170 AGRICULTURE OS THE BHIKE. 



those who cannot comprehend the loss that ensues from 

 carting the' green clover two miles every day to the stall- 

 fed cows. We are afraid that their mode of indemnifying 

 themselves by reducing the quality of the milk, will be 

 found to savour more of urban than of rural habits. 

 Latterly too an attempt has been made to protect the 

 bakers by taxing the bread of the outlying bakers, a fact 

 that is symptomatic of civic or at least of corporation 

 progress ; but which, with so nomadic a population as 

 Wiesbaden can boast, is rather a dangerous experiment. 

 These remarks are not intended as local gossip. The 

 same calculations have been made and acted upon at 

 Vienna and Berlin, that we find only in imitation amongst 

 the more recent civic authorities of Wiesbaden ; and every 

 Prussian and Austrian village presents the same agricul- 

 tural features that we have traced at the foot of the 

 Taunus. 



Although no prescribed rotation of crops is now 

 followed by the Wiesbaden farmers, yet the recent ex- 

 istence of the village system is testified by the absence of 

 enclosures, and the regular appearance of the parish 

 shepherd, who may be seen guiding his scanty flock as 

 close as he can to the greenest fallow plots. His dog, 

 who seems to share his cares, jumps about and barks as if 

 loath to grudge the poor animals the stolen nibble at 

 the beet-root leaves, or the clover-ley, that indicate the 

 improvements which are rendering the services of both 

 superfluous. But although shorn of the dignity of an 

 official personage, and only the servant of the man who 

 farms the much diminished right of grazing, he is ame- 

 nable to the town council for all depredations committed 

 by his flock. The peasant burgess may therefore smoke 



