Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN POLAND. 



76 



101 



composed of Jews ; there the houses are generally of a superior construction, {Jig. 77.), 



77 



but still on the same general plan of a living room at one end of a large bam , the main 

 area of which serves for all the purposes of a complete farmery. The buildings in Po- 

 land, excepting those of the principal towns, are constructed of timber and covered with 

 shingles. The sheds and other agricultural buildings are boarded on the sides ; but the 

 cottages are formed of logs joined by moss or clay ; of frames filled up with wicker work 

 and clay ; or of other modes and materials still more rude. The commonest kind have 

 no chimnies or glass windows. 



631. The climate of Poland, though severe, is much less precarious than that of the 

 south of Germany or of France. A winter of from five to seven months, during the 

 greater part of which time the soil is covered with snow, is succeeded by a rapid spring 

 and warm summer ; and these are followed by a short cold wet autumn. Under such 

 a climate good meadows and pastures cannot be expected ; but arable culture is singularly 

 easy on free soils, which the frost has rendered at once clear from most sorts of weeds, 

 and soft and mouldy on the surface. 



632. The surface of Poland is remarkably even, and the soil almost every where 

 sandy to a great depth. In many places this sand is calcareous, and produces 

 abundance of white clover naturally ; in others it is sterile, and only produces 

 heath or stunted shrubs. On the borders of some of the rivers, as the Bog and the Narew, 

 it is marshy, and abounds in acorus, iris, typha, and other aquatics or marsh plants. 

 In no part of the present kingdom of Poland can it be called either hilly or stony, 

 unless we except some parts on the borders of Silesia and Gallicia. It is almost need- 

 less to observe, that enclosures are rarely seen in Poland. To the traveller, passing 

 through the country, it appears an interminable forest, with here and there glades of 

 coarse pasture, or small tracts of ploughed ground. 



633. The arable culture of Poland is abundantly simple : the course of crops is, in 

 mostplaces, 1st, wheat, barley, or rye; 2d, oats; 3d, fallow, or several years rest to commence 

 with fallow. In a very few places clover is sown, and also beans or pease, but only in 

 small quantities. The digitaria sanguinalis is sown as a plant of luxury in a few places, 

 and the seeds used as rice : the buckwheat is also sown, and the seeds ground and used as 

 meal. Almost every farmer sows linseed or hemp, to the extent required for home use, 

 and some for sale. Rye is the bread corn of the country. Potatoes are now becoming 

 general ; and succeed well in every part of the country. The mangold, or white beet, 

 was cultivated in many places in 1811 and 1812, by order of Buonaparte, in order that 

 the natives might grow their own sugar ; but that is now 'eft off, and the peasants have 

 not even learned its value as a garden plant, producing chard and spinnage. Turnips or 

 cabbages are rarely seen even in gardens ; few of the cottagers, indeed, have any garden ; 

 those who have, cultivate chiefly potatoes, and kohl riibe. Many species of mushrooms 

 grow wild in the woods and wastes, and most of these are carefully gathered, and cooked 

 in a variety of ways as in Russia. The wastes or common pastures are left entirely to 

 nature. There are some tracts of indifferent meadow on the Vistula, at Warsaw, 

 Thorn, and Craccovie, and some on the tributary streams, which afford a tolerable hay 

 in summer, and would be greatly improved by draining. 



H 3 



