Torsello, Davide - Pappová, Melinda: Social Networks in Movement. Time, interaction and interethnic spaces in Central Eastern Europe - Nostra Tempora 8. (Somorja-Dunaszerdahely, 2003)
Time and social networks
Traditional economic life 93 grew into each other in recent decades and each has a population around 4,000. In the examined period (first half of the 20th century) two thirds of the population was Reformed and one third Roman Catholic. Both communities had developed on the eastern side of the Váh river, while in the case of Neded the cadastral land also overreached on the western side. The wet, often-flooded land of the villages was influenced not only by the Váh river but also by two other smaller rivers, the Dudváh and the Čierna Voda. Among agricultural products, other than cereals, potato was an important product. On the hilly parts of the land villagers gradually started to grow plants which were more labour-intensive but at the same time more profitable. These were onions, carrots, parsley, early potato and on suitable soil, cabbage. Through the exchange of these vegetables they obtained grain and necessary cash. Already in the mid 19th century these two villages were famous for their vegetables. Elek Fényes characterised Vlčany in the following way: “They intensively trade with cabbage, which is extremely famous, then with onions, carrots and other garden vegetables. They keep cattle as well as horses” (Fényes 1856, II: 6). Moreover, we can read the followings about Neded: “Its land is extensive and fertile: abounding with grain, oats, barley, millet, maize, hay, reeds and so on. It has plenty of pastures and so they keep numerous cattle, horses and sheep. They trade with cabbages, onion and other vegetables in the same way as people from Vlčany do" (Fényesl856, II: 135). Along both sides of the Váh river there was a long strip of land excellent for gardening, running from the village of Zemné9 to Vlčany. Here the soil was frequently and richly manured and cabbage-growing only occasionally alternated other vegetables (e.g. carrot, onion) for few years. “A hundred cabbages from this land had always cost one forint more than what a hundred cabbages from other lands had cost” (Fényes 1837, II: 258). The characteristics of this vegetable-growing land have never been sufficiently explored, however, there are plenty of descriptions in the ethnographic literature. Among so called “village-mocking" poems, superstitions and folk customs describing popu-
