106
AGRICULTURE ON TΠE RHINE.
pation, have destroyed the uninterrupted succession in
the growth of timber in the parts we have travelled
through, and it will take a long period of fostering to
retrieve what has been lost. If we take any of the roads
leading into the Odenwald between Darmstadt and
Heidelberg, we find wild and magnificent forest scenery
that sufficiently repays the traveller who has a taste for
nature’s rougher scenes, and here, or in the Black Forest
near Baden Baden, or the valley of Hell near Freiburg,
he can best study the management and observe in all
stages the growth and the yield of forest cultivation.
From these two forest-tracts and the Spessart Forest on
the north bank of the Maine near Aschaffenburg, the
supply of timber for exportation is drawn, which is,
however, so much diminished in its passage down the
Rhine by the demands of the populous districts, that the
yearly mass no longer suffices for the consumption of the
Dutch shipbuilders. The management of these forests,
which is now the object of our attention, is the same in
its leading characteristics in all the different states. We
avail ourselves therefore of the information communi-
cated in detail by a forester of the Grand Duchy of
Baden, to show how the people and the forest-owners
are situated with regard to this branch of production.
Our table (page 103) shows the quantity of timber that
can be produced upon a given area of land in 120 years.
The table is calculated for a measure which is about one-
third less than the morgen of Prussia or Baden, so that
the reader is here made to feel one difficulty that accom-
panies all these investigations in Germany, viz., the
endless changes in the weights and measures that the
various states adhere to. Another calculation of the
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
107
forester is the ground or area that his trees cover w ith
their branches. This area, when ascertained, shows the
number of trees that he can allow to stand upon any-
given measure. The ground covered by all kinds of
trees at the various periods of felling has been carefully
ascertained, and a picture of an oak wood divided into
five portions, each portion, except the first or seedling
period, being covered with an equal extent of shadow,
may be presented by a table like the following. The
number of trees to be felled at each period is here seen
to be prescribed by the growth of the crown or upper
branches.
No. of Trees.
> — z' ,"" ` Total in Sq. Feet.
30 CO 90 120 1---------,
yrs. ∖ιs. yrs. yrs. Trunks. Crov-n.
First Period (Seedlings)
SecondPeriod . . . 391 .. .. .. 391 7820
Third Period . ∙ . 295 30 .. .. 325 7820
FourthPeriod . . . 1C3 30 20 .. 213 7820
FifthPeriod . . . 50 30 20 10 110 7820
It is, however, not usual to cover the whole surface,
and at the felling period seldom more than one-half is
covered by beech and oaks, in order to leave light and
air for the succession that is to replace what is taken
away. Firs are differently managed, and are kept as
much as possible at the same age. When a portion of a
fir-forest is felled, the ground is therefore left perfectly
clear for the seedlings.
The description of oak that most abounds in Germany
is a very beautiful tree that grows straighter than the elm
or the beech, and when judiciously pruned, runs up to
the height of 65 or 70 feet from the ground to the crown
or top branches. The table we have given above sup-
poses an oak of 150 years’ standing and 70 feet in height