AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE. 129 



meadows, which evince that the care of the government 

 at that early period embraced this great agricultural im- 

 provement. 



At present not only the whole of the valley of the 

 Upper Sieg, but all the side vales and glens that issue into 

 it, have their bottoms carpeted with beautiful verdure, 

 affording the owners a rich crop, and (after the outlay for 

 laying down has been made) with an inexpensive mode of 

 cultivation. To drain these glens for the purpose of ex- 

 tracting any other crop from their chilled soils would be 

 attended with enormous expense. By simply adopting 

 the oriental plan of letting the water run over the sur- 

 face, the most productive crops of grass are obtained. 

 The same principle applied in Holland has furnished 

 that country with a rich and never-failing revenue de- 

 rived from dairy produce, which no art could extract 

 from the rich but humid soil in any other shape. Nor 

 is the traveller left in doubt as to the natural or artificial 

 origin of these meadows on the banks of the Sieg. The 

 greensward is everywhere intersected by innumerable 

 canals, the broadest of which forming the water-courses 

 vary from three to five feet. These catch the water of 

 the river or of its tributary brooks at the highest possible 

 level, and carry it along the hill-side, or over an elevated 

 bed through the centre of the meadow. Out of this are 

 led the small cuts, nine inches deep, and nine to twelve 

 inches broad, which carry the portion allotted to each 

 bed in the required direction. Bed is the proper term 

 here, and not field ; for although the absence of fences 

 gives to a whole valley the appearance of belonging to 

 one proprietor, yet it is not easy to imagine a more 

 minute division of the soil, and more exclusive proprie- 



