/ 2 AGRICULTURE OX THE RHIJfE. 



such a measure be accompanied by a multiplication of the 

 consumers, that is to say, of the markets, it is not easy to 

 see what agriculturists have to gain by such a step. In 

 Prussia it is estimated that three persons are employed in 

 agriculture for one engaged in trade or manufactures. 

 This will explain why, with such low prices as we 

 usually find quoted in Germany, there is never a super- 

 abundance of corn, while prices rise rapidly on the first 

 symptom of a demand from England. It will also account 

 for the modes of cultivation that prevail, under which 

 only a moderate yield is extracted from the land. That 

 with the soil and climate of the Lower Rhine a far greater 

 return might be obtained, is shown by the example of 

 Belgium and England. But why should it be raised it 

 there is no one to buy it ? The exportation of wheat to 

 France and Belgium assumes every year a more constant 

 form. It will not be long before England appears 

 as a regular customer at the Continental markets. 

 It will then remain to be seen whether the more 

 distant but more fertile districts of Poland will be able to 

 furnish grain on better terms than the nearer plains ot 

 Germany, with their intelligent population. The irre- 

 gularity of our demand has obliged countries that cannot 

 produce without cost to leave us out of their calculations. 

 The next weighty consideration that press-es itself upon 

 us is the fact that, in the trading and manufacturing dis- 

 tricts, and on the Rhine generally, both the rent of land 

 and its capital value are higher than that of similarly cir- 

 cumstanced land in England. We have endeavoured to 

 explain this fact from the circumstance that there are 

 crops that all times assert their full value in the market 

 of the world, such as seeds, flax, tobacco, dairy produce, 



