16 FORESTRY IN POLAND. 



remained so long sunk, yet, in the department in question 

 they have nearly everything to learn. Of the use of 

 manure they are almost entirely ignorant ; their common 

 practice is to crop a field till it be exhausted, and then for 

 a few years to abandon it. Their ploughs are scarcely 

 sufficient to penetrate the surface of the ground ; and 

 their fields when reaped, exhibit from this circumstance, 

 as rich a verdure as if they had remained for years 

 unbroken. This ignorance, however, is diminishing every 

 day. Some portions of Poland have been denominated 

 the garden of Europe ; and a period may not be far dis- 

 tant when the term may, with much propriety, be applied 

 to the whole territory. Societies for the encouragement 

 of agriculture have been established in Poland ; and the 

 vast tracts of forests and marshes with which it abounds 

 certainly open up on extensive field for the display of skill 

 and enterprise/ 



