82
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
vation assumes an individual and strictly local character,
good reason can be given for the manner in which every
inch of land is laid out, as for every halm, root, or tree
that covers it.
Before reaching Coblenz, the fields are covered with
fruit-trees, planted in rows like the mulberry-trees in the
north of Italy. These plantations are spread as far as
Mayence, that is to say, as far as the fields lie at a cer-
tain elevation above the river, and which in dry seasons
are benefited by the shade of the trees. Many belong
not to individuals, but to the parish. These are usually
contracted for annually by dealers, or speculative pea-
sants, who make their beds in a temporary straw hut under
the trees, if the number makes it worth their while, to
guard against depredators.
We are sorry not to be able to confirm the good
opinion that has sometimes been expressed by tourists,
who are not in the secret, of the good behaviour of little
boys and girls, and of travellers of all kinds, in Germany.
In fact, fruit is everywhere a tempting thing, and the
Ilhenish villagers repose no more faith in the abstinence
of their neighbours than experience justifies. The field-
police is both well organized and strictly exercised, and
yet the complaints of depredations increase from year to
year. At the period of the ripening of the fruit extra
watchmen are appointed, and the owners take this
burthen often on themselves, when they are allowed to
arm themselves with an old fowling-piece loaded w ith
shot. It is to such precautions that the loaded state of
the trees is mainly to be ascribed, that has excited so
much w'onder. According to the village laws, moreover,
a delinquent caught in the act of field-stealing becomes
AGRICULTURE OX THE RHINE.
83
responsible for all the depredations that have been
committed in the same year previous to his apprehen-
sion. In default of any person thus detected and made
responsible, the party robbed can proceed against the
village for redress, on the ground of insufficient protec-
tion from the field-police. A curious attempt is some-
times made to identify stolen fruit or vegetables in the
public market-places of the large towns. The hubbub
occasioned by such a proceeding, and the indiscriminate
kind of evidence produced by the parties interested, our
readers will easily picture to themselves.
Chestnuts furnish the inhabitants of the Rhenish dis-
tricts throughout with an article of food. They are
either eaten plain after roasting, or are boiled with
various vegetables ; and are occasionally served as stuffing
with fowls. The largest plantation we have heard of
belongs to the town of Wiesbaden, and consists of several
thousand trees, which yield a considerable annual re-
venue. Along the Bergstrasse, between Darmstadt and
Heidelberg, as along the eastern fall of the Black Forcst,
and the offsets of the Vosges on the opposite side of the
Rhine, the chestnut is a favourite tree in the village fruit-
plantations.
In any of the sequestered villages along the romantic
part of the Rhine, which present little that is interesting
on the subject of corn-growing or dairy-farming, the
traveller will find a good opportunity of studying what
may be called the foundation of German nationality.
The feeling of nationality has its deepest roots in the
village economy, which we before described in general
terms. The villages hold the people together, and in
them the first attempts at association on a large scale