ate of such backward
cultivation that it will seem incredible to future generations. Again, a
proper canalization would, by draining, reclaim for cultivation vast
swamps and marshes in North as well as South Germany. These waterways
could be furthermore utilized in raising fish; they could thus be vast
sources of food; in neighborhoods where there are no rivers, they would
furnish opportunity for commodious bath-houses.

Let a few examples illustrate the effectiveness of irrigation. In the
neighborhood of Weissensfels, 7 1/2 hectares of well-watered meadows
produced 480 cwt. of after-grass; 5 contiguous hectares of meadow land
of the same quality, but not watered, yielded only 32 cwt. The former
had, accordingly, a crop ten times as large as the latter. Near Reisa in
Saxony, the irrigation of 65 acres of meadow lands raised their revenue
from 5,850 marks to 11,100 marks. The expensive outlays paid. Besides
the Mark there are in Germany other vast tracts, whose soil, consisting
mainly of sand, yields but poor returns, even when the summer is wet.
Crossed and irrigated by canals, and their soil improved, these lands
would within a short time yield five and ten times as much. There are
examples in Spain of the yield of well-irrigated lands exceeding
thirty-seven fold that of others that are not irrigated. Let there but
be water, and increased volumes of food are conjured into existence.

Where are the private individuals, where the States, able to operate
upon the requisite scale? When, after long decades of bitter experience,
the State finally yields to the stormy demands of a population that has
suffered from all manner of calamities, and only after millions of
values have been destroyed, how slow, with what circumspection, how
cautious does it proceed! It is so easy to do too much, and the State
might by its precipitancy lose the means with which to build some new
barracks for the accommodation of a few regiments. Then also, if one is
helped "too much," others come along, and also want help. "Man, help
yourself and God will help you," thus runs the bourgeois creed. Each for
himself, none for all. And thus, hardly a year goes by without once,
twice and oftener more or less serious freshets from brooks, rivers or
streams occurring in several provinces and States: vast tracts of
fertile lands are then devastated by the violence of the floods, and
others are covered with sand, stone and all manner of debris; whole
orchard