206
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
the state of the home as well as of foreign markets,
clogged with duties, does not remunerate any extra-
ordinary outlay in artificial means, excepting where the
density of the population ensures a sale for the increased
production. The plain at the mouth of the Neckar, be-
tween Weinheim, Heidelberg, Leimen, and the Rhine,
is even more populous than Rhinehessen on the left
Rhine-bank. On a space equal to 90 square English
miles, Professor Rau in 1830 estimated there were 73,000
inhabitants. At present there are not Iewer than 80,000,
or 900 to the English square mile. It will, therefore,
excite no surprise that the subdivision of the soil is very
great. The same author, in his interesting treatise on
the agriculture of this district, gives the following as the
division of landed property :—
Size of estates. |
In Hanilschuhsheim. |
In Neuenheim. | |
No. Oflandowners. |
No. of Iandov ners. | ||
More than |
20 morgens |
12 |
5 |
From |
15 to 20 |
7 |
1 |
55 |
10 to 12 |
13 |
1 |
55 |
5 to 10 |
41 |
3 |
» |
3 to 5 |
34 |
1 |
Less than |
1 to 3 |
108 |
37 |
1 |
163 |
73 |
The 378 landowners in Handschuhsheim held estates
of the following dimensions :—
12 Iargeestates, making together 504 morgens.
7 estates from 15 to 20 morgens 121 „
10 „ „ 10 to 15 „ 140 „
41 „ „ 5 to 10 „ 250 „
34 „ „ 3 to 5 „ 120 „
108 „ ,, 1 to 3 „ 180
163 „ under 1 „ 65 „
Inhabitants of other parishes 20 „
1400 morgens.
AGRICULTURE OK THE RHINE.
207
The Heidelberg morgen corresponds precisely with the
English acre.
With this dense population the small number of draught
cattle is strongly contrasted, and points to the hand-labour
employed in cultivating the soil. It is here calculated
that 21 acres require a pair of horses ; 14 to 17 acres
give work for 2 oxen ; and 7 to 10 acres to a pair of
milch cows. Dossenheim, with 300 families, has but
30 horses and 14 draught oxen ; the other lands were
ploughed with cows. IIandschuhsheim possessed 56
horses and 10 draught oxen on its 937 acres of land.
As a result of the study of the nature of the soil
combined with the influence of trade, a great deal of
land in the immediate neighbourhood of Heidelberg,
Mannheim, and Schwetzingen is under vegetables. On
the sandy heights between Schwetzingen and the Neckar
tobacco is largely grown, while ordinary green and grain
crops cover the land of better quality that surrounds the
town on all sides. A similar calculation might almost be
supposed to have dictated the size of farms, which are small
near the heights, where a rich soil is found, and the cultiva-
tion of small plots yields a subsistence; whereas they grow
larger in the plains that have a sandy soil, as well as at a
distance from the towns. Both this division of property
and the cultivation of market crops in great variety, in-
cluding madder, woad, and tobacco, existed here in
the beginning of the last century, in spite of the constant
wars with France and the notorious devastations which
accompanied them. History has preserved, as a contrast
to the generals who burnt the villages of the Palatinate,
the name of a peasant, David Mollinger, of Mausheim,
near Worms, as the man who first used liquid manure,
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