[Footnote 52: Vice-Consul Bonham's report, 1877, p. 720.]
AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL--THE PEASANT PROPRIETARY OF ROUMANIA.
Cultivated acreage of Roumania--Comparative estimates of agricultural products; waste lands, &c.--Nature of soil--Rotation of crops--Agricultural implements--Old-fashioned ploughs--Improved machinery--Yield of cereals--Maize, wheat, rye, barley, &c.--(Note: Report of M. Jooris)--Uncertainty as to yield per acre--Estimates--Quality and value of Roumanian cereals--Slovenly cultivation--Cost of raising cereals--Uncertainty of estimates--Present position of agriculture--Discouragement of immigration--Competition of the United States--Cattle--Oxen and buffaloes--Sheep--Wool--Cheese, butter, &c.--Capabilities of the soil--Tobacco--Cotton--Agricultural education--The Agricultural and Sylvicultural College of Ferestreu--M. Aurelian--The grounds and buildings--External arrangements--Experimental growth of trees, fruits, cereals, &c.--Number of professors and pupils--Internal arrangements for board--Cost of education--Laboratory and excellent collections--History of the plough illustrated by models--'École des Arts et Métiers'--Manufacture of farm requisites--School of design--The peasantry--Their history--Varieties of tenure prior to 1864--Creation of a peasant proprietary by forced sales of land--Success of the reform--Subsequent allotment of state lands--The 'obligations rurales'--The dark side--Fate of improvident peasants--Forced to sell their labour--Quasi-servitude--The boyards or landed gentry--Improvidence and involved condition of many--Pledged estates--'Fermage'--Purchase of their lands by industrious peasants and others--Decline of the boyards--Excellent qualities of the peasantry--Great endurance--Industry of women--Education in progress--Bright future for the peasantry--Importance of their prosperity to the State--(Note: Comparative numbers of agricultural and other classes).
The area of Roumania, as already stated elsewhere, is about 49,252 square miles, and estimates have been made of the cultivated and uncultivated acreage, which approximate sufficiently to give us a fair idea of the agricultural condition of the country. According to those estimates, which were probably made at the period (1864) when the peasant proprietary was created, about one-fifth is employed for the growth of cereals, garden products, and vines; rather under one-third is pasturage and hay; one-sixth forest; and the remaining nine-thirtieths, or nearly a third of the whole, still remains uncultivated.[54]