160
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
which are packed with the leaves in some dry place, and
in spring they are thrown to the cows and sheep (some
readers may remember Laban's adventure) ; but for
horses the leaves are stripped off the stalks, and are said
to be as nourishing as good hay.
With the exception of a little butter sent to the markets
of Neuwied and Coblenz, the peasants of this district
have nothing to sell off their lands but fruit. The market
crop of the larger farmers is rape-seed ; and a similar style
of farming prevails throughout the mountainous tract that
intervenes between Coblenz and Bingen.
On the right bank, the valley of the Lahn, narrow at its
mouth and shut in by rocky precipitous heights, presents
in the neighbourhood of Lahnstein, Ems, and Nassau, pic-
turesque sites that offer little that is interesting to the tra-
veller. Higher up the valley lie various ruins and country
seats, the estates surrounding which are good specimens
of careful German farming. Baron Stein of Altenstein
has long been a resident proprietor. CountWaltersdorf
of Moltke has a splendid scat in a commanding position,
overlooking the valley. The Archduke Stephen, son to the
Palatine of Hungary, has inherited from his mother large
estates, with the castle of Schaumburg, that are under
excellent management. The managers of estates of this
description are all scholars that have received a system-
atic education at one or other of the numerous agri-
cultural colleges that abound in Germany. They remain
in correspondence with these establishments, and con-
stantly communicate their practical experiments or ob-
servations to one or other of the popular agricultural
periodicals which these colleges publish. Any improve-
ment suggested is sure to meet with somebody willing to
AGKICUbTURE ON THE RHINE.
161
make a trial of it, and the knowledge and talent that now
finds a field in agricultural improvements is likely hereafter
to confer great benefit on the country. We say here-
after, as pointing ∙to two indispensable changes that must
precede an improvement in the prospects of the Rhenish,
agriculturist. The one, the abolition of those impediments
to exportation which still exist in France, the Low Coun-
tries, and England, and which has made some progress
since our volume went to press. The other, a change in
the industrial arrangements at home which will favour
the division of labour between agriculturists and manu-
facturers to the great advantage of each, may be slower in
progress. In England, where this division has long been
effected, the calculations of farmers turn chiefly on com-
binations resembling manufacturing operations. For the
Scotch farmer the land is a machine, and when its ma-
nagement is familiar to him he conducts the farming ope-
rations of 10,000 acres as easily as he does those of
1000. Sure markets, with high prices for corn and
cattle, allow him fearlessly to risk the chances which a
very bad climate for grain renders inevitable. In south-
ern Germany the climate is highly favourable for grain
crops, and large tracts of land in the valleys of the Rhine,
the Lahn, and the Maine, are highly fertile. The bounds
to speculation lie in the limited market, which at home is
confined by the number of agriculturists that stand in
each other’s way and prevent the increase of the con-
suming population. With every addition to the popula-
tion in England the profits of the farmers increase ; and
should the corn laws be continued the consumers would
eventually come into such dependence on the producers
that the latter would find little necessity for extraordinary