1 J 2 AGRICULTURE OX THE RHINE. 



Assuming the wood to be half beech and half oak, and 

 that 100 fag-gots are equivalent to one klafter of 108 feet, 

 the morgen would produce 36| klafters of fire-wood and 

 4500 cubic feet of timber. The value, estimated at 12 

 florins per klaiter for the former, and at 12 krcutzeis per 

 cubic foot for the latter, amounts to about 112/., or di- 

 vided through a period of 150 years, about 155. sterling 

 per morgen, or II. 4s. per acre per annum. About 1/. 

 ]jcr 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 Mhole 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 followed 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 tlioughtless 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 of cultivation is not easy, a vase 

 extent of land is locked up in wood, that is neither pro- 

 fitable for the owner, nor, from the dem-ness of wootl, 

 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 

 "alue of timber since 1801 we have already noticed. We 



