262 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



arena. We descended Into these, and could see where the food 

 was let down. They are in fact nearly as perfect as when 

 made. Here we saw and could handle the Tuscan plough, and 

 study its not very elaborate construction. It suggested the 

 query, why don't some American implement maker establish a 

 commission for the sale of his wares in this old country ? 



The grapes here, as in other parts of Italy, were trained to 

 trees planted for the purpose, and not allowed to grow more 

 than fifteen or twenty feet high, and the vines hang often from 

 one to the other in graceful festoons, which give the whole a 

 peculiar beauty, which none of the vineyards in other parts of 

 Europe possessed. Here, as elsewhere, powdered sulphur is 

 sprinkled over the grapes, to prevent the disease which has 

 been so fatal to the grape for the last seven or eight years. It 

 is said to be effectual. After a shower, which washes off the 

 sulphur, it has to be renewed. We saw many of the clusters 

 already attacked by the disease, but if the sulphur is imme- 

 diately applied it arrests its progress. 



Florence is one of the most attractive cities in Europe, both 

 from the beauty of its situation and the riches of its artistic 

 collections. A drive on the Cascine, or in fact in any direction 

 beyond the walls, carries us through orchards of fruit trees, 

 peaches, pears, figs and magnolias ; while the innumerable 

 marble palaces, churches, and other costly edifices, attest 

 the grandeur and magnificence of the days of the republic, 

 when art established here her seat, and wealth gathered in from 

 other Italian cities and towns the numberless relics of the past, 

 of Tuscan splendor and Roman greatness. 



It would be impossible even to give a faint idea of the collec- 

 tions of the old masters within this city without going beyond 

 the proper limits of this sketch. The church of San Lorenzo, 

 with the splendid sacristry,.and Michael Angelo's chapel, con- 

 taining the great original of " Day and Night ; " Santa Croce, 

 with its beautiful paintings ; the Pitti Palace and Museum, 

 containing such world-renowned works as Canova's Venus, the 

 Young Apollo, and a thousand others, almost equally cele- 

 brated ; the cathedral, built with the design " of being tlic 

 largest and most splendid building which it was iu human 

 power to erect, and so perfect that nothing more beautiful or 

 larger could be thought of — decided upon by most of the citizens 



