Unfortunately the peasants eat but little of the corn they grow. They are content with the maize, from which they prepare their _mamaligo_ and the detestable spirits which cheer their hearts on a hundred and ninety-four annual fête days. The cultivation of the vine, which was altogether neglected formerly, is likewise making progress, and the produce of the foot-hills of the Carpathians is justly esteemed. The time is past now when “Wallachian” and “herdsman” were synonyms throughout the East. Still, nearly one-fourth of the area of the country remains uncultivated, and the soil is allowed to lie fallow every third year. Moldavia is better cultivated, upon the whole, than Wallachia, and this is principally owing to the fact of the Moldavian boyards residing upon their estates, and taking a pride in their management. Progress, however, is apparent throughout the country, and there is hardly a large estate without its steam threshing-machine. Even the small proprietors are gradually introducing improved methods of cultivation, and in many villages they have formed co-operative associations for the cultivation of extensive tracts of country.[49] Rumania is essentially an agricultural country. The ores of the Carpathians are not utilised, for there are no roads which give access to them. The petroleum wells only supplied 3,810,000 gallons in 1873. Four of the principal salt-works are carried on by Government, partly with the aid of convict labour, and yield annually 80,000 tons of salt. The fisheries are of some importance. The inhabitants on the Lower Danube salt the fish which abound in the river and the neighbouring lakes, and prepare caviare from sturgeons. There are no manufactories excepting near the large towns, and the country is noted only for its carpets, embroidered cloth and leather, and pottery. The housewives are famed for their confectionery. Commerce is annually on the increase.[50] Its only outlet in former times was {168} the Danube. Nearly the whole produce of the country was carried to Galatz, at the bend of the river, upon which the principal routes of the country converge. For many years to come the Danube will remain the great commercial highway of the country; the Pruth, too, is navigable for small steamers as far as Sculeni, to the north of Yassy; whilst the numerous rivers descending from the Carpathians will always prove useful for the conveyance of timber. New outlets have been created by the construction of railways. Rumania is now joined to the railway systems of Austria and Hungary, and the proposed bridge across the Danube will place it in direct communication with Varna, on the Black Sea. The level nature of the country facilitates the construction of railways, but its inhabitants look upon their extension with a feeling of apprehension, for they fancy that a commercial invasion may bring in its train a military one.[51]