the Poor in Bavaria. 237 



manent, and it receives its recruits from the district of 

 country immediately surrounding its headquarters, the 

 men who go home on furlough have but a short jour- 

 ney to make, and are easily assembled in case of any 

 emergency ; and it was the more necessary to give 

 every facility to the soldiers to go home on furlough 

 in Bavaria, as labourers are so very scarce in that 

 country that the husbandman would not be able with- 

 out them to cultivate his ground. 



The habits of industry and of order which the sol- 

 dier acquired when in garrison rendered him so much 

 the more useful as a labourer when on furlough ; but, 

 not contented with merely furnishing labourers for the 

 assistance of the husbandman, I was desirous of mak- 

 ing use of the army as a means of introducing useful 

 improvements into the country. 



Though agriculture is carried to the highest per- 

 fection in some parts of the Elector's dominions, yet 

 in others, and particularly in Bavaria, it is still much 

 behind hand. Very few of the new improvements in 

 that art, such as the introduction of new and useful 

 plants, the cultivation of clover and of turnips, the 

 regular succession of crops, etc., have yet found their 

 way into general practice in that country ; and even 

 the potato, that most useful of all the products of the 

 ground, is scarcely known there. 



It was principally with a view to introduce the cul- 

 ture of potatoes in that country that the military gar- 

 dens were formed. These gardens (of which there 

 is one in every garrison belonging to the Elector's 

 dominions, Dusseldorf and Amberg only excepted *) 



* Particular local reasons, which it is not necessary here to explain, have 

 hitherto prevented the establishment of military gardens in these two garrison 



towns. 



