Book 



AGRICULTURE IN ITALY. 



times the grapes next the road are sprinkled with mud or lime-water to deter them ; at 

 other times a temporary dead fence of thorns is used during the ripening season and taken 

 down afterwards. The hedge plants are the hawthorn, sloe, bramble, briar, evergreen 

 rose, ilex, service, myrtle, pomegranate, bay, laurel, &c. 



281. In the arable lands of the plains, the row and mostly the raised drill culture are 

 generally followed, or the land is ploughed into beds of three or four feet broad, between 

 which water is introduced in the furrows. Every year a third of the farm is turned over 

 with a spade to double the depth of the plough, so as to bring a new soil to the surface. 

 The sort of trenching which effects this is performed differently from that of any other 

 country ; the spade being thrust in horizontally or obliquely, and the trench formed by 

 taking off successive layers from the top of the firm side, and turning them regularly over 

 in the trench. In this way the surface is completely reversed. 



282. The rotation of crops in the plain includes a period of three or five years, and five 

 or seven crops. There are, for a three-years' course ; 1. wheat or other grain, and lupines 

 in the autumn ; 2. corn of some sort, and turnips or clover in the autumn ; 3. maize, 

 panic, or common millet, and Indian or black millet (I?61cus Sorghum). Corn is cut 

 about the end of June close to the earth, left to dry a day or two, and then tied in bundles 

 (bottes), and put in cocks for a week or two. At the end of tliis period the ears are cut 

 off, and beaten out on a smooth prepared piece of ground in the farm-yard. The straw 

 is stacked, and the corn cleaned by throwing it with shovels, &c. The corn is laid up 

 till wanted in oval excavations in dry ground, which are covered with tiled roofs. The 

 excavations are lined with straw ; one holds from twenty to a hundred sacks, and being 

 covered with straw, is heaped over with earth. In this way it is kept in perfect pre- 

 servation a year or longer, and untouched by insects. The lupines sown after wheat are 

 often ploughed in for manure ; sometimes French beans are substituted, and the ripe 

 seeds used as food ; or turnips are sown for cattle. They have few sorts of turnips that 

 are good ; and Sismondi complains that half of them never bulb. Maize is sown in drills, 

 and forms a superb crop in appearance, and no less important, constituting the principal 

 food of the lower classes in every part of 

 Italy where the chestnut does not abound. 

 When the male flowers of the maize be- 

 gin to fade, they are cut off by degrees, 

 so as not to injure the swelling grain ; 

 the leaves are also cut off about that 

 time, cattle being remarkably fond of 

 them. In the plain of Bologna, hemp, 

 flax, and beans enter into the rotation. 



283. Cattle in the plains are kept con- 

 stantly in close warm houses, and fed 

 with weeds, leaves, or whatever can be 

 got. The oxen in Tuscany are all dove- 

 coloured J even those which are im- 

 ported from other states, are said to 

 change their coat here. They are guided 

 in the team by reins fixed to rings which 

 are inserted in their nostrils ; sometimes 

 two hooks, jointed like pincers, are used 

 for the same purpose. In general, only 

 one crop in four is raised for the food of 

 cattle, so that these are not numerous ; 

 it may thus appear that manure would 

 be scarce, but tiie Tuscan farmers are as 

 assiduous in preserving every particle 

 both of human and animal manure as the 

 Flemings. 



284. The farm-houses of the plain of 

 Tuscany, according to Lasteyrie (Co//. 

 (k Mach.), are constructed with more 

 taste, solidity, and convenience, than 

 in any other country on the Continent. 

 They are built of stones generally, in 

 rubble work, with good lime and sand, 

 which become as hard as stucco, and 

 they are covered with red pantiles. 

 The elevation {fig. 35.) presents two 

 deep recesses, the one a porch or com- 

 mon hall to the ground floor, or hus- 



91' 



E 2 



