244 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
rious is drought to them, that they languish or 
die all around a spot where there is a rise of a 
few feet above the level of the surrounding soil. 
In these spots they have tried with success the 
plan of setting the plants in the bottom of a 
trench, so as to bring the roots of the locust 
nearer the subsoil, where a certain degree of 
moisture is always kept up. Lucerne also suc¬ 
ceeds well here. The woods of this estate are 
the first that I have met with since I left Pres- 
burg. I was disappointed by not seeing some 
plantations of the Scotch Fir, (Pinus sylvestris .) 
They have, I was informed, been tried, but 
without success, since it is said they do not re¬ 
sist the dryness of the soil. But in the depths 
of large forests, where the drought could not be 
so great, I have not observed that they were any 
better. Attempts to raise resinous trees from 
seeds should be re-commenced, notwithstanding 
this first abortive attempt. I have seen none 
of the button-ball, one of the trees which suc¬ 
ceeds best in sandy ground. All around where 
the sand has not been collected into heaps by 
the violence of the winds, or on hills rendered 
barren by dryness, the Canadian poplar and the 
White poplar of Holland, spring up and grow 
luxuriantly. These terrible drifts have des¬ 
troyed 560 acres of Rye this year, by raising 
the sand and smothering the crop effectually. 
The work is performed with the plow already 
referred to, called Zugmayer. Threshing ma¬ 
chines brought from Vienna are apparently 
worthless, for they are never used. The reap¬ 
ing is done with a sickle. The reapers receive 
the fifth of the crop, both grain and straw, as 
compensation for their labor. The gathering in 
is done afterwards by the peasants of the vicin¬ 
ity, who bring their horses for this purpose. 
They receive as compensation one-eleventh part 
of the crop, grain and straw. These charges 
appeared to me exhorbitantly high, and it would 
be very advantageous to use in such cases Mc¬ 
Cormick’s reaper, which I have seen at Vienna, 
and good Scotch machines for thrashing the 
grain—they would soon save the price paid for 
them. The fields of this estate are submitted 
to a rotation, which embraces, the first year, 
spring vetches mixed with oats, manured ; sec¬ 
ond, wheat or rye, but more commonly rye; 
third, potatoes without manure—the tops look 
well, without any appearance of disease—fourth, 
rye, with which is sown lucerne wdfich lasts five 
years, or better, saintfoin, which will last three 
years. They take care to alternate these, to 
avoid the too frequent recurrence of the same 
plant on the same soil. A portion of the po¬ 
tato ground is cropped with maize for fodder, 
as well as for grain. A portion of that appro¬ 
priated to the vetches is afterwards sown with 
millet for similar purposes. 
The estate is divided into seven large farms, 
containing a total of about 21,000 acres, which 
maybe classified in the following manner: Cul¬ 
tivated land, 14,350 acres; pasture and waste 
ground, 3300 acres ; meadow, 1100 acres; 
woods, 2250 acres, and ground occupied by 
hedges and roads, about 300 acres. 
The crops raised this year embrace rye, wheat, 
barley, oats, millet for seed, potatoes, maize cul¬ 
tivated for the grain, lucerne and saintfoin, 
vetches, and other fodder crops, grass and miscel¬ 
laneous seeds, with natural pasture and some 
woodland There is a large portion of the remain¬ 
der in fallow, or thrown open to the cattle after 
having produced a crop of rye or oats, both with¬ 
out manure; these pasture fields supply very 
little nutriment to the flocks. 
Two hundred and eighty heads of families 
are emploj'ed and lodged by the year, but on 
account of the scarcity of lodgings a portion of 
these families are accommodated by placing 
two in a large room. These heads of families 
are separated into two classes, laborers and 
under-laborers. Each first-class laborer has the 
charge of one of the second class. Their 
wages is the same; they each receive 70 francs 
in money. Those of the first class have the 
use of a cow with the right of pasture, and an 
allowance of fodder during the winter; the ma¬ 
nure of the cow belongs to the farm. The 
second-class workmen have no cattle, but are 
permitted to keep fowls and pigs. Each house¬ 
hold constructs a shelter for its own animals, 
half under ground and thatched with straw. 
Each family receives about 40 bushels of rye, 
and two stores of wood, with permission to 
gather dead wood from the forest. Each work¬ 
man has a little garden, and a larger lot to raise 
their supply of maize, potatoes, cabbages for 
sour crout, and other vegetables. This lot is a 
portion of a field set apart for the purpose, the 
same field never being chosen two years in suc¬ 
cession. 
The unmarried sons of the first-class work¬ 
men constitute a large portion of the second 
class. When required, the females and children 
who can work, are employed and paid according 
to their strength. Every season day laborers 
from Galicia come to assist in haymaking and 
reaping. When they arrive, worn out with fa¬ 
tigue and hunger, it is a difficult matter for them 
to procure work immediately, but after a few 
months sojourn they become quite refreshed.— 
Their wages is about 18 cents per day with an 
allowance of meat, potatoes, millet, bread and 
brandy. One of them acts as cook for the 
others. The overseers of this estate though all 
Hungarians, commend the German laborers for 
their industry, while they do not extend this 
praise to the natives of Galicia and the Slavic 
workmen. 
The stock of the farm consists of 10,000 sheep 
and 200 horned cattle, of which 60 are cows and 
140 heifers. Some of these animals never enter 
a stable. In winter their hay and straw is scat¬ 
tered on the snow. The calves suck their dams 
as long as they have milk, but they suffer se¬ 
verely in winter from intense cold, and in sum¬ 
mer from the drouth and heat which parches 
the grass, as well as from the flies which annoy 
them much; they grow so slowly that young 
oxen cannot be driven in the team before the 
age of 5 or 6 years. Two hundred and thirty 
oxen and twenty-four draft horses are kept on 
this estate. The breeding stables, not quite 
completed, contain fifty mares, twenty of which 
are of pure Arab or English blood, four stallions 
and thirty yearling foals. Including the jmung 
of various ages, the number of animals in the 
breeding stables amounts to nearly 200. The 
allowance of oats for a mare is 8 quarts, and for 
a foal four. The breeding stable is provided 
with a covered shed where the young horses are 
trained. The duke selects those of the young 
horses which are fit for his private use ; the re¬ 
maining ones are sold at Vienna. The groom 
who manages these stables—a Prussian by birth 
—has been hero but two years; he also acts as 
Veterinary surgeon for all the cattle of the es¬ 
tate. 
On the Embellishment of Dwelling Houses and 
their Enclosures. 
(Continued from page 228.) 
Let me, for the illustration of my remarks, 
draw two pictures of scenes which are of fre¬ 
quent occurrence. When passing through a 
country village, we may observe on a slight ele¬ 
vation, a few rods back from the street, a plain 
square cottage. As it never was painted, the 
dark stone-color of its walls pleasantly harmo¬ 
nizes with the green lawn in front and on each 
side of the house. This is kept constantly shorn 
by a few cows, that are allowed to graze upon 
it after returning from pasture. No fence en¬ 
closes this beautiful plat of verdure, which is 
shaded by three large trees. Beneath one of 
them is a well, with a plain unadorned curb. In 
the rear of the house a load of wood is neatly 
piled against the rugged stone wall. On the 
smooth shaven green around the house there is 
an absence of all litter. The fruit trees in the 
near orchard are thrifty in their appearance, and 
the branches which have been lopped from them 
are cut up for fuel, and thrown into a conical 
heap a few steps from the back door. The 
barn-yard is covered with straw, and gives evi¬ 
dence that some neat hand has been industrious 
with the hoe and the shovel. The cows and 
cattle are sleek and clean, and the pigs are 
neatly penned at the further side of the barn. 
A footpath winds along from the street to the 
front door, and another is seen in the rear of the 
house leading to the field or garden. There is 
neither paint nor whitewash any where to be 
seen; yet every beholder would point to the 
place as a pattern of neatness and comfort. 
Let us now examine the other picture. A 
prim white fence surrounds the white painted 
house, enclosing a narrow strip of land on each 
side, which is crowded with exotic shrubbery. 
A graveled walk, half covered with knot grass, 
leads from the street to the front door. Beneath 
the shrubbery, the soil, which seems to have 
been dug up in the spring, has been planted 
with a variety of annuals, that grow in disorder, 
half concealed by a crowded assemblage of 
weeds. Flowers, weeds and shrubbery, briars, 
evergreens and faded stalks, are yellow with 
dust from the street. The rosebushes, which 
had once been trained against the verandah, 
have fallen down, and, in spite for the neglect 
they suffer, tear the dresses of women and chil¬ 
dren as they pass out of the house. 
The stiff spruces and firs, that stand like sen- 
tinals at each corner, are as dusty as a soldier 
who has performed a day’s journey over the 
highway. A dirty hen-coop and pig-sty, each 
with a prim white fence, blend their perfumes 
with that of the roses, the tiger lilies, and the 
hollyhocks, that show their dingy faces through 
the weeds and stubble. The grass around the 
house has rotted in a blackish semi-circle under 
the back windows, where the slops, apple pa¬ 
rings and potato cuttings have been thrown out 
by the labor-saving housewife. Upon the shrub¬ 
bery under the windows numerous threads and 
narrow strips of linen and calico are thickly sus¬ 
pended, like the long moss that hangs from the 
maples in our swamps. The enclosures, which 
must have been originally laid out and planted 
at considerable expense, resemble a dandjq who, 
having been suddenly overtaken by poverty, has 
continued to wear his costly garments until 
they are miserably soiled and ragged. 
I do not suppose that the inmates of these fini¬ 
cal and showy houses are less disposed to be 
neat in their habits than the inmates of houses 
of a more humble appearance. But it may be 
safely asserted that when a dwelling-house is 
surrounded by a' mingled mass of flowers and 
shrubbery, its enclosures, without extraordinary 
painstaking, cannot be preserved in so neat a 
condition as one surrounded by a clear open 
lawn. I know that the practice of surrounding 
one’s house with a fence enclosing a narrow 
yard, and of filling it with all kinds of shrubbery, 
