100 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part V. 



great demand in Vienna, where sacks of them are regularly exposed to sale in the market, 

 alternating with sacks of beans, lentils, kidneybeans, and truffles, {fig. 71. b.) 



638. IVie implements and operations of the agriculture of Austria differ little from those 

 of Saxony. Dr. Bright has given figures of the Hungarian plough and cart {fig. 68.), 

 and blames the mode of depositing the corn in holes in the ground, lined with straw, by 

 which it acquires a strong mouldy smell. Vineyards are carefully dug and hoed, and 

 the shoots of the vines, in places where the winter is severe, laid down and covered with 

 earth to protect them from the frost. Many of the great proprietors are introducing the 

 most improved British implements on their estates, and some have taken ploughmen from 

 this country to instruct the natives in their use. Prince Esterhazy has Engli;;h gardeners, 

 bailiffs, grooms, and other servants. 



639. The forests of the Austnan dominions are chiefly in Hungary, and on the 

 borders of Gallicia, on the Carpathian mountains. They contain all the varieties of needle 

 or pine-leaved, and broad-leaved trees, which are indigenous north of the Rhine. The 

 oaks of Hungary are perhaps the finest in Europe. The forest of Belevar on the 

 Drave was visited by Dr. Bright. It consists chiefly of different species of oak, the 

 most luxuriant he ever beheld. Thousands measured, at several feet above the root, 

 niore than seven feet in diameter ; continue almost of the same size, without throwing out 

 a branch, to the height of thirty, forty, and fifty feet, and are still in the most flourishing 

 and healthy condition. Timber there is of little value, except for the buildings 

 wanted on an estate, or for hoops and wine barrels. In some cases the bark is not even 

 taken from oak trees ; but in others the leaf galls, and the knoppern, or smaller galls, 

 which grow on the calyx of the acorn, are collected and exported for the use of tanners. 



640. The impj-ovement of the agriculture of Austria seems anxiously desired both by 

 the government and the great proprietors. Various legislative measures are accordingly 

 adopted from time to time, societies formed^ and premiums offered. These will no 

 doubt have a certain quantum of effect ; but the radical wants, in our opinion, are inform- 

 ation and taste for comfortable living among the lower classes ; and these can only be 

 remedied by the general diffusion of village schools ; and by establishing easy rates, 

 at which every peasant might purchase his personal liberty, or freedom from the whole or 

 a certain part of the services he is now bound to render his lord. 



Sect. VI. Of the present State of Agriculture in the Kingdom of Poland. 



641. Poland was formerly called the granary of Europe: but this was when its 

 boundaries extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea ; and when the Ukraine and 

 Lithuania were included. At present its limits are so circumscribed, and its arable 

 surface so indifferently cultivated, or naturally so infertile, that the kingdom of Poland 

 strictly speaking, or what is called Vice-regal Poland, furnishes little more corn than 

 supplies its own population. The immense supplies of wheat sent to Dantzic are chiefly 

 from the republic of Cracow, the province both of the kingdom and republic of Gallicia, 

 united to Austria, and from Volhynia and Podolia, now belonging to Russia. 



642. The landed estates are almost every where large, and either belong to the crown, 

 to the nobles, or to religious corporations. One third of the surface of Vice-regal Poland 

 belongs to the crown. Estates are farmed by the proprietors, by means of stewards ; or 

 let out in small portions on the metayer or leibeigener tenure. Tliere are scarcely any 

 rent-paying farmers. Tlie nobles have generally houses on their estates, which they 

 occupy, at least, part of the year; at other periods they are taken care of by the stewards, who 

 are always admitted at the table of their lords, being themselves what is called of noble de- 

 scent. The estates of religious houses are of great extent : they are sometimes let to nobles 

 or others on a corn rent, who generally sublet them ; and in a few cases they are farmed 

 by the corporation. The postmasters on the different main roads invariably rent a con- 

 siderable portion of land for the support of their horses. Many of these are metayers, but 

 some pay a money rent j and there are one or two instances of nobles farming the post. 



643. The houses and qfflces qf these noble postmasters {fig. 72.) afford the only distant resemblance to a 

 British farm-yard, that is to be met with m Poland. The farm-house and farmery of the peasant post- 



