AGRICLLTURE OX THE RHINE. 105 



ak.in to, but still very different from, that love of trees 

 ^vhich is common in England, but which attaches only 

 to the appearance and picturesque grouping of iso- 

 lated trees or plantations. It is at the same time more 

 matter of fact, and is based upon more correct views of 

 natural history ; in a word, it is much more practical, 

 while the English taste is more sentimental. This love 

 of trees is confined in Germany to those whose studies 

 and occupations give them the means of being constantly 

 in contact with the verdant ornaments of the mountain 

 and the valley. The fine specimens of planting must in 

 Germany be sought in remote districts ; they are not se- 

 lected and thrown into full relief by the disposition of a 

 park or the shape of a lawn, and are consequently not 

 universally accessible. We would, however, recommend 

 to such of our travellers as may be interested in forest 

 cultivation, whether at home or in the Colonies, to follow 

 the methods now in general practice in Germany ; and 

 although we shall give as much information as can be 

 condensed into a general view like that which is the 

 object of this volum.e, yet it will not render the know- 

 ledge that can be more agreeably acquired in conversa- 

 tion from practical men, and confirmed by observations 

 taken on the spot, the less necessary. 



The forests of Rhenish Prussia, although covering so 

 vast an area as we have descj-ibed, afford on neither 

 bank of the Rhine such splendid specimens of woodland 

 vegetation as the Odenwald near Darmstadt or the 

 Black Forest in the Grand Duchy of Baden. The rat)id 

 accumulation of the population in the manufacturing dis- 

 tricts on the Lower Rhine, and the careless or wasteful 

 forest management during the period of the French occu- 



