88
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
with the “ knecht,” or servant, and with the “ magd, ”
or servant girl.
We are here far from wishing to represent the “ dorl ”
as a pattern of rustic institutions, but we would recom-
mend the study of these village corporations to inquiring
travellers, as containing many elements of good, and, above
all, as fostering independence of feeling and openness of
character, both invaluable qualities in a people.
The village or common property comprises woodland
as well as grazing-land, and, as has been said, frequently
includes watercourses, public places and buildings, as well
as money invested in the public funds. The revenue de-
rived from all these sourcesis applied, as far as it goes, in
alleviation of parochial and county taxation. From this
fund the few poor persons that become chargeable are
supported. We have been told of parishes where the
members of the village corporation receive a dividend out
of the common property. To obtain admittance to the
rights of a villager a stranger must pay a certain sum,
which is large or small according to the wealth of the
corporation. He then enjoys the grazing and fuel rights,
and the modification in taxation which the annual revenue
procures. In the Rhenish districts the fee on admittance
is high when compared with Central Germany. It is,
we believe, highest in Rhenish Bavaria, where, in some
villages, it amounts to 1500 florins, or 120/.
The various official personages of the village, such as
the field-police, the cow, swine, and goose herd, the
schoolmaster, the headborough and his officer or bailiff,
receive their salaries from this fund, out of which, too,
all public expenses, where it suffices, are defrayed. The
church has generally its own foundation.
AGRICULTURE OX THE RHINE.
8д?
We cannot omit a very important service rendered by-
the government in the appointment of district physicians,
who are bound to go wherever they may be required, and
to report on the general state of the public health. The
poorest person can demand their assistance without fee-
ing them, but the richer peasants never fail to give some
compensation. This excellent institution is completed
by the appointment of official druggists in all district
capitals, who are bound to keep only the best drugs, and
to sell them at a fixed tariff. In no country is medical
relief less expensive and more easily accessible than in.
Germany.
We propose treating in separate chapters the special
interference assumed by the state in one of the most
important branches of village economy—the management
of the forests. The taxes that are raised directly from
agriculture we also propose to explain and illustrate in a
special chapter. But some of these village arrangements,
although savouring of antiquity, are calculated to rouse
the inquiry whether the spirit which called them into-
existence, and the calculation upon which they are
founded, might not be acted upon still to the great ad-
vantage of society.
In the first place, to the mill of the lord of the manor,
to which the peasants, while serfs, were bound to bring
their grain to be ground, a village mill has succeeded,
occasionally forming part of the corporation property,
sometimes owned by shareholders who have purchased the
mill of some once privileged owner. As it is still usuak
all over Germany for peasants to grind their own corn,
there may be seen a table in all these mills in which the
miller's fee, usually a portion of the meal, is expressed fc