AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE. 133 



oats, from a lay of 16 or 20 years' standing. The sods on 

 the surface are pared off with a peculiar kind of narrow 

 spade (Fig. 6, p. 139) 2 feet 2^ inches deep. Strips are 

 previously cut in the surface with the axe, and the strips 

 when rolled up are carried on a stick passed through the 

 middle of the roll. One man usually marks the strips, 

 two pare them from the surface, and a fourth rolls them 

 up. These rolls are recommended in the place of square 

 or oblong cuttings ; amongst other advantages they insure 

 a sufficient quantity of sod to cover the field when it is 

 levelled. If the turf be cut off in small pieces, the quan- 

 tit}^ often proves somewhat deficient. The beginning is 

 generally made with those parts of the meadow which 

 being highest have the greatest quantity of ground to 

 spare, and with those which are hollow and require 

 filling up. The turf being removed the ground below is 

 dug up and carried from the one to the other. Care is, 

 however, taken by good meadowers not to carry away the 

 soil that lies immediately under the turf-paring. Of this 

 a portion is reserved to form the bed on which the turf 

 is to be relaid. The ground transferred from one place 

 to another is taken from the subsoil, unless the good 

 ground be very deep. When the level of the whole 

 meadow has to be lowered, the stuff taken from the sub- 

 soil that becomes useless must be carted and thrown away. 



Where the surface, at a sufficient depth under the 

 chief water-course, still offers a fall of g'gth of the length of 

 the meadow, and there is plenty of water, the meadow 

 is laid down in what at Siegen is called the terrace-mode 

 of irrigation (Hangbau). 



If the slope is less and there are marshy spots the 

 meadow is laid down with narrow ridges. 



G 3 



