146 
Continental Farmincf. 
After Cameno station we saw some oood pastures and meadows 
adjoining the river; the upland is still wet clay-loam, about one- 
third poor pasture, one-eighth oak forest, and the remainder 
in tillage. All this district is enclosed. The cattle and sheep 
are of most inferior description. Tlie forests and roads are well 
managed and the cultivation rather good. Near Rhoda station I 
observed limestone, whicli would be invaluable for the whole of 
those wet districts after they are drained, and the march of intel- 
lect will soon cause it to be performed, as the best means of 
increasing the health and wealth of the country. 
The crops grown in these wet districts of clay-loam are wheat, 
barley, rye, oats, beans, peas, tares, clover, and a fair portion of 
fallow, which in many cases is sown with some root crop. The 
farming is very good as respects cleanliness, neatness, working of 
the soil, and making manure by growing green crops for cows in 
the house ; but all these excellent points in good farming avail 
not without drainage to produce that uniformity of excellency in 
the cro})s which ought to be the result of sucli wonderful industry 
as is displayed by the small farmers of those lands. 
From Rhoda we went over a wretchedly poor district of black 
sand soil upon yellow sand subsoil, very wet ; one-third is fir 
and birch forest, one-third barren, and a third cultivated, pro- 
ducing rye, oats, beans, clover, and fallow in part for roots ; all 
the crops except the clover were dreadfully light, not more than 
from six to ten bushels per English acre. The industry employed 
here to produce such crops is quite beyond my understanding ; 
for it appears impossible that it can give an adequate return 
to feed and clothe the occupiers : were drainage carried out, 
these people would make this comparative desert a little para- 
dise. We here passed along a deep cutting through the hill 
(the rocks were the mountain limestone overlaying the old 
red sandstone ; the dip is nearly north), and entered a beautiful 
hilly district, the hills running east and west ; soil light dry 
sand in general ; all cultivated except the mountain slopes and 
tops, which are forest, and comprise about a tenth of the dis- 
trict ; farming good, not a weed to be seen. 
After leaving Bielefield we passed through some similarcountry, 
until we got to another deep j)ass in the mountain, the rock moun- 
tain limestone overlaying the old red-sandstone and dipping 
south ; this was followed by a district of poor light sand, which 
continued until we reached Porta. The whole of this district is 
beautifully farmed, neither waste land nor weed to be seen; 
crops vary with the cjuality of the soil ; rye is the staple ; wheat, 
which increases as the soil improves ; barley, oats, peas, beans, 
clover ; and fallow for beets and turnips. 
At Porta we passed through the mountain, along the river 
