AUSTRIA. This large empire has been formed by the annexation of so many king doms and states, and embraces so great a diversity of soil and productions, that we can only briefly notice its chief industrial features.
Slavonia and the south-eastern and central parts of Hungary are richer than most Euro pean countries in metals and minerals. Sla vonia is traversed from east to west by moun tains and hills ; and this province, as well as Croatia, has alternations of plain and highland which are very fruitful in grain, wine, tobacco, silk, honey, and other products. Transy/vania being mountainous, the produce is chiefly timber and minerals. Galizia is, next to Hun gary, a principal granary of the Austrian states, and supplies large quantities of salt, some precious metals, and many other mine ral and vegetable productions; but the climate is too cold for the grape. Austrian Silesia, next adjoining Galizia, is abundant in pasture and timber, but not in grain. Moravia, in its central and southern parts, is a rich land of maize and wine. Bohemia Las rich and abundant produce. Upper and Lower Austria are poor in grain ; but fruit, wine, and salt are procured in abundance. The adjoining province of Styria is well supplied with pas-. tures, and is besides rich in mineral produce. Next to this is the Tyrol, in which the chief products are horses and cattle, grain, wine, fruit, potatoes, timber, salt, iron, copper, sil ver, lead, and a little gold. Illyria, which is composed of Carinthia, Carniola, and some smaller provinces, includes more varieties of climate and productions than any other part of the Austrian empire. Dalmatia, southward of Illyria, supplies much produce, which con sists chiefly of marble of excellent quality, wine, oil, figs, almonds, wax, horned cattle, sheep, salt, and more particularly fish. Aus trian Italy produces grain, maize, rice, millet, peas, beans, potatoes, hemp, flax, vegetables and fruits of all kinds, and, in some parts, saffron ; there is no branch of industry more carefully or profitably cultivated than the production and manufacture of silk. The Alpine districts yield considerable quantities of iron, copper, coal, marble, and other minerals.
The principal plants cultivated in Austria comprise all the usual kinds of grain, fruit, and vegetables. The chief medicinal plants are—rhubarb, which is raised in Styria, the Lower Ens, Bohemia, and Galizia; liquorice, a favourite article of growth in Moravia, whence 400 tons and upwards are annually exported, and which is also gathered in the wild state in Hungary and Slavonia ; manna, derived from the .Fraxinus ornas, which
abounds in the forests of Hungary and Slavo nia; and spikenard (Spica Celtica), which is collected with much care in the mountains of Carniola, Styria, the Tyrol, and the Upper Ens. An intoxicating spirit is distilled in Carinthia and Styria fram gentian, which is found in most of the elevated regions ; and Iceland-moss is collected in considerable quantities on the Carpathian mountains, where it grows in masses of five and six feet in height.
More than one-third of what is deemed the available soil of the Austrian dominions is occupied by woods and forests ; and wood is one of the staple productions. Among the products of the Austrian forests we may name potashes, which are chiefly made in Hungary, Galizia, and the Buckowine, Moravia, the Archduchy, and Bohemia. Tar, charcoal, gall-apples, and turpentine should be added to this enumeration of the products of these forests, though they are not of considerable moment.
The quantity of wine annually made in the Austrian territory averages about 3,200,000,000 gallons ; of which Hungary produces more than one-half, and of which the inhabitants of the empire are said to consume about seven eights. Tokay is a Hungarian wine, very choice, but small in quantity.
The rearing of the silkworm, though not wholly neglected in other parts of the south of Austria, is nowhere carried on to such an extent as in the territories of Lombardy and Venice. The whole produce of the empire is estimated at about 6,000,000113s., of which about 4,500,000 lbs. are the produce of the Italian provinces. A considerable proportion of this article in the wrought state, chiefly of the sort termed organsino, is exported from the Italian provinces to the English market. Cantharides, or Spanish flies, are a consider able article of export from Hungary and Slavonia ; the cochineal insect draws many purchasers into the sandy tracts of Galizia from Turkey and Armenia; and the leech of late years has become an article of considerable trade between Austria and France.