198 Variation in the Price and Supply of Wheat. 
The following sketches and statistics, condensed from Consular 
Reports, will not, it is hoped, be thought too voluminous by 
those who are specially interested in the resources of foreign 
agriculture. 
Agriculture of Poland. 
WAIISAW, May Wi, 1862. (From Colonel Stantok's Consular Report.) 
— The navigation of the Polish rivers is sometimes so bad that corn does not 
get to Dantzig until two or three months later than usual, at increased cost. 
In 1862 little corn was moved on account of the low state of the rivers from 
drought. The rivers Bug, Narew, and Vistula, are closed by ice from October 
till April. The bed of the Vistula is liable to be blocked by sand banks, 
shifting during the winter floods and stopping navigation at low water. 
Steamers ascend to Vangrod ; there is no trafBc above Warsaw except for 
rafts, which descend the stream. One-third of the wheat exported from 
Dantzig comes from Prussian Poland, two-thirds from Prussian territory. It 
is brought in flat-bottomed boats, holding 200 quarters, made with a fir-tree 
for a keel, with hurdles and mats to keep the com from the leaky sides. These 
vessels are knocked up and sold at Dantzig. The cost of river-carriage is 4s. to 
10s. per quarter, according to distance, in ordinary times ; but greater when 
there is an unusual demand. 
" In bad seasons there is hardly enough com to feed the population. In 
good seasons the exports of wheat to Dantzig arc from 200,0L>0 to 400,000 
quarters. 
Although considerable progress in the system of farm.ing has been made 
during late years, and modern improvements in farm im[)lenients have been 
introduced by means of the large landed proprietors, the state of agriculture 
generally throughout the kingdom of Poland is lamentably backward. With 
reference to Western Europe, and in bad seasons, the produce of the soil is 
barely sufficient to meet the demands of the population, which only averages 
127 persons to the square geographical mile. 
The great difficulty in the way of introducing, generally throughout the 
country an imjiroved system of agriculture, is to be found in the large number 
of peasants holding land, and the obstinacy with which this totally uneducated 
class clings to the system handed down to them, and refuses to adopt any 
changes in that system, which, having been a]iproved of by their forefathers, 
must, in their opinion, be superior to any other that can be proposed, and 
so strong is their feeling that even the actual evidence of the advantages gained 
by those who have abandoned the old routine, has not hitherto been sufficient 
to induce them to abandon their old-fashioned notions. 
This old system which still prevails to so great an extent, and which has 
been described by Mr. Jacobs, leaves one-third of the land fallow every year, 
the remaining two-thirds being sown in the autumn with wheat, on such 
portions as can be maniu'ed, and the remainder with rye, these being followed 
with crops of oats, barley, peas, &c. 
In the parts of the country where this old-fashioned system has been 
modified, potatoes, beet, and other roots, have been grown on the portions 
formerly allotted to fallow, and various rotations of crops with a difierent 
system of cultivation and of manuring, and with the introduction of artificial 
grasses, have been followed out, much to the benefit of the produce of the 
country. 
