102 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



Ilamburg. Unfortunately the country has been invaded by the phylloxera ; 

 yet the produce increases from year to year.* The Hungarian wine-grower is 

 superior to the ordinary peasant, but has still much to learn. The white wines 

 bear transport only after they have been " fortified." An " Association of Wine 

 Growers," formed by an Englishman in Transylvania, has done much for the 

 promotion of viticulture. 



The herdsmen, who still hold possession of wide tracts of the Alfold and of 

 the mountain slopes, are being hard pressed by the agriculturists ; but whilst 

 natural pasture-grounds are becomng more and more restricted, artificial meadows 

 and green crops gain in extent, and cattle and sheep increase in numbers, t The 



Fig'. 63. — The Vineyards of Hungary. 



IV/ne Districts 



half-savage oxen, with their tremendous horns, are but rarely seen now, the 

 cattle plague imported by the Eussians in 1849 having destroyed more than 

 400,000 of them. The buffaloes, too, which are employed as beasts of draught, 

 and which, being coarse feeders, are highly valued in a country of swamps, 

 are disappearing. The horses of Hungary are justly valued for their spirit, 

 sure pace, and endurance. The number of sheep has increased at a wonderful 

 rate, and the Magyars, from having been a people of horsemen, have in the 

 course of this century become a people of shepherds. The breeding of pigs is 



* Average produce, 1861—72, 70,935,000 gallons, valued at £3,910,010. 



t In 1870 there weie 1,820,000 horses, 4,43.5,000 head of cattle, 13,826,000 sheep, 3,587,000 pigs, 

 and 404,000 goats. 



