50 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



270. The dairies on the j^lain of the Po, near Lodi, produce the Parmesan cheese. The 

 peculiar qualities of this cheese depend more on the 

 manner of making than on any thing else. The cows 

 are a mixed breed, between the red Hungarian, or 

 Swiss cow^, and those of Lombardy. The chief pecu- 

 liarity in their feeding is, that they are allowed to 

 eat four or five hours in the twenty-four ; all the rest 

 of the time they are stalled, and get hay. Both their 

 pasture and hay are chiefly from irrigated lands. The 

 cheeses are made entirely of skimmed milk ; half of 

 that which has stood sixteen or seventeen hours, and 

 half of which has stood only six hours. The milk is 

 heated and coagulated in a cauldron [Jig. 33.), placed 

 in a very ingenious fire-place, being an inverted semi- 

 cone in brick-work, well adapted for preserving heat 

 and the use of wood as fuel. Without being taken 

 out of the cauldron, the curd is broken very small by rr-^^x:']'^^ 



an implement, consisting of a stick with cross w^ires ; ' ' ' ' " " ^ ^ 



it is again heated, or rather scalded, till the curd, now a deposition from the whey, has 

 attained a considerable degree of firmness ; it is then taken out, drained, salted, and 

 pressed, and in forty days is fit to put in the cheese-loft. The peculiar properties of this 

 cheese seem to depend on the mode of scalding the curd ; though the dairyists pre- 

 tend that it also depends on the mode of feeding the cows. Where one farmer has not 

 enough of cows to carry on the process himself, it is common for two or more to join and 

 keep a partnership account, as in Switzerland. 



271. Sheep are not common in Lombardy : there are flocks on the mountains, but in 

 the plains only a few are kept in the manner pigs are in England, to eat refuse vegetables. 

 The Merino breed was introduced, and found not to succeed. 



272. The rotations of crops are not so remarkable for preserving fertility as for profitable 

 produce, provided a great return is obtained. That, however, is not often the case. As 

 examples, we may mention; 1. maize drilled ; 2. 3. and 4. wheat; 5. maize drilled ; 6. 7. 

 and 8. wheat. Another is; 1. fallow; 2. 3. and 4. rice; 5. fallow; 6. wheat and clover, &c. 

 Hemp, flax, lupins, rape, millet, panic, rye, and sometimes oats, with other crops, enter 

 into the rotations. Rice is reckoned the most profitable crop; and next, wheat and millet. 

 The rice-grounds receive but one ploughing, which is given in the middle of March, and 

 the seed sown at the end of the same month, sometimes in water up to the seedsman's 

 knees ; but more frequently the water is not let on till the rice is come up. Tlie water is 

 then admitted, and left on the ground till the beginning of June, when the crop is weeded 

 by hand, by women half naked, with their petticoats tucked to their waists, wading in the 

 water ; and they make so droll a figure, that parties are 

 often made at that season to go and view the rice-grounds. 

 When the weeding is finished, the water is drawn off for< 

 eight days, and it is again drawn off when the ear begins 

 to form, till formed ; after which it is let in again till the 

 rice is nearly ripe, which is about the end of August or 

 beginning of September. The produce is from ten to 

 twenty fold. 



273. Among the herbage crops cultivated, may be men- 

 tioned chiccory ( fig. 34. ), very common in the watered 

 meadows, rib-grass, also very common, oat-grass, and some 

 other grasses ; but not nearly the variety of grasses found in 

 the English meadows and pastures; fenugreek [Trigonella, 

 L.), clovers, lucerne, saintfoin, and in some places burnet 

 and spurry. 



274. Among the trees grown by the farmer, the mulberry 

 predominates, and is pollarded once or oftener every year 

 for the silkworm. The tree is common in the hedge-rows,^ 

 and in rows along with vines parallel to broad ridges. The- 

 vine is generally cultivated ; trained or rather hung on mulberry, maple, or flowering 

 ash pollards, or climbing up tall elms, or in the hedges, or against willow-poles or rude 

 espalier rails, (fg. 35. ) The olive is not very common, but is . 

 planted in schistous declivities in warm situations 5 apple, pear, I Vk 

 and greengage plums are common. " ^ *^ 



275. Though the agriculture of Lombardy appears to be 

 practised more for subsistence than for the employment of' 

 capital, and the acquisition of riches ; yet, from the eflPect of 

 irrigation in producing large crops of grass, the profits of 



