Book I. AGRICULTURE IN POLAND. 103 



economy, as it is the only resource they have to enable them to defray the taxes levied by Russia; and 

 they consider the produce of bees equal to ready money ; wheat, and other species of com, being so very 

 fluctuating in price, some years it being of so little value, that it is not worth the peasant's trouble to gather 

 it in : this has happened in tlie Ukraine, four times in twelve years : but honey and wax having always a 

 great demand all over Europe, and even Turkey, some of the peasants have from four to five hundred ule, 

 or logs of wood in their bee-gardens, which are caWed pasicka, or bee-hives ; these logs are about six feet 

 high, commonly of birch wood, (the bees prefer the birch to any other wood,) hollowed out in the middle 

 for about tive feet; several lamina of thin boards are nailed before the aperture, and but a small hole left 

 in the middle of one of them, for the entrance of the bees. As the bees are often capricious at the begin, 

 ning of their work, frequently commencing it at the front rather than the back, the peasants cover the 

 aperture with a number of these thin boards, instead of one entire board, for fear of disturbing them, 

 should they have begun their work at the front. It may appear extraordinary, but it is nevertheless true, 

 that in some favorable seasons, this aperture of five feet in length, and a foot wide, is full before August ; 

 and the peasants are obliged to take tlie produce long before the usual time, with the view of giving room 

 to the bees to continue their work, so favorable is the harvest some summers. 



642. The process of brewing mead in Poland is very simple : the proportion is three 

 parts of water to one of honey, and 50 lb. of mild hops to 1G?> gallons, which is 

 called a waar, or a brewing. \Vhen the water is boiling, both the honey and hops 

 are thrown into it, and it is kept stirring until it becomes milk warm ; it is then put into 

 3 large cask, and allowed to ferment for a few days ; it is then drawn off into another 

 cask, wherein there has been aqua-vitae, or whisky, bunged quite close, and afterwards 

 taken to the cellars, which in this country are excellent and cool. This mead becomes 

 good in three years time; and by keeping, it improves like many sorts of wine. The 

 mead for immediate drink is made from malt, hops, and honey, in the same proportion, 

 and undergoes a similar process. In Hungary, it is usual to put ginger in mead. There 

 are other sorts of mead in Poland, as wisniak, dereniak, maliniak ; they are made of 

 honey, wild cherries, berries of the cornus mascula, and raspberries ; they all undergo the 

 same process, and are most excellent and wholesome after a few years keeping. The lipiec is 

 made in the same way ; but it contains the honey and pure water only. The honey gathered 

 by the bees from the azalea pontica, at Oczakow, and in Potesia in Poland, is of an in- 

 toxicating nature ; it produces nausea, and is used only for medical purposes, chiefly in 

 rheumatism, scrophula, and eruption of the skin, in wliich complaints it has been attend- 

 ed with great success. In a disease among the hogs called weugry, (a sort of plague 

 among these animals,) a decoction of the leaves and bujds of azalea is given with the 

 greatest effect, and produces almost instantaneous relief. The disease attacks the hogs 

 with a swelling of their throat, and terminates in large hard knots, not unlike the plague, 

 on which the decoction acts as a digestive, abates the fever directly in the first stage, and 

 suppurates the knots. It is used in Turkey, with the same view, the cure of the plague. 



643. Such is Ihejwesent state of agriculture m Poland, as it appeared to us in 1813 ; 

 but it must always be recollected, that it does not include either that of Lithuania, or of 

 Gallicia, which is of a much superior description. Since the middle of the 1 8th century 

 some of the principal Polish nobles have occasionally made efforts for the improvement 

 of the agriculture of their country ; but they have not been designed and directed in the 

 best manner, and what is much worse, not steadily pursued. Splendid wooden houses 

 and villages have been built, and foreign farmers induced to settle and cultivate the lands. 

 In the first heat of the business, all went on well ; but the proprietors soon began to cool, 

 to neglect their new tenants, and leave thetn to the mercy of their stewards, who, in 

 Italy and Poland, are known to be the most corrupt set of men that can be met with. 

 The oppression of these stewards, and the total disregard of their masters to their pro- 

 mises and agreements made to and with these strangers, have either forced the latter to 

 return home, or reduced them to the necessity of becoming servants in the towns, or 

 in Germany ; and we know of instances where it has ruined men of some property 

 There are one or two exceptions ; but we could produce names and dates in proof of the 

 general truth of what we have asserted. The failure of a dairy establishment, and of a 

 brewery, both established before the commencement of the French revolution, is attribut- 

 able to this sort of conduct in the proprietors. 



644. The efforts to introduce a belter culture inta Poland since the ^f^ace, have been 

 more general, and conducted on more moderate and rational principles. British imple- 

 ments have been imported in considerable numbers, and even six or more threshing ma- 

 chines. Improved breeds of cattle and sheep have been procured from Prussia and Saxony ; 

 scientific managers are obtained from the German agricultural schools, and what will contri- 

 bute essentially to improvement, encouragement is given to foreigners to settle by letting or 

 selling the crown lands, at moderate rates, and not only free from all feudal services for ever, 

 but for a certain period exempted from government taxes. Add to this, that the leibeigeners 

 and meyers of every description may buy up the services which they now render their lords^ 

 at very easy rates established by law ; and thus, according to their ambition and means, 

 render themselves partially or wholly free-men. In short, the most judicious measures 

 have been taken by the new government of Poland, for the improvement of the country ; 

 and they have been followed up with considerable vigor by the proprietors. These pro- 

 prietors are now a different and very superior class of men, to what they were fifty or sixty 

 years ago. They have mostly been officers in the French army, and with it traversed the 



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