STATE POMOI.OGICAL, SOCIETY. I39 



and occasionally gave me a rough jolt in the ribs. But the 

 olive orchards are very attractive. 



Italy has five colleges of agriculture. It is remarkable to 

 think that a state having five colleges of agriculture would have 

 such primitive methods as I have told you of. Those pictures 

 are not fanciful; they are taken from real life. Practically all 

 field work is done by hand. There is no Planet, Jr. There is 

 no mule, no horse for hauling your cultivator. Work is entirely 

 done by hand. In the Pomological Gardens at Florence we 

 have quite a progressive institution, and here is a view of their 

 strawberry beds, in which fifty or sixty American varieties were 

 growing when I was there. The European strawberry, how- 

 ever, is more in favor than the American. In France and 

 Switzerland one sees more intensive methods. An interesting 

 thing here is these little ditches, almost inconspicuous, which 

 are meant to prevent the washing of the soil on steep hillsides. 

 These ditches run diagonally down the hillside, so that they 

 intercept the downward flow of the water. It is a scheme only 

 practical where labor is plentiful and cheap. 



IRRIGATION AND GRAPE GROWING. 



Irrigation has long been practiced in Italy. It dates from 

 a time previous to the Roman period, and I am sorry to say 

 that comparatively little change has taken place in irrigation 

 methods since its initiation. Here is a well with a wheel on 

 which buckets are arranged, and by revolving that wheel the 

 water is raised and lifted to other levels and conducted along 

 these ditches and thence distributed through the grounds. The 

 donkey travelling around a circle after the fashion of our own 

 sweep system is often the means of raising the water. 

 ' The methods of training vines in Italy are interesting and 

 peculiar. We use trellises made by driving posts in the ground 

 and stringing wires on them. The posts they use are live posts. 

 This is a tree, — a maple or an elm, probably ; the vine is planted, 

 carried up the tree and spreads over the tree top. That is the 

 system in vogue in the greater part of Italy. The branches of 

 the trees are cut and used for fuel, so that it serves a double 

 purpose. 



Here is another view of the Experiment Station grounds of 

 the College of Agriculture in Central Italy, with the director 



