174 AGRICULTURE 0>r THE RHINE. 



ment of Hesse Darmstadt bought the largest, and has 

 laid it all down under lucem. Adjacent is the Ingel- 

 heirnau, which is let on the condition of the farmer's 

 furnishing four hundred loads of dung annually for Count 

 Ingelheims vineyards at Ingelhcim and in the Rhinegau. 

 On a third island, immediately opposite Bieberich, there 

 is a considerable farm, at present untenanted, belonging 

 to the Duke of Nassau. 



In the course of a few rides and drives along the foot 

 of the Taunus range, it is easy for a visitor to make him- 

 self fully acquainted with the farming processes and 

 division of property. Fruit is a part of the crop on all 

 estates near the mountains, and individuals as well as 

 whole parishes make it a profitable source of revenue. 

 Every village has a peculiar fruit for which it is famous. 

 Frauenstcin furnishes cherries; Schierstcin, ajjplcs and 

 grapes. We have already noticed the large chestnut- 

 plantation belonging to Wiesbaden. The village of 

 Brennthal, about four miles east of Wiesbaden, draws a 

 revenue of GOOO florins from its fruit, mostly apples. 

 Eppstein and Hof heim furnish gpocj cider. Kronberg 

 serves as a nursei'y, fruits and fruit-trees of the kinds 

 most in use being produced there in abundance for the 

 adjacent country. If we leave the Taunus and cross the 

 Maine to the territory of Hesse Darmstadt, we find similar 

 arrangements. The large plain between the mountains 

 and the Rhine is devoted to grain-crops, but little of this 

 space can vie in quality with the wheat-lands between 

 Ilochheim and Hanau. The railroad traverses this latter 

 plain between Mayence and Frankfort ; and the traveller 

 can there, too, observe the effect of the village system in 

 taking llie cultivators off the land, and ycry much in- 



