51 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 





and, being very abundant in the markets of most parts of Italy, is not dear. Acorns 

 are collected in some places, and sold to the farmers of the plains, for feeding swine. 

 The cones of the Pinus Pinea (fig. 37.) are 



collected, and the seeds taken out : these art.' 

 much esteemed, and hear a high price. The , 

 same thing is, in some places, done with the 



cunes of the wild pine, commonly but erro- 

 neously called the Scotch fir (/'inns sylves- 

 tris /,.), whose seeds are equally good, though 

 smaller. Strawberries, bramble-berries, goose- 

 berries, currants, raspberries, and other wild 

 fruits, are collected, and either sold publicly 

 in the markets of the plains, or privately to 

 the confectioners for flavouring ices; an article 

 in great demand throughout all Italy. Sismondi seems to have been the first who noticed 

 that the black mulberry was grown in the mountains for its leaves, being considered as 

 hardier than the white. The fruit was only eaten by children. In the plains and gardens 

 of Italy the mulberry is scarcely known as a fruit tree, though the white species is every 

 where grown for the silkworm. 



296. The mountain farmers are generally proprietors of their farms. They live together 

 in villages, which are very numerous; many of them hire themselves to the farmers of the 

 maremmes, where there is a scarcity of population, to assist in their harvests ; and with the 

 money saved in this way, and by sending fruits, collected by their wives and children, to 

 the towns in the plains, they are generally better off than the farmers of the hills, or of the 

 low country. 



297. The agricultural establishment of Rossore may be mentioned as belonging to 

 Tuscany. It is situated at the gate of Pisa, and was founded by the family of Medici, in 

 the time of the crusades, and now belongs to government. A league square of ground, 

 which was so poor and sandy as to be unfit for culture, was surrounded by a fence, and, 

 having been left to itself, has now the appearance of a neglected park. A building was 

 erected in its centre as a lodge, and the grounds were interspersed with stables and sheep 

 houses. The park was stocked with an Arabian stallion and a few mares, and some Asiatic 

 camels ; and these were left to breed and live in a state of nature. About the beginning 

 of the present century a flock of Merino sheep was added. The horses have formed 

 themselves into distinct tribes or troops, each of fifteen or twenty mares governed by 

 a stallion. These tribes never mix together, each has its quarter of pasture which they 

 divide among themselves without the interference of shepherds. The shape of these 

 horses is wretched, and the spare or superfluous ones are sold only to fuel-drivers 

 (coalmen, carbonari) and the post. There are more than two hundred camels which 

 associate together, and multiply at pleasure. They are worked in the plough and cart, 

 and the spare stock supplies all the mountebanks of Europe, who buy them at the low 

 price of six or seven louis each. The next feature of this establishment is a herd of 1 800 

 wild bulls and cows, fierce and dangerous : the superfluous stock of these is either hunted 

 and killed for their hides and flesh, or sold alive to the farmers to be fed or worked. The 

 flock of Merinos are but lately introduced. Such are the chief features of this establish- 

 ment, which Chateauvieux terms a specimen of Tatar culture. It is evident it has no 

 other art or merit than that of allowing the powers and instincts of nature to operate in 

 their own way ; and it forms a very singular contrast to the highly artificial state of rural 

 economy in Tuscany. 



Scbsect. 3. Of the Agriculture of the Maremmes, or the District of Pestilential Air. 



298. The ertent of this district is from Leghorn to Terracina in length ; and its 

 widest part is in the states of the church ; it includes Rome, and extends to the base 

 of the Apennines. 



'299. The climate of the maremmes is so mild that vegetation goes on during the whole 

 of the winter ; but so pestilential that there are scarcely any fixed inhabitants in this 

 immense tract of country, with the exception of those of the towns or cities on its 

 borders. 



300. The surface is flat or gently varied ; and the soil in most places deep and rich. 

 In the maremmes of Tuscany it is in some places a blue clay abounding in sulphur and 

 alum, and produces almost nothing but coltsfoot ( Tussilago). 



301. The estates are generally extensive, and let in large farms, at fixed rents, to men 

 of capital. The maremmes of Rome, forty leagues in extent, are divided into a few 

 hundred estates only, and let to not more than eighty fanners. These farmers grow 

 corn, and pasture oxen of their own ; and in winter they graze the wandering flocks of 

 the mountains of Tuscany and other states at so much a head. The corn grown is 

 cluefly wheat, which is reaped by peasants from the mountains, some of whom also stay 



