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the country without being a magistrate, or without holding some office, is looked on as degrading. Hodgson met with only three instances of nobles cultivating their own estates, and then they lived in towns. The farmers of these estates are bauers or peasants, who hold from ten to eighty acres each, at old fixed rents and services long since established, which the landlord has no power to alter. "It may be from this cause that so few nobles reside in the country. They have in truth no land, but what is occupied by other people. The use of these small portions of land on certain conditions, is the property of the occupier, which he can sell, as the stipulated rent and services are the property of the landlord. The bauer has a hereditary right to the use; the landlord a hereditary right to be paid for that use."

595. The land of religious corporations is let in the same manner as the crown lands. That of towns is generally divided into very small lots of twelve or ten acres, and let to the townsmen as gardens, or for growing potatoes and corn for their own consumption. Almost every family of the middling and poorer classes in towns, as well as in the country, has a small portion of land. Most of the towns and villages have large commons, and the inhabitants have certain rights of grazing cows, &c.

596. The occupiers of land may be divided into two classes, metayers and leibeigeners. The first occupy from eighty to twenty acres, and pay a fixed corn or money rent, which the landlord cannot alter; nor can he refuse to renew the lease, on the death of the occupier. The money rent paid by such farmers varies from seven to twelve shillings per acre. The term leibeigener signifies a slave, or a person who owns his own body and no more. He also holds his land on fixed terms independently of the will of his lord. His conditions are a certain number of days' labour at the different seasons of sowing, reaping, &c., bringing home his lord's fuel, supplying coach or cart horses when wanted, and various other feudal services. The stock of the leibeigener is generally the property of the landlord, who is obliged to make good all accidents or deaths in cattle, and to supply the family with food when the crops fail. This wretched tenure the governments of Hanover, Prussia, and Bavaria are endeavouring to mitigate, or do away altogether; and so much has already been done that the condition of the peasants is said to be greatly superior to what it was a century back.

597. The free landed property of the kingdom of Hanover lies principally in Friesland and the marsh lands. There it is cultivated in large, middling, and small farms, as in England, and the agriculture is evidently superior to that of the other provinces.

598. The large farmers of Hanover have in general extensive rights of pasturage; keep large flocks of sheep, grow artificial grasses, turnips, and even fiorin; and have permanent pastures or meadows. Sometimes a brewery, distillery, or public house, is

united with the farm.

599. The farm of Coldingen, within eight miles of Hanover, was visited by Hodgson. It contained two thousand six hundred acres, with extensive rights of pasturage: it belonged to the crown, and was rented by an amptman or magistrate. The soil was a free brown loam, and partly in meadow, liable to be overflowed by a river. The rotation on one part of the arable lands was, 1. drilled green crop; 2. wheat or rye; 3. clover; 4. wheat or rye; 5. barley or peas; and 6. oats or rye. On another portion, fallow, rape, beans, the cabbage turnip or kohl-rabi, flax, and oats were introduced. Seven pair of horses and eight pair of oxen were kept as working cattle. No cattle were fattened; but a portion of the land was sublet for feeding cows

600. Of sheep there were two thousand two hundred, of a cross between the Rhenish or Saxon breed and the Merino. No attention was paid to the carcass, but only to the wool. The "shepherds were all dressed in long white linen coats, and white linen smallclothes, and wore large hats cocked up behind, and ornamented by a large steel buckle. They all looked respectable and clean. They were paid in proportion to the success of the flock, and had thus a considerable interest in watching over its improve. ment. They received a ninth of the profits, but also contributed on extraordinary occasions; such as buying oilcake for winter food, when it was necessary, and on buying new stock, a ninth of the expenses. The head shepherd had two ninths of the profits."

601. Of the workmen on this farm, some were paid in proportion to their labour. The threshers, for example, were paid with the sixteenth part of what they threshed. Other labourers were hired by the day, and they received about sevenpence. In harvest-time they may make eightpence. Some are paid by the piece, and then receive at the rate of two shillings for cutting and binding an acre of corn,

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602. The farming of the cultivators of free lands resembles that of England, and is best exemplified on the Elbe, in the neighbourhood of Hamburg. A distinguishing characteristic is, that the farm-houses are not collected in villages; but each is built on the ground its owner cultivates. This," Hodgson observes, "is a most reasonable plan, and marks a state of society which, in its early stages, was different from that of the rest of Germany, when all the vassals crowded round the castle of their lord. It is an emblem of security, and is of itself almost a proof of a different origin in the people, and of an origin the same as our own. So far as I am acquainted, this mode is followed only in Britain, and in Holland, on the sea-coast, from the Ems to the Elbe, to which Holstein may be added, and the vale of Arno in Italy. It is now followed in America; and we may judge that this reasonable practice is the result of men thinking for them

add that it is also followed in great part of the mountainous regions of Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. (See Clarke's Scandinavia and Bakewell's Tarentaise.)

603. Many proprietors of free lands near Hamburg also farm them. Speaking of these farmers, Hodgson observes, "compared with the other farmers of Germany, they live in affluence and splendour. They eat meat three or four times a day, and instead of being clad in coarse woollen, which has been made by their wives, they wear fine English clothes, and look like gentleman. Their sons go for soldier officers, and their daughters are said to study the Journal des Modes. The proprietors ride into town to take their coffee and play at billiards, and hear and tell the news, and at home they drink their wine out of cut glass, or tea out of china. Their houses are all surrounded by lofty trees and handsomely laid-out gardens; the floors are carpeted, and the windows of plate glass. The dwelling-apartments, the barns, and the places for the cattle, are all covered with one immense roof, and every house looks something like a palace surrounded with a little park. The proprietors direct the agriculture, without working a great deal themselves, and resemble much in their hearty manners English farmers.

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604. In Friesland they use a swing-plough, known in England as the Dutch plough, the mediate origin of the Rotherham plough, and remotely of Small's Scotch plough. Even the cottagers who rent free lands are totally different from the bauers. Their cottages are white-washed; and they have gardens neatly enclosed, planted with fruit trees, and carefully cultivated. Such is the influence of liberty and security.

605. The farming of the bauers, like that of the metayers, is prescribed by the lease, and consists of two crops of corn and a fallow. "Sometimes," Hodgson observes, "they may sow a little clover, lucerne, or spergel (spurry); but they seldom have meadows, and keep no more cattle than is necessary for their work, and those the common lands can feed sheep are only kept where there are extensive heaths; one or two long-legged swine are common; and poultry. The large farmers sometimes plough with two oxen; but the bauers, except in the sandy districts, invariably use horses. When they are very

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poor, and have no horses, they employ their cows. Two or more join their stock, and, with a team of four cows, they plough very well. Sometimes they work their land with the spade. The houses of the bauers in Hanover, as in most parts of Germany, are built of whatever materials are most readily come at, put together in the coarsest manner. They are seldom either painted or white-washed, and are unaccompanied by either yards, rails, gates, gardens, or other enclosures. They seem to be so much employed in providing the mere necessaries of life, that they have no time to attend to its luxuries. A savage curiously carves the head of his war spear, or the handle of his hatchet, or he cuts his own face and head into pretty devices; but no German bauer ever paints his carts or his ploughs, or ornaments his agricultural implements." (Vol. i. 246.)

606. To improve the agriculture of Hanover, Hodgson justly observes, "the simplest and most effectual way would be for government to sell all the domains by auction in good-sized farms, as the Prussian government has done in its newly acquired dominions." This would end in introducing the Northumberland husbandry, to which, according both to Jacobs and Hodgson, the soil and climate are well adapted, and double the present produce would be produced. To these improvements we may suggest another, that of limiting the rank of noble to the eldest son, so that the rest might without disgrace engage in agriculture or commerce. This last improvement is equally wanted for the whole of Germany.

SUBSECT. 5. Of the present State of Agriculture in Saxony.

607. The husbandry and state of landed property in Saxony have so much in common with that of Hanover and Prussia, that it will only be requisite to notice the few features in which they differ.

608. The culture of the vine and the silkworm are carried on in Saxony, and the latter to some extent. The vine is chiefly cultivated in the margravate, or county, of Theissen, and entirely in the French manner. (414.) The mulberry is more generally planted, and chiefly to separate properties or fields, or to fill up odd corners, or along roads, as in the southern provinces of Prussia and Hanover, and in France.

609. The wool of Saxony is reckoned the finest in Germany. There are three sorts, that from the native short-woolled Saxon sheep; that from the produce of a cross between this breed and the Merino; and that from the pure Merino. In 1819, Jacob inspected a flock of pure Merinos, which produced wool that he was told was surpassed by none in fineness, and the price it brought at market. It was the property of the lord of the soil, and managed by the amptman, or farmer of the manorial and other rights. Till the year 1813, it consisted of 1000 sheep; but so many were consumed in that year, first by the French, and next by the Swedes, that they have not been able to replace them further than to 650. The land over which they range is extensive and dry; not good enough to grow flax ; but a course of 1. fallow, 2. potatoes, 3. rye or barley, was followed,

and the straw of the rye and barley, with the potatoes, constituted the winter food of the sheep. (Travels, p. 265.)

610. The general rotation of crops in Saxony, according to Jacob, is two corn crops, and a fallow, or two corn crops and pease. There are some exceptions; and cabbages, turnips, and kohl-rabi are occasionally to be seen. The plough has two wheels, and is drawn by two oxen; " and sometimes, notwithstanding the Mosaic prohibition, with a horse and a cow." There are some fine meadows on the borders of the brooks near the villages; but they are in general much neglected, and for want of draining yield but coarse and rushy grass. The houses of the farmers are in villages, the largest for the amptman, and the next for the metayers and leibeigeners. "The whole tract of land, from Meissen to within two English miles of Leipsic, is a sandy loam, admirably calculated for our Norfolk four-course system, by which it would be enabled to maintain a great quantity of live-stock, and produce double or treble the quantity of corn it now yields. In the whole distance from Wurzen, about fifteen miles, I saw but three flocks of sheep; two were small, the other, which I examined, consisting of about one thousand ewes, wedders, and tags, belonged to a count, whose name I did not ascertain. As he is lord of a considerable tract of country, the flock has the range of many thousand acres in the summer, and in the winter is fed with chopped straw and potatoes. Upon our system, which might be advantageously introduced, the same quantity of land would maintain ten times as many sheep, and still produce much more corn than it does at present." (Ibid. 301.) 611. The cours near the villages, between Meissen and Leipsic, were numerous compared with the sheep, but generally looked poor. "As I saw," continues Jacob, "no hay or corn stacks in the whole distance, I had been puzzled to conceive in what manner their cows could be supported through the winter. Upon enquiring, I learnt a mode of keeping them, which was quite new to me, but which I cannot condemn. The land is favourable to the growth of cabbages, and abundant quantities are raised, and form a material article of human sustenance; the surplus, which this year is considerable, is made into sour-krout, with a less portion of salt than is applied when it is prepared as food for man. This is found to be very good for cows, and favourable to the increase of their milk, when no green food, nor any thing but straw can be obtained." (Travels, 303.)

612. The land within two miles of Leipsic is almost wholly in garden-culture, and is vastly productive of every kind of culinary vegetable. The fruit trees and orchards, notwithstanding many of them showed vestiges of the war, surprised Jacob by their abundance. The inhabitants subsist much less on animal food than we do, but a larger quantity of fruit and vegetables is consumed; and hence they have greater inducements to improve their quality, and to increase their quantity, than exist in those rural districts of Great Britain which are removed from the great towns.

613. Jacob's opinion of the agriculture of Saxony is, that it is equal to that of Prussia. In one respect he thinks it superior, as no portion of the soil is wholly without some cultivation; but that cultivation is far below what the land requires, and the produce much less than the inhabitants must need for their subsistence.

SUBSECT. 6. Of the present State of Agriculture in the Kingdom of Bavaria.

614. Bavaria, till lately, was one of the most backward countries of Germany, in regard to every kind of improvement. A bigoted and ignorant priesthood, not content with possessing a valuable portion of the lands of the country, had insisted on the expulsion of the Protestants, and on the strict observance of the endless holidays and absurd usages which impede the progress of industry among their followers. "Hence a general habit of indolence and miserable backwardness in all arts, and especially in agriculture; and in point of learning, a complete contrast to the north of Germany.' During the electorate of Bavaria, one of its electors, contemporary with Joseph II. of Austria, desirous of introducing improvements, abolished monastic orders in some parts of his dominions; but the people were not ripe for such a change, notwithstanding the existence of masonic societies, ignorantly supposed to have rendered them ripe for any sort of revolution. 615. The agricultural improvement of Bavaria commenced at the time of the French revolution, when the church lands were seized by the government, and sold to the people, and a system of schools was established in every canton or parish, for the education of the lower classes. Soon afterwards agriculture was taught in these schools by a catechism, in the same way as the Christian religion of Scotland is taught in the schools there. In consequence of this state of things the country is rapidly improving in every respect, and will soon be equal to any other in Germany. The names of Monteglas and Hazzi should not be passed over in this brief statement; nor that of Eichthal, who spent upwards of a year in Britain, and chiefly in Scotland, to study its agriculture, which he has introduced on his estate near Munich by a Scotch manager and a Scotch rent-paying farmer.

616. The surface of Bavaria is mountainous towards the south; the ground rising in the direction of the Alps, and containing a number of lakes and marshes. To the northward are extensive plains and also wooded mountains; round Nuremberg is a tract of warm sandy soil, and along the Danube are occasional plains of fertile alluvion, partly in meadow and partly under corn.

617. The crops cultivated are the usual corns, legumes, and roots; and the produce of corn and turnips, under proper culture, is equal to what it is in the north of England, or

to such an extent as to supply the greater part of Germany and a part of France, and they are even sent to Holland and England.

618. The forests of Bavaria are extensive; and, in consequence of a law of the state, all the public roads are bordered with rows of fruit trees, chiefly the cherry and the apple. These trees are raised in nurseries by the government, and sold at cost.

SUBSECT. 7. Of the present State of Agriculture in the Empire of Austria.

619. Agriculture is in a very backward state throughout the whole of the Austrian dominions. The soil, surface, and climate are almost every where favourable for husbandry; but the political circumstances of the country, and the ignorance of its inhabitants, which is greater than in most other parts of Germany, have kept it in nearly a fixed state for several centuries. Various attempts have been made during the eighteenth century to improve the condition of the peasantry, and simplify the laws relating to landed property, especially by Joseph II.; but they have produced no effect, chiefly, as it appears, because too much was attempted at once. There are agricultural societies at Vienna, Pesth, Prague, and other places; and a very complete agricultural school has been established at Keszthely in Hungary, by the patriotic Graf Festetits. A copious account of it has been given by Dr. Bright (Travels in Hungary, in 1814, 341. et seq.), by which it appears much more extensive than those of Hofwyl or Moegelin.

620. The landed property of Austria is under similar circumstances of division and occupation with that of the rest of Germany. Perhaps the number of large estates is greater in proportion to the small properties. In Hungary they are of immense extent, and cultivated almost entirely by their proprietors. "In considering a Hungarian property," Dr. Bright observes, "we must figure to ourselves a landed proprietor possessing ten, twenty, or forty estates, distributed in different parts of the kingdom, reckoning his acres by hundreds of thousands, and the peasants upon his estates by numbers almost as great; and remember that all this extent of land is cultivated, not by farmers, but by his own stewards and officers, who have not only to take care of the agricultural management of the land, but to direct, to a certain extent, the administration of justice amongst the people and we must further bear in mind, that perhaps one third of this extensive territory consists of the deepest forests, affording a retreat and shelter, not only to beasts of prey, but to many lawless and desperate characters, who often defy, for a great length of time, the vigilance of the police. We shall then have some faint conception of the situation and duties of a Hungarian magnate."

621. To conduct the business of such extensive domains, a system of officers is formed, which is governed by a court of directors; and on well regulated estates, this band of managers exhibit, in their operations, all the subordination of military, and the accuracy of mercantile, concerns. For this purpose an office is established at or near the estate on which the magnate resides, in which a court of directors is held at stated periods, usually once a week. This court consists of a president or plenipotentiary, a director or solicitor, a prefect, auditor, engineer or architect, a fiscal for law affairs, the keeper of the archives, besides a secretary, clerks, &c. Its business is to review all that has taken place on the different estates, whether of an economical or judicial nature, to examine accounts, and regulate future proceedings. The steward of each separate estate has also a weekly court. It consists of the fiscal or lawyer, the bailiff, the forest master, the engineer, the treasurer, foreman and sub-foreman, police officers to guard prisoners and keep them at work, forest-keeper, rangers, and a gaoler. The estates of Prince Esterhazy, which are the largest in Europe, of Graf Festetits, and Prince Ballhyani, are examples of this mode of government and culture; of which it may be observed, that, like many German plans, it is very accurate and systematic, but very unproductive of profit. 622. The crown has immense tracts of lands, especially in Gallicia; and, independently of these, the personal estates of the reigning family amount to upwards of 100,000%. sterling a year, all of which are farmed by stewards. In the Moravian, Bohemian, and Austrian districts, however, where the estates are not so large as in Hungary, and the people in rather better circumstances as to property and knowledge, they are frequently farmed on the meyer system.

623. The Austrian dominions, like the rest of Germany, are unenclosed, with the usual exceptions; the farm-houses and cottages are usually built of wood, and thickly covered with thatch or with shingles. The cottages are remarkably uniform in Hungary, and village scenery there, according to Dr. Bright, must be the dullest in Europe. Not less so

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are their cultivated plains. Speaking of a plain near Presburg, he says, "The peasants were employed in ploughing the land, and my driver (fig. 67.) cheered the way by a

Sclavonian song. But let no one be induced, by these expressions, to figure to his imagination a scene of rural delight. The plain is unenlivened by trees, unintersected by hedges, and thinly inhabited by human beings; a waste of arable land, badly cultivated, and yielding imperfect crops to proprietors, who are scarcely conscious of the extent of territory they possess. It is for some branch of the families of Esterhazy or Palfy, known to them only by name, that the Sclavonian peasants who inhabit these regions are employed. Their appearance bespeaks no fostering care from the superior, no independent respect, yielded with free satisfaction from the inferior. It is easy to perceive that all stimulus to invention, all incitement to extraordinary exertion, are wanting. No one peasant has proceeded in the arts of life and civilisation a step farther than his neighbour. When you have seen one, you have seen all. From the same little hat, covered with oil, falls the same matted long black hair, negligently plaited, or tied in knots; and over the same dirty jacket and trowsers is wrapped on each a cloak of coarse woollen cloth, or sheep-skin still retaining its wool. Whether it be winter or summer, week-day or sabbath, the Sclavonian of this district never lays aside his cloak, nor is seen but in heavy

boots.

624. Their instruments of agriculture (fig. 68.) are throughout the same; and in all their habitations is observed a perfect uniformity of design. A wide muddy road separates two rows of cottages, which constitute a village. From amongst them, there is no possibility of selecting the best or the worst; they are absolutely uniform. In some villages the cottages present their ends, in others their sides, to the road; but there is seldom this variety in the same village. The interior of the cottage is in

general divided into three small rooms on the ground floor, and a little space in the roof destined for lumber. The roof is commonly covered with a very thick thatch; the walls are whitewashed, and pierced towards the road by two small windows. The cottages are usually placed a few yards distant from each other. The intervening space, defended by a rail and gate, or a hedge of wicker-work towards the road, forms the farm-yard, which runs back some way, and contains a shed or outhouse for the cattle. Such is the outward appearance of the peasant and his habitation. The door opens in the side of the house into the middle room, or kitchen, in which is an oven, constructed of clay, well calculated for baking bread, and various implements for household purposes, which generally occupy this apartment fully. On each side of the room is a door, communicating on one hand with the family dormitory, in which are the two windows that look into the road. This chamber is usually small, but well arranged; the beds in good order, piled upon each other, to be spread out on the floor at night; and the walls covered with a multiplicity of pictures and images of our Saviour, together with dishes, plates, and vessels of coarse earthenware. The other door from the kitchen leads to the store-room, the repository of the greater part of the peasant's riches, consisting of bags of grain of various kinds, both for consumption and for seed, bladders of tallow, sausages, and other articles of provision, in quantities which it would astonish us to find in an English cottage. We must, however, keep in mind, that the harvest of the Hungarian peasant anticipates the income of the whole year; and, from the circumstances in which he is placed, he should rather be compared with our farmer than our labourer. The yards or folds between the houses are usually much neglected, and are the dirty receptacles of a thousand uncleanly objects. Light carts and ploughs (fig. 68.), with which the owner performs his stated labour, his meagre cattle, a loose rudely formed heap of hay, and half a dozen ragged children, stand there in mixed confusion; over which three or four noble dogs, of a peculiar breed, resembling in some degree the Newfoundland dog, keep faithful watch." (Trav. in Hung., 19.)

625. The agricultural produce of Austria is more varied than that of any other part of Germany. Excellent wheat is cultivated in Gallicia, where the soil is chiefly on limestone, and in the adjoining province of Buckowine; and, from both, immense quantities are sent down the Vistula to Dantzic. Wheat, rye, and all the other corns, are grown alike in every district, and the quantity might be greatly increased if there were a sufficient demand. Maize is cultivated in Hungary and Transylvania; millet in Hungary, Sclavonia, and Carinthia; and rice in the marshy districts of Temeswar. Tobacco is extensively cultivated in Hungary, and excellent hops are produced in Moravia and Bohemia. It is

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