128 AGKICL'LTURE OX THE RHINE. 



telligent is however limited to speculation on a very 

 small scale, and nowhere is the true trading principle 

 of drawing a small, but sure, profit from undertakings 

 on an extended scale acknowledged as the golden rule 

 in Germany. 



The remedy for the present state of things in Siegen 

 is now thought to be in the construction of a railroad, 

 connecting this mining country with the coal district on 

 the Ruhr. The notion of any gain resulting from regu- 

 lating the price of fuel by artificial means will be dis- 

 pelled when this is effected, and all may return to a 

 wholesome state of active production. 



A singular contrast is presented in another branch of 

 industry, for which Siegen has long been justly cele- 

 brated, and which, although it is impossible to protect it 

 by restrictions, yet forms a pursuit that the people of 

 Siegen are passionately fond of. It is not improbable 

 that the art of laying down and managing irrigated mea- 

 dows was introduced by some of the artisans who taught 

 the people the mode of making steel. The origin of both 

 arts points to Italy, and it is likely that some prince of 

 Nassau, who was more than a mere Condottiere, brought 

 them with him as the best trophy of some successful cam- 

 paign in the fertile plains of Lombardy. Brescia was as 

 probably the parent-seat of one of these arts, as Como or 

 Lodi may have been the school in which the other was 

 learnt. History is silent as to the original introduction 

 of irrigation, which until lately was peculiar in Ger- 

 many to the district of Siegen. The climate there is any- 

 thing but a sunny one. From the sixteenth century, 

 however, there exist laws and regulations respecting the 

 rights of the owners of water-courses intended to fertilize 



