94 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



add that it is also followed in great part of the mountainous regions of Norway, Sweden, 

 and Switzerland. (See Clarke s Scandinavia and BakewelCs Tarentaise.) 



603. Many proprietors of free lands near Hamburg also farm them. Speaking of 

 these farmers, Hodgson observes, " compared with the other farmers of Germany, they 

 live in affluence and splendour. They eat meat three or four times a day, and instead of 

 being clad in coarse woollen, which has been made by their wives, they wear fine English 

 clothes, and look like gentleman. Their sons go for soldier officers, and their daughters 

 are said to study the Journal des Modes. The proprietors ride into town to take their 

 coffee and play at billiards, and hear and tell the news, and at home they drink theiif 

 wine out of cut glass, or tea out of china. Their houses are all surrounded by lofty 

 trees and handsomely laid-out gardens ; the floors are carpeted, and the windows of plate 

 glass. The dwelling-apartments, the barns, and the places for the cattle, are all covered 

 with one immense roof, and every house looks something like a palace surrounded with 

 a little park. The proprietors direct the agriculture, without working a great deal them- 

 selves, and resemble much in their hearty manners English farmers." 



604. In Friesland they use a swing -plough, known in England as the Dutch plough, 

 the mediate origin of the Rotherham plough, and remotely of Small's Scotch plough. 

 Even the cottagers who rent free lands are totally different from the bauers. Their cot- 

 tages are white- washed ; and they have gardens neatly enclosed, planted with fruit trees, 

 and carefully cultivated. Such is the influence of liberty and security. 



605. T/ie farming of the bauers, like that of the metayers, is prescribed by the lease, 

 and consists of two crops of corn and a fallow. " Sometimes," Hodgson observes, " they 

 may sow a little clover, lucerne, or spergel (spurry) ; but they seldom have meadows, 

 and keep no more cattle than is necessary for their work, and those the common lands 

 can feed : sheep are only kept where there are extensive heaths ; one or two long-legged 

 swine are common ; and poultry. The large farmers sometimes plough with two oxen ; 

 but the bauers, except in the sandy districts, invariably use horses. When they are very 

 poor, and have no horses, they employ their cows. Two or more join their stock, and, 

 with a team of four cows, they plough very well. Sometimes they work their land with 

 the spade. The houses of the bauers in Hanover, as in most parts of Germany, are 

 built of whatever materials are most readily come at, put together in the coarsest 

 manner. They are seldom either painted or white-washed, and are unaccompanied by 

 either yards, rails, gates, gardens, or other enclosures. They seem to be so much 

 employed in providing the mere necessaries of life, that they have no time to attend 

 to its luxuries. A savage curiously carves the head of his war spear, or the handle 

 of his hatchet, or he cuts his own face and head into pretty devices ; but no German 

 bauer ever paints his carts or his ploughs, or ornaments his agricultural implements." 

 (Vol. i. 246.) 



606. To improve the agriculture of Hanover, Hodgson justly observes, " the simplest 

 and most effecttial way would be for government to sell all the domains by auction 

 in good-sized farms, as the Prussian government has done in its newly acquired 

 dominions." This would end in introducing the Northumberland husbandry, to which, 

 according both to Jacobs and Hodgson, the soil and climate are well adapted, and double 

 the present produce would be produced. To these improvements we may suggest 

 another, that of limiting the rank of noble to the eldest son, so that the rest might without 

 disgrace engage in agriculture or commerce. This last improvement is equally wanted 

 for the whole of Germany. 



SuBSECT. 5. Of the present State of Agriculture in Saxony. 



607. The husbandry and state of landed property in Saxony have so much in common with 

 that of Hanover and Pnissia, that it will only be requisite to notice the few features in 

 which they differ. 



608. The culture of the vine and the silkworm are carried on in Saxony, and the latter 

 to some extent. The vine is chiefly cultivated in the margravate, or county, of Theissen, 

 and entirely in the French manner. (414.) The mulberry is more generally planted, and 

 chiefly to separate properties or fields, or to fill up odd corners, or along roads, as in the 

 southern provinces of Prussia and Hanover, and in France. 



609. The wool of Saxony is reckoned the finest in Germany. There are three sorts, 

 that from the native short-woolled Saxon sheep ; that from the produce of a cross 

 between this breed and the Merino ; and that from the pure Merino. In 1819, Jacob 

 inspected a flock of pure Merinos, which produced wool that he was told was surpassed 

 by none in fineness, and the price it brought at market. It was the property of the lord 

 of the soil, and managed by the amptman, or farmer of the manorial and other rights. 

 Till the year 1813, it consisted of 1000 sheep ; but so many were consumed in that year, 

 first by the French, and next by the Swedes, that they have not been able to replace them 

 further than to 650. The land over which they range is extensive and dry ; not good 

 enough to grow flax ; but a course of 1. fallow, 2. potatoes, 3. rye or barley, was followed. 



