There are two valuable collections in the library's collection: old prints (828 volumes from the 16th-18th centuries) and 19th-century polonica (about 8200 volumes), which make up the National Library Resource. Here we would like to present to you the most interesting and valuable collections that the library has in its collection. We also invite you to visit the Library of the NIKIDW Branch in Pulawy, where readers can directly acquaint themselves with selected titles.
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"Agricultural Employment during Spring"
Jan Romuald Wiland
Warsaw, 1874
The arrival of spring is the time to start field work. Until recently, the life of the entire family depended on their outcome, whether its members would starve or live in abundance. Farmers therefore made every effort to ensure that their crops were abundant. There were many customs and rituals to ensure divine favor and therefore prosperity and well-being. For example, when the farmer left for the first plowing, the housekeeper would sprinkle the horses and plow with holy water. There was also a belief that nothing should be said during sowing.
W Bibliotece Narodowego Instytutu Kultury i Dziedzictwa Wsi można znaleźć wiele książek dotyczących obrzędów, tradycji i zwyczajów wiosnennych na wsi. Na szczególną uwagę zasługuje jednak publikacja Jana Romualda Wilanda pt.: „Zatrudnienia rolnicze podczas wiosny” z 1874 roku.
In it, the author focuses primarily on the practical aspects of the emergence of spring, namely on-farm work such as plowing, harrowing and cultivating and rolling the soil, sowing and planting.
In the introduction, Jan Romuald Wiland writes that the farmer, after a winter's rest and gaining strength, waits longingly for spring, and the first rays of the sun act on him like "an electric spark stimulating him to new work, which almost everyone is eager to undertake, making himself hopeful that it will be rewarded."
However, he goes on to question the fact that it is not all farmers who feel the same desire to work in the spring, and "that not all have the scientific and practical strength to do so, or aids such as ready capital or affordable credit." They therefore need to undertake "greater and more skillful work around the land, meadows and their farm...so that the work will bring them profit." Among other things, the reading of his book titled: "Agricultural Employment during the Spring" is intended to serve this purpose.
In the following pages of the work, the author writes about the use of well-groomed and properly nourished working animals - oxen or horses - in field work. In the chapter on "Tools and mechanical tillage," we read that "good tillage is unconditionally hinged on good tools and the aforementioned draft animals.".
Sowing, planting and fertilizing the soil are other issues covered in the book. Only good quality grain, seedlings and subsequent fertilization or the type of manure are a guarantee of high yields. The author also pays great attention to soil preparation for crops devoting chapters on "Harvesting stones and clearing land", "Drying arable land" or "Tilling for winter crops" to this issue.
Finally, we learn that "from good equipment of grasses for hay, hangs the good feeding of the sometimes numerous possessions, which is undoubtedly the wealth of the farm." And the skillful cleaning of grasses, clover, vetch, lupine and other plants from the field, as well as their proper drying, is the essence in the survival and maintenance of farm livestock.
Written in the form of a handbook, Jan Romuald Wiland's 1874 book titled: "Agricultural Employment during Spring" is a valuable source of information for farmers preparing for spring farm work.
Pozycja dostępna w Bibliotece Narodowego Instytutu Kultury i Dziedzictwa Wsi liczy sobie 50 stron i wydana została w Warszawie nakładem Drukarni J. Sikorskiego.
By inviting you to read Jan Wiland's work, we hope that perhaps today's farmers will find in it some valuable, undiscovered tips to use on their own farms when intensive spring work is about to begin.
Elaborated. Boguslaw Wisniewski
Editor. Joanna Radziewicz
Photo polona.pl - public domain
