S8 Agricllture ok the rhike.
Amongst the injunctions he receives upon assuming
office, the duty of encouraging improved processes of
agriculture is enforced, in which, however, his influence
goes no further than making trials of what is recommended
by ’authors or occasionally by the government. Thus
the schoolmasters in many parts have made trials in the
breeding of silk-worms, which the German governments
have very much recommended, and which has been
sufficiently shown to be practicable. It will be long
before a country struggling with the difficulty of raising
food will show a general disposition to produce an article
of luxury, like silk, on an extensive scale. In this as in
many other points experience is a more influential teacher
than the schoolmaster. Yet the time may come when his
task may be extended to the inculcation of simple and.
convincing views of industry, and of sounder and more
sociable doctrines than our narrow-minded' age has
hitherto professed. Then will it be evident how much
a nation gains by having a ready sower to distribute the
good seed, and by the previous pains taken to. prepare the
ground that is to receive it.
( 99 )
CHAPTER VI.
Ix the Ardennes, at both extremities of which chain
nature has deposited fossil coal in great abundance, our
attention is first invited to the forest cultivation of
Southern Germany. No better proof need be required of
the fund available for agriculture, on which the rising
population has yet to draw, than the extent of the forest
land in Germany, and the comparatively small remune-
ration which it yields to the owner. The rapid rise in
the value of fire-wood and timber within a quarter of a
century has attracted the attention of the government,
and scientific observations on the state and prospects of
the forests have been communicated from so many sides,
that we may be said to possess a clearer and more satis-
factory survey of the forest cultivation of Germany than
of the field tillage. As the methodical way of treating
forests that is practised in Germany will probably be a
novelty for many of our readers, we propose dwelling
upon the subject sufficiently to gratify their curiosity.
In a country where the winter is long and severe, the
thermometer averaging in January 30o Fahr, at Breslau,
and 360 at Coblenz, a supply of fuel at a moderate price
is as essential to the common welfare as the sufficient
supply of food. It was probably the desire of preserving
and methodically following the pleasures of the chace,
that originally occasioned in all German states the ap-
pointment of a numerous body of foresters, under some-