VOI,. XV. NO. 1. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



AGRICULTURE IN ITALY. 



Mr Editor, — Since you desire it, I rosumo 

 my account from Cliateauvieux, on the Agricul- 

 ture of Loinbardy. 



Before I continue my extracts, however, allow 

 me to enforce attention to one especial point of 

 comforniity between Italian cultivation, and that 

 which is the true course of our own. Of the 

 former one of the leading excellences lies in the 

 skilfully midtiplied objects of production, which it 

 is made to embrace. As a genera! rule, the warm- 

 er the climate, the more varied the culture may 

 be made : and the greater is the scope for improv- 

 ing the soil and augmenting and diversifying its 

 fruits, by the intermixture and succession of crops. 

 In no country has less art been applied to these 

 matters, than in our own : in few countries, I am 

 persuaded, is so much practicable, in this species 

 of improvement, as under our genial sky and with 

 the fine soil of our alluvial country. 



I cannot but think, too, that the Italian econo- 

 my of employing oxen, for draft and the plough, 

 might well be introduced, to a considerable ex- 

 tent. In hardiness and in the cheapness of 

 their food, the mule may be equally commenda- 

 ble. But the outlay of capital is, for the oxen, far 

 less ; their breeding is far easier and cheaper : In 

 what relates to the forming of manures, they are 

 ranch to be preferred ; and besidas, the milk and 

 butter of a well kept herd, there is some account 

 to be made of the food into which the superannu- 

 ated ones may always be turned. Tlieir superior- 

 ity, however, for all the purposes of rural employ- 

 ment, is greatest to the cultivator whose capital is 

 small, or scanty in proportion to the land that he 

 tills; and this, after all, is the condition of our 

 wealthiest planters. 



I proceed to the detail of the cultivation prac- 

 tised upon the farm which was described in my 

 former paper. 



It is of 60 arpens (75 acres) in extent, of which 

 a fourth part is in grass, the rest being in ploughed 

 lands, generally planted : of which last, ibout 10 

 (12 1-2 acres) are sown in clover. This latter crop, 

 with the hay of the meadows, feeds eight oxen 

 and thirteen cows and yearlings ; of which two 

 are young oxen ; together with an indifferent 

 horse, employed only to go to market and to tread 

 out the grain. In aR, there are twentytwo head 

 of cattle, nearly one to every arpent of forage 

 land. 



I need not describe their peculiar race of cat- 

 tle, since we have them not in this country. They 

 are, perhaps, superior to the English breeds, for 

 purposes of draft, but much inferior for the milk 

 pail. The Piedmont system, therefore, looks more 

 to profit from the flesh than from the milk of the 

 cows. Thus, on each farm, a pair of oxen is rais- 

 ed every year. In their third year, they are bro- 

 ken to the lighter labors of the farm. In the 

 fourth and fifth, they are used for the heavier work. 

 At five years old, they are fattened, bringing of- 

 ten 1000 or 1100 francs, (200 to 220 dollars,) and 

 forming one of the farmer's best sources of in- 

 come. 



Each plough works over iu the season 32 ar- 

 pens, (40 acres.) Their plough is an admirable 

 and peculiar one, which they manage with extra- 

 ordinary skill. With it alone, their open crops 

 are all cultivated. By it, and with a yoke of ox- 

 en, their maize is hoed and hilled up, with the 

 greatest neatness and exactness, so as totally to <le- 

 stroy all grass or weeds ; and their very fine Irish 



potatoes are also produced with this single imple- 

 ment. 



Their course of crops is usually a four years' 

 rotation. 



First year, Maize, with manure, 

 French Beans, 

 Hemp, 



Second year, Wheat, 



Third year, Clover, ploughed in after the first 

 mowing, and left fallow. 



Fourth year, Wheat. 



This system, productive as it is, (two wheat 

 crops every four years) is found to sustain, with- 

 out diminution, the fertility of the soil — a result, 

 however, largely attributable to the manure fur- 

 nished by a meadow mowed three times in the 

 season, of which the hay is all returned by the 

 cattle that it feeds, to the j)lough-land3. 



The maize crop is regarded as a preparatory 

 one. For it, all the manure is reserved ; and its 

 hoeings and hillings-up keep the land perfectly 

 clean. Its produce is considerable, and makes, 

 under various forms, the general food of the Pied- 

 montesB peasantry. With it, in the cultivation, 

 they mingle an abundance of beans of different 

 sorts, and a quantity of hemp. 



The maize is got-in in September, and the soil 

 is forthwith prepared for wheat. This is sown 

 on very narrow beds, and covered in by the 

 plough. No further attention is given it, till har- 

 vest, which comes about the begiiming of July. 



The wheat, as soon as under the porticoes of 

 the court, it is dried by the heats of August, is 

 threshed by a roller, drawn by a horse, and driv. 

 en by a child, whilst the laborers shift the straw 

 with forks. This operation lasts about two 

 weeks, and is prompt, economical, and effi- 

 cient. 



The clover is sown in spring, among the ma- 

 nured wheat. The warm sun of Italy brings it 

 into blossom early in the autumn, and it gives in 

 October a good cutting; afterwhich itserveswith 

 tha meadow for a full pasture. In spring, it starts 

 up afresh, flowers early, and gives a fine mowing; 

 but the coming heats leaving no hope of another 

 good growth, they make haste to plough it in : 

 and thus the land has a fallow and three plough- 

 ings before the new sowing of wheat. 



Thus, their course gives in four years, three 

 crops of human food, one fallow, and two crops 

 of food for cattle ; besides the hemp crop, which 

 is sometimes valuable, and those of silk, wine, 

 vegetable, fruits, poultry, calves, the produce of 

 the dairy, and the profits from the fattening of 

 beeves. 



A farm, then, such as described, supports the 

 farmer's family of eight or nine persons, feeds 

 twentytwo heads of cattle, cf which two oxen and 

 one cow are fattened for market every yaar ; gives 

 a produce of silk worth fully 25 Lois d'ors ; sup- 

 plies more wine than the farmer uses ; yields, in 

 beans and maize, more than enough to support 

 the cultivators ; and sends to market the entire 

 wheat crop, as well as a quantity of smaller arti- 

 cles of provisson. After this, it is easily seen 

 that the economy of cultivation is no where in the 

 world better understood than in Piedmont ; and 

 the phenomenon of its great population and ex- 

 ports become intelligible enough. 



I will endeavor, in a subsequent paper to pur- 

 sue those further points in this account of Italian 

 cultivation, which seem to me likely to prove use 

 ful to your readers. — Southern Jigricidtnrist. 



USEFUL ARTS. 



OnioiiNK. New Pump. — Mr Thomas Odiorne, 

 of Portsmouth, N. II. is (ixhibitiiig at the Castle 

 Garden bridge, a specimen of Yankee ingeiiuity, 

 which it seems to us, must really be considered 

 the ne plus ultra of the pumpine; interest ; and we 

 don't see as there will ever be the least necessity 

 hereafter, of a vessel's sinking, if the owners will 

 provide her with one of the machines. We have 

 seen it in operation, and feel fully convinced that 

 there is no mistake about this improvement at 

 least. It will discharge one hundred and twenty 

 gallons infflyjive seconds, merely by the api)li- 

 cationofa power less than is requirt-d at tlje 

 common pump brake — thus performiag very 

 nearly four fold as much as the ordinary machine 

 now in use. The operation, powerful anil effi- 

 cient as it is, is i>erlectly sim])l(', consisting of two 

 buckets alternately playingup and down theinimps 

 — one of which is constantly pouring forth an 

 abundant volume of water, while the other is de- 

 scending by its own gravity to peiform the same 

 oflice the succeeding second. The ascending 

 bucket the instant it rises to the surface and dis- 

 charges.its contents, is disengaged from its fellow 

 by an ingenious, but at the same time, exceeding- 

 ly simple self-acting motion, and goes down after 

 more ; rising in its turn to the top, and again de- 

 scending. This invention is but just patented, 

 and of course has not gone into general use ; but 

 it must of necessity soon do so. Mr Odiorne, we 

 perceive has a certificate of Commodore Crane of 

 the Navy, expressing strong approval of the plan, 

 and we understand too, that the ship masters at 

 the Eastward are unanimous in their opinion of 

 its importance ; but the invention does not need 

 certificates. Every man must see at once its ob- 

 vious superiority. — L. 1. Star. 



The model of an improved steamboat, invented 

 by Daniel Gerrish of Boston, is exhibiting at Wash- 

 ington. The hull consists of a vast number of wa- 

 ter tight cells, made by the crossing of the timbers. 

 A hull of great strength is formed by this kind of 

 frame work, which is (covered with plank well 

 caidked, and to which the upper part of the ves- 

 sel, containing tlie ordinary apartments of a steam- 

 boat,is adjusted. The principal advantage of this 

 mode of construction is, that in striking rocks, 

 snags, &c. the water will only enter the cells 

 which are perforated, and the vessel will still re- 

 nmin afloat. It is thought that steamboats con- 

 structed in this manner might serve a good pur- 

 pose in tlie Florida war. The cells might be used 

 to contain the stores of the campaign, and acci- 

 dents from the snags and savages would be avoid- 

 ed by the peculiar mode of construction. — JV. 1. 

 E. Post. 



Dr. Nott, says the Albany Gazette, has fully suc- 

 ceeded in his experiment of employing anthracite 

 coal, in steam navigation. The Novelty, with 

 boilers heated exclusively with this kind of coal, 

 made a siiccessfid passage from New York to 

 Albany, on Thursday, the 30th ult. against wind 

 and tide. 



Anderson recommends that Cows be milked 

 three times a day in summer when full fed. If 

 a cow is not milked dry each time, the quantity 

 diminishes; and if milked dry, the best milk is 

 obtained. The first cream which rises is the best. 



