308 



Culture of the Olive, ^c. — A Humble Reading Room. Vol. IX. 



Culture of the Olive, Grape, &c. 



The section of level land lying between 

 Nismes and Montpelier, is cultivated chiefly 

 with olives, and the Frontignac and several 

 other fine varieties of grapes. The olives 

 had just been gathered and pressed. This 

 tree does not bear until it is ten years of 

 age, but it is very long lived. I saw some 

 at this place which are known to have ex- 

 isted in the time of Caesar. Surrounded by 

 an abundance of food as we are in America, 

 it is difficult for us to estimate the very 

 great importance of the olive to the poorer 

 classes in France. Requiring no cultiva- 

 tion, and no further labour than to gather 

 the fruit and express the oil, it can be af- 

 forded at a cheap rate. This oil with coarse 

 bread, constitutes almost the entire food of 

 the lower classes of France and Italy. They 

 have also some cheap kinds of ligiit wine, 

 at a few sous per bottle, which is much 

 used. 



The cultivation of the grape in Europe is 

 a subject in which I feel much interested, 

 and on which I have already obtained some 

 information. After being accustomed tc the 

 extensive glass vineries of Boston, Philadel 

 phia, and Flushing, I was forcibly impressed 

 with the great simplicity of its culture, both 

 in France and Italy. In some instances 

 planted in sandy or gravelly soil, in which 

 scarcely anything else would grow, without 

 stake or trellis to support them, and consist- 

 ing of two branches, each pruned down to 

 three buds, they are made to produce some 

 of the finest fruit in the country. In other 

 instances they are tied to stakes and trel- 

 lises, and moderately manured. It is very 

 desirable to obtain some varieties of these 

 delicious European grapes, that will succeed 

 well with us in the open air. That such 

 can be obtained, I have no doubt; for they 

 are found flourishing upon some of the most 

 exposed points of the x4lps, and where there 

 is a foot or more of snow during the winter. 

 An American gentleman of distinguished 

 literary merit, and some time a resident of 

 Italy, has been making a collection of these 

 vines, and through his kindness I hope to 

 send some of them to Flushing this spring, 

 in time for planting out. By another year 

 we shall, in this case, be able to test them 

 fully, and to aid, perhaps, in introducing to 

 the lovers of good fruit in America, some 

 new and very superior hardy varieties of the 

 grape. I much regret that my visit here is 

 not during the vintage; at that season I 

 should have full opportunity of seeing the 

 different varieties, and testing their respec- 

 tive merits. 

 They have good cattle here, but none that 



will compare with the English. Buffaloes 

 are used in the campagna, and the oxen are 

 often handsome, with horns sometimes three 

 feet in length. The cows are small, and 

 much like our native cows in form. It is 

 amusing to see the peasants milking them 

 from between the legs behind! where a 

 single kick will send milker and milk both 

 topsy-turvy! Besides these, they use the 

 milk of goats and asses. There is a milk 

 establishment opposite my window, and the 

 donkeys bray lustily every morning, by way 

 of reveille. Their milk is said to be par- 

 ticularly rich. The old Roman breed of 

 horses is still kept up, and I have seen uni- 

 formly better horses here than in any other 

 city. They are not large ; are of a glossy 

 black, well formed, with thick mane, and a 

 tail sweeping the ground. Agriculture in 

 Italy is a century behind the age. For a 

 plough they use a narrow triangular piece 

 of plank, with a stake put on one end for a 

 handle, and the oxen draw it over, rather 

 than through the soil, by their horns. 



S, B. Parsons. 



Rome, Feb. 14th, 1845. 



A Humble Reading Roonii 



The following lately appeared in the Glas- 

 gow Citizen newspaper: — "How little do 

 people know of what is passing daily around 

 them! Until the other evening, we had not 

 the remotest idea that, on being conducted 

 up the first stair of a dingy low-roofed close 

 in Saltmarket, No. 115, we should observe, 

 painted in white letters on a door, the words 

 'Reading Room.' Was it possible that in 

 such a locality — in the midst of vice and 

 wretchedness — surrounded, as it were, by 

 the very dregs of our dense population, 

 there existed an institution devoted to men- 

 tal culture and self-improvement"? By what 

 strange accident had a ray of light from the 

 upper levels of society descended to this ob- 

 scure alley 1 On entering, we passed a small 

 kitchen to the right, with a fire burning 

 briskly, and a shelf along the wall, support- 

 ing some half-dozen coffee-cups, with three 

 or four bottles of lemonade. Before us were 

 two rooms with tables and forms, and suffi- 

 ciently lighted with gas, although, on the 

 whole, rather scantily furnished. In one of 

 these apartments were a few workmen — for 

 aught we know, common labourers — with 

 hard bushy heads, greedily devouring the 

 news; while in the other, there was some 

 one reading aloud to two or three gaping 

 listeners, whose education had been more 

 neglected. On inquiry, we learned that the 

 subscription to the rooms, which were pretty 

 well furnished with newspapers and cheap 



