AGRICULTUKE ON THE RHINE. 81 



skinned and put with a little water into jars, m hich are 

 placed in the baking-ovens after the bread is taken out. 

 They there simmer to a pulp or syrup, which is spread, 

 instead of butter, on the bread. The consumption of this 

 simple preserve is so great, that a good or bad season for 

 plums materially affects the price of butter. 



The inhabitants of Rhenish Prussia still speak with 

 gratitude of a French prefet in Napoleon's time, who 

 actively promoted the introduction of good kinds of fruit, 

 and the establishment of village nursery-grounds. But 

 that the Germans did not require to be schoolmastered 

 on this score originally by the French, is shown by the 

 current statement that the village of Metternich lost 

 14,000 fruit-trees during the invasion of 1790. 



In this part of his journey the traveller, indeed, loses 

 sight of the large calculations of capitalists, and of 

 the general economical plan that runs through the indus- 

 trious exertions of nations. He finds the local relations 

 of every village and townlet scattered along the pre- 

 cipitous banks of the Rhine influence him, and after a 

 time he begins to follow the inclinations and even to 

 account for many apparent prejudices on the part of the 

 inhabitants. In the great occupation of turning to 

 the best account the soil and climate given to them 

 by Providence, the peasant of the Rhine stands un- 

 tutored except by experience. And could the tourist 

 hear these men in their blouses and thick gaiters converse 

 on the subject, he would be surprised at the mass of 

 practical knowledge they possess, and at the caution and 

 yet the keenness with which they study these advantages. 

 Of this all may rest assured, that frons the commence- 

 ment of the offsets of the Eifel, where the village culti- 



