ST. PETERSBURG TO POLAND. 13 



of these, known as Motckenet*, is prepared by being steeped 

 for some time, and dried, to facilitate the removal of the 

 skin or bark, technically called silica, and other material 

 from the long woody fibre of which flax consists ; the other 

 of these, called Slanetz > is bleached by exposure to rain 

 and dew, or artificial sprinkling of water, and the sunshine. 

 The former is white, the latter is dark in colour ; and the 

 latter frequently gives trouble to the merchant by heating 

 through fermentation about the season at which the plant 

 flowers. 



At Kovno, about 200 miles beyond Dunsburg, we enter 

 Poland, and advancing through the eastern portion of that 

 country, the traveller remarks that agriculture appears to 

 be carried on with more of a scientific character than in 

 the lands through which he has been passing, both on the 

 further and on the hither side of Dunsburg ; the houses 

 are more regularly built ; the villages have more of a 

 European aspect, but the houses resembling more those of 

 Austria than those of Northern Germany, and the simi- 

 larity may be traced also in the laying out of the fields : 

 but by this one is reminded more of the arable lands of 

 Bavaria and other countries of Southern Germany than of 

 what is seen in Austria. 



In North Germany the land is level, and there is no 

 end of ditches or open drains. Here it is more undulat- 

 ing, and these are less frequent. Agriculture seems also 

 to be more remunerative than in the lands traversed, the 

 crops stand thicker in the ground, and surface draining 

 appears to be uncalled for. The fields are sown with 

 wheat, whereas to the north of Kovno, there were to be 

 seen only barley, oats, and flax. All the more valuable 

 cereals seem to flourish in Poland, and in passing through 

 this district there is produced an impression that the soil 

 is more productive than it is further to the north ; that 

 the climate must be more equable; and the superficial 

 aspect of the land being more undulating, and at the same 

 time more thickly wooded, that as an agricultural district 



