Italian Azrictdtiire 



455 



part of the year on or near their 

 estates, must bestir themselves, form 

 associations, strive to enhghten and in- 

 struct their farmers, obtain, if possible, 

 the assistance of experienced foreigners, and 

 devote their utmost efforts to derive profit 

 from a territory which only asks fair and in- 

 telligent treatment to yield produce as ex- 

 cellent as its fertility is unbounded. In the 

 vicinity of Bologna, Count Pasolini, of 

 Ravenna, the former Prefect of Turin, is 

 trying the experiment of growing vines ujDon 

 the French plan, and the same is being done 

 in that neighbourhood by a French gentle- 

 man. The vines have been barely four years 

 in the ground, and this year, for the first 

 time, their fruit will be made into wine. It 

 will be very surprising if it does not prove 

 superior to that made from vines cultivated 

 on the old plan. 



Thrashing machines appear to be gene- 



rally used in this district, but this is the only 

 modern improvement of the kind that I can 

 ascertain to have been introduced. Steam 

 ploughs are said not to suit the nature of the 

 ground, and its inequalities have been stated 

 as the reason for this, but the country here- 

 about is level enough, and perhaps a better 

 reason may be found in the smallness of the 

 fields and the practice of intersecting them 

 with rows of trees, common in many parts of 

 Italy, and here very prevalent. I have 

 heard conflicting opinions as to this fashion 

 of placing trees in the middle of the crops, 

 but it seems disadvantageous. Some have 

 thought the shade beneficial, as saving the 

 crops from being prematurely parched by the 

 burning Italian sun, but experience refutes 

 this doctrine, if, as I have been assured by 

 several agriculturists, the corn round the trees 

 grows less than half as thickly as in other 

 parts of the field. 



