htenstein with
37,937; the Count of Czerin with 32,277; the Count of Clam-Gallas with
31,691; Emperor Franz Joseph with 28,800; the Count von Harrach with
28,047; Prince von Lobkowitz with 27,684; Imperial Count Kinsky with
26,265; the Count of Buquoy with 25,645; the Prince of Thurn and Taxis
with 24,777; Prince Schwarzenberg with 24,037; Prince
Metternich-Winneburg with 20,002; Prince Auersperg with 19,960; Prince
Windischgraetz with 19,920 hectares, etc.[174]

The absorption by the large landlords of the small holdings in land
frequently proceeds in "alarming manner." For instance, in the judicial
district of Aflenz, community of St. Ilgen, an Alpine hill of over 5,000
yokes, with pasture ground for 300 head of cattle, and a contiguous
peasant estate of 700 yokes, was all converted into a hunting ground.
The same thing happened with Hoellaep, located in the community of
Seewiesen, which had pasture land for 200 head of cattle. In the same
judicial district of Aflenz, 47 other pieces of land, holding 840 head
of cattle, were gradually absorbed and turned into hunting grounds.
Similar doings are reported from all parts of the Alps. In Steiermark, a
number of peasants find it more profitable to sell the hay to the lordly
hunters as _feed for the game in winter_, than give it to their own
cattle. In the neighborhood of Muerzzuschlag, some peasants no longer
keep cattle, but sell all the feed for the support of the game.

In the judicial district of Schwarz, 7, and in the judicial district of
Zell, 16 Alpine hills, formerly used for pasture, were "cashiered" by
the new landlords and converted into hunting grounds. The whole region
of the Karwendel mountain has been closed to cattle. It is generally the
high nobility of Austria and Germany, together with rich bourgeois
upstarts, who bought up Alpine stretches of land of 70,000 yokes and
more at a clip and had them arranged for hunting parks. Whole villages,
hundreds upon hundreds of holdings are thus wiped out of existence; the
inhabitants are crowded off; and in the place of human beings, together
with cattle meet for their sustenance, roes, deer and chamois put in
their appearance. Oddest of all, more than one of the men, who thus lay
whole provinces waste, is seen rising in the parliaments and declaiming
on the "distress of landed property," and abuses his power to secure the
protection of Government in the shape of duties on corn, wood and meat,
and premiums on brandy