130
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
tory rights and obligations than such a valley contains.
A similar spirit of association on the one side, combined
with tenacious adherence to private property on the
other, which the “ Hauberg ” showed us, is presented in
these water-meadows. A similar want of economy in
labour may also be traced in their management ; but as
the return from the meadow is a better one, the loss is
not of much consequence.
The meadow regulations, whose origin is lost in the
obscurity of time, are stringent as far as they go, al-
though doubtful in their nature, that is to say, partaking
of both a judicial and voluntary character. Every pa-
rish orcommune, called in German “ Gemeinde,” has its
meadow-overseer ! like its wood-ranger ; both being pea-
sants chosen by their fellow villagers for their experience
and tact in these various occupations, and receiving a mo-
derate salary for their trouble. Their duty is to see that
every one performs his due share of the common obliga-
tion, and that the water-rights are not infringed by the
rival interests of the hammers and mills that are driven
by the same streams. In the autumn, generally in No-
vember, the canals are laid dry to be cleaned out. Every
proprietor must clean the portion passing through or skirt-
ing his meadow, and dispose of the refuse extracted as
well as he can. If he neglects to perform his part he is
subject to a fine, which is levied daily until the work is
done. The whole valley may then be seen filled with
small mounds of clay, running in straight lines in every
direction. A few days afterwards these disappear, being
carried in different directions to improve the level or to
regulate the slope of the surface. This is the period
when changes are made in the watering and in the drain-
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
131
ing canals, and an amateur seldom lets the year go round
without making some such change as the result of ob-
servation or of restless fancy.
Whoever has watched this annually repeated cultiva-
tion, and followed the care with which the owners study
their little properties to find out the nature of the soil,
and choose the disposition best suited to the position
with regard to the sun and the wind, will be convinced
that a perfect system of water-meadowing must be a
work of time and of great care and observation. He
will, however, be persuaded, by observing the value of
the crops obtained without the aid of manure from a
large extent of poor land under a severe climate, that no
time should be lost in adopting this mode of treating
meadows wherever circumstances make it practicable.
The Duke of Portland and the Duke of Marlborough
have, wre believe, recently adopted irrigation on a
large scale in England, where at least as much land may
easily be watered as has of late years been drained, and
Unquestionablywithano less profitable result. Although
the manure obtained from towns is of the greatest value
in increasing the yield of meadows, yet it is import-
ant to make the fact known, that simple water, unac-
companied by the wash of floods, or by any extraneous
matter, promotes the growth of grass on meadows in
a remarkable manner. The meadows of Siegen allow
the peasants to give all their dung to the arable land,
which, in its cold bleak situation on the sides of the hills,
would, on other terms, not be worth cultivating. The
whole agricultural plan of this district thus combines
w,hatever can be of use to a half-manufacturing popula-
tion, by demanding little labour and producing chiefly