Continental Farming. 
149 
reddish colour upon white sand subsoil. In this district the 
fanning is clean, and great economy, industry, and care are 
bestowed on every department. Nature has done but little ; how- 
ever the people make the most of it. A portion of all the green 
crops is folded off by sheep, and the rest consumed by the cows 
in the house, making manure. There are scarcely any horses 
used in this district ; the whole of the work is done by the dairy 
cows, a pair of which walk along with comparative ease drawing 
excellent little ploughs. They appear to work the cows in relays 
of about three hours each pair per day, drawing the manure out, 
the weeds home, soiling tare or clover as they go and return from 
plough. I was told that the exercise was conducive to the secre- 
tion of milk of better quality. I was struck with the mode of yok- 
ing cattle here, viz. a board about six inches wide and two and a 
half feet long, tapering to both ends, Avhere there are hooks similar 
to those used on the ends of our swingle-trees : this board has 
padding under it, and is hung to the horns by two straps, which 
suspend it across the forehead, just below the horns ; the traces 
are attached to the hook at each end of the pusiiing-board. Thus 
the animal has the line of pressure caused by the draught or 
tractions passing straight along the back-bone, pressing its joints 
more closely together. After looking minutely into the working of 
this system, and observing the ease with which tlie cattle drew 
their loads, chewing their cud as they walked along, I became 
convinced that it was the proper mode of yoking oxen. 
1 was surprised at the ease with which two small cows drew 
the plough, working at least six inches deep ; but the soil is very 
light and free. Their ploughs are, probably, the models from 
which the Americans took theirs, being very short and light ; the 
shortness of the mould-board makes them easy in draught, while it 
completely breaks the furrow-slice to pieces in tlie act of turning it, 
so that the implements required to pulverise and prepare the land 
for turnips, after tares and other soiling green crops, are few and 
simple. There is no bare fallow for turnips, &c., in this district : 
two green crops in the season is the rule, also turnips after peas. 
This district extends the whole way to Dresden, from whence 
I travelled by night to Prague, and as far as 1 could see the same 
description of soil and farming continued on the upland for some 
distance. After passing along the side of the Elbe, through the 
mountain up into Bohemia, the soil became various and hilly, the 
farming gradually getting worse until we reached Prague. After 
leaving that town we passed a hilly district, consisting of dry and 
stony soil, and reduced to great poverty by the system of over- 
cropping practised by the farmers who occupy this country. 
They keep the crops tolerably clean, but too much land is sown 
with wheat, rye, and oats, and too little peas, tares, turnips, and 
clover grown. The farms are small and the farmers very poor. 
