STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 27 



are favourable to agriculture. " In the districts of 

 the Inn, of Lower Stiria, of Istria, and of Carniola, 

 the land is of good quality, well cultivated, and very 

 productive. In the last they have two crops in the 

 year ; sowing buckwheat on wheat or rye stub- 

 ble, and millet on that of hemp and flax. They 

 everywhere cultivate Indian corn, and in Stiria (as 

 in Virginia) it forms the ordinary bread of the coun- 

 try." In Bohemia, Moravia, and Galitia,* the soil is 

 uncommonly rich, and, under proper management, 

 would be very productive. Austrian Silesia is less 

 fitted for the production of grain, but excels in for- 

 age and cattle. Hungary, Transylvania, and Croa- 

 tia abound in every species of agricultural produce. 

 Their flocks and pasturage are not inferior to those 

 of the Ukraine ; and wheat, buckwheat, Indian corn, 

 millet, rice, hemp, flax, and tobacco, yield immense 

 harvests to very small degrees of labour. Yet is 

 agriculture far from being in a flourishing condi- 

 tion! Writers on political economy ascribe this 

 fact principally to two causes. 



1st. The degradation and oppression of the la- 

 bouring part of the community ; and, 



2d. The want of convenient commercial outlets 

 for the produce of the soil. 



We shall find in Hungary a striking illustration 

 of the correctness of this opinion. " The Populus 

 Hungaricus" Hungarian population is divided into 

 four estates, the magnats, the nobles, and the cler- 

 gy, who possess all the lands, and the " misera con- 

 tribuens plebs" the wretched contributing people 

 who, besides tithes, rents, and corvees, pay all the 

 taxes. This miserable populace is composed of the 

 burghers and the peasantry, of which there are 

 three kinds, slaves for life, temporary slaves, and a 

 third sort called libera emigrations, who, as their 

 name indicates, have locomotive powers and rights 



* Geographique Math. 

 3 



