the Austro-Hnnf/arian Emjiire. 373 



given in the Report on the Vienna Exhibition. Foreign breeds 

 are introduced and experimented upon in order to find the best 

 possible races, or crossed races, for producing milk and beef. 

 Probably we have good reason to be satisfied with our own 

 stock, and certainly the best results obtained by these painstaking 

 experimenters fall short of what English farmers very ordinarily 

 attain. 



In the next place we have to consider, if English agricultural 

 practices may be further imported into Hungary. I visited an 

 estate near Arad — Otvonos, the property of Countess Zelinski. 

 The late Count was deeply impressed with the beauty of English 

 farming, and determined to introduce it wholesale on to Otvonos. 

 A Scotch bailifi" and English labourers were engaged, English 

 stock was purchased, and English cultivation commenced. All 

 that now remains of this enterprise is a portion of the build- 

 ings, and some engineering work contributed by Messrs. Ransome 

 and Sims of Ipswich. The whole scheme broke down, owing, I 

 am informed, to difficulties of climate, and, still more sad, both 

 the bailiff and many of the labourers died from cholera, fever, 

 ague, and other causes. 



The graves of these poor men, sadly overgrown and neglected, 

 supplied food for reflection upon the folly of fighting against 

 natural circumstances, and the return to Hungarian oxen, merino 

 sheep, and ordinary Hungarian management upon the estate also 

 supplied its lesson. This sad result was of course due to too 

 rash an attempt to introduce a foreign system without regard to 

 altered conditions. There are no doubt directions in which 

 English practice might be advantageously followed. Among 

 them, I think road-making and drainage should be pushed, 

 and steam cultivation introduced. English swine and sheep 

 might also effect as great an improvement, if used for cross- 

 ing with the native breeds, as English horses have already 

 done. Afterwards, it might be found advisable to introduce the 

 English plan of folding such crossed sheep upon vetches, clover, 

 and other summer forage crops, taking care at the same time to 

 protect them from the mid-day heat. These are the chief points 

 in which England may still be useful to Hungarian agriculture, 

 but it is quite absurd to think of introducing turnips and winter 

 feeding on the land when the summers are too hot for the turnips, 

 and the winters too cold for the sheep. 



AUSTRIA PROPER. 



The line from Vienna to Linz passes through a lovely 

 mountainous country. It is almost all owned by peasants, and 

 presents the usual patchwork appearance of land so held. Higher 



