80 AGKICULTUEE ON THE EHESE. 



The trade in fruit is described as taking place in the fol- 

 lowing manner: — The boatmen from the Rhine come 

 some time previously to the village to treat for the fruit. 

 When the period agreed upon arrives, the bell of the 

 village gives the signal, and every villager, whether rich 

 or poor, begins to strip the cherry-trees, and carry the 

 filled baskets down to the river's side. One of the vil- 

 lage headboroughs stands at the ship's side and weighs 

 the fruit delivered. To him the money is paid by the 

 boatmen, and he divides it on the following Sunday, after 

 Vespers, amongst the peasants. 



Walnuts are a favourite crop in the hilly parts, but not 

 in the valleys, as it is said that the leaves damage the 

 ground where they fall. The nuts yield delicious oil, 

 and to obtain this they are chiefly pressed. Apples and 

 pears are cut into pieces and strung on packthread. 

 They are then hung up to dry, and serve as vegetables 

 to eat with roast meat or with pancakes through the 

 winter. Sometimes they are boiled up with plums and 

 beet-root, the latter addition being intended in lieu oi 

 sugar. The fruit of the Eifel is good, but the really de- 

 licious fruit on the Rhine begins with the Moselle or 

 with the fall of the Eifel towards that river. From Cob- 

 lenz onwards the apples and pears attain a ripeness that 

 makes them not only a pleasing but a nourishing article 

 of food, and we have often thought of the difference be- 

 tween the apple-pies on the banks of the Thames, and 

 those which, when well imitated on the Rhine, require no 

 sugar to correct acidity in the fruit. Plums of a poor 

 flavour, but excellent bearers, are indigenous in Germany, 

 and form a part of the luxuries of every village from the 

 Baltic to the Alps. In the Rhenish districts they are 



