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AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
The trade in fruit is described as taking place in the fol-
lowing manner:—The boatmen from the Rhine come
some time previously to the village to treat for the fruit.
When the period agreed upon arrives, the bell of the
village gives the signal, and every villager, whether rich
or poor, begins to strip the cherry-trees, and carry the
filled baskets down to the river’s side. One of the vil-
lage headboroughs stands at the ship’s side and weighs
the fruit delivered. To him the money is paid by the
boatmen, and he divides it on the following Sunday, after
Vespers, amongst the peasants.
Walnuts are a favourite crop in the hilly parts, but not
in the valleys, as it is said that the leaves damage the
ground where they fall. The nuts yield delicious oil,
and to obtain this they are chiefly pressed. Apples and
pears are cut into pieces and strung on packthread.
They are then hung up to dry, and serve as vegetables
to eat ¾ ith roast meat or with pancakes through the
winter. Sometimes they are boiled up with plums and
beet-root, the latter addition being intended in lieu of
sugar. The fruit of the Eifel is good, but the really de-
licious fruit on the Rhine begins with the Moselle or
with the fall of the Eifeltowards that river. From Cob-
lenz onwards the apples and pears attain a ripeness that
makes them not only a pleasing but a nourishing article
of food, and we have often thought of the difference be-
tween the apple-pies on the banks of the Thames, and
those which, when well imitated on the Rhine, require no
sugar to correct acidity in the fruit. Plums of a poor
flavour, but excellent bearers, are indigenous in Germany,
and form a part of the luxuries of every village from the
Baltic to the Alps. In the Rhenish districts they are
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
81
skinned and put with a little water into jars, which are
placed in the baking-ovens after the bread is taken out.
They there simmer to a pulp or syrup, which is spread,
instead of butter, on the bread. The consumption of this
simple preserve is so great, that a good or bad season for
plums materially affects the price of butter.
The inhabitants of RheiTish Prussia still speak with
gratitude of a French préfet in Napoleon’s time, who
actively promoted the introduction of good kinds of fruit,
and the establishment of village nursery-grounds. But
that the Germans did not require to be SchooImastered
on this score originally by the French, is shown by the
current statement that the village of Metternich lost
14,000 fruit-trees during the invasion of 1790.
In this part of his journey the traveller, indeed, loses
sight of the large calculations of capitalists, and of
the general economical plan that runs through the indus-
trious exertions of nations. He finds the local relations
of every village and townlet scattered along the pre-
cipitous banks of the Rhine influence him, and after a
time he begins to follow the inclinations and even to
account for many apparent prejudices on the part of the
inhabitants. In the great occupation of turning to
the best account the soil and climate given to them
by Providence, the peasant of the Rhine stands un-
tutored except by experience. And could the tourist
hear these men in their blouses and thick gaiters converse
on the subject, he would be surprised at the mass of
practical knowdedge they possess, and at the caution and
yet the keenness with which they study these advantages.
Of this all may rest assured, that from the commence-
ment of the offsets of the Eifel, where the village culti-