24 



higher levels. The abundance of flint nodules was everywhere a char- 

 acteristic of the best lands. 



The best exposures were generally planted in fruit trees and covered 

 with heavy sod, most of the orchards being used as pastures. There 

 was very little land under cultivation in crops. 



The cold slopes were mostly thin lands and often seepy, and where 

 set in orchards were decidedly inferior to southern slopes. The uplands 

 varied in value from 500 to 1,200 francs per hectare ($40 to $100 per 

 acre), and the richest valley lands were held at 4,000 to 5,000 francs 

 per hectare ($300 to $400 per acre). These values lead one to wonder 

 how anyone could carry on such apparently careless culture and con- 

 tinue to hold lands of such value. 



THE GERMAN CIDER DISTRICTS. 



In Germany as in France most of my time was given to specific 

 investigations at those places which offered the greatest opportunity 

 for practical and scientific work, viz, at centers where the bulk of the 

 cider is made; hence, the Wiirtemberg cider districts of Germany 

 were not inspected, but the related districts of Switzerland and a part 

 of southern and central Bavaria were observed. In these nothing 

 worthjr of special mention was found. Everywhere, however, the 

 wonderful opportunities for development which would be seized upon 

 by a more versatile people were conspicuous. 



At Frankfort-on-the-Main is found the center of the German cider 

 industry. Here two firms alone were making over 1,300,000 gallons 

 of cider annually; and from Frankfort to Wiesbaden, along the slopes 

 of the Taunus Mountains, one finds a continuous apple country with 

 numerous small establishments for the manufacture of cider. The 

 industry here overlaps into the wine country, or Rhinegau proper, 

 and extends even down to Schierstein, almost in sight of the world- 

 famous Johannisburg wine district. But nowhere in Germany was 

 found any area so peculiarly and distinctively a cider-producing coun- 

 try as in Calvados, France. 



In German}^ the tendency seems to be away from the small peasant 

 proprietor, and toward a factory system founded upon the very best 

 and latest investigations of modern science, while in France this is not 

 nearly so much the case. Possibly this fact, coupled with the well- 

 known orderly and methodical habits of the German, may account for 

 the fact previously stated in this report, that in Germany standards of 

 quality are better recognized than in any other European country. As 

 already noted, the German considers his product a wine, calls it so, and 

 makes it by certain definite methods. 



The only apple-growing districts of Germany which were examined 

 were (1) the Taunus country in Prussia, stretching from Frankfort to 

 Wiesbaden, and (2) the Rhinegau, which extends from below Wiesba- 

 den to where the Rhine breaks through the Niederwald below Rude- 



