either yards, rails, gates, gardens, or other enclosures. They seem to be so much employed in providing the mere necessaries of life, that they have no time to attend to its luxuries. A savage curiously carves the head of his war-spear, or the handle of his hatchet, or he cuts his own face and head into pretty devices; but no German bauer ever paints his carts or his ploughs, or ornaments his agricultural implements." (Vol. i. 246.)

nions.

595. To improve the agriculture of Hanover, Hodgson justly observes, “the simplest and most effectual way would be for government to sell all the domains by auction in good-sized farms, as the Prussian government has done in its newly-acquired domiThis would end in introducing the Northumberland husbandry, to which, according both to Jacobs and Hodgson, the soil and climate are well adapted, and double the present produce would be produced." To these improvements we may suggest another, that of limiting the rank of noble to the eldest son, so as the rest might, without disgrace, engage in agriculture or commerce. This last improvement is equally wanted

for the whole of Germany.

SUBSECT. 5. Present State of the Agriculture of Saxony.

596. The husbandry and state of landed property in Saxony has so much in common with that of Hanover and Prussia, that it will only be requisite to notice the few features in which they differ.

597. The culture of the vine and the silkworm are carried on in Saxony, and the latter to some extent. The vine is chiefly cultivated in the margravate, or county of Theissen, and entirely in the French manner. (407.) The mulberry is more generally planted and chiefly to separate properties, or fields, or fill up odd corners, or along roads, as in the southern provinces of Prussia and Hanover, and in France.

598. The wool of Sarony is reckoned the finest in Germany. There are three sorts, that from the native short-woolled Saxon sheep; that from the produce of a cross between this breed and the Merino; and that from the pure Merino. In 1819, Jacob inspected a flock of pure Merinos, which produced wool that he was told was surpassed by none in fineness, and the price it brought at market. It was the property of the lord of the soil, and managed by the amptman, or farmer of the manorial and other rights. Till the year 1813, it consisted of 1000 sheep; but so many were consumed in that year, first by the French, and next by the Swedes, that they have not been able to replace them further than to 650. The land over which they range is extensive and dry; not good enough to grow flax, but a course of 1. fallow, 2. potatoes, 3. rye or barley, was followed, and the show of the rye and barley with the potatoes, constituted the winter food of the sheep. (Travels, &c. p. 265.)

599. The general rotation of crops in Saxony, according to Jacob, is two corn crops, and a fallow, or two corn crops and pease. There are some exceptions; and cabbages, turnips, and kohl rübe are occasionally to be seen. The plough has two wheels, and is drawn by two oxen; "and sometimes, notwithstanding the Mosaic prohibition, with a horse and a cow." There are some fine meadows on the borders of the brooks near the villages; but they are in general much neglected, and for want of draining yield but coarse and rushy grass. The houses of the farmers are in villages, the largest for the amptman, and the next for the meyers and leibeigeners. "The whole tract of land, from Meissen to within two English miles of Leipsic, is a sandy loam, admirably calculated for our Norfolk four-course system, by which it would be enabled to maintain a great quantity of live-stock, and produce double or treble the quantity of corn it now yields. In the whole distance from Wurzen, about fifteen miles, I saw but three flocks of sheep; two were small, the other, which I examined, consisting of about one thousand ewes, wedders, and tags, belonged to a count, whose name I did not ascertain. As he is lord of a considerable tract of country, the flock has the range of many thousand acres in the summer, and in the winter are fed with chopped straw and potatoes. Upon our system, which might be advantageously introduced, the same quantity of land would maintain ten times as many sheep, and still produce much more corn than it does at present." (Jacob's Travels, 301.)

60. The cows near the villages, between Meissen and Leipsic, were numerous compared with the sheep, but generally looked poor. "As I saw," continues Jacob," no hay or corn-stacks in the whole distance, I had been puzzled to conceive in what manner their cows could be supported through the winter. Upon inquiring, I learnt a mode of keeping them, which was quite new to me, but which I cannot condemn. The land is favorable to the growth of cabbages, and abundant quantities are raised, and form a material article of human sustenance; the surplus, which this year is considerable, is made into sour-krout, with a less portion of salt than is applied when it is prepared as food for man. This is found to be very good for cows, and favorable to the encrease of their milk, when no green food, or any thing but straw can be obtained." (Travels, &c. 303.)

601. The land within two miles of Leipsic is almost wholly in garden-culture, and is vastly productive of every kind of culinary vegetable. The fruit-trees and orchards, notwithstanding many of them showed vestiges of the war, surprised Jacob by their abundance. The inhabitants subsist much less on animal than we do, but a larger quantity of fruit and vegetables is consumed; and hence they have greater inducements to improve their quality, and to encrease their quantity, than exist in those rural districts of Great Britain which are removed from the great towns.

€02. Jacob's opinion of the agriculture of Saxony is, that it is equal to that of Prussia. In one respect he thinks it superior, as no portion of the soil is wholly without some cultivation; but that cultivation is far below what the land requires, and the produce much less than the inhabitants must need for their subsistence.

SUBSECT. 6. Present State of the Agriculture of the Kingdom of Bavaria.

603. Bavaria is one of the most backward countries of Germany, in regard to every kind of improvement. A bigotted and ignorant priesthood, not content with possessing a valuable portion of the lands of the country, have insisted on the expulsion of the protestants, and on the strict observance of the endless holidays and absurd usages which impede the progress of industry among their followers. "Hence a general habit of indolence and miserable backwardness in all arts, and especially in agriculture; and in point of learning, a complete contrast to the north of Germany.' During the electorate of Bavaria, one of its electors, contemporary with Joseph II. of Austria, desirous of introducing improvements, abolished monastic orders in some parts of his dominions; but the people were by no means ripe for such a change, notwithstanding the existence of masonic societies, supposed (but ignorantly) to have rendered them ripe for any sort of revolution.

604. The surface of Bavaria is mountainous toward the south; the ground rising in the direction of the Alps, and containing a number of lakes and marshes, with little that has as yet been brought under tillage. To the northward are extensive plains, and also wooded mountains. Indeed, the greater part of the country is either in mountain or underwood.

605. The crops cultivated are the usual corns, legumes, and roots; but potatoes and turnips are not very common. Excellent wine is produced on the hills; but little silk or maize even in the warmest parts.

606. Improvements, we are told, are now taking place even in Bavaria.

SUBSECT. 7. Present State of the Agriculture of the Empire of Austria.

607. Agriculture is in a very backward state throughout the whole of the Austrian dominions. The soil, surface, and climate are almost every where favorable for husbandry; but the political circumstances of the country, and the ignorance of its inhabitants, which is greater than in most other parts of Germany, have kept it in nearly a fixed state for several centuries. Various attempts have been made during the eighteenth century to improve the condition of the peasantry, and simplify the laws relating to landed property, especially by Joseph II.; but they have produced no effect, chiefly, as it appears, because too much was attempted at once. There are agricultural societies at Vienna, Pesth, Prague, and other places; and a very complete agricultural school or georgicon has been established at Kesztheley in Hungary, by a highly patriotic individual, Graf Festetits. A copious account of it has been given by Dr. Bright (Travels in Hungary, in 1814. 361. et seq.), by which it appears considerably more extensive than those of Hofwyl or Moegelin.

608. The landed property of Austria is under similar circumstances of division and occupation with that of the rest of Germany. Perhaps the number of large estates is greater in proportion to the small properties. In Hungary they are of immense extent, and cultivated almost entirely by their proprietors. "In considering a Hungarian property,' Dr. Bright observes, "we must figure to ourselves a landed proprietor possessing ten, twenty, or forty estates, distributed in different parts of the kingdom, reckoning his acres by hundreds of thousands, and the peasants upon his estates by numbers almost as great; and remember, that all this extent of land is cultivated, not by farmers, but by his own stewards and officers, who have not only to take care of the agricultural management of the land, but to direct, to a certain extent, the administration of justice amongst the people: and we must further bear in mind, that perhaps one-third of this extensive territory consists of the deepest forests, affording a retreat and shelter, not only to beasts of prey, but to many lawless and desperate characters, who often defy, for a great length of time, the vigilance of the police. We shall then have some faint conception of the situation and duties of a Hungarian magnat.'

609. To conduct the business of such extensive domains, a system of officers is formed, and governed by a court of directors; and on well-regulated estates, this band of managers exhibit, in their operations, all the subordination of military, and the accuracy of mercantile concerns. For this purpose an office is established at or near the estate on which the magnat resides, in which a court of directors is held at stated periods, usually once a week. This court consists of a president or plenipotentiary, a director or solicitor, a prefect, auditor, engineer or architect, a fiscal for law affairs, the keeper of the archives, besides a secretary, clerks, &c. Its business is to review all that has taken place on the different estates, whether of an economical or judicial nature, to examine accounts, and regulate future proceedings. The steward of each separate estate

has also a weekly court. It consists of the fiscal or lawyer, the bailiff, the forest master, the engineer, the treasurer, foremen and sub-foremen, police officers to guard prisoners and keep them at work, forest keeper, rangers, and a gaoler. The estates of Prince Esterhazy, which are the largest in Europe; of Graf Festetits, and Prince Ballhyani, are examples of this mode of government and culture; of which it may be observed, that, like many German plans, it is very accurate and systematic, but very unproductive of profit. 610. The crown has immense tracts of lands, especially in Gallicia; and, independently of these, the personal estates of the reigning family amount to upwards of 100,000l. sterling a year, all of which are farmed by stewards. In the Moravian, Bohemian, and Austrian districts, however, where the estates are not so large as in Hungary, and the people rather in better circumstances as to property and knowledge, they are frequently farmed on the meyer system.

611. The Austrian dominions, like the rest of Germany, are unenclosed, with the usual exceptions; the farm-houses and cottages are usually built of wood, and thickly covered with thatch or with shingles. The cottages are remarkably uniform in Hungary, and village scenery there, according to Dr. Bright, must be the dullest in Europe. Not less so is their cultivated plains: speaking of a plain near Presburg, he says, "The peasants were employed in ploughing the land, and my driver (fig. 71.) cheered the way by a Sclavonian song. But let no one be induced, by these expressions, to figure to his imagination a scene of rural delight. The plain is unenlivened by trees, unintersected by hedges, and thinly inhabited by human beings; a waste of arable land, badly cultivated, and

yielding imperfect crops to proprietors, who are scarcely conscious of the extent of territory they possess. It is for some branch of the families of Esterhazy or Palfy, known to them only by name, that the Sclavonian peasants who inhabit these regions are employed. Their appearance bespeaks no fostering care from the superior,- no independent respect, yielded with free satisfaction from the inferior. It is easy to perceive that all stimulus to invention, all incitement to extraordinary exertion, is wanting. No one peasant has proceeded in the arts of life and civilisation a step farther than his neighbor. When you have seen one, you have seen all. From the same little hat, covered with oil, falls the same matted long black hair, negligently plaited, or tied in knots; and over the same dirty jacket and trowsers is wrapped on each a cloak of coarse woollen cloth, or sheepskin still retaining its wool. Whether it be winter or summer, week-day or sabbath, the Sclavonian of this district never lays aside his cloak, or is seen but in heavy boots. 612 Their instruments of agriculture (fig. 72.) are throughout the same; and in all their habitations is observed a perfect uniformity of design. A wide, muddy road separates two rows of cottages,

which constitute a vil

lage. From amongst them, there is no possibility of selecting the best or the worst; they are absolutely uniform. In some villages the cottages present their ends; in others, their sides to the road; but there is seldom this variety in the same village. The in

terior of the cottage is in

general divided into three small rooms on the ground floor, and a little space in the roof destined for lumber. The roof is commonly covered with a very thick thatch; the walls are white-washed, and pierced towards the road by two small windows. The cottages are usually placed a few yards distant from each other. The intervening space, defended by a rail and gate, or a hedge of wicker-work towards the road, forms the farm-yard, which runs back some way, and contains a shed or outhouse for the cattle. Such is the outward appearance of the peasant and his habitation. The door opens in the side of the house into the middle room, or kitchen, in which is an oven, constructed of clay, well calculated for baking bread, and various implements for household purposes, which generally occupy this apartment fully. On each side of the room is a door, communicating On one hand with the family dormitory, in which are the two windows that look into the road. This chamber is usually small, but well arranged; the beds in good order, piled upon each other, to be spread out on the floor at night; and the walls covered with a multiplicity of pictures and images of our Saviour, together with dishes, plates, and vessels of coarse The other door from the kitchen leads to the store-room, the repository of the greater part of the peasant's riches, consisting of bags of grain of various kinds, both

earthenware.

H

for consumption and for seed, bladders of tallow, sausages, and other articles of provision, in quantities which it would astonish us to find in an English cottage. We must, however, keep in mind, that the harvest of the Hungarian peasant anticipates the income of the whole year; and, from the circumstances in which he is placed, he should rather be compared with our farmer than our laborer. The yards or folds between the houses are usually much neglected, and are the dirty receptacles of a thousand uncleanly objects. Light carts and ploughs (fig. 72.), with which the owner performs his stated labor, his meagre cattle, - a loose rudely formed heap of hay, and half a dozen ragged children, stand there in mixed confusion; over which three or four noble dogs, of a peculiar breed, resembling in some degree the Newfoundland dog, keep faithful watch." (Trav. in Hung. &c. 19.) 613. The agricultural produce of Austria is the most varied of any part of Germany. Excellent wheat is cultivated in Gallicia, where the soil is chiefly on limestone, and in the adjoining province of Buckowine; and from both immense quantities are sent down the Vistula to Dantzic. Wheat, rye, and all the other corns, are grown alike in every district, and the quantity might be greatly encreased if there were a sufficient demand. Maize is cultivated in Hungary and Transylvania; millet in Hungary, Sclavonia, and Carinthia; and rice in the marshy districts of Temeswar. Tobacco is extensively cultivated in Hungary, and excellent hops are produced in Moravia and Bohemia. It is estimated that about a sixth part of the Austrian dominions is under tillage. The most common rotation is two corn crops, and fallow or rest.

614. The vine is cultivated to the greatest extent in Hungary. The well known Tokay is raised on the last chain of the Carpathian hills in the neighborhood of the town of Tokay. The district extends over a space of about twenty English miles. "Throughout the whole of this country it is the custom to collect the grapes which have become dry and sweet, like raisins, whilst hanging on the trees. They are gathered one by one; and it is from them alone that the prime Tokay, or, as it is termed, Tokay Ausbruch, is prepared, which, in 1807, sold for 100 florins the cask of 180 halbes on the spot. They are first put together in a cask, in the bottom of which holes are bored to let that portion of the juice escape which will run from them without any pressure. This, which is called Tokay essence, is generally in very small quantity, and very highly prized. The grapes are then put into a vat, and trampled with the bare feet, no greater pressure being permitted. To the squeezed mass is next added an equal quantity of good wine, which is allowed to stand for twenty-four hours, and is then strained. This juice, without further preparation, becomes the far-famed wine of Tokay, which is difficult to be obtained, and sells in Vienna at the rate of 12. sterling per dozen. The greater part of these vineyards is the property of the emperor; several, however, are in the hands of nobles." (Bright's Travels.)

615. Another species of Hungarian wine, called Méneser, is said to equal Tokay; next to that in value comes the wines of Edenburg, Rusth, St. Gyorgy, and Ofen, followed by a great variety, whose names are as various as the hills which produce them. The grape which is preferred for making the Tokay and other Hungarian wines of that character, is a small black or blue grape, figured and described by Sickler in his Garten Magazine of 1804, as the Hungarian blue.

616. Plums are cultivated, or rather planted and left to themselves; and an excellent brandy is distilled from the fermented fruit.

617. The culture of silk is in the least florishing state in Hungary; but succeeds well. in Austria and Moravia. That of cotton was tried, but left off chiefly on account of the unfavorableness of the autumns for ripening the capsules. The mountain rice (Oryza mutica), from the north of China, was cultivated with success, but neglected during the late wars. "The greatest advantages which it promised arose from the situations in which it would florish, and the fact of its not requiring marshy lands, which are so destructive to the health of those who are engaged in the cultivation of common rice." The rhus cotinus is extensively collected from the wastes, and used as a tanning plant, especially in the preparation of morocco leather. Woad is cultivated as a substitute for indigo; the cyperus esculentus (fig. 73 a.), and the astragalus boeticus, (b), as substitutes for coffee; the seeds of the latter, and the tubers of the former, being the parts used. The acer campestre, platanoides, and pseudo-platanus, have been tapped for sugar, and the A. saccharinum extensively cultivated for the same purpose, but without any useful result. It was found cheaper

to make sugar from the grape. The culture of coffee, olives, indigo, and other exotics, has been tried, but failed.

618. The rearing and care of bees was much attended to during the latter part of the eighteenth century. A public school was opened at Vienna, and some in the provinces; and great encouragement was given to such as kept hives. Some proprietors in Hungary possessed 300 stock-hives. It is customary there to transport them from place to place, preferring sites where buckwheat or the lime-tree abounds. The honey, when procured, is greatly encreased in value by exposure to the open air for some weeks during winter; it then becomes hard, and as white as snow, and is sold to the manufacturers of liquors at a high price. The noted Italian liqueur, rosoglio, made also in Dantzic, is nothing more than this honey blanched by frost, and spirit: though the boney used is said to be that of the lime-tree, which is produced only in the forests of that tree near Kowno on the Niemen, and sells at more than three times the price of common honey.

619. The live stock of Austria consists of sheep, cattle, horses, pigs, and poultry. Considerable attention has lately been paid to the breeding of sheep, and the Merino breed has been introduced

on the government estates, and those of the great pro prietors. The original Hungarian sheep (Ovis strepsiceros) (fig.74.) bears upright spiral horns, and is covered with a very coarse wool. "Improvement on this stock by crosses," Dr. Bright informs us," is become so general, that a flock of the native race is seldom to be met with, excepting on the estates of religious establishments." Baron Giesler has long cultivated the Merino breed in Moravia. In Hun

gary, Graf Hunyadi has

74

His flock,

paid great and successful attention to them for upwards of twenty years. when Dr. Bright saw it in 1814, amounted to 17,000, not one of which whose family he could not trace back for several generations, by reference to his registers.

620. The horned cattle of the Austrian dominions are of various breeds, chiefly Danish and Swiss. The native Hungarian breed are of a dirty white color, large, vigorous, and active, with horns of a prodigious length. The cow is deficient in milk; but where dairies are established, as in some places near Vienna, the Swiss breed is adopted.

621. The Hungarian horses have long been celebrated, and considerable attempts made from time to time to improve them by crosses with Arabian, English, and Spanish breeds; and, lately, races have been established for this purpose. The imperial breeding shed, or huras of Mezõhegyes, established in 1783, upon four commons, is the most extensive thing of the kind in Europe. It extends over nearly 50,000 acres; employs 500 persons; and contains nearly 1000 breeding mares of Besarabian, Moldavian, Spanish, or English extraction.

622. The breed of swine in some parts of Hungary is excellent.

623. Poultry are extensively reared near Vienna, and also frogs and snails. Townson has described at length the method of treating these reptiles, and of feeding geese for their livers. (Travels in Hungary in 1796.)

624. The land tortoise likewise occurs in great numbers in various parts of Hungary, more particularly about Fuzes-Gyarmath, and the marshes of the river Theiss; and being deemed a delicacy for the table, is caught and kept in preserves. The preserve of Kesztheley encloses about an acre of land, intersected by trenches and ponds, in which the animals feed and enjoy themselves. In one corner was a space separated from the rest by boards two feet high, forming a pen for snails. The upper edge of the boards was spiked with nails an inch in height, and at intervals of half an inch, over which these animals never attempt to make their way. This snail (Heliz pomatia) (fig. 75 a.) is in