and exist principally 

 in manufactures and commerce, and in mines, for- 

 ests, and fisheries.! Tne former boasts fine pas- 

 turage and cattle in Holstein. 



* To give to despotism the air of freedom, the serfs of the 

 crown in Denmark were liberated at the revolution, but the ex- 

 ample was neither approved nor followed. 



t These remarks as to climate, soil, and productions, are ap- 

 plicable to Sweden, but not to Denmark. The climate of the 

 latter country, in consequence of the insular situation of a large 

 part of it, is by no means as severe as its latitude might seem to 

 indicate. The writer of this passed the winter of 1812 at Co 



c 



