THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



405 



in procuriug tliem. Nor must money he ;i considera- 

 tion, as the first outlay will be the least, if the selection 

 is good. The pedigrees of the cows must be of the first 

 class, and free from alloy. The animals themselves 

 must be as perfect in form, and good in quality, as can 

 be bought ; and they should be known as regular 

 breeders, or from regular breeding tribes. The best 

 shorthorns cannot be purchased, but they can be bred ; 

 and any one commencing with five or six superior cows, 

 and using a bull as good as can be found — the blood 

 and quality of which must also be unexceptionable — 

 may, by retaining his heifers, in a few years be the pos- 

 sessor of a splendid herd. " The Breeder's Complete 

 Register of Shorthorns, containing Forms of Entry for 

 Registering the Pedigree and Produce of the Herd," by 

 Mr. Torr, and published by Longman and Co., London, 

 will be found fully to answer the purpose of a private 

 herd book. Our national register, known as " Coates' 

 Herd Book," in 12 vols. 8vo., is published by ihe pro- 

 prietor, Mr. Strafford, of Euston-square, London, who 



receives entries from shorthorn breeders at certain times, 

 of which he gives notice, for future publication. 



In the foregoing observations I have confined my re- 

 marks to the feeding and management of breeding stock 

 in an ordinary and economical manner, consistent with 

 fair condition. The feeding and treatment of stock for 

 exhibition at our best local and national shows is quite 

 a different matter, and demands care and skill which few 

 persons thoroughly possess, and an outlay and disregard 

 of expense which alarms prudent men. When expense 

 is not a consideration, other requisites are so essential 

 and imperative, that although the competitors are 

 numerous, the winners of prizes are generally a select 

 few, verifying the words of an ancient motto, that— 



" Many go out for wool, and come home shorn." 



[We have permission to state that these papers are from the 

 pen of Mr. Pkancis Tallant, whose position as manager 

 of Mr. Marjoribauks' herd gives them a weight and practical 

 authoiity of the highest order. — Editor F. M.] 



THE AGRICULTURE OF AUSTRIA. 



Translated prom the French of the " Journal of Practical Agriculture." 



Those who have carefully studied the agricultural history of 

 Austria cannot fail to be struck with the wide dilfereuce exist- 

 ing betweeu the present state of thiuga and that which pre- 

 ceded the revolution of 1848. Before that period the breeding 

 of Merinos, the manufacture of beet-root sugar, and the distil- 

 leries, were, of all the branches of rural industry, those which 

 alone were privileged to attract the attention of the large pro- 

 prietors. 



It was iu the year 1761, under the glorious reign of the 

 Empress Maria Theresa, that the first Merinos were imported 

 into Austria, upon the Imperial domains of Mannersdorf and 

 Hollisch. Thanks to the landowners of Silesia, Moravia, Bo- 

 hemia, and Hungary, and above all to the indefatigable zeal 

 and energetic activity of the Barons de Barteustein and 

 Ehreufels, of Count Wrbiia, Prince Liehnowsky, the Counts 

 CoUoredo Mansfeldt, Hunyade, and Karoly, and of Messrs. 

 Christian Andra and Bernard Petri, the rearing of Merinos 

 was conducted upon the largest scale, and has since become 

 both the chief product of Austrian agriculture and the brightest 

 jewel in its crown. 



The high price of wool, and the depressed condition of other 

 products of the soil, have exercised a rtecided influence on the 

 progress of wool-husbandry and the rearing of Merinos in 

 Austria ; hut with the progress of civilization, coupled with a 

 consumption continually increasing, and assisted besides by 

 the extension of the means of coromunication, that branch of 

 rural production cannot fail to increase still more in impor- 

 tance, and the enlightened cultivators ought to think seriously 

 of replacing with fiue-woolled animals the common races which 

 are still met with iu their flocks. This improvement is so 

 much the more of pressing importance that the subdivision of 

 the land in the rest of Europe tends to banish the breeding of 

 sheep into those countries iu which large domains still exist, 

 as Hungary, Silesia, Moravia, &c. 



The number of sheep in Austrii at the present time amounts 

 in round numbers to thirty millions, which yield annually 

 33,600,000 kiloB. of wool (84,000,000 lbs.), representing a 



value approximating to 157,000,000 florins (or £10,700,000 

 sterling), which forms the subject of a commercial operation 

 the importance of which may still be iuereased to a very con- 

 siderable extent. 



Germany, as is well known, is the cradle of the manufacture 

 of sugar from beet-root. It was a Prussian chemist, M. 

 Margraaf, who first discovered, iu 1747, the presence of crys- 

 tallizable sugar in beet-root. He was followed by A chard, 

 who established at Cunneru in Silesia the first beet-sugar ma- 

 nufactory ; but it was not till the beginning of 1809 that the 

 continental blockade (the Berlin and Milan decrees of Napo- 

 leon) gave an active stimulus to the new industry, which has 

 required not less than thirty years to acclimatise itself in 

 Austria. 



The establishment of the first sugar manufactories iu Austria 

 date from the year 1830, which saw erected those of 

 Prince Oettingen-WoUersteiu at Kleiu-Kuchel, near Prague ; 

 of Baron de Stratendorf, at Bedeskau iu Bohemia ; of Prince 

 Latour and Taxis at Dobrobit ; of Count Czernin at Sudkal, 

 near Malleshau iu Bohemia ; of Count Colloredo Mansfeldt at 

 Stacy iu Lower Austria, &c. In the ten years from 1830 to 

 1840, 113 factories were put in operation ; but of this num- 

 ber the greater part of those of the least importance, namely 

 those which were worked by a naked fire, and employed less 

 than l,50t),000 kilos, of beet-root (1,674 tons), have been suc- 

 cessively abandoned, and to such an extent that at the present 

 time they do not reckon more than 108, which consume about 

 308,000,000 kilos, of beet-root (343,750 tons), and produce 

 14,000,000 kilos, (or 15,625 tons) of sugar, 9,240,000 kilos, 

 of molasses (14,776^- tons), and 30,800,000 kilos, of residue 

 (34,375 tous). The total amount of the duties received by 

 the Treasury is about 1,310,000 frs. (or £52,400 sterhug), 

 being about 9 f. 35 c. per 100 kilogrammes of sugar. 



Tne discovery of the ingenious process, by which we can 

 revive the animal black (charcoal) and make it serve again iu 

 the manufacture, has enabled the manufacturers to employ a 

 larger quantity, and thus to raise to 7 per cent, the return 



