AGRICULTURE ON THE RIII>E. 171 



Jiis pipe and drink his ''schoppen" at home, compara- 

 tively sure that the wisp of straw which he has set up on 

 a stick to denote that he means to use his fallow himself 

 will be respected, and that no more of the border of 

 his quarter-of-an-acre field will be nibbled than custom 

 has prescribed to be " law." The owner of fruit-trees is 

 differently circumstanced, and the limit to which these 

 pretty ornaments of a Rhenish farm can be extended are 

 fixed by the walking powers of a few gardes champetres, 

 very inefficient protection, as the reader will suppose, 

 against the youth or the loose population of the surrounding- 

 country. The abundance and good quality of tlie fruit 

 in this neighbourhood have already been noticed. In 

 Frankfort-on-the-Main cider is a favourite beverage, 

 although the drink sold under that name w^ould surprise 

 the most homely drinker of the valleys of the Severn or 

 the Blackwater. It is strange that such excellent mate- 

 rials should be used so perversely. But the fact is that 

 fruit in these parts is used at meals like vegetables, and 

 the apples, pears., and plums, dressed, fresh, or after 

 drying, are a never- failing accompaniment of the roast 

 joint at table. Of their use as a substitute for butter we 

 have already spoken. The malter of apples or pears at 

 harvest time (nearly equal to four bushels) sells for 

 3 or 4 florins (5s. to 6s. Sd.). The peasant-like calcula- 

 tions of the small landowners about Wiesbaden arc most 

 strikingly illustrated by the absence of all cultivation of 

 early vegetables and table fruit, for both of which the 

 climate is favourable, and the visitors would gladly pur- 

 chase. The vegetables are daily brought to market from 

 the other side of the Rhine. 



In this respect the inhabitants of Mayence and Frank- 



