344 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



numbers on the vast plains of Hungary. Many large owners, it 

 is said, fatten from one thousand to two thousand head a year. 

 In fact Austria is very largely supplied with beef and mutton, 

 as well as with pork and horses from Hungary. 



Pressburg was the ancient capital of Hungary. We stopped 

 there on the way down, as it lies upon the Danube, and it was 

 gratifying to have a change of scene from the monotony of the 

 level sandy plains through which the river winds. Now we 

 see a spur of the Carpathian mountains, which separate Moravia 

 from Hungary, stretching away to the north, and the sides 

 begin to be covered with vineyards, especially the slopes facing 

 to the south. The crops hitherto have been mostly wheat, 

 barley and oats, though not many of the latter, Indian corn, 

 some pease, potatoes, beets and turnips, and a good deal of 

 lucerne, on places that appeared to be cultivated, but a con- 

 siderable portion of the land lying upon the river is sandy 

 and light, often with long stretches of barren sand, or sand 

 covered with willows and wild wood. Lucerne is evidently 

 indigenous to this region, as it often grows with great luxuriance, 

 even where the cultivation is none of the best, and four and 

 five crops of it are by no means nnfrequent, three and four 

 being almost universally cut either for green fodder or for hay. 

 Many attempts have been made to cultivate lucerne in the 

 United States, but. without satisfactory results. The opinion is 

 that it fails south of Philadelphia, from drought, and at the 

 north, from the severity of winter; but I do not think we suffer 

 more severely from drought than Hungary, if the season, when 

 I was there, was a fair specimen. 



Indian corn is nearly, if not quite, as common in Hungary 

 as in New England, and it is iised much the same as with us, 

 it being often raised to feed out green. It is estimated that the 

 yield amounts to from twenty-five to thirty millions of bushels, 

 though I do not think its cultivation is so carefully or skilfully 

 conducted as with us. In fact I saw but little good cultivation 

 in the country. There was an appearance of neglect. Weeds 

 among cultivated crops were very common, almost universal, 

 even among vineyards that were yielding well, and which, 

 if properly cared for, would doubtless have yielded better. 

 Whether this state of things is at all duo to the i)olitical 



