156 
Variation in the Price and Supply of Wheat. 
where stall-fceding and the cultivation of plants for fodder gives 
a supply of manure : — 
"In general only every second, and sometimes every third, fallow is 
manured, and thus the fields are only ameliorated once in every six or nine 
years. The small produce, under such circumstances, is well known to every 
person." 
He considers fallows to be necessary, notwithstanding their 
expense; and that it is impossible to dispense with them in 
rotations where roots or forage-plants have no place, except 
with the assistance of some extraordinary means of tillage. 
Where the attempt has been made, even on land near towns and 
well manured, the ground has been filled with weeds and the crop 
has become very scanty. The "industrious Belgians" tried to 
dispense with fallows by sowing grain alternately in narrow 
strips, and bestowing the most careful tillage on the intervals, 
which were sown the following year. A similar attempt has 
been made in England in recent years ; but the cultivation of 
alternate strips of grain and fallow is worthless as a system 
of farming, though interesting as an experiment. 
The Corn-gkowing Countries of Europe. 
The countries bordering on the Baltic and Northern Ocean 
form a great plain, seldom much above the level of the sea, 
narrowing as it approaches its western limits on the French 
frontier, and gradually widening towards the east until it meets 
the great plain which stretches over the whole of Russia from 
the Baltic to the Black Sea. Between the Rhine and the Elbe, 
the average width of what is, in fact, a continuation of the great 
eastern plain of Europe is about 160 miles. Eastward of the 
Elbe the average width is 300 miles. It includes the whole of 
Hanover, and great part of Westphalia and Saxony. With the 
exception of the alluvial deposits and reclaimed marshes of 
Holland, the deltas of the rivers, and the wide river-bottoms, 
this extensive district is generally poor and unproductive, only a 
comparatively small portion of it contributing to the exports of 
grain from the coast. The mountain-ranges of Germany and 
the Carpathians form the southern boundaries of this region, 
and separate it from the fertile countries drained by the Danube 
and its tributaries. The rivers are at once the source of fertility 
and the means of conveyance, and at their mouths are the corn- 
ports, which we may consult as the great pulse of an agricultural 
country. The Vistula and the Elbe are the chief grain-carriers 
of North Europe, whilst Dantzig and Hamburg are the chief 
corn emporiums. Rostock and Stettin are smaller grain-ports 
