28
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
capital, which, when added to the linen in the housewife’s
clothes-press, is often worth a large sum, forms a stock
as intangible amongst the middle classes and peasantry in
Germany as the jewels of noble families. The division
of the treasure amongst heirs male and female occasions
no less anxiety and bickering than that of the rosettes,
necklaces, and bracelets of people of fashion. The yard
of this establishment is equally spacious with that before
described. The offices run in a long line parallel to the
house, which looks into a thriving orchard. The kitchen
and flower gardens close the yard, being interposed at
the end opposite to the entrance between the offices and
the house. Between groups of trees on each side, the
compost-heaps indicate the foresight and skill of the
master. There is more planting on this estate than is
common in the uplands, the small value of the heath
originally having induced the purchaser to plant exten-
sively. The houses of Pfalzdorf are neat cottages on a
large scale, mostly built in wooden framework filled
in with bricks, or with strong wicker-work plastered on
the outside and inside, eight inches thick, which makes a
warm and durable wall. They all stand in a line facing
the road, with small gardens in front, and the land be-
longing to it at the back of each cottage. The holdings
are from fifteen to twenty acres, and are well tilled, al-
though the occupiers have other sources of industry, such
as carriers’ work, flax, and sometimes, in spite of the
Jews, who monopolize this branch of trade, cattle-deal-
ing. A proof of their skill as farmers is afforded by
their flax, which is the principal market-crop at Pfalz-
dorf, and which is there raised upon the lightest con-
ceivable sandy soil.
AGKICULTÜKE ON THE RHINE.
29
Flax is sown here after clover, carrots, oats, and buck-
wheat. “ At Neukirchen, near Geldern,” says Schwertz,
“ the rotation—barley, clover, flax, wheat, is held to be
good. Flax must not come on the same land more than
once in six years. The clover-stubbles after seeding are
ploughed deeply before the winter, and ten one-horse
carts of dung are laid upon an acre of land and re-
main there. In spring the straw is harrowed off, the
ground once more harrowed, sown, harrowed again, and
rolled. About five bushels of seed are sown per acre ;
Riga seed is found to last good longest, but the seed
from the Palatinate, which must be brought fresh for each
sowing, gives the best flax.” It has been observed that
when the dung has been allowed to lie on the land
through the winter, the flax yields most, but the rye
after it requires manure. Where the dung is ploughed
in before winter, the flax is less luxuriant, but the land
remains after it in better heart. The flax is steeped for
some time in water, and then is spread out on clover-land
for six or eight weeks to finish the rotting of the husk.
It is broken and hackled by hand in the Belgian manner,
and is said to yield 8 cwt. of fine flax per acre (16 cwt.
per Dutch morgen). From 8 cwt. of dried flax, about
2 cwt. is obtained by the Belgian dressers, and this pro-
portion we have adopted in our calculation given above.
A few miles to the north of Pfalzdorf, the cross road
drops into the lowlands, which is raised but little above
the valley of the Rhine, and there the more luxuriant
vegetation indicates a change both of soil and climate.
In these lowlands, which extend from near the
frontier of Holland up the Rhine for thirty miles
along the river’s bank, the farms are large and the land