Book I. AGRICULTURE IN ITALY. 49 



feeding the silkworms, and sometimes of reeds. The hedge-plants of the country are 

 the Christ's thorn (zizi/phus paliums, L.^g. 31.)j common hawthorn, and pomegranate. 



265. The lands arc generally/ farmed hy metayers 

 (Jrom meta, Lat. one half,) The landlord pays the 

 taxes, and repairs the buildings. The tenant provides 

 cattle, implements, and seed ; and the produce is di- 

 vided. In some cases the landlord's half is delivered 

 to him in kind ; in others it is valued annually at 

 harvest, and paid in money, or partly in money, and 

 partly in produce. There are some farmers who* 

 have leases, generally for short periods, not exceed- 

 ing nine years, and pay fixed rents. The size of farms ' 

 is from ten to sixty acres ; but there are a few of two 

 or three hundred acres. These, however, are chiefly 

 cultivated by the proprietors. Farm-houses are of 

 brick, sometimes stuccoed, and covered with tiles. They are not always detached ; 

 but two, three, or more farmeries are often grouped together, and their united build- 

 ings might be mistaken for those of one large form. One side of a square contains 

 the houses of the farmers, the stables, and cattle-sheds ; and the three others are sheds, 

 supported by columns, and open on all sides, for implements and produce. The metayers 

 never get rich, and are seldom totally ruined; they are not often changed; the same 

 farm passes from father to son, like a patrimonial estate. 



266. Landed property is generally managed by a steward or factor (fattore), whose 

 business it is to inspect the cultivation of the lands, to direct repairs, pay taxes and 

 tithes, and see that the landlord has his proper share of the produce. Tithes have 

 been greatly lessened by the sale of a great part of the church lands at the revolution ; 

 but are still taken in kind, or commuted for, in order to suj)port the parish clergy. 

 There is no poor-rate here, nor indeed in any part of the world but in Britain. 



267. The irrigation of Lombardy is its most remarkable feature. The antiquity of the 

 practice has been already noticed (180.) In most states of Italy, the right and property 

 of all rivers ; and in some, as Venice, that even of springs and rain, are considered as 

 vested in the king or government. All canals taken from rivers are, therefore, purchased 

 from the state, and may be carried through any person's lands, provided they do not pass 

 through a garden, or within a certain distance of a mansion, on paying the value of 

 the ground occupied. Such canals, indeed, are generally considered as enhancing the 

 value of the property they pass through, by enabling them to purchase water, which is 

 sold by the hour, half-hour, or quarter ; or, by so many days' run at certain fixed times, 

 in the year. The right to water from such canals may even be purchased ; and Arthur 

 Young mentions that the fee-simple for an hour's run per week, through a sluice of 

 a certain dimension, near Turin, was, in 1788, 1500 livres. The water is not only used 

 for grass-lands, which, when fully watered, are mown four and sometimes five times a 

 year, and in some cases (e. g. Prato Marcila) as early as March ; but is conducted between 

 the narrow ridges of corn-lands, in the hollows between drilled crops, among vines, 

 or to flood lands, a foot or more in depth, which are sown vdth rice. It is also used for 

 combles, or depositing a surface of mud, in some places where the water is charged with 

 that material ; and this is done somewhat in the manner of what we call warping. The 

 details of watering, for these and other purposes, are given in various works ; and col- 

 lected in those of professor Re. In general, watered lands let at one-third higher than 

 lands not irrigated. 



268. The implements and operations of agriculture in Lombardy are both very imper- 

 fect. The plough is of very rude contrivance, with a handle thirteen or fourteen feet 

 long. It is drawn by two oxen without a driver or reins, the ploughman using a long 

 light rod or goad. The names given to the different parts 

 of the plough are corruptions or variations of the Roman 

 terms already mentioned (111.) Corn is generally beaten 

 out by a wheel or large fluted cylinder (fg. 32.), which is 

 turned in a circular tract somewhat in the manner of a 

 bark-mill in England. 



269. The cattle of Piedmont are, in some cases, fed with extraordinary care. Tliey 

 are tied up in stalls ; then bled once or twice ; cleaned and nibbed with oil ; after- 

 wards combed and brushed twice a day : their food in summer is clover, or other green 

 herbage ; in winter a mixture of elm-leaves, clover-hay, and pulverized walnut-cake 

 over which boiling water is poured, and bran and salt added. Where grains (pouture) 

 can be procured, they are also given. In a short time, the cattle cast their hair, grow 

 smooth, round, fat, and so improved as to double their value to the butcher. (Mem. delta 

 Sac. Agr. vol. i. p. 78.) 



E 



