GERMANY. 



GERMINATION. 



the Baltic, where fine districts of rich loams 

 and clays are managed with considerable 

 plodding industry." The farms in northern 

 Germany vary in size from 50 to 60 acres, cul- 

 tivated by peasants, to 300 and even 2000 in 

 the hands of the farmers and proprietors. 

 The number of cows kept by the farmers are 

 often 300 and 400, and they are sensibly alive 

 to the advantages of sheltering stock in win- 

 ter. Their sheep-houses are commonly large 

 enough to hold 5000 head. They usually har- 

 vest all their corn in barns. Their agricul- 

 tural implements are defective : for instance, 

 they use generally, instead of a plough, an in- 

 strument called a haken, which is exactly 

 similar to one used by the Roman farmers. 

 Their harrows have commonly wooden teeth, 

 and are worked with five horses, in a very 

 bungling manner. They oAen break up their 

 pastures with this clumsy instrument in sum- 

 mer, expose it to the frosts of the following 

 winter, spread over it their dung, and in the 

 following July sow broadcast rape seed. This 

 they dress with 100 Ibs. of gypsum dust per 

 acre, in the following spring, and in July the 

 seed is ripe, which is then trodden out by 

 horses on large canvass sheets in the field. 

 " The oil of this seed, when putrefied, is without 

 smell, gives a brilliant, clear-burning flame, 

 and is universally used all over Germany, in 

 the saloon and the cottage." If this crop es- 

 capes the manifold contingencies of slugs, 

 caterpillars, turnip fly, and beetles, it is a very 

 remunerative one, worth from 10/. to 20/. per 

 acre. The improved rotations now commonly 

 followed in Germany are, 1. Fallow, well 

 dunged. 2. Rape. 3. Wheat. 4. Barley. 5. Peas 

 (with light dunging). 6. Rye. 7. Oats, sown 

 down with rye or Timothy grass, and red 

 clover, " which, as well as the peas, is gyp- 

 sumed with great effect before the dew has left 

 the plant of a May morning." The clover, 

 after being twice mown, is left 2 years longer 

 for pasture. Marl, at the rate of 164 cubic 

 feet per acre, is much used, and is the begin- 

 ning, in many places, of all improvements. 

 The haken is worked by oxen. The merino 

 breed of sheep is now extensively cultivated 

 in the Mecklenburghs and in Saxony. There 

 is little else to be noticed in their live-stock. 

 The farm servants are commonly lodged and 

 fed in the house, and are paid from 5/. to 6/. 

 per annum. The married labourers have a 

 free house and firing, the keep of a cow, and 

 about one rood of garden, and twice as much 

 potato land. The average rent of wheat and 

 barley lands is about 18s. per acre. Manures 

 of all kinds are preserved with much care; 

 and they show a wisdom in the collection of 

 night-soil and that of the sewerage of their 

 towns, which it would be well to imitate in 

 England. These manures are extensively 

 used for their vineyards in several parts of 

 Germany. The following account of them is 

 taken from a paper by Dr. Granville : 



"In most of the cities of the second order, 

 and the smaller capitals, night-soil is a source 

 of profit, first to the householder, next to a mid- 

 dleman, and thirdly to the farmer, who is the 

 last purchaser, and employs it. In all the 

 towns of the Grand Duchy of Baden, of the 

 68 



kingdom of Wurtemburg, of Bavaria (except 

 Munich and Wiirtzburg), of the province of 

 Salzburg, of Bohemia (except Prague), of Sax- 

 ony (except Dresden), in some of the minor 

 cities of Prussia, in all the confederated prin- 

 cipalities, in all the cities on both banks of the 

 Rhine, particularly Strasburg, Mayence, Co- 

 blentz, Bonn, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Nimeguen, 

 &c., the householder disposes of the contents 

 of his cesspool for a certain sum of money, 

 besides getting the operation of emptying it 

 performed gratuitously. By comparing the 

 returns of the different prices paid in those 

 cities for the commodity in question, one year 

 with another, and equalizing them by an ave- 

 rage price, founded on positive data, which I 

 possess, the inhabitants appear to be benefited 

 to the amount of 4 francs a head yearly, and 

 the middle-man to at least 40 per cent, more 

 on the sum he pays to the original seller. I 

 will cite Strasburg as an example, since most 

 of the other cities of the same extent (on the 

 Rhine, and in many parts of Germany), and a 

 few cities even larger, presented the strongest 

 analogy to the case I have selected. At Siras- 

 burg a company of middlemen engage to empty 

 the cesspools, of which every house has at 

 least two (built air and water tight), once a 

 year for nothing, and pays, moreover, 6 francs 

 per charette, containing 96 baquets, of the capa- 

 city of 4 gallons each. This quantity the 

 company sells afterwards to the farmers for 

 ten francs. (The capacity of the charelte being 

 to that of a ton, as 28,772 ounces are to 35,840, 

 it follows that the price of a ton at Strasburg 

 would be 10.) Now, as there are 14,000 houses 

 in Strasburg, 10,000 of which have cesspools, 

 affording the soil in question (which is always 

 semi-liquid), supposing the latter to be emptied 

 only once a year, and to furnish each 3 char- 

 ettes only, at six francs, we have 10,000 x 6 x 3 

 180,000 francs, which the company pays 

 yearly to the inhabitants of a town having a 

 population of 70,000 souls. But as the com- 

 pany resells to the farmer the said soil for ma- 

 nuring purposes, at ten francs per charette, it 

 follows that this article of traffic produces 

 yearly at Strasburg 300,000 francs, or just 

 about 4J francs for each inhabitant. The 

 average sum, therefore, for each inhabitant of 

 a city, where the mixed contents of cesspools 

 are sold for their benefit, which I have as- 

 sumed may be adopted with safety, as founded 

 on fact. (Jburn. Roy. Jlgr. Soc. vol. i. p. 124 

 371 ; Rep. Thames Imprav. 17.) 



GERMEN (Lat.a6wrf). In botany, the organ 

 commonly called the ovarlum. 



GERMINATION (Lat. germen). The pro- 

 cess by which a plant is produced from a seed. 

 It is, in truth, the springing into life of a new 

 individual. The phenomena of germination 

 are best observed in dicotyledonous seeds; 

 such, for instance, as the bean, pea, lupin, &c. 

 These seeds consist of two lobes or cotyledons, 

 enveloped in a common membrane; when this 

 is removed a small projecting body is seen, 

 which is that part of the germ which subse- 

 quently becomes the root, and is termed the ra- 

 dicle ; the other portion of the germ is seen on 

 carefully separating the cotyledons, and is term- 

 ed the plumula ; it afterwards forms the stem 



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