74 



t. foiv<t (live-sixth hauherge) 10 per cent, meadows, and 13 per cent fields. Of 

 thr lidds an average area of 6,940 acres was devoted to the production of corn, so 

 that tlu- addition of about 4,400 acres, which at that time was the aggregate area, 

 of coppice annually nil over ami cultivated with rye, was an important addition 

 to tin- corn-producing land. Kven. then, however, grain was imported largely, 

 and now, with a vastly increased population, (77,674 in 1885) the importation 

 of grain has largely increased. It is estimated that at present three-fourths of 

 the corn consumed in the district has to be imported, hence the great importance 

 f the system here described for increasing the corn producing area. 



The eiiNtmn of raising one or several crops of corn on forest land, and of 

 letting the forest grow up again after the harvest, is an ancient custom in moun- 

 tainous countries of all parts of Europe, nor is it limited to Europe, but is found 

 in most other parts of the world. In India it is known as kumri in the south,, 

 as jhum in the east, as dhya in Central India, as khil in the north-west Himalaya, 

 and as toungya in Burma. In Europe, however, the system has in so far 

 developed, that the wood which grows up after the harvest is not all destroyed 

 to furnish ashes for the field crops, but is other-wise utilized. 



As the Siegen country was gradually opened up by railways, coal was: 

 imported, and the use of charcoal ceased. This diminished the value of the forest 

 crop as far as the wood was concerned, but simultaneously the tanning industry,, 

 which was important as long ago as the fifteenth century, developed on a much 

 larger scale, and at present bark is the most valuable produce of these lands. At 

 Freudenberg, Siegen, and elsewhere in the circle, large tanneries exist which 

 receive hides from all parts of the world and send away the leather prepared by~ 

 them in all directions. The oak bark produced by these woods amounts to 

 85,000 cwt. a year. 



COPPICE AND FIELD CROPS IN SOUTH GERMANY, AUSTRIA AND FRANCE. 



Coppice, combined with corn crops, likewise occupies extensive areas on the 

 sandstone (Bunter sandstein) of the Odenwald, the mountain range situated 

 between the rivers Main and Neckar, in the Grand Duchies of Hesse Darmstadt 

 and Baden. Here this kind of coppice is known under the name " hackwald." 

 Further south, in the valleys of the Kinzig and Rench, on the gneiss and granite of 

 the Schwarzwald, it is known as " reutfeld," and under the same name it ia 

 practised in Wurtemberg and some parts of Switzerland. Circumstances in som& 

 respects are similar to those existing in the Siegen district and on the Moselle. 

 The arable land is limited and the forest area large. Hence the desire to utilize part 

 of the forest land for the production of corn and straw, whenever the ground ha& 

 been cleared by cutting the coppice. 



In upper Styria there existed formerly and probably now to some extent 

 exists a similar management of forests, chiefly consisting of alder, birch, aspen 

 and sallow. At the age of twenty-five to forty the coppice was cut, the larger 

 wood used or sold, while the branches were burnt, one crop of rye and a second 

 crop of oats being taken, after which the forest was allowed to grow up again. 

 Wessely, in giving an account of this system in 1853, states that it is disappear- 

 ing, and that many of the areas formerly thus treated are gradually being 

 converted into spruce forests. 



The practice called schiffeln which prevails in the mountainous tracts of the- 

 Eifel is only a variety of this system, differing in this, that small brushwood only 

 and no regular forest grows up on the land after it has yielded a cereal crop. 

 Near Cochem. for instance, the land on the plateau of the Eifel which is not under 



