IOO
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
thing- like a military rule, at the head of which stands the
grand huntsman (Oberjagermeister), usually a nobleman
of high connexions, but who has by no means a sinecure
in any part of Germany. The whole country is divided
into districts that usually correspond with the civil and
judicial divisions, and according to the extent of forest
land in each district is the number of foresters appointed
to inspect and watch over the district large or small.
Whatever be the size of the woods, every tree is known,
and destined either to long or short growth, according to
its promise of sturdy vitality, or its liability to decay.
Although the more responsible duties of the forester now-
a-days relate to the number and condition of the trees in
his woods, yet the sporting department is kept up with
the old routine, although it may have lost some of its
chivalrous character. The wild boar is now seldom met
with in German forests, excepting where walled enclosures
debar his predatory incursions into the neighbouring fields.
The wolf is occasionally seen in the Ardennes, where his
character is said to be unusually savage. But the red-
deer and the roebuck are sufficiently numerous not only
to afford good sport, but to furnish an item to the forest
budget of most districts. The birds are also in great
variety, from the cock of the woods down to a small
throstle that comes in vast flocks from the north, in the
autumn, and is prized as a great delicacy : pheasants
are only found in strict preserves ; the vermin that abounds
is their greatest enemy : partridges and hares are tole-
rably abundant in the open country.
It is undeniably a curious fact, that while the propor-
tion of forest to arable land in all Prussia is that of one
half (arable, 32,800,000 morg. ; forest, 15,798,OOOrnorg.),
Agkiculturk on тик ruine.
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in the Rhenish province, the most populous and the
Inostindustriouspart of the kingdom, the proportion is
as three to four, there being 3,148,713 morg. forest, and
4,037,690 morg. arable land. Nearly the whole of the
surface covered with forests, it is true, is mountain-land
and in part very elevated. Of the summits of the
Ardennes the Michaelsbergis 1860 feet, the Ernstberg
2080 feet over the level of the Rhine. In the Hunds-
riick, which adjoins it on the south, with its ramifications,
the Hochwald and the Idar, there are many summits
between 2000 and 2500 feet above the Rhine level.
Opposite Remagen, where the Ardennes run out to the
Rhine, a chain of similar volcanic hills rises abruptly in
the Drachenfels, and stretches inwards far into the back
country. Near the Rhine are the well known Seven Hills,
and, following the course of the little river Sieg, a moun-
tainous tract Ofconsiderable extent runs through the district
of Siegen into the heart of Westphalia. This district we
shall find worthy of a special visit, as the forest system
followed in it differs from that which obtains in the rest
of Germany.
On the left bank of the Rhine, in the Ardennes and
adjacent forests, the production of timber is the object
kept in view. The trunk of the tree forms the object
of the forester’s care, and the regular quantity that
can be felled, with the mode of keeping up the supply, is
what he has to calculate. Beech, oak, and fir are the
chief descriptions of timber met with ; beech is almost
exclusively used for fire-wood ; oak gives materials for
building and for machinery ; fir is used both for firewood
and for building. With all the attention that has been
devoted to the subject, it has been found impossible to lay