152 
Contincnial Farininrj. 
not free from them. There is every indication tliat farming here 
has gone sadly back since the disturbances. 
This beautiful plain, through whicli the Danube flows, is 
sheltered on the north by the mountains tliat separate Moravia 
from Austria, on the slopes of which vines are grown. This is 
universally the case upon all slopes facing the southern sun. 
The crops produced are wheat, Ijarley, a few oats, maize, peas, 
potatoes, beet, turni])s, lucerne, and clover ; lucerne is indigenous 
throughout the whole of this country. The crops were all light, 
as might be expected, for more than two-thirds of the land is 
under white grain ; and the maize, peas, and green crops are not 
well cleaned nor tilled. 
After passing Presburg we travelled over about eiglity miles 
of fine sandy loam soil, from one to two feet in depth, with a 
few tracts of poor light sand, and wet poor pastures. These 
pastures are grazed by large flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, 
horses, and swine. The quantity of stock is too great, keep- 
ing the grass so short that there is but a bare existence for the 
animals grazed. 
The cattle are large dun Hungarians, or small brown and black 
mountain stock ; the sheep are a mongrel-bred Merino, with no 
disposition to fatten ; the swine a sorry breed indeed. If these 
pastures were drained, they would become useful, and in many 
parts good feeding-land. 
Nearly the whole of the dry land is in tillage, but the farming 
bad : there appears nothing like system in the country, unless it 
be growing grain as long as the land will bear it. If this and 
the former district were enclosed, half the land devoted to green 
crops to be consumed by cattle and sheep, and the land well 
cultivated, there is no doubt that the produce would be doubled, 
or even trebled. As we approached Wartzen station the country 
became more and more hilly, until we reached the chain of hills 
or mountains that runs south from the Carpathian mountains. 
Through this chain the rapid and majestic Danube has worn a 
beautiful valley. The scenery is truly beautiful, the hills rising 
higher and higher, until they reach the mountain-chain. This 
is a mountainous district, with forest-clad slopes and mountains 
on either side, and vineyards cultivated up the slopes where^'e^ 
they face the mid-day sun. We passed along this magnificent 
valley, which varies in width from the mere tract which this rapid 
river has worn through the rocky mountain to many miles. The 
soil is a liglit loam of great capabilities. As we recede from 
the river the land is slightly hilly, the soil light and earthy, 
reduced to poverty by the system of growing white crops too 
frequently. Farming is slovenly and bad. The crops produced 
are wheat, rye, barley, few oats, maize, peas, potatoes, very few 
turnips, clover, and lucerne. All this district is open field, and 
