Bi 
370 
About four-fifths of the people are engaged in agriculture. The 
climatic conditions involve great extremes of temperature. The sum- 
mers are intensely hot and the winters severely cold. The spring is 
short, the autumn is longer and more pleasant. . 
The country has been afflicted with destructive droughts for several 
years past, resulting, as it is believed, from the indiscriminate destruc- 
tion of the forests. An exhaustive system of culture has also robbed 
the soil of its surface-elements of fertility, which have not been replaced 
by manuring. The chief food of the people is mammaliga, or corn-meal, 
and consequently corn constitutes the staple crop of the country. About 
twice as much land is devoted to its culture as to that of wheat. The 
failure of the corn-crop, then, involves suffering and starvation to the 
laboring classes. 
A gradual improvement has of late years been noted in the methods 
of culture. Improved implements and machinery have been introduced, 
mostly from England. The simplest and least-complicated machines 
are in request. inasmuch as the Roumanians have developed but little 
mechanical genius, and find it difficult to make repairs upon a compli- 
cated instrument. ‘Till lately grain was almost universally separated 
from the stalk by trampling the heads with horses, and this practice is 
still prevalent in the less progressive sections of the country, but the 
economic value of elaborate implements has shown itself by its superi- 
ority of results. As the supply of labor is scanty, this importation of 
machinery has added greatly to the efficiency of crop-raising in Rou- 
mania. Agriculture has also become diversified to some extent, and 
market-gardening is on the increase, occupying nearly 400,000 acres in 
1875—the culture of nearly all kinds of fruits and vegetables grown in 
Europe. The fruit, through bad management, seldom ripens, and is 
plucked in its immature state, to be made into preserves and ‘ dulceas,” 
a kind of sweetmeat of which Roumanians are very fond. Viticulture 
is still in its infancy, and the wines of the country are very unpalatable 
to those accustomed to the finer vintages of Central and Western 
Europe. A few brands, however, have acquired some reputation, such 
as the Colnar, in Moldavia, and the Dragashani, in Wallachia, names de- 
rived from the localities of manufacture. 
About 5,000,000 acres, or one-sixth of:the area of the country, is cov- 
ered by fine forests, especially occupying the off-shoots and side ranges 
of the Carpathians. Imperfect facilities of transportation give to these 
forests so low a value, that no general motive operates to secure their 
destruction, as in the case of countries nearer to the general markets of 
the world. They embrace fine timber of every sort—pine, fir, larch, 
oak, beech, ash, elm, lime, birch, maple, wild cherry, &c. The wood, 
well seasoned, has a special value in building, being hard and close- 
grained. These forests are being rapidly depleted on the hill-sides, but 
on the inaccessible mountain-summits they await a more serious attack. 
The attention of public men has been called to the effects of the deple- 
tion of forest areas, and new efforts are being made to save and enlarge 
the remnant. 
