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can be found than in old Rome, where universally the proprietors of the 

 wheat fields in the country are themselves the bakers, who make bread 

 for both city and country. 



In Lombardy I was much interested by the system of irrigation 

 which is there very prevalent. The \tater is conducted from the streams 

 and reservoirs in channels around the fields, and made to flow over them 

 at pleasure by opening sluices. I could not help thinking of Michigan, 

 in connection with this. It seems to me that from the face of our 

 country — generally gently undulating, and the numerous natural reser- 

 voirs which we possess in the lakes scattered over our country, we could 

 easily introduce a system of irrigation which might protect us against 

 those droughts which not unfrequently occur. 



Now that I am speaking of Italy, there is one part of its agriculture, 

 and its bearing on the moral condition of the people, which I ought 

 not in candor and truth fidness to pass by. I mean the cultivation of 

 the vine. The vine forms an attractive feature in an Italian landscape 

 — trellised from tree to tree, and hanging in graceful festoons. The 

 fruit, too, during the season, forms a most wholesome and important ar- 

 ticle of food. But beyond this, vast quantities of wine are made from 

 the grape, so that wine is very cheap, and forms a common drink among 

 the people. Bread and wine, indeed, is an ordinary meal ; or bread, 

 wine, and the olive, thus uniting in one meal, the com, wine, and oil. 

 Now what is the eft'ect upon the morals of the people ? The first eftect 

 is, that the use of wine banishes the use of alcoholic or distilled liquors. 

 As a people, they drink wine, but as a people, they drink nothing else. 

 But more than this, the use of wine in Italy, is not connected with in- 

 toxication. I have traveled extensively through the countr}' — I have 

 visited nearlj'^ all the cities, and many of the villages — I have seen large 

 gatherings of the people on fete-days, when various amusements were 

 going on, and yet, I have never seen an intoxicated Italian. And yet 

 the Itahan people are not remarkable for virtue in general ; on the con- 

 trary, travelers concur in representing them as superstitious, ignorant, 

 much addicted to lying and cheating, and lewdness, and not reluctant 

 to rob and murder when an opportunity serves. But whatever may b« 

 their vicas, and their degradation in other respects, they cannot b« 

 charged with the vice of intemperance. The Italians need a reforma- 

 tion in many particulars — there are no people in Europe who need it 



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