102 



HISTORY OF i^GRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



634. The implements and operations are incredibly rude. We have seen lands plough- 

 ed (after their manner) by one cow, tied by the horns to a sharpened pole ; in other 

 instances a pair of oxen drag a wretched xn * '?8 



implement {Jig. 78. ) formed by the peasant, 

 who is in all cases his own plough and 

 wheel-wright, as well as liouse carpenter 

 and builder. Their best or usual plough 

 has no mould-board; and the crop is in 

 many cases more indebted to the excellence 

 of the soil, and the preceding winter's 

 frost, than to the farmer. Horses are their 

 general beasts of labor ; their harness is very rude, often of straw ropes, and twisted 

 willow shoots. The body of their best mar- _ ^s,^ _ 79 



ket carts, in which even the lesser nobles 

 visit each other, are of wicker-work {fig' 79.), 

 and the axle and wheels are made without 



any iron. 



635. The live stock consists chiefly of iJ 

 horses : there are few oxen ; not many 

 cows, and very few sheep. Poultry are > 

 abundant, and swine ; but the latter of the 

 yellow long-legged breed. The horses are very hardy animals, and of better shapes than 

 might be expected from their treatment. Warsaw and Cracow are supplied with beef 

 and veal, chiefly from the Ukraine. Mutton is little used. 



636. The extensive forests of Poland are little attended to, excepting on the banks of 

 the principal rivers, and where oak abounds, from which bark and wheel spokes may be 

 procured. These are cut over regularly at intervals, and standards left in the usual way. 

 The wild or Scotch pine forests, are the most extensive ; these perpetuate themselves 

 by semination ; and the trees are often so crowded as to be of little use but as fuel. The 

 chief proprietor of these forests is the crown, and the religious corporations, who, 

 whenever they can find purchasers, are glad to let them thin out the best trees at a certain 

 j'ate, and float them down the nearest stream, to the Vistula Pregel or Niemen. A good 

 deal has been said about the importance of felling timber at particular seasons. In Po- 

 land, the operation generally takes place in summer, but not, as far as we could learn, 

 from any regard to the effect on the timber. The trees are often notched half through a 

 year or two before, in order to obtain rosin. The other products of forests, as fuel, char- 

 coal, ashes, hoops, poles, &c. are obtained in the usual manner. Game is abundant in 

 them, and bears, polecats, &c. are to be seen in some places. 



637. The management of bees is a material article in the forest culture of Po- 

 land. The honey is divided into three classes, namely lipiec, leszny, and stepowey 

 prasznymird, thus described by How. {Geii. Rep. Scot, app.) 



638, iip^^c is gathered by the bees from the lime-tree alone, and is considered on the Continent most 

 valuable, not only for the superiority of its flavor, but also for the estimation in which it is held as an 

 arcanum, in pulmonary complaints, containing very little wax, and being consequently less heating in its 

 nature ; it is as white as milk, and is only to be met with in the lime-forests, in the neighborhood of the 

 town of Kowno, in Lithuania. The great demand for this honey occasions it to bear a high price, inso- 

 much, that a small barrel, containing hardly one pound weight, has been known to sell for two ducats on 

 the spot. This species of the lime-tree is peculiar to the province of Lithuania ; and is quite different from 

 all the rest of the genus tiha, and is called Kamienna lipsa, or stone-lime. The inhabitants have no 

 regular bee-hives about Kowno ; every peasant who is desirous of rearing bees, goes into the forest and 

 district belonging to his master, without even his leave, makes a longitudinal hollow, aperture or apertures 

 in the trunk of a tree, or in the collateral branches, about three feet in length, one foot broad, and about 

 a foot deep, where he deposits his bees, leaves them some food, but pays very little further attention to 

 them, until late in the autumn ; when, after cutting out some of their honey, and leaving some for their 

 maintenance, he secures the aperture properly with clay and straw against the frost and inclemency of the 

 approaching season ; these tenements (if they may be so called), with their inhabitants, and the produce 

 of their labor, are then become his indisputable property ; he may sell them, transfer them ; in short, he 

 may do whatever he pleases with them ; and never is it heard that any depredation is committed on them, 

 (those of the bear excepted). In Poland, the laws are particularly severe against robbers or destroyers 

 of this property, punishing the offender, when detected, by cutting out the navel, and drawing out his 

 intestines round and round the very tree which he has robbed. 



639. JVhen spring arrives, the proprietor goes again to the forest, examines the bees, and ascertains 

 whether there is sufficient food left, till they are able to maintain themselves ; should there not be a suf- 

 ficient quantity, he deposits with them as much as he judges necessary till the spring blossom appears. 

 If he observes that his stock has not decreased by mortality, he makes more of these apertures in the colla- 

 teral branches, or in the trunk of the tree, that in case the bees should swarm in his absence, they may 

 have a ready asylum. In the autumn he visits them again, carries the June and July work away with 

 him, which is the lipiec, and leaves only that part for their food which was gathered by them before the 

 commencement, and after the decay of the flowering of the lime-tree. 



640. The leszny, the next class (tf honey, which is inferior in a great degree to the lipiec, being only for 

 the common mead, is that of the pine forests ; the inhabitants of which make apertures in the pine-trees, 

 similar to those near Kowno, and pay the same attention, in regard to the security of the bees, and their 

 maintenance. The wax is also much inferior in quality j it requires more trouble in the bleaching, and is 

 only made use of in the churches. 



641. The third class of honey is the stepowey prasxnymird, or the honey from meadows or places where 

 there is an abundance of perennial plants, and hardly any wood. The province of Ukraine produces the very 

 best, and also the very best wax. In that province the peasants pay particular attention to this branch of 



