EXHAUSTION OF RHENISH BAVARIA. 235 



bility of land is almost childish, because it assumes that 

 corn may be continuously taken from a field, without 

 restoring the conditions of reproduction. A field does 

 not necessarily become unfruitful for corn because it 

 has yielded large corn-crops ; but it ceases to yield corn- 

 crops if it does not receive compensation for the corn- 

 constituents which have been removed. This compen- 

 sation is facilitated by the breeding of cattle, in propor- 

 tion to the extent to which this is carried, and especially 

 when the cultivator is acquainted with the operation 

 of manure. In the time of Charlemagne this was well 

 known, for the winter-crops were manured with dung r 

 distinguished as cattle-dung (called gor) and horse-dung 

 (dost or deist). Besides, the practice of marling was 

 then common in Germany. 



"With regard to the special instance of Rhenish 

 Bavaria as proving the inexhaustibility of the soil, I 

 had an opportunity last autumn, at a meeting of the 

 Society of Naturalists at Spires, of making particular 

 inquiries about the actual condition of the neighbour- 

 hood. Rhenish Bavaria, from the slopes of the Hardt 

 mountains to the Rhine, comprises a district of great 

 fertility : the region is inhabited by an extremely in- 

 dustrious population, distributed in small towns and 

 villages. Almost every artisan, even to the tailor and 

 shoemaker, possesses a small plot of ground, on which 

 he raises his potatoes and vegetables. The export of 

 corn from this district is never thought of, but on the 

 contrary corn and a large quantity of manure are im- 

 ported from Mannheim, Heidelberg, and elsewhere. The 

 manuring substances obtained from the houses of the 

 towns and villages are carefully treasured and employed, 

 so that there can be no fear of exhaustion, since the 

 removed nutritive substances are restored to the fields. 

 In spite of all this, in no part of Germany is the want 

 of manure more felt than there. On the highways chil- 

 dren are constantly seen with little baskets, following 

 the horses and swine, to gather the manure dropped by 

 those animals. In the year 1849, during the political 

 agitation in the Palatinate, the peasants had no more 



