AGRICULTUBE ON THE RHINE. 67 



this \^ hole district not grown as a market crop, the soil 

 not offering any peculiar advantages ; and the grain, stock, 

 and dairy-yield finding a ready sale upon the spot with- 

 out demanding any effort of skilled labour. Rape-seed, as 

 is evident from the return given above, is a highly remu- 

 nerating crop, and, as we have observed, will not fail in 

 any judicious rotation for the future, as it can now be 

 easily exported. Clover-seed is also extensively grown 

 between Aix-la-Chapelle and Bonn. 



The plain between Cologne and Euskirchen, where 

 the eastern offsets of the Ardennes run out to the Rhine 

 and form its boundary, offers little differing in aspect 

 for the farmer from the ground we have traversed. The 

 same mode of cultivation prevails, and the village system 

 is predominant, although the effects of rising prosperity 

 in the richer classes begin to show themselves in pretty 

 country-seats well placed upon the fall of the hills, that 

 give life to the landscape. Bonn has recently become a 

 central point of attraction for farmers, as the seat of an 

 agricultural college and experimental farm on a small 

 scale. It is not improbable that some of the taste for 

 farming which is now displayed at Windsor was acquired 

 or at least improved at Popplesdorf. Of these colleges, 

 which are numerous in Germany, we shall speak more at 

 large in a later part of our volume. 



A plague peculiar to the dry districts along the Rhine 

 is found in the mice, which in a fine season swarm in such 

 myriads, that whole fields are devastated where no 

 energetic means are adopted for destroying them. It is 

 true that the winter frosts and spring floods cleanse the 

 fields to all appearance thoroughly of this nuisance ; yet, 

 if the month of May be fine, they appear in August with 



