100 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



great demand in Vienna, where sacks of them are regularly exposed to sale in the market, 

 alternating with sacks of beans, lentils, kidneybeans, and truffles, {fig. 75 b.) 



625. The implements and operations of the agriculture of Austria differ little from those 

 of Saxony. Dr. Bright has given a figure of the Hungarian plough and cart, [fig. 72.), 

 and blames their mode of depositing their corn in holes in the ground, lined with 

 straw by which it acquires ^a strong mouldy smell. "Vineyards are carefully dug and 

 hoed, and the shoots of the vines, in places where the winter is severe, laid down and 

 covered with earth to protect them from the frost. Many of the great proprietors are 

 introducing the most improved British implements on their estates, and some have 

 taken ploughmen from this countiy to instruct the natives in their use. Prince Esterhazy 

 has English gardeners, bailiffs, grooms, and other servants. 



626. The forests of the Austrian dominions are chiefly in Hungary, and on the 

 borders of Gallicia on the Carpathian mountains. They contain all the varieties of needle 

 or pine-leaved, and broad leaved-trees, which are indigenous north of the Rhine. The 

 oaks of Hungary are perhaps the finest in Europe. The forest of Belevar on the 

 Drave, was visited by Dr. Bright. It consists chiefly of different species of oak, the 

 most luxuriant he ever beheld. Thousands measured at several feet above the root, 

 more than seven feet in diameter ; continue almost of the same size without throw- 

 ing out a branch, to the height of thirty, forty, and fifty feet, and are still in the most 

 florishing and healthy condition. Timber there is of little value, excepting for the 

 buildings wanted on the estate, or for hoops and wine barrels. In some cases the bark 

 is not even taken from oak-trees ; but in others the leaf galls, and the Knoppern, or 

 smaller galls, which grow on ^ the calyx of the acorn, are collected and exported for 

 being used in tanneries. 



627. The improvement of the agriculture of Austria seems anxiously desired both by 

 the government and the great proprietors. Various legislative measures are accordingly 

 adopted from time to time, societies formed and premiums offered. These will no 

 doubt have a certain quantum of eflfect ; but the radical want, in our opinion, is inform- 

 ation and taste for comfortable living among the lower classes ; and this can only be 

 brought about by the general diffusion of village schools ; and by establishing easy rates, 

 at which every peasant might purchase his personal liberty or freedom from the whole, 

 or a certain part of the services he is now bound to render his lord. 



Sect. VI. Of the present State of Agriculture in the Kingdom of Poland. 



628. Poland was formerly called the granary of Europe ; but this was when its 

 boundaries extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea ; and when the Ukraine and 

 Lithuania were included. At present its limits are so circumscribed, and its arable sur- 

 face so indifferently cultivated, or naturally so infertile, that the kingdom of Poland, 

 strictly speaking, furnishes little more corn than supplies its own population. The 

 immense supplies of wheat sent to Dantzic are chiefly from the detached provinces 

 of Gallicia, united to Austria, and from Volhynia and Podolia, now belonging to 

 Russia. 



629. The landed estates of Poland are almost every where large, and either belong to 

 the crown, to the nobles, or to religious corporations. They are farmed by the pro- 

 prietors, by means of stewards ; or let out in small portions on the meyer or leibeigener 

 tenure. There are scarcely any free farmers or cottagers. Buonaparte passed an edict, 

 while Poland was under his protection as a duchy, to annul the leibeigener tenure ; but 

 it is said the peasants were too much afraid to trust to their own industry to take ad- 

 vantage of it ; and it was never carried into effect. The nobles have generally houses 

 on their estates, which they occupy, at least, part of the year ; at other periods it is taken 

 care of by the steward, who is always admitted at the. table of his lord, being himself 

 what is called of noble descent. The estates of religious houses are of great extent : 

 they are sometimes let to nobles or others on a corn rent, who generally sublet them ; 

 and in a few cases they are farmed by the corporation. The postmasters on the different 

 main roads invariably rent a considerable portion of land for the support of their horses. 

 Most of these are meteyers, but some are free men, and pay a money rent ; and there 

 are one or two instances of nobles farming the post. 



630. The houses and offices of these noble postmasters (fig. 76.) afford the only distant 

 resemblance to a British farm-yard, that is to be met with in Poland. The farm- 

 house and farmery of the peasant postmaster are both included in an immense shed or barn, 

 with a small apartment at one end for the master's dwelling, the remaining space di- 

 vided for live stock and implements of every description, and for the cattle, carriages, 

 and lodging place of travellers who may stop during night. Most of these places are 

 sufficiently wretched as inns, but in the present state of things they answer very well 

 for the other purposes to which they are applied, and are superior to the hovels of the 

 farmers who are not postmasters, and who are clustered together in villages, or in the 

 outskirts of towns. Some villages, however, in the south of Poland are almost entirely 



