Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN POLAND. 



101 



master are both included in an immense shed or barn, with a small apartment at one end for the master's 

 dwelling ; the remaining space divided for live stock and implements of every description, and for the 

 cattle, carriages, and lodging-place of travellers who may stop during night. Most of these places are 

 sufficiently wretched as inns ; but in the present state of things they answer very well for the other pur- 

 poses to which they are applied, and are superior to the hovels of the farmers who are not postmasters 

 and who are clustered together in villages, or in the outskirts of towns. Some villages, however, in the 

 south of Poland are almost entirely composed of Jews. There the houses are generally of a superior con- 

 struction {fig. 73.), but still on the same general plan of a living-room at one end of a large barn, the 



main area of which serves for all the purposes of a complete farmery. The buildings in Poland, except 

 those of the principal towns, are constructed of timber and covered with shingles. The sheds and 

 other agricultural buildings are boarded on the sides ; but the cottages arc formed of logs joined by mosS 

 or clay, of frames filled up with wickerwork and clay, or in modes and of materials still more rude. The 

 commonest kind have no chimneys or glass windows. 



644. The climate of Poland, though severe, is much less precarious than that of the 

 south of Germany or of France. A winter of from five to seven months, during the 

 greater part of which time the soil is covered with snow, is succeeded by a rapid spring 

 and warm summer ; and these are followed by a short cold wet autumn. Under such a 

 climate good meadows and pastures cannot be expected ; but arable culture is singularly 

 easy on free soils, which the frost has rendered at once clear from most sorts of weeds and 

 soft and mouldy on the surface. 



645. The surface of Ike vice-regal kingdom of Poland is almost eveiy where level, 

 with scarcely an ascent or descent, except where the courses of the rivers have 

 formed channels below the general level of the country. As these rivers, though 

 in summer they appear small streams, are swollen by the rains of autumn, and the 

 melting of the snow on the Carpathian mountains in the spring, they form large chan- 

 nels, extending over both sides to a great distance ; and their deposit, in many parts, 

 enriches the land, which presents, in the summer, the aspect of verdant and luxuriant 

 meadows. In other parts the periodical swellings of the streams have formed morasses, 

 which, in their present state, are not applicable to any agricultural purposes. The plains, 

 which extend from the borders of one river to another, are open fields with scarcely any 

 perceptible division of the land, and showing scarcely any trees even around the villages. 

 The portion of woodland on these plains is very extensive ; but they are in large masses, 

 with great intervals of arable land between them. (^Jacob's Report on the Trade in Corn, 

 and on the Agriculture of Northern EurojK, 1826, p. 25.) 



646. The soil of Vice-regal Poland is mostly sandy, with an occasional mixture of a sandy 

 loam ; it is very thin, resting chiefly on a bed of granite, through which the heavy rains 

 gradually percolate. Such a soil is easily ploughed; sometimes two horses or two 

 oxen, and not unfrequently two cows, perform this and the other operations of husbandry. 

 {Ibid.) 



647. The southern part of the ancient kingdom of Poland, now forming the republic 

 of Cracow, presents a comparatively varied surface, and a more tenacious and fruitful 

 soil, which produces excellent wheat, oats, and clover. The best wheat of the Dantzic 

 market comes from this district. 



648. The province of Gallicia, a part of the ancient kingdom of Poland, but now 

 added to the dominions of the Austrian empire, in surface, soil, and products, resembles 

 the republic of Cracow. 



649. The landed estates of Vice-regal Poland and the republic, belonging to the nobility 

 of the highest rank, are of enormous extent : but, owing to the system of dividing the 

 land among all the children, unless a special entail secures a majorat to the eldest son 

 (which is, in some few instances, the case), much of it is possessed in allotments, which we 

 should deem large ; but which, on account of their low value, and when compared with 

 those of a few others, are not so. Of these secondary classes of estates, 5 or 6,000 acres 

 would be deemed small, and 30 or 40,000 acres large. There are, besides these, nume- 

 rous small properties, some of a few acres, which, by frequent subdivisions, have descended 

 to younger branches of noble families. The present owners are commonly poor, but too 

 proud to follow any profession but that of a soldier, and prefer to labour in the fields 

 with their ovm hands, rather than to engage in trade of any kind. As titles descended 

 to every son, and are continued through all the successors, the nobility have naturally 



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