ITALY. 337 



;is the results of experiments commenced early in the century by the 

 Princess Hacciocchi. 



In the mountains the cultivation of forage is much more extensive, 

 embracing about 30,000 to 40,000 acres, besides natural pasturage every- 

 where, in the valleys and lower hills excellent, of inferior quality in the 

 heights. The whole of this region is full of busy pastoral life, but of 

 the most primitive description, and far from prosperous as it should be 

 with such facilities and more improved methods. Irrigation is rare, con- 

 fined to cases where some mountain brook can be turned in a few fields, 

 and manure all reserved, where it is possible, for the scanty plantation 

 of cereals. 



HERDING- AND DAIRYING IN UDINE. 



During the summer months some 25,000 head of cattle graze on these 

 pastures, partly belonging to the district and partly to the plain below, 

 the best tracts of pasture being rented by speculators, who make a bus- 

 iness of conducting them to these heights, combining with this indus- 

 trv a considerable fabrication of dairy produce, receiving half the milk 

 and product as the price of pasture and fabrication. The cheese is said 

 to be excellent, and is of three kinds: Grasso fresco, di conserva, and 

 curd or inag.ro for consumption on the spot. This, with the butter, is 

 largely demanded in the low country, where no production of the kind 

 exists, and finds its way in smaller quantities to Venice and Trieste. 

 The last official reports state the commercial aspect of their industry to 

 be discouraging. In only one or two districts is there any satisfactory 

 sale or demand. It is impossible to ascertain the proportions of milk 

 and product, the proceeds being entirely primitive and rustic, with no 

 attention to any system. The yield of milk is stated at 9 pounds per 

 cow at the highest limit, and, with fresh pasture ; later in the season or 

 in advanced gestation, it descends to 7 and to 4 pounds. For cows 

 without milk the price of pasture for the season (from June 1 to Sep- 

 teiiber 1) is $1.40; if under three years, $1; for calves, GO cents. 



CATTLE OF UDINE. 



The cattle of these mountains are an indiscriminate mixture of all the 

 races of the neighboring pastures Tyrolese, Styrian, Carinthian, Bel- 

 lanese grafted in the domestic animal, vulgarly known as ih&friulana, 

 largely represented here, but belonging more properly to the lower 

 plain, and one of the numerous varieties of a race of animals now pre- 

 dominant in every part of Italy. The Polisine, Reggian, Pugliese, .Ro- 

 man, Tuscan, &c., all bear the persistent stamp of the same great family, 

 modified by inilueuces of climate and situation. 



Professor Keller, of Padua, citing an authoritative work of Pabst, 

 "Instruction and Guide to the Breeding of Horned Cattle," says : "Ex- 

 tending from the steppes of Eastern Europe and Asia, there is found 

 in Podolia, the Ukraine, Volhynia, Hungary, Moldavia, Wallachia, 

 Transylvania, and Southern Eussia, a typical race, widely diffused, ex- 

 tremely apt for labor, fairly capable of fattening, yielding in particular 

 abundant and excellent suet, but little milk. Spreading into regions 

 so extended and various in soil, forage, and other conditions, one meets 

 many gradations of this race differing in weight, physical constitution, 

 &c. The essential differences which remain constant indicate two sub- 

 divisions, the Hungarian-Transylvanian and the Podolian-Moldere. 

 The former is among the heaviest of existing races ; the second is lower 

 in stature, with shorter horns. As a rule, there is no worse race for 

 H. Ex. 51 22 



