5i TRANSACTION'S OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Domain in the Banat obtained by the "Austrian State 

 Railway Company" has a population of 124,748, or 150 per 

 square mile, consisting principally of Roumanians, but partly also 

 of Bulgarians, who occupy Krassova and several villages in the 

 neighbourhood of Oravicza, and are excellent farmers ; as well as 

 of Servians, Slavs, who are principally miners, Hungarians, 

 Germans, Bohemians, Jews, and Czigan or Gipsies. 



A portion of the cultivated land of the Domain belongs to the 

 peasants ; but the forests are the exclusive property of the 

 Company, which also owns the pastures in all communes in 

 which there are mines or factories, the inhabitants having the 

 right to use them on payment of a fixed rate per head of cattle. 

 But in the other communes the pastures belong to the landed 

 proprietors collectively, and the Company merely takes its share 

 with the others. It possesses, however, seignorial rights over 

 the whole Domain, which entitle it to the fishing and shooting 

 and to levy dues on the sale of alcoholic beverages, as well as on 

 mills and markets. The three latter rights are let for about 

 .£7600 a year. The right to shoot and fish within the forests is 

 retained by the Company in the hands of its forest staff; but 

 elsewhere it is farmed out on leases. In return for these rights, 

 the Comjiany maintains 21 churches, and nominates and pays 38 

 priests and 43 schoolmasters, at a cost of about ,£5440 a year. 

 The dominant religion is that of the Eastern Greek Church ; but 

 there are a considerable number of Roman Catholics, and a few 

 Protestants, chiefly members of the United Greek Church, and 

 Jews. 



The central ofiices of the Company are at Vienna. At Oravicza 

 in the Banat, there is an Inspector of Works who is charged with 

 the construction and maintenance of communications within the 

 Domain, including 44 miles of broad guage, 57 miles of narrow 

 guage, and 38 miles of subterranean railway, used for working 

 the mines ; also 62 miles of main roads, the property of the 

 Company, 93 miles of communal roads maintained out of funds 

 supplied by the communes, and numerous export I'oads in the 

 forests. Thei'e is also at Oravicza an office, in which topo- 

 graphical and geological maps, and plans of the mines, are 

 prepared, and rights and concessions are recorded; and an 

 Inspector who controls the forests, cultivation and pasture, over 

 the whole of the Company's property. For this purpose, the 

 Domain is divided into six districts, viz. : — those of Resicza, 



