Vol 1.— No. 25. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



190 



,-uring of the cocoons. With circumstances 

 of this nature in our hands, we would direct 

 public attention to this important enter- 

 prize. We have from time to time copied 

 such essays on the cultivation of silk, as we 

 thought useful in conveying an idea of the 

 proper mode of treating the worms, and the 

 reeling of the silk, &tc. In our paper of the 

 21st tilt, statements will be found of the val 

 ue of the silk produced, and the kind of la 

 bor necessary to piepare it for market, the 

 quantity produced by a given number of 

 worms, the price of the cocoons, and the 

 nett profit which would accrue to those en- 

 gaged in its cultivation. It might be remar- 

 ked, with much reason, than lands which 

 have been already reduced and impoverish- 

 ed by the culture of tobacco, corn, and cot- 

 ton — lands which the owners will erelong be 

 forced to forsake for new oiies in the west, 

 unless their attention be turned to the pro- 

 duction of some new article, or until they 

 shall set about some plan for the improve- 

 ment of the same, — are yet capable of pro- 

 ducing the mulberry ; and that energetic 

 and enterprising citizens may yet reap a rich, 

 continued, and abundant harvest by the cul- 

 ture of silk. — — — 



The annual Fair of the Hamilton county 

 Agricultural Society, was held on Wednes- 

 day and Thursday last, at Carthage, and 

 was very well attended. The exhibition of 

 domestic animals on Wednesday, gave proof 

 of increased attention on the part of our 

 farmers, to one of the most important of 

 their duties. The exhibition of domestic 

 manufactures yesterday, was by no means 

 extensive. Two threshing machinces, one 

 new churn, an improved horse rake, and a 

 number of other agricultural articles were 

 exhibited, and most of them were highly 

 approved. General Harrison's address was 

 delivered at about 12 o'clock, to a large and 

 attentive audience, and was heard with great 

 ipprobation. — Western (Ohio) Tiller. 



AGRICULTURE OF ITALY. 



Florence, February 18th, 1S31- 



My dear H , The ride from Pisa to 



ibis place has presented a scene entirely no- 

 "ver.and so much in contrast with every thing 

 that preceded it, that I can hardly believe 

 that it is a part of the same country. We 

 have rich and beautiful valleys in America, 

 and some which even the vale of the Arno 

 could not exceed, if under equal improve- 

 ment. But with us, where fields are open- 

 ed and forests cleared, even faster than pop- 

 ulation multiplies, the same necessity for 

 perfection in the art of husbandry does not 

 exist as in Italy .where the wants of a popu- 

 lation, even more dense than in England 

 press every faculty and every device into 

 the service of subsistence. We have no 

 such agriculture in any part of our coun- 

 iry, as is seen in Italy, and especially in the 

 vale of Arno; and we never shall have, till 

 the time shall come when twenty mouths 

 must be fed from the fruits of the same 

 quantity of soil, which now supplies but one. 

 The Arno is a broad, and sometimes rapid 

 river, resembling, so far as I have now be- 

 come acquainted with it, the Connecticut 

 between Hartford and the Sound ; and the 

 valley, nearh all the way from Pisa to Flor- 

 ence, is not unlike the Windsor, Hartford, 

 and Wethersfield meadows, in po nt of lo- 

 cation, extent and surface. This distance is 

 "bout fifty miles, and it is, without exagger- 

 ation, and literally, a garden— not a field- 



in all its length and breadth. It is never 

 touched with a ploughshare ; but the soil is 

 turned up and broken by the spade, precise- 

 ly in the manner of horticulture with us, ex- 

 cept that the insttume"ts with which the 

 operation is here performed are much long- 

 er and heavier, both in the iron and the han- 

 dle. Indeed, the use of the plough here 

 would be impossible. The whole soil is 

 devoted to three different and distinct bran- 

 dies of agriculture, at the same time. For 

 the raising of silk worms, mulberry trees 

 are planted so as to border sma 1 squares or 

 patches of land, and so near toget er, that 

 as you ride through the valley it presents the 

 appearance of a vast forest of second-growth 

 or sapling trees. These trees are also made 

 to answer another purpose. V nes are plan 

 ted around them, and tiained up their trunks 

 nd along iheir branches, which are thus 

 made to serve for the support of the vineyard. 

 But the production of silk and grapes, e'Ch 

 of which is a st pie of rich and extensive 

 growth, is but the beginning of that burthen 

 of service tu which the land is devoted. — 

 The entire su ace, throughout all the 

 squares, laid off int beds, bee mes the field 

 of another and even richer st pie than ei- 

 ther of the othe s generally of wheat, 

 though sometimes, but rarely, of the coa ser 

 grains. 



The ap earanc o every thing one sees here 

 indicates the prosperity and independence 

 of the cultivators of the soil ; and there is 

 one secret of this prosperity which I must not 

 omit to mention, because i is due to the in- 

 du try and vitueof the females. This val- 

 ley is the place of manufacture for what i 

 known with us under the name of I eghorn 

 hats; o called, do btl s, because they are 

 generally shipped to America irom that port 

 — and this br nch of industry ha ing been 

 made by custom a direct and independent 

 profit to the hands employed in it, has had 

 the very natural effect to give to this com- 

 munity a he lthy tone of moral character, 

 wholly unkno n to the rest of I aly. The 

 material of which this manufac ure is made, 

 i raised on lands bordering the v lie , the 

 soil of ■ hich is hard and chalky, and so 

 sterile that the grain (for it is a kind o 

 wheat) is never ri t ened. 'he straw is cut 

 before it arrives at maturity, and is neatly 

 bound in small sheaves for m rket. E ery 

 peasant girl of the valley, who chooses this 

 occupa ion, purchases o much, and such 

 quali y of this material as she is able to 

 braid, and her whole time is occupied with 

 this employment. So necessary h s it been 

 deemed that the hands should be preserved 

 in suppleness and delicacy, hat even die 

 parents of the girl have not the power or the 

 right to exact from her ny personal service 

 whatever, and especiall not, in any rustic 

 occupation, such as the female peas ntry of 

 the country are more or less accustomed to. 

 The parent however has the right, and it is 

 always exercised, to compel rom their daugh- 

 ters a commutation for personal service, by 

 a cash contubution towards the culture of 

 the fields and the support of the household. 

 This duty is paid in a very easy way, out of 

 the profits of their peculiar occupation, 

 which are re lly very considerable. The 

 mountaineers are mploved as labourers in 

 the field, and their wages, to a fixed amount 

 are discharged by the females, out of their 

 private purses. In this way, the men have 

 become indolent, and comparatively «orth- 

 less, while almost the whole respectability 



of this truly virtuous community of Tuscan 

 peasantry, is sustained by the other sex.— 

 So true is it, that even indolence can hardly 

 degenerate into vice, when the females of 

 the community are industrious and virtuous. 

 The costume of these peasant girls is pecu- 

 liarly neat and beautiful — the drapery is of 

 white linen or cambric, with a corsage of 

 modest colored silk, and they w. ar small 

 hats of straw, ornamented with flowers, 

 or a black ostrich plume. The beauty 

 of which Italy has always boasted is found 

 no where, as far as I have et seen, except 

 among this class of persons — and theirs is 

 the co eliness of pastoral simplicity. It is 

 refreshing, in a country so universally lax 

 in morals, to light on such a community as 

 this I have spoken of. It is a green spot in 

 the midst of a barren waste, where the car- 

 dinal virtues spring up spontaneously. How 

 strangely do the manners and customs of 

 this arcadian peo le contrast with those of 

 the cities of Italy.— Roch. Daily. 



The Brockport Free Iress, gives an ac- 

 count of a hail storm, on Saturday last, 

 which has much injured such crops as are 

 advanced, in that place. 



XTThe Barometrical and Thcrmometrical pbscrva 

 tions are registered at 10 o'clock A M. and P. M., which 

 ' along scries of experiments made for the purpose, 

 show lhat time to give a nearer mean average of the 

 relative heat of a day than any other time 



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