34 AGRICULTURE ON THE RHLSE. 



one- third ; but if he furnishes the dung, which of course is 

 only usual where small parcels are cultivated, he gets one 

 half of the gross produce. This mode of improving the 

 wages of agricultural labourers would deserve some atten- 

 tion elsewhere. The tax upon tobacco-growing represses 

 its cultivation in Prussia, as has been remarked ; but we 

 shall have frequent opportunities of noticing this crop as 

 we advance up the Rhine. Near the village of Wissen 

 tobacco is cultivated on the uplands of Cleves. The 

 second crop on which the farmer relies as a marketable 

 one is flax, which we noticed as chiefly cultivated on the 

 uplands near Pfalzdorf. The flax-fields of a village in the 

 district of Jiilich sometimes cover two hundred morgens 

 (125 acres). Barley, clover, flax, and wheat, is con- 

 sidered a good rotation, but flax does not tlirive on the 

 same land oftener than once in six years. The clover 

 stubbles are ploughed up deeply, and twenty small one- 

 horse loads of dung carted upon it before the winter, 

 and left upon the land. In spring the ground is well 

 harrowed and sown, then harrowed again and rolled. 

 This surface -dunging is said to have more effect upon the 

 crop that immediately follows it, than when the dung is 

 j)loughed in. The effect of the ploughed-in dung is, 

 however, greater on the crops of the following years. 

 The flax-seed is either from Riga, Belgium, or the upper 

 Rhine. The crop is estimated to average 5 cwt. of 

 cleaned flax per morgen, or 8 cwt. per English acre. This, 

 at 4s. per German stone of 11 lbs., gives about 17/. per 

 English acre as the gross return, besides seed, of which 

 5 bushels are gained to the acre. The crop cannot on 

 the whole be estimated at much less than 20/. per acre, 

 where sufficient care is taken to obtain good quality. 



