196 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 4 



of an act of parliament ; we cannot even inclose 

 our own property, witliout tlie same ceremony. 

 Nor is it only tlie expense of sucii applications, 

 but the necessity of them generates opposition at 

 every step, and a man must fight his way through 

 county-meetings, through attorneys, agents, coun- 

 cil, witnesses, and litigation, — in a manner odious 

 to every liberal feeling, and at a ruinous expense, 

 before he is at liberty to improve his own estate, 

 without any detriment to others ; every idea ol" 

 such works, therefore, in England, as we have 

 eeen common in Lombardy, is visionary and im- 

 practicable ; and we must continue to view, with 

 eyes of envy and admiration, the noble exer- 

 tions which have been made and perfected in that 

 country, and which, in truth, very much exceed 

 any thing we have to exhibit in any walk of agri- 

 culture in this island: — an example to hold up ibr 

 imitation, and an ample field of practical study. 



OMISSIOS. 



The following extracts from Arthur Young's 

 ^Notes on the Agriculture, of Lombardy,'' had been 

 marked to be included or cited in the "Essay on 

 Silk Culture,'' in the preceding number, (p. 140.) 

 They show the great extremes afheat of summer 

 and cold of winter in this, the most productive silk 

 country of Europe ; and they furnish strong tes- 

 timony in addition to that which was presented, 

 that the similar extremes, which belong to the cli- 

 mate of Virginia, instead of being opposed to silk- 

 culture, constitute the strongest assurance of its 

 success and profitable returns. 



"The great complaint in Piedmont, Is the exces- 

 sive heat in summer ; equal, I was assured, to al- 

 most any that is felt on the globe, and of a suffo- 

 cating quality ; while the frosts in winter are as 

 severe, in the contrary extreme. The pestiferous 

 climate of Sardinia is known to every body; though 

 between 39 and 41 degrees latitude ; in the south- 

 ern part of the island, they are not forwarder than 

 in the Milanese : they cut their corn in the north 

 part in July : in the Milanese belbre the end of 

 June." 



"The most remarkable circumstance in the cli- 

 mate of Milanese, is the mildness and warmth ol 

 northern and mountainous tracts, and the severity 

 felt in the plain. This iiict is found particularly 

 around the lakeof Como; upon all the western coast 

 of that lake, which is about forty miles long, the 

 agrumi, as the Italians call oranges, lemons, &c. 

 are found, exposed to the open air, in good perli^c- 

 lion; yet the whole of the lake is bounded by the 

 high Alps, which, immediatly to the north, are 

 covered with eternal snows. On the rich plain of 

 Milan, and thence to the Appenines, no such 

 plant can be left exposed ; olives are not seen, and 

 oranges, lemons, and bergamots, must be covered 

 in winter." 



"In an experiment made at Vicenza, in the Ve- 

 netian state, by the Accademia Agraria of this 

 city, they sowed wheat October 18, 1787 ; came 

 up the 2Sth ; the ears appeared May 2, 1788 ; the 

 flowers May 13; reaped June 19." 



"I was at Florence the beginning of November, 

 and the ice was four inches thick ; a severity never 



yet known in England. The English were, at 

 the same time, skating at Rome." 



"One-filth of all the productions of the earth are 

 calculated to be destroyed by hail and other acci- 

 dents." 



"In the management of the vines in the Parma- 

 zan, there is a practice, which shews the constant 

 dread of severe frosts. All the vines are now (in 

 November,) turned down, and the end shoots bu- 

 ried* in the earth to preserve them ; yet in a wet 

 season they suflijr by this treatment, as well as in 

 all seasons, by bemg stript from the trees, in order 

 to undergo this operation." 



"JNlr. Professor Symonds, in the excellent paper 

 quoted above, removed the common erroneous idea 

 of the fine climate of Italy. I made many inquiries 

 concerning the leading facts, and have every rea- 

 son to believe that it is, in point of health and 

 agreeableness, one of the worst climates in the 

 world : with the views of a farmer, however, it 

 must be confessed, that the productions which the 

 whole peninsula owes to its climate are very val- 

 uable. To omit speaking of Sicily or Naples, I may 

 remark, that planting the poor brashy hills of Tus- 

 cany with olives is an advantage unequalled by 

 any thing to be met with in the north of Europe ; 

 that the produce of silk throughout Lombardy is 

 an object of the first importance — that rice is 

 found to be an article of almost unrivalled profit : 

 that the productive state of the meadows is indebt- 

 ed almost as much to the heat of the summers, as 

 to the plenty of water; and. for any thing I know 

 to the contrary, the admirable quality of the cheese 

 also. These are all objects of great magnitude, 

 and entirely derived from climate." 



From the Penny Magazine. 

 IMPORTANCE OF THE CULTIVATION OF TUK 

 VINE IN FRANCE. 



Whenever the commercial intercourse between 

 France and England shall be regulated by better 

 principles of economy thun those under which it 

 is at present conducted, wine will be the great sta- 

 ple with which the French will make their ex- 

 changes for English products. A lew statements 

 exhibiting the extent of production in this article 

 in France will not therefore be devoid of interest. 

 In presenting the ibilowing facts, it is necessary to 

 state that we have borrowed largely from J)r. 

 Bowring's 'Report on the Commercial Intercourse 

 between France and Great Britain :' — 



According to the estimates of M. Cavoleau, 

 who obtained a prize given by the institute Ibr an 

 elaborate work on the vineyards and vines of 

 France, the quantity of vineyard-land in 1806 

 was about 4,142,600 English acres, and in 1827 

 about 4,265,000 acres. The calculations of the 

 French Statistical Society show that in 1788 the 

 number of acres in cultivation was 3,988,800 

 acres, and in 1829 about 5,104,000 acres. The 

 vine-growers estimate the increase of vineyards 

 since 1788 at 28 per cent. 



France is divided, ibr fiscal purposes, into 76 

 wine-districts, in the same way that England is 

 sub-divided by the board of excise into districts 

 termed "collections." The total superfices of 



* The same practice was known among the ancients. 

 See Slrabo, Ub. vii. and Quint. Curt. lib. vii. c. 3. 



