The name is absent

AGRICULTURE OR THE RHINE.

Wine Production in the Rhenish Province in the following-
Years.

The average of these 24 years is 359,058 cimers, or
5,385,000 imp. gallons as the production of 48,968
morgens, or 31,195 acres, being nearly 185 gallons per
acre. In the years quoted in the table, 2 were average
years, 12 were below, and 10 above the average. The
years 1821 and 1830 maybe considered as total failures ;
whereas 1826, 1828, 1834, and 1835 were extraordinarily
favourable seasons. The ground under wine-cultivation
in the Prussian part of the Rhine and Moselle valleys,
and the adjacent vales, was classified as follows for the
land-tax :—

In the first class were 9,021 morgens.

„   second class   „  12,199    „

„   third  class   „  14,598    „

„   fourth class   „  10,529    „

„    fifth   class   ,,   2,336    „

„   sixth  class   „    283    „

Little more than one-fifth of the whole was, therefore,
classed as first-rate soil. This arises from the circum-
stance that the climate not being very favourable in the
portion of the Middle Rhine that belongs tɔ Prussia, it

AGRICULTURE OX THE RHINE.

is only possible to grow vines upon the steep slopes of
the mountains. Even in the valley of the Moselle it is
scarcely possible to use the ground which presents the
depth of soil that the vine requires, without losing too
much in reflected heat. The traveller finds some vine-
yards on the alluvial offsets of the hills soon after leaving
Coblenz, on a gentle slope near the village of Winnin-
gen; but their produce, notwithstanding the good qua-
lity of the soil, is not to be compared to those on the
steep a little farther on, where the hill-side forms an
angle of 45°, and was only made accessible a few years
back by an extensive blasting-operation conducted by
the engineers of Coblenz. The vineyards of Piesport,
Brauneberg, and Zelting vary in the angle they present
to the surface of the river from 20° to 40^o. In so moun-
tainous a district any site less steep than these would
assuredly prove unfit for the vine.

Two peculiarities maybe observed in the vineyards of
the Moselle that distinguish them from those of Nassau
and Rhenish Hesse, but which we shall again meet with
in the Palatinate. The first is the apparent neglect with
which the growers seem to treat the preparation of the
soil for planting. The young vines are planted in trenches
with some dung, but with far less care than is observed
on the Rhine. The land is not allowed to lie unused
for years previous to the planting, nor is a layer of turf
deemed necessary to receive the roots of the young plants.
This is explained by the rapid decomposition of the soft
clay-slate of which the hills are composed, and which
keeps up a constant supply of fresh soil, that by turning
over is brought into contact with the plant. What this
regeneration of the soil imparts in the shape of nourish-

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