TRANSACTIONS. 67 



" postponed. Merchants, notaries, lawyers, doctors and 

 " apothecaries, all take their holiday. The peasants have 

 " not even the time to be sick." 



The vintage, too, is a season of great activity, but its 

 toils are light, and it is always regarded more as a joyous 

 and festive occasion than as a period of unusual care and 

 labor. 



Farm lands are very seldom enclosed, both cattle and 

 sheep being always watched and prevented from straying 

 and trespassing by herdsmen and shepherds, usually aided 

 by dogs, and when the flocks pasture far from the dwel- 

 ling of the proprietor, accommodated with small lodging- 

 houses, which are moved to and fro like a barrow or a 

 hand-cart on a pair of wheels. Thus the capital and labor 

 .which we expend in building walls and fences arc almost 

 wholly saved. 



Besides all this, the great permanent improvements, 

 the clearing of the forests, the drainage of the soil, the 

 smoothing of the ruggedness of its natural surface, the 

 building of terraces, the planting of the perennial vegeta- 

 bles, the construction of houses and churches and roads 

 and bridges, all these have been substantially accomplished 

 by former generations, and the agriculturist has none but 

 the easy labors which the changes of the seasons impose. 

 Remove the curse of temporal and spiritual tyranny and 

 misgovernment from climes like these, and the poet might 

 indeed well exclaim, 



" Ah, happy husbandman, didst thou but know 

 "The blessings of thy lot !" 



Some of the most important branches of rural industry 

 in southern Europe, as wel' as in other regions, are threat- 

 ened with serious damage from sources altogether new, or 

 which, if known in former ages, have passed away without 

 leaving a record behind them. Tiie grape disease, like 

 that of the potato, long battled all attempts to check its 

 progress, and though much mitigated in some provinces, it. 



