Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/469

Rh .Au‘P.ICULTURE.] ]"ore.sts.——Tl1e woodlands form about one-fourth of the entire soil, the proportion of forest being far greater than in any other state in the west or south of Europe; the percentage. for France is but 17, for Italy 1'3, for Great Britain about. 3. The state forests alone occupy 17,600 square miles; and the greatest attention is paid through- out. the empire to forest culture. Speaking generally, nortl1er11 is 110t nearly so well wooded as central and southern Germany, where indeed most of the smaller mountains are covered with timber, as is indicated by the frequent use of the termination wa/d affixed to the names of the mountain ranges (as Scliwarzwald, Thiiringer Wald, &c.). The “Seenplatten” are less wooded than the hill country, but the eastern portion of the northern lovlands is vell provided with timber. A narrow strip along tl1e shores of the Baltic is covered with oaks and beeches; further inland coniferous trees are the most prevalent, par- ticularly the Scotch ﬁr ; birches are also abundant. The mountain forests consist chieﬂy of ﬁrs, pines, and larches, but contain also silver ﬁrs, beeches, and oaks. Chestnuts appear on the terraces of the Rhine valley, and in Swabia and Franconia. The whole north-west of Germany is destitute of wood, but to compensate for this the people have ample supplies of fuel in the extensive stretches of turf. A;p-icultzwe.—The same kinds of cereal crops are culti- vated in all parts of the empire, but in the south and west. wheat is predominant, and i11 the north and east rye, oats, and barley. To these in some districts are added spelt, buckwheat, millet, rice-wheat (T rit-z'c2un dicoccmn), lesser spelt (Trilicmn monococcum), and maize. In general the soil remarkably well cultivated. The three years’ rotation formerly in use, where autumn and spring-sown grain and fallow succeeded each other, has now been abandoned, ex cept in so1ne districts, where the system has been modiﬁed and improved. In South Germany the so-called Fruc/zl- wec/asel is practised, the ﬁelds being sown with grain crops every second year, and with pease or beans, grasses, pota- toes, turnips, &c., in the intermediate years. In North Germany the mixed Koppelwiz‘t/Lsckrgft is extending, by which system, after several years of grain crops, the ground is for two or three seasons in pasture. N 0 general statistics on the subject of crops have as yet been published, but, according to private estimates, a fair average season will yield 32:3 million quarters of rye,1 oats 300, wheat. and spelt 170, barley 100. In goo:l seasons the production has been found sufficient to meet the native demand. Formerly the exports of the produce of the wheat and pulse crops exceeded the imports, but the importation of cereals has now for a number of years been constantly increasing. The potato is largely cultivated, not merely for food, but for distillation into spirits. This manufacture is prosecuted especially in eastern Germany. The Prussian provinces east of the Elbe, including Mecklenburg and Saxony, with a popula- tion of about 19 millions, produced 72- million gallons‘-’ of spirits in 1876, while the rest of Germany (population 24 millions) produced only 25 million gallons. The common I I Year9— : Iiuc_,:;,l$?__t(1‘('°11‘ Sugar produced. 1846-47 107 I 5,600.000 331,000 1856-57 Q33 27 500000 ' 1 SO( 0 1866-67 296 5017002000 319001303 187-3-75 333 55,100,000 1 5,100,000 1855-76 332 83,200,000 . 7,100,000 1816-1! 328 71,000,000, 5,800,000 beet (Beta -i'u/garis) is largely grown in some districts for the production of sugar, which has greatly increased during 1 1 quarter=2'90781 hectolitres ; 7 1 gallon=0'2'2 litre. 1 hectolitre = 0 ‘S4388 quarter. GERMANY 451 the last thirty years. There are two centres of the beet- root sugar production: 231 factories, or more than two- thirds of the whole, are in Prussian Saxony, Hanover, Brunswick, Anhalt, and Thuringia, and there are 71 in Silesia, Brandenburg, a11d Pomerania, the principal centre of the latter group being Frankfort-on—the—0der. Flax and hemp are cultivated, though not so much as formerly, for manufacture into linen and canvas, and also for the production of oil. The home supply no longer sufﬁces for the native demand. The cultivation of hops is in a very thriving condition in the southern states of Germany. The soil occupied by hops was estimated in 1873 at 93,680 acres,3—a larger area than in any other country of the globe (Great Britain having about 70,000 acres). The total production of hops is 477,000 cvts., and of this 402,000 cwts. are grown in Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, Baden, and Alsace-Lorraine. Hops thus form one of the standard articles of exportation from Germany, as well as beer. The following table shows the number of breweries in diﬂerent parts of the country, and the amount of their production :— States. ( Breweries. | Total. Per Hea(l.l Gallons. Gallons. No1'tl1c1‘11 Germany .......... .. 12,186 448,000,000 14 Bavaria, not including 6 -33 26 , Palatinate ............. ... ’ I l‘ ' 9’000’000 ‘)9 Palatinate (estimated) ...... .. . 13,000,000 I 20 V1irtemberg ................... .. 7, 7 7 7 85, 300, 000 46 Baden (estimated)  1,500 24,200,000 18 Alsace -Lorraine .............. .. ‘.241 1 7, 600,000 1 1 Total, about ....... ..( 23,500 } 857,100,000 20 Tobacco forms the most productive and most proﬁtable object of culture in many districts. The total extent under this crop in 1876 was 53,720 acres, no less than 32 per cent. of this being in Baden, 22 in Bavaria, 16 in Alsace-Lorraine, and only 30 per cent. in the rest of Germany. In the north the plant. is cultivated principally in Pomerania, Brandenburg, and East and Vest Prussia. Of late years the production has on the whole diminished, the average amount having been 800,000 cwts. from 1872 to 1876. The culture of the vine is almost conﬁned to southern and western Germany, and especially to the Rhine district. The northern limits of its growth extend from Bonn in a north- easterly direction through Cassel to the southern foot of the Harz, crossing 52° N. lat. on the Elbe, running then east some miles to the north of that parallel, and ﬁnally turning sharply towards the south—west on the Warthe. In the valley of the Saale and Elbe (near Dresden), and in Lower Silesia (between Guben and Griinberg), the number of vine- yards is small, and the wines of inferior quality; but along the Rhine from Basel to Coblentz,in Alsace, Baden,tl1e Pala- tinate, and Hesse, and above all in the province of Nassau, the lower slopes of the hills are literally covered with vines. Here are produced the celebrated Rudesheimer, Hochheimer, and J ohannisberger. The vines of the lower Main, particu- larly those of Wiirzburg, are the best kinds ; those of the upper Main and the valley of the Neckar are rather inferior. The Moselle wines are lighter and more acid than those of the Rhine. The total amount produced in Germany is estimated at 1000 million gallons,——Alsace-Lorraine turning out 400 millions, Baden 175, Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, and Hesse together 300, while the remainder, which though small in quantity is in quality the best, is produced by Prussia. Live ;S'loclc.—The cultivation of grazing la11ds in Germany has been greatly improved in recent. times, and is 1n_a highly prosperous condition. The provinces of Pomerania 3 1 3Cl'C'= 0 '-l0467 hectare ; 1 l1ccta1‘e=2'47l14-12 acrcs.
 * Cwts. ‘ Cwts