41 



superior portion of land devoted to green crops, and 

 pasture, the same ; and the stock of cattle !>ore nearly 

 a like proportion. These, however, were exceptions, 

 few in number and confined in extent, when compared 

 with the general condition of the estates of the three 

 provinces. 



A number of Proprietors, residing on their lands, de- 

 voting their time and attention to their improvement, 

 and acquiring the practical and economical habits 

 which their affairs render necessary, must have a 

 teneficial influence on the cultivators around them. 

 In this view, perhaps, the distress which lias been 

 occasioned by the depressed prices of agricultural 

 produce, may, at some future time, under happier 

 auspices, be highly advantageous to the community. 

 But, in the mean time, the influence of the best spe- 

 cimens of cultivation have been very limited. Few of 

 the Proprietors have any capital to buy sheep or other 

 stock, or to enable them to wait for those returns of 

 their outlays which come in with the most dilatory 

 pace where the management of land is the best. He 

 who has to answer the demands of the labourers, the 

 tax collectors, and, where it occurs, of the gatherer of 

 rent, or of interest on mortgages, must sell his Cora, 

 at any price that is offered for it, without waiting to 

 convert it into wool, as the nobleman to whom I have 

 alluded is enabled to do. It is more the state of em- 

 barrassment, in which almost all the Proprietors are 

 placed, than the want of knowledge or of assiduity, 

 that prevents the Agriculture of the Prussian domi- 

 nions from making more considerable advances. 



Formerly, the majority of the Estates, as belonging 

 to Nobles, and only capable of being held by that 

 class, were nearly inalienable; but the necessity of 

 relieving the most harassed of that body, induced the 

 Government to form a plan by which money might be 

 borrowed on the security of land. At first this power 

 was confined to the lands of the nobles, but was after- 

 wards extended to all others. 



