Boos I. 



AGRICULTURE IN ITALY. 



49 



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 Marcita) 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, a foot 

 or more in depth, lands which are sown with rice. It is also used for comblcs, or 

 depositing a surface of mud, in some places where the water is charged with that mate- 

 rial ; and tliis 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 collected in those 

 of Professor Re. In general, watered lands let at one third higher than lands unwatered. 



268. The implements and operations of agriculture in Lombard!/ are 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 (Jig. 32.), which 

 is turned in a circular track, somewhat in the manner of a 

 bark-mill in England. 



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

 tied up in stalls ; then bled once or twice ; cleaned and rubbed with oil ; afterwards 

 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 pulverised 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. della Soc. Agr., 

 vol. i. p. 73.) 



270. The dairies on the plain 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 tiling 

 else. The cows are a mixed breed, between the red Hungarian or Swiss cow, and 

 those of Lombardy. The chief peculiarity 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 irri- 

 gated lands. The cheeses are made entirely of skimmed 

 milk ; half of that which has stood sixteen or seventeen 

 hours, and half of that which has stood only six. The 

 milk is heated and coagulated in a caldron (fg. 33.), 

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

 - semi-cone in brickwork, well adapted for preserving 

 heat and for the use of wood as fuel. Without being 

 taken out of the caldron, the curd is broken very small 

 by an implement, consisting of a stick with cross wires ; 

 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 pretend that it also depends on the mode of 



Where one farmer has not enough of cows to cany on the process 

 himself, it is common for two or more to join and keep a partnership account, as in 

 Switzerland. More minute details will be found in Book IV. Part VII. 



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 the fertility of the soil, as 

 for an immediate return of profit. The produce however being seldom bulky, the object 

 is defeated. 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, lupines, rape, millet, panic, rye, and 

 sometimes oats, with other crops, enter into the rotations. Rice is reckoned the most 

 profitable crop ; the next, wheat and millet. The rice-grounds receive but one plough- 

 ing, which is given in the middle of March, and the seed is 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. The 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, witk 

 their petticoats tucked to their waists, wading in the water ; and they make so droll a 



E 



feeding the cows 



