.'

ICH. "'Your Majesty's pardon. My father was Amtsrath in the AMT Luhnin.'

KING. "'Amtsrath? Amtsrath? That isn't true! Your father was Landrath. I
knew him very well.--But tell me now (SAGT MIR EINMAL) has the draining
of the Luch been of much use to you here?'

ICH. "'O ja, your Majesty.'

KING. "'Do you keep more cattle than your predecessor?'

ICH. "'Yes, your Majesty. On this farm I keep 40 more; on all the farms
together 70 more.'

KING. "'That is right. The murrain (VIEHSEUCHE) is not here in this
quarter?'

ICH. "'No, your Majesty.'

KING. "'Have you had it here?'

ICH. "'Ja.'

KING. "'Do but diligently use rock-salt, you won't have the murrain
again.'

ICH. "'Yes, your Majesty, I do use it too; but kitchen salt has very
nearly the same effect.'

KING. "'No, don't fancy that! You must n't pound the rock-salt small,
but give it to the cattle so that they can lick it.'

ICH. "'Yes, it shall be done.'

KING. "'Are there still improvements needed here?'

ICH. "'O ja, your Majesty. Here lies the Kemmensee [Kemmen-lake]: if
that were drained out, your Majesty would gain some 1,800 acres [MORGEN,
three-fifths English acre] of pasture-land, where colonists could be
settled; and then the whole country would have navigation too, which
would help the village of Fehrbellin and the town of Ruppin to an
uncommon degree.'

KING. "'I suppose so! Be a great help to you, won't it; and many will be
ruined by the job, especially the proprietors of the ground NICHT WAHR?'
[Ha?]

ICH. "'Your Majesty's gracious pardon [EW. MAJESTAT HALTEN ZU
GNADEN,--hold me to grace]: the ground belongs to the Royal Forest, and
there grows nothing but birches on it.'

KING. "'Oh, if birchwood is all it produces, then we may see! But you
must not make your reckoning without your host either, that the cost may
not outrun the use.'

ICH. "'The cost will certainly not outrun the use. For, first, your
Majesty may securely reckon that eighteen hundred acres will be won
from the water; that will be six-and-thirty colonists, allowing each 50
acres. And now if there were a small light toll put upon the raft-timber
and the ships that will frequent the new canal, there would be ample
interest for the outlay.'

KING. "'Na, tell my Geheimer-Rath Michaelis of it. The man understands
that kind of matters; and I will advise you to apply to the man in every
particular of such things, and wherever you know that colonists can be
settled.