The name is absent

AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.

diminishing towards the outside until the mass assumes
the shape of a flat cone.

An inner covering of moss and turf is laid over the heap,
and is again covered with clay sifted to free it from stones.
In this outer covering 12 to 14 holes are made after it
has been stamped till it hardens. The stake in the
centre is then drawn out and fire laid upon the top, the
gradual progress of which is anxiously watched by the
coal-burner, who opens or stops up the air-holes accord-
ing to the direction and strength of the wind, that the
whole may burn evenly and thoroughly. When all is
burnt out, the earthy covering is loosened at bottom, and
peels off the heap easily. The coals are spread out, and
those not thoroughly burnt separated from the rest, which
are carried as soon as they cool to the place where they
are to be used.

From 2⅛ klafters, or 221 Prussian cubic feet of beech
wood, or from 10 one-horse loads of underwood, a
“ wagen'' of charcoal of 2500lbs. weight or 194J cubic
feet of charcoal is obtained, the price of which is now'
about 25 dollars, or 3Z. 15s. The royal forests of Siegcn
furnish 3000 wagons yearly. The village and private
woods yield something more than 2000 wagens. On
130,000 morgens of forest-land, this shews 2' morgens to
the wagen of charcoal annually, or a return of 13 dollars,
including labour.

Although the good effects of the German village-system
in fostering a spirit of association, and of accustoming
men of small means to an independent management of
their shares in the common property, may be traced in
every German village, yet they are nowhere so con-
spicuous as in Siegen and some of the adjacent districts.

AGRICULTURE ON THE RHINE.

Tlie peasants, besides the large village properties, are
almost all share-holders in the forest companies that we
have described. They are besides nearly all miners, and
hold shares frequently in one or two iron foundries. In
winter the mines are worked and charcoal is burnt for the
following “campaign” at the blast-furnace. Inconse-
quence of this arrangement, which leaves them time in the
spring and autumn to attend to their meadows, while the
short summer is devoted to field tillage, the year is filled
up in a manner suited to the habits, and which formerly
was equally subservient to the interests, of the villagers.
They were long in possession of a monopoly of great
value—the production of steel, for which their iron is
particularly well suited. The temptation that greater
countries and more highly educated men have not been
able to resist of shaping the market to their pleasure
was too strong to be resisted by the villagers, the artisans,
and even the Princes of Siegen (then a branch of the
House of Nassau) ; and an apparently well calculated
plan was laid, by which the foundries and steel-works
bound themselves not to work more than a certain num-
ber of days in the year. The valuable product they
furnished was thus not allowed to overstock the market,
and charcoal and ore were kept at a moderate price, and
were mostly worked up by the owners of the mines and
woods.

The result has been that which infallibly results from
all such attempts to restrict the flow of industry for the
benefit of a few. The scarcity of iron in Germany
obliged the neighbouring states to look elsewhere for
supplies. Sweden was found to abound in ores of the
best quality, and to be especially rich in the peculiar

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