214
AGRICUbTUBE ON THE RHINE.
Tobacco is more extensively grown in the Palatinate,
on both banks of the Rhine, than in any part of Ger-
many. Here, as on the Lower Rhine, it is an expensive
crop, and remunerates less on the rich soils than on the
sandy grounds. M. Rau estimates the labour at 17⅜ florins,
or about 17. 10s. ; the dung at 10 florins, or 16s. 8r7. ;
and the plants at 21 florins, or 4s. 2t7., per morgen. The
yield is about 7 cwts. of leaves, which sell for 6 dollars
per cwt.,leaving a return of 42 dollars, or 77. 15s., for an
outlay of 30 florins, or 27.12s. The price is higher if the
fermenting process described at page 33 is undergone,
which is not always the case, as the leaves are marketable
after being merely dried.
As the land on which tobacco is grown in the Grand
Duchy of Baden pays no extra land-tax, its area is not
exactly ascertained. Official estimates state it to be
13,500 morgens of ∣∣ acre, the yield of which averages
110,000 cwts., being 8 cwts. per Prussian morgen, or
14 cwts. per acre.
The following is the Official Return of the area of
land under tobacco in the Zollverein :—
|
Morgens. |
Cwts. | |
|
Bavaria .... 19,455 |
Produce |
101,171 |
|
Saxony .... 186 |
?» |
1,116 |
|
Wirtemburg . . 10,000 |
99 |
60.000 |
|
Baden .... 13,447 |
99 |
110,000 |
|
ElectorateofHesse. 1,540 |
99 |
8,001 |
|
Grand Duchy ditto 2,268 |
13,608 | |
|
Thuringia . . . 1,082 |
99 |
4,513 |
|
Enclosures in Prussia 555 |
99 |
a a |
|
Kingdom of Prussia 37,809 |
99 |
242,985 |
------ 541,394 cwts.
86,342 Prussian morgens, or
53,900 acres.
The total average of the Zollverein is thus little more
Agkicultube on the khine.
215
than 10 cwts. per acre, according to the estimate of M.
Dieterici. In good years it is undoubtedly higher.
Of this quantity a large proportion is exported from
South Germany to Prussia and other northern states, on
which, although within the Zollvereirqadutyis levied
Oftwoshillingsper cwt., to meet the higher land-tax
levied on tobacco-lands in Prussia. In 1842 the import-
ation into the northern states amounted to 97,000 cwts.
on which 64,774 dollars were paid as duty.
Between Carlsruhe and Baden-Baden the traveller
passes one of the richest agricultural tracts of country in
Europe. The valley, or rather plain, that lies stretched at
the foot of the Black Forest chain, is well watered by the
streams that fall from this chain of hills, and its soil is an
alluvial deposit of a very fertile nature. Farms are some-
thing larger in this part of the Rhine than lower down
the river, and the marks of ease and even of wealth are
easily distinguished in the houses of the greater landed
proprietors, although their peasant-like appearance and
manner rather belong to a poorer class. Respecting the
management of the peasants’ estates little remains to be
added to what has been said. The crops grown here are
the same with those of the Palatinate ; poppies for oil,
rape, Swedish turnips, tobacco, cabbages, and carrots,
divide the fallow with the potato. The nature of the
soil is here also minutely studied. The village system,
however, is in full force in the whole of Baden, and it is
rare for a peasant proprietor to live upon his land. On
the other hand, there are many large estates in this
neighbourhood, belongingto the members of the reigning
family, and to some noble families, which are excellently
managed by men who have been brought up in some of