140
Agricvltuke on the Rhine.
be accomplished is that the flow of the water shall every-
where be perceptible, and that none remains stagnant in
any part. In the beginning of winter, when the frost sets
in, the water is kept off the land. If the weather is open
and rain falls, the water may be turned on again.
Spring is the season that demands the farmer’s care. In
mild rainy weather the irrigation may be continued ; but
after floods, as in the autumn, the water must be allowed
to settle. When the sun grows powerful the irrigation
must cease altogether. In March and April a little
moistening is allowable ; but in these and the following
months the water may only be spread during the night.
In the middle of June occasional night-watering does
good, but none is let on for four weeks previous to the
hay harvest.
The practice of cutting late in order that the grass may
sow itself is common in the district of Siegen, and differs
very much from the Italian plan, according to which the
grass is cut when it attains its full length without its be-
ing allowed to ripen. The colour of the hay at Siegen
is not good, and it is not greedily eaten by horses. The
ripening of the seed must also exhaust the land.
As the water-meadows are not manured, all the dung
of the stables is appropriated to the arable and garden
land, which is usually small in extent ; but of a cold
meagre nature, and Veryunproductive. The fields Iieon
slopes sufficiently level to retain the soil in heavy rains,
but too high to be watered. The decomposed clay slate,
of which the hills are mostly composed and which forms
the upper soil, is void of all mixture of limestone, and
none is to be had at any Convenientdistance for manuring.
Crops are consequently poor, and corn has to be pur-
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
141
chased to eke out the year’s consumption. The humid cli-
mate and severe winters operating on so weak a soil,
make it necessary to cover the winter seed with dung in
order to quicken and protect it. But the only dung in
this district is that of oxen, or at best horse-dung mixed
with that of horned cattle, and there is little warmth in
it to impart to the soil.
The general use of oxen or of cows for draught cattle
upon the banks of the Rhine is recommended, as we have
seen, by the necessity for dung not likely to overheat the
ground under a scorching summer sun. In these colder
parts the ox is still an indispensable inmate of the stable,
but for another reason.
Mining and forest work are fully as much the business
of the peasants as agriculture in the level land. They are,
however, carried on upon the hills, which are on all sides
pierced by countless mines. Many of these lie on heights
of considerable elevation, or in back valleys from the Sieg,
the access to which is steep and difficult. As the ascent
is commonly effected with an empty car on two wheels,
the draught is not oppressive for oxen. To descend the
worn-out roads tow,ards the villages or the high road is
not so easy a task, and here the ox is invaluable as a ser-
vant. They may be seen guiding with their foreheads
under their yokes, the weight of ore intrusted to them,
and while the deep ruts in the road act as a drag to the
car, the animal’s own weight adds resistance to its pres-
sure ; and loads varying from 12 cwt. to 20 cwt. are thus
securely brought dow,n with a speed, not equal to horse
draught on roads well laid down, but which is all that can
be accomplished with the present ones.