116
AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.
present no market. Here we find the same sfate of
things that prevails respecting farming produce. The
actual value of what is consumed for fuel, that is to say,
what it costs in labour, in carriage, and rent, is never
ascertained for the greater part of the consumption of
Germany. A market-price bearing any proportion to
the cost of these items is only to be found on the banks
of the navigable rivers.
From the necessity every village and town lies under
of having fuel and timber at command, the forests are not
exclusively confined to the mountainous and uncultivable
tracts of land. In Rhcnish Prussia, the forests of
which we have spoken lie between the Belgian frontier
and the circle of Cleves, in the Ardennes, on the
heights enclosing the valley of the Upper Moselle, and on
the right bank in the counties of Berg and Mark.
More than one-half of the forests belonging strictly to
the region of the Rhine are Prussian. The forests of
the Duchy of Nassau comprise the Westerwald and
Taunus mountain-chains, and cover a large tract of
country extending inwards between Neuwied and Bie-
berich.
In the Grand Duchy of IIesse the chain of the Oden-
wald, stretching in a line parallel with the Rhine be-
tween the Maine and the Neckar, contains the chief
supply of timber. On the left bank of the river, be-
tween Bingen and Worms, the woods scantily supply the
villages of the densely-peopled province of Rheinhessen
with fuel, and they are obliged to bring wood across the
Rhine, from the Odenwald and the Black Forest.
The Black Forest stretches the whole length of the
Grand Duchy of Baden, from the Neckar to the Lake of
Agkicultube on the bhine.
117
Constance and Basel, although the hilly portions attain
no considerable elevation before the traveller reaches
Pforzheim. In the Palatinate, belonging to Bavaria, on
the left bank of the Rhine, the hilly districts are ex-
tensively wooded, and the forest-land, as in Rhenish
Prussia, nearly equals the arable land in area.
Bcrghaus gives the following as the extent of forest-
land in the countries bordering on the Rhine :—
Arable, &.C. Forests.
Rhenish Prussia
Nassau
Gd. Duchy of Hesse
Baden
Rhenish Ba∖ aria.
4,130,369 3,148,713 Pruss. Morgen
1,076,164 736,377 Nassau do
2,047,176 1,081,410 Hess. do.
851,398 1,296,070 Bad. do.
926,220 704,706 Bav. do.
The whole making a total of about 4,815.GOO English
acres.