352 



BAVARIA. 



Bavaria. 



State of 

 agticuJture 



Causes of 

 the back- 

 ward state 

 of agricul- 

 ture in i;a- 

 Vat iil. 



cultivated. There are vast tracts of land which the 

 indolent inhabitants condemn as marshes, but in many 

 of which the traces of ancient furrows still remain to 

 reproach their negligence and inactivity. There is 

 another part of Bavaria covered with a fine forest ; 

 while a third part, without any apparent necessity, is 

 always left in fallow. Upon the whole, it is probable, 

 that not more than one half of the country is under 

 proper cultivation. 



There is scarcely a place in Europe where agricul- 

 ture is in such a backward state as in Bavaria, or 

 where the natural advantages of the country are so 

 little understood and improved. Schloetzer (in his 

 V.orrcspondancc tut I' Agriculture dc la Baviere) in- 

 forms us, that agriculture is so much neglected in 

 Bavaria, that, except in good years, it does noc pro- 

 duce enough of grain for the consumption of the in- 

 habitants. A country, placed under the same lati- 

 tude with Austria, might be expected to produce 

 wine ; but Bavaria has none. Whatever wine is used 

 there, is purchased from the neighbouring states ; and 

 the people, unlike the other southern nations of Ger- 

 many, make beer their principal beverage. Ano- 

 ther fact yet more astonishing, and which seems to 

 indicate a very low degree of barbarism, is, that very 

 few fruits are cultivated in this country. The neigh- 

 bourhood of Munich is almost the only place where 

 an orchard is to be found ; and even there the supply 

 of fruit is altogether inadequate to the demand of the 

 city. Thus while, throughout the whole of Ger- 

 many even to the Baltic and the German Ocean, there 

 is not a village where every peasant has not a well- 

 r.tocked orchard, in the south of Germany, where 

 that species of culture would be much easier and more 

 productive, a large country is found where the art of 

 gardening is almost unknown. Even the rearing of 

 vegetables is neglected : white coleworts, of which 

 they make sour crout and salad, is the only vegetable 

 with which the Bavarian peasantry are acquainted ; 

 and although they brew an immense quantity of beer, 

 they are obliged to import hops from other coun- 

 tries. In a word, they are unacquainted with every 

 kind of industry, except that rude agriculture which 

 has been transmitted to them from their ancestors. 



The wretched state of agriculture in this country 

 is, in a great measure, to be ascribed to the ignorance 

 of the secular and ecclesiastical proprietors, and to the 

 foolish administration of the officers of government. 

 Nothing can be conceived more unfavourable to im- 

 provement than the manner in which the lands of Bava- 

 tiaare farmed. The farmers are divided in to four classes 

 The first class, who are called farmers by way of emi- 

 nence, must have at least S work horses, and are sur- 

 i! .tint ci ei:i,\icdler, or hermits, because their farms are 

 always at some distance from any town or village. 

 Many of these farmers have an extent of about o miles 

 square, and employ from 12 to IS plough horses : of 

 this class there arc about 1-0,000 ; the second class, cal- 

 led b .consists of those who have only four 

 ; the third, called quarter farmers, of those 

 who have only two ; and the fourth class, called 

 Imusder, are merely clay labour. ts, who work for 

 the other classes, and nave no horses of their own. 

 The disparity in the condition of these different 

 classes is attended with this deplorable evil, that it 



often gives to the rich farmer an opportunity of op- Bavari*. 

 pressing and ruining his poorer, though equally in- "- / ' 

 dttstri'jus, neighbour. The husbandman who has no 

 capital, depends on his annual harvests for the supply 

 of his immediate necessities. He is of course obliged 

 to carry his own grain to the readiest market, and to 

 sell it at the lowest price. The opulent farmer, on 

 the contrary, can keep his barns filled, till an oppor- 

 tunity occur of selling dear ; he keeps up the corn, 

 which the less wealthy agriculturist is unable' to re- 

 tain, and often advances to him the whole value of 

 his ensiling harvest. One unfavourable year involve) 

 the poor man in difficulties, and throws him entirely 

 dependant on his rich competitor, who seizes with- 

 out compassion on his property, tad thus acquires 

 new opportunities of enriching himself, and of height- 

 ening, by a dangerous monopoly, the price of provi- 

 sions to the public. 



This evil is still greatly increased by the injudi- 

 cious mode of taxation which is followed in Bavaria. 

 No exemption is made in favour of the poorer classes 

 of labourers, who are taxed, as far as their slender 

 means extend, at the very same rate as the wealthiest 

 of their countrymen. The veneration paid to the 

 monks, and the prodigious number of convents esta- 

 blished in this ill-regulated country, is another cir- 

 cumstance which tends greatly to retard the progress 

 of agricultural improvement. An income exceeding 

 one-third of the revenue of government is engrossed 

 by these ecclesiastics, with a complete immunity 

 from all taxation. They do more serious injury to the 

 community, however, by persuading the richer farm- 

 ers to send their sons into convents, with each of 

 whom they receive a sum of 3000 or 4000 florins. 

 The country, thus deprived of those who would be 

 best able to improve it, remains only half cultivated ; 

 while the children of the other farmers, by being 

 likewise educated in convents, are rendered totally 

 unfit for any serious profession, or regular indus- 

 try. 



In a country where agriculture is so little under- Manufac- 

 stood, neither manufactures nor commerce can be tures and 

 expected to flourish. Even the manufacture of wool- commerce. 

 lea cloth, which, in such a climate as that of Bava- 

 ria, is one of the most necessary articles of dress, is 

 almost entirely neglected. More than a century a^u, 

 7000 pieces of cloth were annually fabricated in this 

 country, whereas, at present, it can scarcely produce 

 5(K)0. Westensieder, in his description of Munich, 

 gives an enumeration of the different tradesmen and 

 artists there, which exhibits a very curious view of 

 the preposterous and unnatural state of manufactures 

 and the arts in that capital. It contains eight en- 

 gravers, six chocolate makers, sixteen goldsmiths, 

 seventeen varmshers, six bakers of gingerbread, twen- 

 ty-four painters of the corps de >uaitrise, seven: 

 hairdressers; but only two basket-makers, two cloth- 

 painters, not a single weaver, six curriers, fifteen 

 clothiers, seventeen spinners and carders of wool, and 

 four persons v* ho work in cotton stuffs. There is here 

 a manufactory of tapestry eu haute Use, and another 

 in gold and silver Lice ; they have been anxious to esta- 

 blish manufactuies of silk, and to rear plantations of 

 mulberry trees, while the native productions of the 

 country are neglected, and the use of them discouraged. 

 i 



