14 FORESTRY IN POLAND. 



it must be at least 50 per cent, superior to the Govern- 

 ments of St. Petersburg and of Pskoff. 



In Poland both wheat and wool are raised for exporta- 

 tion. Large crops of potatoes are raised for the production 

 of spirits by distillation, and beetroot for the manufacture 

 of sugar; and wood for building purposes is exported 

 largely. The Scots fir (Pinus sylvestris), and the oak 

 ( Quercus robur), are of very superior quality. 



In this district we also find the trees to be different in 

 kind from what they were in the region traversed in 

 coming hither. While in the first stages of the journey 

 they were chiefly and almost exclusively firs, and birches, 

 and willows, here, around Berdicheff, in Poland, we find 

 the woods composed in a great measure of oaks, and elms, 

 and chestnuts ; and the forest aspect is completely 

 different. 



In the south-east corner of Poland, and in the adjacent 

 districts of Russia known as Little Russia, there are con- 

 siderable stretches of forest land overgrown by a wild pear 

 tree. The fruit is not edible, either when green or ripe ; 

 but it is gathered and steeped in the Russian beverage 

 called quass the common drink of the peasantry and 

 it is sold extensively throughout Russia as steeped pears, 

 and is greatly in demand by the peasants. 



Qaass is prepared by pouring hot water upon broken, 

 dry, black rye bread, a little yeast is added, and in some 

 cases a little peppermint, and it is allowed to fer- 

 ment. 



Herds of swine are in the summer time turned out into 

 the woods, where they become little better than wild boars. 

 In November they are driven home, killed and frozen, and 

 sent to the northern districts of Russia to be sold as frozen 

 pork. 



By Naumann, in his Geognosie, ii. p. 1173, it is stated: 

 ' Olkuez and Schiewier, in Poland, lie in two sand deserts, 

 and a boundless plain of sand stretches around Ozeustac- 

 kaur, on which there grows neither tree nor shrub. In 

 heavy winds this place resembles a rolling sea, and the 



