10
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
not of puny dimensions, because too small a farm would
not pay well : they are not large, because there is con-
siderable demand for dairy produce, rape-seed, flax,
tobacco, and other products that remunerate when cul-
tivated on a middling-sized farm. The farms average, for
peasants, 30 to 50 acres ; for landed proprietors (who are
not numerous of this class), from 200 to 400 Prussian mor-
gens, or 125 to 250 acres. A great deal of land in these
districts is rented out to farmers, whose houses are well
placed in the centre of the grounds belonging to them.
Some readers will be surprised to hear that these three
characteristic features of the highlands of Cleves are
rare exceptions in Germany. In the greater part, espe-
cially in all the populous districts of Southern Germany,
the land is tilled by its owners, scarcely any small hold-
ings being farmed out. The possessions of the peasant
owners and cultivators are usually very diminutive, and
those of the richer lords of the soil, especially in the
North, immensely extensive. Lastly, the peasant scarcely
anywhere lives upon his land, but in the adjacent vil-
lage, whatever may be its distance from his fields. Hence
the Duchy of Cleves has a pleasingly varied appearance
where there is wood enough. Wood is usually found in
sufficient quantities to supply the inhabitants with fuel,
although coals are extensively used. But the stately
forests of the midland and northern Prussian provinces
cannot be sought in a part of the country where, for the
reasons already assigned, the land has a high value. The
subdivision of property in this district is a natural result
of the gain derived from good cultivation and a judi-
cious selection of crops. The Code Napoleon, indeed,
prescribes the usual division of property amongst the
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
11
children of a family ; but the facilities for trade which
this district enjoys cause the junior members to prefer
leaving the land to a brother, who looks to forming,
while they seek their livelihood elsewhere. We thus
find that a law expressly intended to promote small
holdings has as little effect upon the size of farms as the
law of entail in England, which might be supposed to
favour large holdings. Where activity prevails and is
not restrained, the size of estates must be fixed by the
kind of cultivation that is found best to answer the far-
mer’s purpose. Were we to select a good model of the
style of farming that prevails in the Duchy of Cleves,
we should recommend the traveller to leave the city,
which preserves few traces of its former dignity beyond
its commanding site, and follow the high road leading
along the heights parallel with the Rhine to Goch, an
ancient and picturesque town twenty miles to the south of
Cleves. In a handsome house about half a mile distant
from the town resides Herr von Busch, a gentleman form-
ing his estate of about 200 acres in the fashion of the
best school of German agriculture. The house is in the
Italian style of architecture, larger than is usual amongst
country gentlemen in general, and in the rear, toge-
ther with the offices, is a very spacious form-yard. To
the offices of forms of this description there belongs a
distillery on a small scale, and occasionally, as at Goch,
a brewery. The low price of corn on the Continent
makes it worth the grower’s while to manufacture from it
some article that is more in demand than the grain.
Stabling for horses, cows, and oxen, here us&d for
draught, all airy and roomy, with barns that for the ex-
tent of the grounds would appear enormous to an English