208
agricπltγre on the Rhine.
and this novelty was early adopted in the Palatinate, of
which the district we are now in formed a part. If the
traveller will stroll out to the villages of Handshuhsheim
and Weinheim, or along the river’s bank to Wiblingen,
he will find that green crops, as manures, are perfectly
well understood, and in constant practice amongst the in-
telligent peasantry. On entering the small inns of the
villages, he will be treated with very fair wine of the
growth of the adjacent hills, which, with little flavour, has
less acid than the Rhinegau wines. He will on this
excursion observe with pleasure an absence of total desti-
tution in any class of the inhabitants ; but that a large
portion of the population stands on the verge of great
poverty, while a still greater number is involved in pri-
vations inseparable from the increase of mouths without
a corresponding augmentation of the field of labour, will
not escape him. Agriculture alone cannot confer wealth ;
and if the agricultural population anywhere exceeds a
fair proportion of the whole, there will arise distress. In
another volume we shall inquire why it has been found
so difficult to introduce manufactures amongst these in-
telligent and industrious peasants. Here we shall only
remark, that, for want of other occupations, the wages of
labourers are exceedingly low, averaging from 10√. to Is.
per diem for men, and Id. to 8<Z. for women. If food be
given, 10 kreutzers, or 3⅜<Z., is all that is added in money.
On the larger farms 47. per annum is the pay of the
farm servants, whose board is valued at 57. From this
and the adjacent districts the greatest number of emi-
grants proceed annually to America. The pleasing part
of the prospect afforded by these villages, is the evident
economy and exertion on the part of individuals to build
Agkiculture on the Rhine.
209
or preserve houses of good size fortheir families, in which
sufficient and substantial furniture is also found. The
description of a village on the Lower Rhine will perhaps
in many details be recalled here to the memory, by the
extent and irregular plan of the farm-offices, the strag-
gling position of the houses, the neglected state of the
streets, roads, and other passages, with the never-failing
accompaniment of Countlessdunghills, which meet the gaze
in their unvarnished impurity here as there. The houses
are, however, usually larger than on the Lower Rhine,
and both soil and climate remunerate the cultivator’s toil
with a richer return. A few years back the estimate of
the rental of the families of IIandschuhsheim, according
to which they were taxed, averaged 180 florins, or 151.,
for each household, as revenue drawn from the land and
the occupations that it furnished. We have seen that in
this village 378 landowners possessed 1400 IIeidelberg
morgens ; the average was, therefore, to each nearly 4
morgens, or something less than four English acres. If
anybody should wonder, therefore, that a family can exist
without distress upon 16Z. per annum, they must find it
still more wonderful that where this is practicable any-
body can earn 41. per acre, and, still more, make this an
average return for 378 families in one village, even with
the assistance of the little trades and occupations which a
village commands. The agricultural system must be
worth studying that can boast such a result.
ɪn the instruments used the peasants of this neigh-
bourhood show their willingness to adopt improvements
where they are practically useful. Their own plough,
although in appearance much lighter than that we
have described as common on the Lower Rhine, is well