' 205 



Pietlinout is also receiving greater attention, the old practice of festoon- 

 ing Laving been generally abandoned, and the improved French meth- 

 ods of culture substituted. In Lombardy there is much activity in agri- 

 cultural pursuits. As in Piedmont, small farms are common in the hilly 

 districts, and large farms on the plains. Most of the latter are irrigated. 

 On the small mountain farms the spade is largely used, as it is also on 

 the hills of Piedmont. The cultivation of the vine and mulberry trees, 

 with wheat and other grains, i)revails in the hills of Lombardy, while 

 rice, flax, and hay are grown on the plains. Silk is a staple product. 

 Cattle are generally kept by all farmers, and the country is rich in but- 

 ter and cheese. In Yenetianone of the cereals are largely cultivated, 

 but are mostly imported from the Levant and the Black Sea. In the 

 Roman States and the provinces wliicli immediately adjoin them the 

 modes of culture are very rude, and production is. of course, very limited. 



The subdivision of the soil throughout Italy is much more favorable 

 to farmers of small means than the English system of large landed 

 estates.' but is not so minute and impoverishing as chat which prevails 

 in France. In a population of 20,000,000 the number of landed proprie- 

 tors is given at 4,180,000, with an average of 12i acres each. In Pied- 

 mont and Sicily, 1 in 4 is a landholder; in Parma and Lombardy, 1 in 

 6 ; in Tuscany, 1 in 13; and in all Italy, in 1802, 17 in 100 owned land. 

 The most subdivisions are in Piedmont and the Two Sicilies ; the fewest, 

 in Tuscany, Komagna, and Umbria, wbere large tracts are owned by 

 the province, the commune, and the religious orders, and are generally 

 badly farmed. 



The cultivation of cotton and tobacco has been introduced into some 

 of the Italian provinces, and the most satisfactory results have been 

 obtained. 



THE GAME LAWS OF PRUSSIA. 



Up to 1818 the killing of game -in Germany was a distinct and alien- 

 able proprietary right, held independently of the ownership of the soil, 

 and empowering the holder to hunt and shoot exclusively over other 

 lands than his own. In that year the Frankfort Parliament abolished 

 the game laws throughout Germany, and the principle vras established 

 that the possession of the soil should thenceforth carry ^ith it the 

 inalienable and exclusive right to pursue and kill game upon it. But 

 the abolition of all game laws was found, upon triaf, to be too sweeping 

 a measure. It permitted the taking of gauje in all seasons, encouraged 

 poaching, gave rise to lawless abuses, and threatened the extermination 

 of game altogether. In 1850 Prussia limited the personal exercise of 

 the right of killing game to ovrners of at least 200 acres, and restricted 

 the exercise of this right to certain- seasons. In 1870 the Korth Ger- 

 man Parliament passed a new game law, which retained the leading- 

 features of the laws of 1848 and of that of 1850. As the law now 

 stands, any person in Prussia owning not less than 200 acres of land, 

 lying together, and who procures ann^ially a game certificate, at a tri- 

 fling cost, has an unrestricted right to kill all game upon his ow« prop- 

 erty; and the same right is extended to owners of all inclosed lands. 

 The owners of nnlnclosed lands of less than 200 acres are not entitled to 

 kill the game upon them; these revert, for all sporting purposes, to the 

 commune in which they are situated, and form a common shootiiig dis- 

 trict. There are only two months in the year — October and November — 



