Galician Poles experienced among the most difficult situations in their homeland. When serfdom was outlawed in 1848, the Austrian government continued to drive a wedge between Polish peasants and their Polish landlords to detract them from a more ambitious Polish uprising. Galicia was isolated from the west geographically by the Vistula river and politically by the foreign powers, leaving Galician Poles restricted from commercial agriculture in the west of Poland. Galician Poles continued to use outdated agricultural techniques such as burning manure for fuel instead of using it for fertilizer, and the antiquated Medieval-era three-year crop rotation system, which had been long-replaced in western Poland by the use of clover as a fodder crop. Galician Poles resented the government for its apathy in handling disease; a typhus epidemic claimed 400,000 lives between 1847 and 1849, and cholera killed over 100,000 in the 1850s. Galicia suffered a potato blight between 1847 and 1849, similar to Ireland's famine at the same time, but relief was never reached because of political and geographical isolation. A railroad system connecting Poland began reaching West Galicia from 1860 to 1900, and railroad tickets cost roughly half a farmhand's salary at the time. Polish peasants were no longer the property of their landlords, but remained tied to their plots of land for subsistence and were financially indebted to the landlords and government taxmen. The plight of the Galician Poles was termed the "Galician misery", as many were deeply frustrated and depressed by their situations.