MEAN OF AVERAGE CROPS IN RHINE HESSE. 243 



1833. 1834. 1835. 1836. 1837. 1838. 1839. 



0-85 0-78 0-88 0'72 0'88 0'73 0'61 



1840. 1841. 1842. 1843. 1844. 1845. 1846. 184T. 



1-10 0-40 0-PO 0-74 1-02 0'G3 0'75 O'SS 



which gives a mean for the fifteen years of 0*79 of the 

 former average. 



The productiveness of the wheat land in the Rhine 

 district of Hesse has therefore declined somewhat more 

 than one-fifth. 



I know all that may be urged against the accuracy 

 of these figures severally, and their trustworthiness col- 

 lectively ; but if they contain errors, the impartial 

 observer must see that these must tend to the plus as 

 well as to the minus side, and that it would be most 

 extraordinary in the presence of plus errors that all the 

 estimates should have falleij out on the minus side. 



There is, however, a very simple, and at the same 

 time infallible and irrefutable, proof of the correctness 

 of the conclusions drawn from these figures, in the fact 

 that the cultivation of wheat is on the decrease, that of 

 rye on the increase, in Khine Hesse, and that many 

 fields on which wheat was formerly grown are now 

 turned into rye fields. 



Properly understood, the change from wheat to rye 

 always argues a deterioration in the quality of the soil ; 

 the farmer begins to grow rye in a wheat field only 

 when the latter no longer gives remunerative wheat 

 crops. 



In Rhine Hesse, a 4j- fold produce of rye is consid- 

 ered an average crop ; a wheat soil, therefore, capable 

 of giving only four-fifths of an average wheat-crop, can 

 produce a full average rye-crop. 



Now the average produce of rye in the fifteen years 

 is 0-96, which pretty nearly corresponds with the full 

 average. 



For spelt, the mean was 0*79 of the average ; for 

 barley, 0'88 ; for oats, 0*88 ; for peas, 0'67 ; for pota- 

 toes, on the other hand, 0*98 ; and for colewort and 

 turnips, 0'85. 



The statistical data collected in Prussia and Bava- 



