478 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



cultivated to a considerable extent in the south, south-west, and 

 south-east of France, and very much in various parts of Italy. 

 In the richest soils in Italy it presented an extraordinary luxuri 

 ance, but nothing could be more slovenly than the cultivation of 

 it, wherever I saw it. 



The largest crops, of which I could obtain information, were 

 eighty bushels to an acre ; but the ordinary yield was very much 

 less than that, and indeed was quite small. The kinds culti 

 vated were of the small yellow flint variety. The large kinds 

 of gourd-seed corn grown in the Southern States of the United 

 States, or the kinds grown in the Western States, an intermediate 

 kind between the flint and the gourd-seed, would find the climate 

 and soil of Southern Europe favorable, and might be introduced 

 there to great advantage, if, in the present condition of society, 

 the people were capable of any great improvement. They are 

 little accustomed to use it for bread, having no knowledge of the 

 modes of mixing it with rye or wheat ; but they use it as a kind 

 of rnush or pudding, called polenta. The expense of making it 

 into food among the peasants is strongly objected to, as consum 

 ing both fuel and time. It is said that Napoleon used to lament 

 that a laboring man, whether mechanic or peasant, should be 

 accustomed to have a fire in his house for cooking ; and the 

 writer who records this fact, sympathizes strongly in this senti 

 ment. That is to say, he would have all their food taken cold, 

 and no time nor money expended in cooking. 



I wonder if it never occurred to these men, what an improve 

 ment it would have been, if these laboring people, so troublesome 

 and expensive as they are to be fed, and yet so useful and neces 

 sary as they are in growing all this bread, could have been turned 

 out at night like the cattle after their yoke is taken off, to graze 

 in the pasture. This would save bed and bedding, and house- 

 rent, as well as food and cooking. 



Such sentiments must sound rather harshly upon the ears of 

 American farmers and laborers, who are accustomed, even in the 

 humblest conditions, to sit down daily to a nicely-spread table, 

 covered with a variety and abundance of bread, meat, and vege 

 tables, to which are often added tea, coffee, and beer. The diet 

 of the laboring poor in Europe is chiefly bread and this is 

 almost always furnished by a professional baker. During my 

 residence in Europe, I do not recollect a single instance where 

 bread was made in the family. The want of fuel on the Conti- 



