50 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



figure, that parties are often made at that season to go and view the rice-grounds. When 

 the weeding is finished, the water is drawn off for eight days ; it is again drawn off 

 when the ear begins to form, but after its formation is let in again till the rice is nearly- 

 ripe, which is about the end of August or beginning of September. The produce is from 

 ten to twenty fold. 



273. Among the herbage crops cultivated, may be mentioned chiccory, very common in 

 the watered meadows, rib-grass, also very common, oat-grass, and some other grasses ; 

 but not near the variety of grasses found in the English meadows and pastures ; fenu- 

 greek (Trigon^lla i.), clovers, lucerne, saintfoin, and in some places burnet and spurry. 



274. Among the trees grown hy the farmer, the mulberry predominates, and is pollarded 

 once or oftener every year for the silkworm. The tree is common in the hedge-rows, and 

 in rows along with vines parallel to broad ridges. The vine is generally cultivated ; 

 trained or rather hung on mulberry, majjle, or flowering ash pollards, or climbing up tall 

 elms, or in the hedges, or against willow poles or rude espalier rails. The olive is not 

 very common, but is planted in schistous declivities in warm situations ; the apple, pear, 

 and green gage plum are common. 



275. Though the agriculture of Lorabardy apj)ears to be practised more for subsistence, 

 than for the employment of capital and the acquisition of riches, yet, from the effect of 

 irrigation in producing large crops of grass, the profits of rearing silk, and the rigid 

 economy of the farmers, it is thought by Chateauvieux that it sends more produce to 

 market than any district of Italy. {Italy, let. iv.) 



SuBSECT. 2. Of the Agriculture of Tuscany. 



276. The picture of the agriculture of Tuscany given by Sismondi, a distinguished literary 

 character of Geneva, who resided five years as a cultivator in that country, is well known. 

 Sismondi arranges the rural economy of this district into that of the plains, the slopes, 

 and the mountains ; and we shall here state the most interesting or characteristic circum- 

 stances which occur in his work, or that of Chateauvieux, under these heads. According 

 to Forsyth, one half of Tuscany consists of mountains which produce nothing but timber ; 

 one sixth of olive and vine hills ; and the remaining third is plain. The whole is distri- 

 buted into eighty thousand fattorie, or stewardships. Each fattoria includes, on an average, 

 seven farms. This property is divided among forty thousand families or corporations. 

 The Riccardi, the Strozzi, the Feroni, and the Benedictines rank first in the number. 

 The clergy keep the farmers well disciplined in faith, and through the terror of bad crops, 

 they begin to extort the abolished tithes. This was in 1802: tithes are again fully 

 established under the Austrian power. 



277. The climate of Tuscany is esteemed the best in Italy, with the exception of that 

 of its maremme, or pestilential region on the sea-coast. The great heats commence at 

 the end of June, and diminish in the middle of September ; the rest of the year is a 

 perpetual spring, and vegetation in the plains is only interrupted for two or three weeks 

 in the middle of winter. On the mountains there is snow all the year ; and the hilly 

 districts enjoy a temperate but irregular weather in summer, and a winter of from one to 

 three months. 



278. The soil of the plains is either sand or mud of " inexpressible fertility ;" some 

 parts were marshy, but the surface is now comparatively elevated and enriched (as was 

 that of the Delta) by combles (colmata), or warping, a process ably described by 

 Sismondi. (Agr. Tuscan., ii.) 



279. Irrigation in the plains is practised in all the different modes as in Lombardy, but 

 on a smaller scale, correspondent with their extent. 



280. The plain is every where enclosed. The fields are parallelograms, generally one 

 hundred feet broad, and four or five hundred feet long, surrounded by a ditch planted 

 with Lombardy poplars and vines, with rows, lengthwise, of mulberries, maple, or the 

 flowering or manna ash, also interspersed with vines ; and ^ 34 

 often, by the way-sides, these hang in festoons, from tall elms. 

 {fig. 34.) The poplars supply leaves for feeding heifers, rods 

 which are sold for making espaliers for vines, and spray for 

 fuel. Every now and then a few are cut down for timber, as 

 at twenty years they are found to be too large for the situation. 

 The top of the ash and maple is used for fuel ; the timber for 

 implements of husbandry. The mulberry is pollarded every 

 other year for the leaves, which are stripped off for the silk- 

 worms, and the spray used as fuel. The produce of raw silk 

 is one of the most important in Tuscany, and is almost the only article the farmer of the 

 plains has to exchange for money. He has wine also, it is true, but that, though pro- 

 duced in abundance, is of so wretched a quality, compared with that of the hills, that it 

 brings but little. Hedges are only planted on the road sides to keep off beggars and 

 thieves, who are very numerous, and who steal the grapes and the ears of maize. Some- 



