552 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



alluvion, interrupted by intercolated beds of sand, peat, and gravel, is 

 of exuberant fertility, and is occupied by an unsparing cultivation. 

 Tbis exclusive attention to plant products, with the prolonged heats 

 that scorch neglected wastes of meager pasture between the frequent 

 inundations, offer poor 'conditions for pastoral industry. Rovigo, one 

 of the most elevated spots of the region, is 27Jfeet above the sea; the 

 medium temperature is 15 C., with a maximum of 33 .7 0., and a 

 minimum of 3.7 and a rainfall of 0.80. Nature has furnished a race of 

 cattle suited to such congenial conditions, and provided for their sub- 

 sistence on the tracts of undrained land covered with canes, rushes, and 

 marsh grasses along the sea-side and tide- water canals. The Pugliese 

 exists and thrives here to the exclusion of other races, as well as in 

 the lowest districts of the provinces of Padua and Venice. The noted 

 agronomic, Professor Zanejli, mentions this type of animals as follows : 



Along both banks of the Po, descending from Mantua to the plains of Padua, and 

 Polesine (Rovigo), we find a race of animals of labor, domesticated in ihe fegion, 

 which it is impossible t o confound with other typos oxen of tall and middle stature, 

 more thick-set than the ordinary Hungarian breed, and distinguished by some with 

 the name of Puglieso. Their special marks are the coat of grayer light grayish, with 

 small black lines on the eyebrow, lips, and edge of the ear; long and sharp projecting 

 horns give them rather a savage aspect. The shoulders are extremely developed in 

 comparison with the haunches, with the point of the shoulder abnormally high and 

 pronounced, a conformation well suited for a draft animal. This race has the ad- 

 vantage of being perfectly acclimated in these low and marshy plains, where the 

 pasture is often of the most inferior quality, is robust and tenacious at work, for 

 which cows and oxen are employed without distinction. 



So that this animal, descending with the barbarian invaders from the 

 steppes of the ancient Sarmatia (Bos primigcmis), and now, by the con- 

 sent of all authorities, diffused throughout the country from Lombardy 

 to Sicily, is the proper Italian ox. He has been mentioned above as 

 the inhabitant of Friuli ; it is equally certain that the great oxen of 

 Eomaqua, the half savage herds of the Eoman Canipagna, and the 

 cream-colored cattle of Tuscany, are of the same stock with the Pugliese 

 of the Lower Po. The race in Piedmont attains extraordinary dimensions. 

 In a report to Government are cited measurements of cattle three years 

 old existing there ; oxen of 6 feet 4 inches and 6 feet G inches, and a 

 cow of 5 feet G inches in height. 



Here their height rarely exceeds 5.G to 6 feet, and their yield of meat 

 is always inferior to that of races bred for slaughter, as well as of the 

 Tyrolese which, besides, fatten more readily. On the other hand the 

 type is susceptible of great improvement under favorable conditions, 

 and a certain number of Breeders here and in Boinaqua maintain that it 

 is the one best suited to the country. This may be true for the region 

 now under consideration as well as for the rude husbandry and burning 

 climate of Southern Italy, but under ordinary conditions of climate 

 and cultivation in Europe, the controversy is practically decided by the 

 choice of the breeders of Cittadella and wherever else superior cattle are 

 required for industrial profit. 



There can hardly be said to exist any management deserving atten- 

 tion after the elaborate methods followed in more advanced regions and 

 described above. The ordinary practice is to leave the animals to tiud 

 their subsistence on the coast lowlands, or otherwise to feed them on 

 the indifferent products of these same pastures, at most shutting them in 

 for the night in the huts of cane and thatch, which serve for stables in 

 many localities. When fattening is required they receive the choicer 

 forage grown promiscuously with the corn on small spaces of the arable 

 land of the region. 



