AGRICULTURE ox THE RHIXE. 113 



take from the same source the following survey of tlie 

 prices in Wirtemberg and in the Odenwald near Dai m- 

 stadt, for a longer series of years. The standard is taken 

 from the oldest recorded price of each description of 

 wood : — 



If the ])rice of the beech-wood in Wirtemberg be 

 multiplied by 4*4 on the increase in the Odenwald be- 

 tween 1730 and 1740, the two tables will be found to 

 coincide tolerably. Still both the effects of trade and 

 of war may be more easily traced in the Hessian table 

 than in that of the country more remote from the Rhine. 

 Notwithstanding this last-named drawback it is clear that 

 the Rhenish forests promise the best return, and that this 

 return is sure to augment with the growth of trade and of 

 population. 



To what price it w ill be possible to raise fire-wood in 

 future times it is not easy to say. That its value will in 

 the next 100 years be raised 15-fold may reasonably be 

 doubted, both on account of the rapid and cheap means 

 of communication that are yearly opened, and because 

 the dearness of fuel would operate as a check to popula— 



