AGRICULTURE ON THE RHI>E. 51 



If we leave the Ruhr at Syburg, the elevated site of 

 Witikind's castle, and the scene of fierce conflict between 

 that Saxon hero and Charlemagne, and take the road 

 leading from the thriving town of Hagen to the valley of 

 the W Upper, we pass the line of the new railroad from 

 Cologne to Minden, which traverses a beautiful valley 

 on a splendid viaduct. As the traveller approaches 

 Elberfeld, the seat of the silk and cotton manufactures, 

 tlie face of the country presents a totally different aspect 

 from the adjacent districts of the county of Mark that 

 we have just traversed. Neat peasants' houses with 

 small plots of land fill the rather narrow valley, the 

 hills enclosing which are covered with wood for the use 

 of the numerous steel-manufacturers. Here is the place 

 to study the allotment system, although not in its best 

 form. The factories are nearly all worked by water- 

 power, and are consequently scattered along the course 

 of the WUpper, according as the fall in its bed allows. 

 Between them the peasants' houses stand, often at a 

 distance of a mile or two from the factory, a portion of 

 whose inmates are the labourers employed. These 

 houses have a garden, fields that produce grain and 

 fodder, and usually a piece of meadow on the river's 

 bank that helps to feed a cow. Whether the manufac- 

 turer gains by this association of agriculture with factory- 

 labour we shall have an opportunity of examining in 

 another volume, where we propose to treat of the state 

 of manufactures in the Rhenish districts. In an agricul- 

 tural point of view, little can be said that distinguishes 

 this from othei- populous neighbourhoods. The small 

 holdings are tilled with care, but produce on an average 

 rather less grain than the large farms. Cabbages, car- 



