the Austi'O-Hungarian Emjnre. 383 



Kolin, on the line between Pardubitz and Prague. The Ritter 

 von Horsky has been the architect of his own fortunes, and has 

 published a book giving- an account of his life, and of the culti- 

 vation of his estate.* A large party of agriculturists was 

 entertained by him at Horsky feld during the Vienna Exhibition. 

 Here I saw Fowler's steam plough at work, with sub-soilers 

 stirring 7 inches beneath the plough-sole — the total depth being 

 14 inches. The work Avas progressing at the rate of 11 to 12 

 acres per day, upon a black sandy bottom. Hudson's over- 

 head railway was also in use. Oxen are extensively used, and 

 when four are yoked to a plough, a cultivation of 10, 12, and 

 even 14 inches is attained. The system of subsoiling and 

 ploughing by means of a deep following tine, after and attached 

 to each plough, is preferred to a deep furrow, and is usually 

 adopted. A double number of oxen are maintained from harvest 

 to winter, and half of them are fatted when work becomes slack. 

 Sugar-beet is one of the most important crops cultivated. A 

 barley stubble was being ploughed and subsoiled 14 inches deep 

 by oxen (July 25th). It was the intention to plough it again in 

 late autumn by steam, and to work it down with grubbers for 

 sugar-beet in the spring. There is in use a special machine 

 for drilling beet. The manure is dropped on the flat and im- 

 mediately mixed with the soil by two chisel-shaped shares ; the 

 enriched soil is at once ridged up by two double mould-boards, 

 and the seed falls at the same instant through coulters into the 

 middle of the ridge — ^just before it is closed. The drilling is 

 narrow, and it is considered desirable to keep the roots small. 

 The process of diffusion is now adopted in extracting the sugar ; 

 and it is thought that the quality of the fodder is higher than 

 when pressure is used. This is because only sugar is extracted, 

 and the cells are not ruptured ; there is less alcohol (?) in the 

 pulp, and it is, therefore, more wholesome. In the pressing 

 process, 20 per cent, of pulp is obtained, while by diffusion 80 

 per cent, is left ; 50 per cent, of which is water and 30 per cent, 

 fodder. I saw working-oxen receiving beet pulp, meal and 

 oilcake, cut straw and hay. There is a great amount of in- 

 genuity, of novelty, and of good arrangement displayed, but 

 my numerous queries were answered with a present of the 

 volume already referred to, to which I, again, must refer the 

 curious reader. 



A day spent upon the Emperor Ferdinand's estate at Jenc, and 

 another upon Prince Schwarzenberg's estates at Postelberg and 

 Lobositz, completed my tour, and brought me, via Bodenbacli 



* ' Mein Streben, Wirken, meine Resultate, &c. ; von Franz, Eitter Horsky 

 von Horskyfeld,' &c. Published by Fr. Sudek : Kolin, 1873. 



