ustry 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).

I.

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]

[Illustration: ROUMANIAN PLOUGHSHARE.]

The soil of the country is rarely less than three to four feet in depth,
is easily turned, and, as already stated, it is usually a dark
argillo-siliceous earth, which is so greatly charged with humus
(decaying organic matter) that manure is rarely found necessary. The
rotation of crops is largely practised, usually maize, wheat, then
fallow; but very poor soil, capable of producing only rye, is often
allowed to lie fallow for many years together. Much of the cultivation
is performed with very primitive implements, the ordinary old-fashioned
plough being furnished with a share resembling the broad flattened
lance-head of a harpoon, which penetrates the earth horizontally. Of
late years, however, a constantly increasing number of improved ploughs,
reaping, mowing, and steam threshing machines have come into use. In
1873, according to Consul Vivian's report, there were about 185,000
native ploughs against about 38,000 imported ones; but even then already
there were nearly three times as many steam as there were horse
threshing machines in use, and since that time the employment of all
kinds of improved machinery has been greatly on the increase, and
several large English and American implement makers have agencies in
Roumania.[55] There is little doubt that in the course of a few years
the old-fashioned agricultural implements will disappear altogether; for
the configuration of the surface, which in the plains somewhat resembles
the rolling prairie of the far West, is peculiarly adapted for the use
of modern machinery of every description.

The agricultural industry of the