Agriculture in Bavaria. 411 



with the director-general, and other books of the usual kinds 

 for payments and receipts. Whenever the director-general 

 proposes to do any thing of importance, he communicates 

 directly with the king. For example : befoi-e M. Sckell gave 

 us copies o^Jig. 99., and a number of other plans of Bavarian 

 gardens, he went to the palace, and sent up a note, request- 

 ing permission to do so. The king granted it at once, by 

 writing a few words on the margin of the note, and returning 

 it to M. Sckell, who showed it to us. Every thing is done in 

 an equally prompt and business-like manner, alike creditable 

 to master and servant. 



Agriculture in Bavaria. — One of the principal reasons 

 which induced us to visit Bavaria was, to obtain some know- 

 ledge of the present state of its agriculture, in order to correct 

 what we had said on that subject in the historical part of the 

 first edition of our Encyclopedia of Agriculture. The inform- 

 ation there given was derived entirely from books : but, though 

 some of these were of very recent publication, such as a new 

 Edinhurgh Gazetteer in several volumes, yet in none of them 

 was there one word on the state of agriculture and domestic 

 improvement in Bavaria, which did not apply to a period pre- 

 vious to the breaking out of the first French revolution; in 

 short, to the middle of the last century. Considering that 

 ten years of general peace had elapsed when the first edition 

 of the Encyclopedia of Agriculture was published, this may 

 appear surprising; but the truth is, that even now, after nearly 

 twenty years of peace, there are many states in Germany of 

 which we know very little. 



Bavarian agriculture, previously to the first French revolu- 

 tion, was, according to all accounts, less advanced than that of 

 any other state in Germany, and, indeed, remained stationary 

 for ages. By far the greater part of the land in cultivation 

 was the property of the I'eligious establishments ; and the 

 capital, Munich, was, as the German name (Mlinchen) im- 

 plies, the City of Monks. When, however, the estates of the 

 religious establishments were sold, they were chiefly divided 

 into lots so small that almost every individual who was head 

 of a family became a purchaser. These purchases were made 

 at very low prices, on long credits; and a very great number 

 of them, perhaps the greater number, were agreed to be paid 

 for by the occupant in a terminable annuity ; that is, he paid 

 a fixed rent for a certain number of years, after which the 

 land became his own freehold. The labourers, who had thus 

 suddenly become proprietors, had, for the most part, pre- 

 viously cultivated the same lands for the religious establish- 

 ments, and therefore the external change was, at first, hardly 



