342 Report on the Agriculture of 



at four years old to the depots, and from the depots they are 

 distributed to the different parts of the country, where the small 

 Hungarian horses of mixed Arabian and Turkish origin, and 

 therefore of allied blood, are to be found. The four or five 

 years old mares are, Avhen good enough, brought into the stud, 

 or sold for breeding purposes to private purchasers. The 

 inferior fillies are disposed of in the market. The Barbolna 

 estate is superintended by a director, 2 stewards, 1 assistant 

 for outdoor work, 2 assistants for the office, and 1 book-keeper.. 

 The stud is under Major Friedrichs and his own staff of grooms, 

 csikosen, and military servants. 



Mezoher/yes. — This is the last great stud estate of the Crown 

 of Austria. I had taken the train from Zombor to Maria- 

 Theresiopel, over the dead level of the Alfold to Szegedin, 

 crossed the Theiss, and continued over an uninterrupted dead 

 level of rich black soil, known as the Banat, to Oroshaza, where 

 a waggon and pair of good horses awaited to take me forward 

 to Mezohegyes. I had left Maria-Theresiopel at 10.30 P.M., sO' 

 that a considerable portion of this country was passed through 

 in darkness ; but from early dawn to six o'clock I had watched 

 the uniform continuation of flat rich country, half tilled, and lan- 

 guishing for want of labour and capital. My road now lay through 

 the usual type of a small Hungarian town — unpaved, dirty, and 

 yet picturesque, with its detached peasants' houses and primitive 

 stores. Then through an exceedingly rich district, owned by 

 peasants, and cultivated in slovenly style. The crops, which 

 were now being harvested, often presented the appearance of a 

 mass of thistles, and some of these consequences of the primeval 

 curse raised their heads, as I myself measured, 4 and 5 fe^t 

 above the level of the standing corn. Often the peasant, in 

 cutting his crop, had gone round the larger thistles rather than^ 

 undertake the work of knocking them down, and now they stood 

 like little trees among the stubble. The road next led through 

 an estate of Count G. Karolyi, where were some heavy-strawed 

 wheat crops, with only badly filled ears. Again we passed 

 through a tract of peasant-land, and a fox, apparently charmed 

 with the novelty of a carriage and pair, ran parallel with us for 

 a considerable distance. At last we entered the domain of 

 Mezohegyes, on which the land is all equal and rich, like that 

 Avhich has already been noticed, and which indeed constitutes 

 the true Ticjland of the great Alfold or plain of Lower Hungary. 

 Harvest was commencing, but I was not favourably impressed 

 with the agriculture. Labour is scarce, but this seemed hardly 

 enough to account for the slovenly state of the fields, the banks 

 of thistles through which I should have liked to drive a reaping- 

 machine, and the pastures choked with tall weeds of various 



