The residence of the nobleman and his family, which is called the " Hof," is usually placed on a hill, or on the bank of a river. It consists of the principal dwellmg-liouse, of houses for guests, of a building for the household, and of stables, greenhouses, mills, beer-houses, inns, distilleries, &c., often amounting to twenty or thirty different buildings, surrounded by gardens, parks, woods, and cornfields. The peasantry live at some distance from the " Hof," in the surrounding forests and marshes, divided into little communities, called in German ^' Bauerhqfen,'^ and in Lettish " GesindeJ" To each " Gesinde' small pieces of land are attached, wliich the peasants cultivate for their own profit. These pieces of land are again variously subdivided, the principal part belonging to the Wirth of the Gesinde. Every Gesinde must include in itself all that it requires ; a piece of land for rye, another for barley, another for flax, a patch for sheep, and another for cattle -grazing, a piece of water, a piece of woodland, a garden, a beehive, and so on.
All domains are either private estates, crown-lands, church-lands, or town-lands. The crown-lands are generally let to German noblemen. The pastoral estates, or church-lands, resemble in every respect those of the nobility, having their ow^n Hof, Gesinde, gardens, forests, meadows, &c. A pastor in the Baltic provinces is as much a landowner as his noble patron himself.
Rye is decidedly the principal production of the country, and attains greater perfection here than anywhere else. Wheat, barley, and oats are indeed cultivated ; but it is upcm their rye harvests that the provinces depend. The whole art of agriculture is very much simphfied by this circumstance. The flax and hemp growing of Courland and Esthonia, is very unimportant ; only enough for home consumption is growi. The far-liimed flax of Riga comes chiefly from Livonia, Lithuania, and White Russia.
In no country is agriculture carried on upon so gi'and a scale as in the lialtic provinces. Tlie cornfields of an estate generally lie all together, in one wide, far-spread mass of grain, and in many places a whole square verst will be found covered with rye. One forest often covers whole square
THE " TALK us" AND " VAKKEN.' 361
miles of ground. Wlierever any work is to be done, a Imndred hands are always ready to begin together. The peasantry are all more or less indolent and inactive, and therefore a dozen are required to do what with us would be the work of one. Many a simple rural occupation, insignificant enough in countries where so many small powers do not work together, becomes interesting here, by the mere bustle of the numbers employed.
When a house is building, it swarms like an ant-hill, mth numbers of busy beings, old and young, men, women, and children. All hammer, paint, plaster, fetch, and carry, till the house is finished. When a new field is to be laid out, or a forest cleared, what bustle and confusion ! Half the population of the estate, four or five hundred men, are called together. They rush into the woods with their axes, chopping, hacking, digging, and tearing away at the branches and roots, and long before it could be expected, the forest has vanished, the trees lie sawn to pieces and scattered in large heaps, and fifty ploughs di'aw their long furrows through the soft mould.
One of the most interesting works is the ploughing of a great field. All the peasantry come together from all corners, for three or four miles round, on the appointed day. Their agricultural instruments are small, light, and though apparently clumsy and barbarous, yet in reality well adapted to their purpose. The harrow, for instance, consists of young fir-trcesbound together by cross boughs, in which the short thick twigs are left as teeth. None even of the best-constructed harrows serve them so well as tliis primitive contrivance. The ploughshare used all over the country — for a reg'ular plough is unknown — is so small and light, that a man can easily carry it under his arm. It is, however, difficult to guide, as its principal support is in the hands of the ploughman, and the most unremitting diligence and attention are necessary to make the furrows lie even.
Every peasant has a piece of land measured out to him, which he must plough before night. As far as the eye can reach, the ground is then seen covered with ploughs, horses, and busy labourers. The beautiful golden seed then flies swiftly into the ground from the expert hands of the sower.