286 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



they suffer for want of air, and from damp, suffocating exhala- 

 tions. They have no coal, and as some fire must be had for 

 cooking, they are compelled to pick up whatever they can lay 

 their hands on. They have little respect for the rights of 

 property. The stakes from vineyards walk off mysteriously. 

 Wooden fences are out of tiie question, and hence there are no 

 division fences. Poaching on the land of others is so common, 

 that it may almost he said to be universal. If a man has a 

 fine yield of grapes in his vineyard, he is obliged to gather 

 them before they are ripe, when they make but a poor quality 

 of wine, because poor wine is thought to be better than none 

 at all, which is, no doubt, a mistake. 



Speaking of wine, by the way, reminds me to speak of the 

 quality of very much of the ordinary wine of the country. Good 

 cider vinegar, a little ^.diluted with water, " half an' half," is a 

 delicious beverage compared with Italian vin ordinaire^ though 

 perhaps it might be a little more " heady." I could never like 

 it, though sometimes compelled to drink it, as good water is 

 not often to be found there. 



Strange to say, with vineyards all about him, the laboring 

 man in Piedmont is compelled to drink water throughout the 

 winter, for want of vessels and casks to keep wine in, to such 

 poverty is he often reduced. The houses of the peasantry are 

 not generally situated on the land they cultivate. They are 

 huddled together in dirty villages, and the laborers often have 

 long distances to travel to and from the scene of their daily 

 work. How can agriculture be expected to flourish under such 

 circumstances ? 



The hotels in these villages where the traveller is compelled 

 to stop, are not, of course, very attractive. Man and beast are 

 put under the same roof. Tliis is almost universal among all 

 classes in Italy, except in the first class hotels of the larger and 

 more frequented cities. Every thing about the entrance of 

 hotels in smaller towns is forbidding, and every thing in such 

 confusion and disorder, that it is rare that one is able to find 

 the entrance at all without inquiring. Think of a stable with 

 its manure heaps, its noise and its stenches, stuck down before 

 tlie door of a hotel, or under the same roof, as it is in most of the 

 liouscs ! Put there is no accounting for tastes ! Tliey doubt- 

 less like that style of civilzation, or if they do not, there is 



