The name is absent

AGRICΓLTL^τKE OX THE RIIIXE.

Assuming the wood to be half beech and half oak, and
that IOO faggots are equivalent to one klafter of 108 feet,
the morgen would produce 36f klafters of fire-wood and
4500 cubic feet of timber. The value, estimated at 12
florins per klafter for the former, and at 12 krcutzers per
cubic foot for the latter, amounts to about 112/., or di-
vided through a period of 150 years, about 15s. sterling
per morgen, or 1Z. 4s. per acre per annum. About 1Z.
per acre may be taken as the cost of sowing. The
charge for clearing, setting up in measures of a klafter
each, must be defrayed by the seller. The whole is
covered by a few pounds ; so that at these prices, with a
yield equal to what is above stated, forest-land would be
a good investment. Unfortunately only a small number
of forests are now able to yield so much—the table sup-
posing a regular well-supported cultivation of oak and
beech on the most recent and approved principles, and
that this cultivation has been regularly Ibllovied for the
last 150 years. This has of course nowhere been the
case ; and the consequences of neglect in former years, of
the cupidity of thoughtless owners, and of the ravages of
war, are bitterly lamented in every part of the continent.
The usual production cannot be estimated at perhaps
more than half the quantity stated above ; and as a
change to other branches Ofcultivation is not easy, a vast
extent of land is locked up in wood, that is neither pro-
fitable for the owner, nor, from the dearness of wood,
useful to the consumer.

If we look to the past as a guide for the future, those
who plant forests for the benefit of their posterity seem
indeed to have a rich field before them. The rise in the
value of timber since 1801 we have already noticed. We

AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.

113

If the price of the beech-wood in Wirtemberg bo
multiplied by 4'4 on the increase in the Odenwald be-
tween 1730 and 1740, the two tables will be found to
coincide tolerably. Still both the effects of trade and
of маг may be more easily traced in the Hessian table
than in that of the country more remote from the Rhine.
Notwithstanding this last-named drawback it is clear that
the Rhenish forests promise the best return, and that this
return is sure to augment with the growth of trade and of
population.

To what price it will be possible to raise fire-wood in
future times it is not easy to say. That its value will in
the next IOO Vearsberaiscd 15-fold may reasonably be
doubted, both on account of the rapid and cheap means
of communication that are yearly opened, and because
the dearness of fuel would operate as a check to popula-

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