126 



On Rural Economy Abroad. 



such a scourging course, where neither composts, bones, nor any 

 other substitutes are resorted to, are deservdng of notice. In the 

 first place the beginning of all improvements in these countries 

 is to give a dressing of marl (containing on an average 60 per 

 cent, carbonate of lime), at the rate of 164 cubic feet per acre ; 

 by this means land not worth cultivation previously yields excel- 

 lent crops for 8 or 1 0 years, and if the strav»^ produced during that 

 time is carefully converted into manure, the productiveness does 

 not materially decrease. Should that, however, be the case, the 

 deposits of ponds, and even plots of peat moss, v/hich not unfre- 

 quently occur, are carried upon the fallows in winter, where these 

 substances, when broken down by the frost, prove a valuable 

 alterative to the texture of the soil, especially where the pulse, 

 rape, and clover crops are gypsumed. 



The maintenance of the various stock by which the manure is 

 produced (and which is debarred from pasturage during six 

 months of the year by climate) comes next to be considered. 

 There has long been a useful breed of horses in these duchies, 

 suited to sandy roads, where a 5 mile-an-hour pace was all that 

 was compatible with the safety of the carriages; but now that 

 good M'Adamized roads are becoming more frequent, they have 

 not lungs nor action enough, and the breed is being supplanted 

 by a cross from English thoroughbred and other stallions, to which 

 the magnificent studs of the late and present Counts Plessen, 

 of Ivenack; the Counts Bassiwitz and Hahn; and Barons de 

 Maltzahn and Biel have chiefly contributed. The farm-horse is 

 a long-legged, small-bodied, big-headed, shapeless animal, bred 

 in Flolstein or the Danish islands, his price from 15/. to 20Z., 

 and 2 tons is a load for 4 of them, in a waggon, over country 

 roads.* 



The haken is generally worked by 2 oxen, which, with the 

 cows, are tended during the summer upon the pastures, and from 

 the time the corn fields are cleared, upon the stubble and young 

 clovers till November, when they are taken into the house, and 

 fed with hay and straw, during the winter. A great desideratum 

 in these countries where turnip culture is unknown, is a consider- 

 able proportion of natural meadows, along the banks of rivers, or 

 reclaimed from peat bogs. The warm summers force the indi- 



* English stallions have been long employed in Mecklenburg for the 

 improvement of saddle-horses. I myself purchased a pair from the late 

 Count Plessen full 30 years ago: they were got by one of our celebrated 

 racers, and bred upon his estate. He then had 120 brood-mares, and his 

 stock commanded rather high prices. The farm-cattle of the neighbourhood 

 were then, however, not worth more than half the prices above mentioned. — 

 F. Burke. 



