Proprietors of estates in the Crimea are, for the most part, very poor, and non-residents receive no interest upon their landed capital. Those, however, who are resident, may contrive, with industry and assiduity, to make their estates yield them from five to eight, and sometimes as much as ten per cent, annual income, according to the circumstances of their situation and climate.
It is a well known fact, that there are proprietors of estates of one million of rubles in value, who never receive a kopeek of revenue from them. Residing at a distance, they entrust them to stewards, who have neither knowledge nor inclination to make more of them than merely to keep themselves in ease and comfort; and as they are never troubled by a visit from the owner, they are able to carry on this system with impunity.
Vineyards were once a very profitable culture in the Crimea, but since the free and abundant importation of the common wines of the Greek Islands, those ofhome growth cannot be sold at a price sufficient to defray the expence oflabour : many, therefore, of the vineyards at Sudac are, for this reason, no longer managed with the neatness and carewhich were formerly bestowed upon them. It has hitherto been customary, at that place, to confine the cultivation of vineyards to the valley; but a few attempts have lately been made to raise the vine on the sides of hills, which seem likely to succeed, and repay the care of the planter. There are several very good cellars attached to the large vineyards at Sudac; in particular, that of Admiral Mordvinoff, which is excavated in the side of a mountain, and is calculated to hold one hundred thousand vedros* ; but I do not believe that the wine is often kept for any length oftime, nor indeed that it is at all of a nature to admit of keeping, I have, however, tasted three or four very excellent sorts, which have been fabricated by individuals for their private use.
The beautiful spots known by the name of gardens in the Crimea, are very unlike what we understand by the term. That at Karagoss, which is the largest I have seen, comprises not less than 360 English acres, and (with the exception of the very small portion devoted to the * A vedro is ten quarts, wine measure.
cultivation of kitchen vegetables) is altogether uninclosed. This extensive tract is in fact acomplete wilderness of fruit-trees, the thickets and gladesofwhich, occasionallypresent scenes of the greatest beauty, and through which it requires a little experience to be able to find one's way.
The village ofKaragoss, at the time of the subjugation, contained 1700 inhabitants, and it is from the union of their deserted domains that the present vast garden has been formed. Not a single house now remains within its circuit, though the foundations of them are to be found in every part. There are likewise numerous wells, some filled up, others overgrown with grass, or thick creeping plants ; also the ruins of a Tatar bath, and a Tatarmetchet, or mosque, the minaret of which, seen from all parts of the estate, embowered in wood, has a remarkably picturesque appearance, and, with the little stream of the Serensu*, which winds through the garden, forms the most striking ornament of the place.
* In Tatar, " cold water." Among the fruit-trees of the Crimea, the most remarkable are the walnut trees, which, in the vallies of the south coast, attain to a prodigious size, and form a most delightful shade around some of the Tatar villages. I have been confidently assured, that a single tree has been known to produce sixty thousand walnuts yearly; and a respectable proprietor of Sudac told me, that a tree in his possession bears annually as many as forty thousand.
The mulberries grown at Karagoss, and in the gardens of the Stepp, are of the white kind, and are small and tasteless ; but on the south coast the large black mulberry tree is cultivated, and is remarkable for its luxuriance and the perfection of its fruit. It is well known that the olive, fig, and pomegranate, are likewise to be found in the same favoured district ; but their produce is too small in quantity to deserve much notice. The beautiful apples, however, from these vallies, are much esteemed at Moscow and St. Petersburgh, whither they are sent in great abundance.
The whole produce of the garden at Karagoss, including plums, mulberries, &c. has of late been entirely used for the purpose of distillation.
The Russians make an excellent kvas of these fruits, and more particularly of the cornelian cherry, which is very common here, and which, as well as sloes, is dried by the Tatars, and preserved for some time. These latter, in their love for acids, devour the wild apples which abound in the garden with great eagerness, and have a method of keeping them, by throwing' them into water, and protecting them from the air.