The southern parts of Bavaria, though very moun tainous, are by no means so unfit for agriculture as they have been generally represented. Amidst those rugged and stupendous mountains, which excite ideas only of grandeur and sterility, the eye is frequentlyre lieved by beautiful vallies, the soil of which is so rich as to repay, more than six-fold, even the awkward and unskilful culture of a Bavarian farmer. The tract of country which stretches from Munich along the banks of the Danube and the Inn, is the finest arable land in Bavaria ; and is beautifully diversified with hills, which are clothed to the summits with magnificent forests. The Upper Palatinate, with that part of the Duchy of Bavaria which lies on the farther side of the Danube, is a continued chain of mountains, which ascend gradually from the Danube to Mount Fichtelberg, and the mountains of Bohe mia ; yet these lands afford excellent pasturage, and are, in many places, susceptible of any kind of culture. Of this country, so highly favoured by nature, a great proportion is allowed to remain altogether un cultivated. There are vast tracts of. land which the indolent inhabitants condemn as marshes, but in many of which the traces of ancient furrows still remain to reproach their negligence and inactivity. There is another part of Bavaria covered with a fine forest ; while a third part, without any apparent necessity, is always left in fallow. Upon the whole, it is probable, that not more than one half of the country is under proper cultivation.
There is scarcely a place in Europe where agricul ture is in" such a backward state as in Bavaria, or where the natural advantages of the country are so little understood and improved. Schloetzer (in his Correspondence sur Agriculture de in Baviere) in forms us, that agriculture is so much neglected in Bavaria, that, except in good years, it does not pro duce enough of grain for the consumption of the in habitants. A country, placed under the same lati tude with Austria, might be expected to produce wine ; but Bavaria has none. Whatever wine is used there, is purchased from the neighbouring states; and the people, unlike the other southern nations of Ger many, make beer their principal beverage. Ano ther fact yet more astonishing, and which seems to indicate a very low degree of barbarism, is, that very few fruits are cultivated in this country. The neigh bourhood of Munich is almost the only place where an orchard is to be found ; and even there the supply of fruit is. altogether inadequate to the demand of the city. Thus while, throughout the whole of Ger many even to the Baltic and the German Ocean, there is not a village where every peasant has not a well stocked orchard,—in the south of Germany, where that species of culture would be much easier and more productive, a large country is found where the art of gardening is almost unknown. Even the rearing of vegetables is neglected : white coleworts, of which they make sour crout and salad, is the only vegetable with which the Bavarian peasantry are acquainted ; and although they brew an immense quantity of beer, they are obliged to import hops from other coun tries. In a word, they are unacquainted with every kind of industry, except that rude agriculture which has been transmitted to them from their ancestors.
The wretched state of agriculture in this country . is, in a great measure, to be ascribed to the ignorance of the secular and ecclesiastical proprietors; and to the foolish administration of the officers of government. Nothing can be conceived more unfavourable to im provement than the manner in which the lands of Bava ia are farmed. The farmers are divided into four classes —The first class, who are called farmers by way of emi nence, must have at least 8 work horses, and are sur named einsicdler, or hernias, because their farms are always at some distance from any town or village. Many of these farmers have an extent of about 3 miles square, and employ from 12 to 15 plough horses : of this class there arc about 10,000 ; the second class, cal led half farmers, consists of those who have only four horses ; the third, called quarter farmers, of those who have only two ; and the fourth class, called haussier, are merely day labourers, who work for the other classes, and have no horses of their own. The disihrity in the condition of these 'different classes is attended with this deplorable evil, that it often gives to the rich farmer an opportunity of op pressing and ruining his poorer, though equally in- ' dustrious, neighbour. The husbandman who has no capital, depends on his annual harvests for the supply of his immediate necessities. He is of course obliged to carry his own grain to the readiest market, and to sell it at the lowest price. The opulent farmer, on the contrary, can keep his barns filled, till an oppor tunity occur of selling dear ; lie keeps up the corn, which the less wealthy agriculturist is unable to re tain, and often advances to him the whole value of his ensuing .harvest. One unfavourable year involves the poor man in difficulties, and throws him entirely dependant on his rich competitor, who seizes with out compassion on Iris property, and thus acquires new opportunities of enriching himself, and of height ening, by a dangerous monopoly, the price of provi sions to the public.
This evil is still greatly increased by the injudi cious mode of taxation which is followed in Bavaria. No exemption is made in favour of the poorer classes of labourers, who are taxed, as far as their slender means extend, at the very same rate as the wealthiest' of their countrymen. The veneration paid to the monks, and the prodigious number of convents esta blished in this ill-•egulated country, is another cir cumstance which tends greatly to retard tire progress of agricultural improvement. An income exceeding one-third of the revenue of government is engrossed by these ecclesiastics, with a complete immunity from all taxation. They do more serious injury to the community, however, by persuading the richer farm ers to send their sons into convents, with each of whom they receive a sum of 3000 or 4000 florins. The country, thus deprived of those who would be best able to improve it, remains only half cultivated ; while the children of the other farmers, by being likewise educated in convents, are rendered totally unfit for any serious profession, or regular indus try.