Some idea of the extraordinary care bestowed by the great landed proprietors on the improvement of their flocks may be formed from the following brief sketch of the system pursued by Count Hunyadi, who possesses about seventeen thousand sheep.
At each of the head-quarters for these animals, there are well-built sheds having brick pillars at certain distances, which leave about half the side open, and thus admit a free circulation of air during summer, and afford easy means of excluding the cold in winter. The height of the sheds is about seven feet to the springing of the roof, and they are divided by little racks into such spaces as are necessary for the division among the flocks. Racks are also arranged round the whole, so that all the sheep can conveniently feed at them. The floor is covered with straw, and the upper layer being continually renewed, a dry, warm bedding is obtained. In these houses the sheep are kept almost incessantly during the winter, that is, from November till April, and are then fed three times a day upon dry food. They are watered twice a day from a well close at hand. Even in summer the sheep are driven under cover every evening, and they are conducted home in the day-time, when it rains or the heat is oppressive. They always lamb in the house; the ewe being placed on this occasion in a little pen by herself, where she remains unmolested. These pens, about three feet long and two wide, are made of hurdles. Owing to this care they never lose a lamb. The number of persons employed is about one man to every hundred sheep, and each of them considers his flock as his family and pride.
The result of all this attention has been a success which could scarcely have been anticipated. A conception can hardly be formed of flocks more uniformly excellent. It is of course the wool and not the carcase, which is the great object in a country so poor and so thinly peopled as Hungary. The sheep are strong and healthy, and for the Spanish cross large; their fleeces perfect, and even the tail and legs covered with good wool. Three pounds, (about three pounds and three quarters of our weight) is the average produce of each sheep: but some, and particularly the rams, yield six or seven. The whole of the wool, without any separation, and only washed on the back of the sheep, is sold at the rate of from three shillings to four shillings and sixpence sterling for each Hungarian pound; and the consequence is that from flocks, which, if covered with the ordinary wool of the country, might be expected to yield fifteen or twenty thousand gulden, not less than fifty thousand is now annually produced.
Count Hunyadi has also taken great pains to improve the breed of his horses at his estate at Urmeny, in the county of Neutra; and with a view to ascertain the progress which he makes, and at the same time from a desire of exciting the country to exertion, he has instituted races on the English model. Solicitous to infuse into his own peasantry a spirit of improvement in this particular, he appoints a day on which their horses alone run, and gives rewards to the successful competitors. His stables are a fine range of buildings, with wooden floors, and contain from thirty to forty horses, chiefly crosses of the Arabian and Transylvanian breeds. His breeding stud is kept at a farm a few miles distant. Other proprietors of estates are beginning to understand the object and to appreciate the advantages of the plan of this spirited nobleman.
It is the custom throughout all Hungary, for the inhabitants of each village to commit their cattle to the care of a herdsman who, at a certain hour in the morning, drives them to the common pasture and brings them home at night. He carries a wooden trumpet, nearly four feet in length, exactly resembling the instrument usually put by artists into the hand of Fame. With this trumpet, the sound of which is harsh, he gives notice of his approach, and the peasants turn their cattle out of their yards that they may join his drove. In the evening when he conducts his motley crew of horses, cows, sheep, and goats back to the village, each individual finds, as it were instinctively, the cottage of his master, and quietly retires to his accustomed stall. The peasants pay the herdsman a small sum for each animal, but part of this remuneration is always made in grain or bread.
The ravages of wolves among the cattle, especially in the neighbourhood of woody mountains, are extremely serious. In all the frontiers these animals are much dreaded. In the hard winter of 1803, no fewer than 1533 head of cattle were devoured by them in the single district of the Wallacho-Illyrian regiment, which gave rise to some attempts to destroy them by poison, as the Turks are known to do by means of the aconitum napellus. The nux vomica was here employed, and not without success.
When much distressed for food, the wolves will sometimes attack the cottages of the peasants. An instance of this kind is related by Dr. Bright to have occurred not long before his visit at Leutschau. A woman who had two children, the one about twenty years of age, the other much younger, had just quitted her cottage in the morning, when a wolf rushed upon her and tore her face dreadfully: then leaving the first object of its rage, the animal fixed upon the child, and in an instant lacerated its head and deprived it of both eyes. The elder son alarmed, flew to the spot, and seizing the wolf by the throat, held it at bay for some moments; but being unable to maintain the unequal conflict, became himself the object of attack: the hungry beast fixed his fangs deep in his neck. The cries of the unhappy victims brought some assistance to the spot, and the wolf made his escape. As soon, however, as the necessary aid had been afforded to the sufferers, an active pursuit was instituted and the animal was discovered in a thicket. A young man levelled his piece: it missed fire, and the wolf was in the very act of springing on its pursuer, when it was brought to the ground by a well aimed blow of a cudgel.
The mode of storing wheat generally adopted in this country is very objectionable. After being beaten out, often by the feet of horses and oxen, it is deposited in holes in the ground, where it is kept during the winter. There it acquires a strong mouldy smell, which, indeed, goes off in some degree by exposure to the air. These holes are dug of a circular form and about three feet deep; and an excavation is made of such dimensions that a man can sit in it to stow away the grain and assist in bringing it to the surface when required. This done, a fire is kindled in it to harden the sides, which are afterwards lined with straw. When the grain is thus stowed, straw is placed upon the top, and earth thrown in to fill up the entrance hole, which forms the neck, as it were, of the cave, and a little heap of earth remains pointing out the spot; or a piece of wood is stuck in it as a mark. There is scarcely a village near which a number of such hillocks are not to be seen.
We shall now present the reader with an account of the costumes prevailing in different parts of the country.