AGRICULXrRE OX THE RHINE. 121 



that we have before noticed. The origin of many of 

 these corporations, or rather joint-stock companies, that 

 own woods in the neighbourhood of Siegen, goes back 

 to remote periods. Money was furnished by the fore- 

 fathers of the present holders, or of those from whom 

 the present owners acquired the property, for the pur- 

 chase and planting of the land, and the shares are still 

 calculated in the name of the coin current at that early 

 period, but which is now represented by a much higher 

 value. An albus of the sixteenth century is the usual 

 share, which then was worth one-eightieth of a dollar, 

 and is now represented by fifty to eighty dollars. In 

 every wood thus belonging to shareholders in common 

 there are good and bad situations. When the period 

 for felling arrives the wood is mathematically divided by 

 lines drawn, if possible, evenly thr.ough good and bad 

 sites. Sometimes, where there is a projecting angle, all 

 the lines run out to a point. The portions are numbered, 

 and lots decide the parties to which they respectively fall. 

 The felling then takes place, but not by contract or by 

 persons employed for the purpose. Every peasant takes 

 his lot and cuts, barks, binds, and carries home what it 

 yields at his convenience. He is, however, bound to 

 take his share away before the peculiar cultivation re- 

 sorted to on the bared ground commences. The roots 

 of the trees are left standing in the ground to throw out 

 shoots, which, in twenty years, are to replace the under- 

 wood of which it has been cleared. Between these the 

 surface of the soil is pared off a few inches deep, and the 

 F.ols arc collected into heaps and burnt. The ashes are 

 strewed upon the ground and lightly ploughed with a 



