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the present capital of the kingdom. By 
1500 the counts had so increased their 
power and extent of territory that they 
were created dukes by the Emperor 
Maximilian, and dukes they remained 
until 1806, when Napoleon, for services 
rendered by Wurttemberg against Aus- 
tria, made the duke into a king and 
added largely to his territory in 1806 and 
1810, the new kingdom thus constituted 
being about one-third larger than the 
original dukedom. 
Wirttemberg since that time has not 
increased its acreage, and is popularly, 
though not officially, divided into Old 
Wirttemberg and New Wurttemberg, 
the latter being that part of the state 
which was added by Napoleon. This 
unofficial division into old and new 
Wiuirttemberg is of importance, as will 
be seen in considering the distribution of 
religious beliefs in the country. In 1871 
Wiurttemberg joined allegiance to the 
newly constituted German Empire. 
Wurttemberg for governmental pur- 
poses is divided into four “‘kreise,” or 
counties, and each kreis into a number 
of ‘‘oberamts,” or districts. In an ober- 
amt are 30 or 40 “gemeinde,” village 
communities, or townships, each consist- 
ing of a single village, or town, with the 
adjacent land. The Nagold Thal (Valley 
of the Nagold) lies chiefly in the ober- 
amts Nagold and Calw, of the Schwarz- 
wald (Black Forest) kreis, and belongs 
to Old Wurttemberg, with the exception 
of a small part of the watershed south 
of Nagold, which is in the oberamt Horb 
and belongs to New Wiirttemberg. The 
Nagold River itself rises at Urnagold, in 
the oberamt Freudenstadt, runs in an 
easterly direction to Nagold, where it 
turns due north, and flows past Calw and 
Liebenzell into the Enz at Pforzheim, the 
Enz itself running from Pforzheim east 
to Besigheim, where it joins the Neckar. 
From Urnagold to Altensteig, 10 miles 
above Nagold, the Nagold is an insignifi- 
cant stream and rather inaccessible, but 
from Altensteig to Pforzheim the scenery 
throughout its entire course is exceed- 
ingly picturesque and beautiful, without, 
however, the grandeur of the mountain- 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
ous Black Forest country immediately to 
the west. ‘The valley is narrow and the 
steep slopes are clothed with pine forests, 
a strip of fertile meadow land on either 
bank of the river. 
At various points are picturesque 
towns and villages, some, as Altensteig 
and Wildberg, perched on precipitous 
slopes overhanging the river; others, at 
points where the valley widens out, situ- 
ated on the river banks—Nagold, Calw, 
Hirsau. ‘Tanneries and sawmills abound 
and there are not a few cloth and woolen 
mills, all operated by water-power de- 
rived from the river, which is swift and 
too small for navigation. 
-’'The watershed on the left bank of tie 
Tiver- presents a broken, hilly surface, the 
foothills of the Black Forest range. The 
upland country of this side of the river 
is heavily wooded, with relatively little 
devoted to agriculture, the villages being 
small and scattered. 
The watershed of the right or east 
bank, mostly in the oberamt Herrenberg, 
presents a very different aspect, being a 
rolling, fertile upland with numerous 
compact, prosperous - looking villages, 
and the land entirely devoted to agri- 
culture, except for a few acres of wood 
in each gemeinde, planted and controlled 
by the community for general use. 
Wheat, oats, and roots furnish abundant 
crops, and hops, introduced about 1840, 
are largely grown in sheltered spots, but 
the climate does not permit of vine cul- 
ture. The system of farming is that of 
southern Germany generally. 
The farmers, all of whom own their 
land, live in the villages and own strips 
of land scattered throughout the ge- 
meinde. Not a house nor even a barn or 
shed is to be seen outside of the village. 
nor is there a single fence or hedge. The 
strips of land (gewannen) are long and 
narrow, often not wider than is neces- 
sary to turn a plow. 
The system has arisen as a logical out- 
come of the arrangements of early days, 
when the land belonged to the gemeinde 
(gemeinde means commonwealth), and 
was parceled out among the farmers for 
yearly tenancy, each farmer receiving a 
