218
AGRICULTURE OK THE RHINE.
Supposing the outlay for a threshing-machine, of 4-horse
power, to be 101., it is reimbursed in one year in a
farm producing 40,000 sheaves. A farm producing only
5000 sheaves would not admit of sufficient saving to pay
the interest on the investment.
Flax-mills are unknown in Germany for a similar reason.
Every peasant grows a small portion of flax, which he can
heckle himself, or his servants can do it, in winter, when
also it is spun by the females of the family. The saving that
might be effected by the agency of machinery would, in
a country where the cultivation and treatment of flax are
so well understood, be an object of first-rate magnitude,
if the division of labour that must follow on the introduc-
tion of machines were not prevented by the feeling of
insecurity that has so long induced the people to regard
land as the only secure investment of their savings. A
machine, of simple construction, and demanding little
outlay, has been invented by M. Kuthe, of Lippe
Detmold. Its utility in heckling and scutching flax has
been carefully tested, and may be estimated from the
accompanying table.
The improved instrument affords a gain of 50 per cent.,
which, as in the case of the threshing-machine, is of no im-
portance on a single morgen, and would not even be realized
on so small a scale ; but on 500 morgens the saving amounts
to no less a sum than 1000Z. This mode of arguing,
according to which the cultivation of crops that can be
aided by machinery ought to be carried on upon a certain
scale to admit of a large return, is not common in Ger-
many. The only mode of securing an independent
position to the mass of the people, is there supposed to
lie in the subdivision of the soil. To far-sighted
observers this subdivision is already carried on the Rhine
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
219
I-Xperiments made in dressing the flax of one
MORGEN.
|
Common Land |
Flemish Brake. |
Kutlie’s Brake | |||||||||
|
Steeped in |
Water. |
Dew. ..... |
Water. |
Dew. |
Water. |
Dew. | |||||
|
Scutclied . IJeckled . |
Flax |
Го* 140 132 |
Flax |
Γow∣ |
Flax |
Tow Flax 132 149 |
Tow |
Flax Tow1 Flax T 320 12 298 1631 154 154' _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I______________________________________________________________ |
ɔw | ||
|
Dressed lbs. |
148 |
272 |
140 |
286l |
157 |
212 |
119 |
215 |
163∣ 226 |
154∣ 183 | |
|
£ |
. d. |
£ |
. d. |
£ s. d. |
£ |
. d. |
£ s. d, |
£ s. |
d. | ||
|
Market 7 Value . 5 Cost of 7 Dressing ʃ |
7 10 0 1 15 4 |
7 1 1 |
4 6 1 7 |
9 2 |
2 2 i 7 10 I |
8 1 2 |
4 9 8 |
10 9 4 2 7 10 |
9 16 2 4 |
1 8 | |
|
Profit. . . |
5 14 8 |
5 1 |
2 11 |
6 14 4 ' |
6 |
7 8 |
8 1 6 |
7 11 |
5 | ||
as far as it is practicable, and some have suggested that it
should be authoritatively, limited. But even these have
brought forward no resource for those who, by such a
measure, are deprived of their share of the land. It has
not been pointed out that the land is only one part of the
capital of a nation, and that as much folly lies in devoting
all energies to its cultivation as would be shown by at-
tempting to carry on trade or manufactures in a large
state to the exclusion of agriculture.
The notion that the capitalist puts the whole profit on
a large estate into his pocket without sharing it with his
neighbours, is at the bottom of this wish to encourage
small properties in land and small manufacturing esta-
blishments. Those who advocate this system point to
large estates where a number of labourers are poorly fed
and live in dependence, while the owners live in power