24
Ageiclltube on the bhine.
The commencement made by the French in improving
the roads wherever they came as conquerors, has been
followed up perseveringly by the Prussian government,
which has met with full support, often at fearful sacrifices,
on the part of the people. Not only good, but luxurious
roads now traverse these districts in all directions. A
still greater change was effected by the steam-navigation
as soon as the competition of the various companies re-
duced the freight to their present moderate rates. The
connection of the Belgian railroads with the Rhine by
the opening of the line from Cologne to Verviers had the
double effect of creating a new outlet for Rhenish produce,
and of stimulating both the Dutch and the Belgian govern-
ments to favour the transit trade to and from Germany by
a reduction of duties, and a diminution of the annoyances
that have long been considered inseparable from custom-
houses. By degrees a maritime traffic sprang up between
the agricultural provinces of Prussia on the Baltic and
the populous districts on the Rhine, which, although
advantageous to the consumers in the manufacturing
towns and villages, has materially altered the position of
the Rhenish farmer. His distillery has long left him but
a doubtful result, and the small stills will probably in a
few years be altogether given up, and distilling will
become a separate occupation, to be carried on by capi-
talists, who, on their part, will purchase the materials they
require of the farmer. That neither party is ultimately
likely to lose by this change of course our readers will
premise. That it is at present accompanied by the
usual lamentations of those who are obliged to suit their
farming operations to the new system is also natural.
The complainants, however, overlook the improved state
AGRICULTURE OR THE RHINE.
25
of their general market, which the new means of com-
munication have created, the influx of manufacturing
prosperity, and the increase of population, which never
fail to accompany good means of transport. From official
documents it appears that the consumption of meat in the
Prussian towns, where a slaughtering tax is levied, rose
from 78g lbs. per head of the population in the period
1827—1839, to 83f lbs. between 1840—1842. The
population of the fifteen towns of the Rhenish province
paying the slaughtering tax increased in the last-named
three years from 245,635 to 256,274, or 4⅜ per cent.,
although, from the low rates of English prices, the
Rhenish manufacturers were badly off in that inter-
val. The period is rapidly approaching when the German
farmer will no longer dread that any of the crops raised
in the proportions we have described, will, in good
years, be left as a drug upon his hands. Instead of
calculating upon his distillery to carry off the super-
abundant produce, he will be induced to study the effect
of improved utensils and of careful stock-husbandry to
supply the demand of his accumulating neighbours.
That he has a large field before him, and that the
resources of these fine countries are far from being
strained, our readers have already perceived. They
would unquestionably have long since furnished a large
supply for exportation, if the duties imposed by corn-
importing countries on foreign grain had not confined the
production of wheat on a large scale to more distant
lands with exuberantly rich soils. The Rhenish far-
mers, and especially the landowners, may however be
congratulated on the circumstance that no unnatural sys-
tem of cultivation has been fostered by partial legislation.