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Italy from which is made a vine that can compare with the best 

 brands on the other side of the Alps. Delicious wines are made 

 from gra23es that grow on poles that keep the fruit near the 

 ground. To compensate for this, the mulberry is to be found 

 planted in every little farm, and its leaves either feed neat cat- 

 tle, or myriads of silk worms, from Avhich is derived one of the 

 most valuable articles of commerce, and the most reliable source 

 of income for the small farmers of the country. And here are to 

 be found those fine fields of rice, from which grow a grain only 

 inferior to that produced in our own Carolinas. On the moun- 

 tains, in the valley, and over the plains, graze countless herds 

 of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats. Its innumerable streams 

 fed from rills gushing out from the Alpine and Appenine ranges, 

 by a little aid of man moisten the meads and pasture grounds. 

 Here lie the scenes so graphically painted by the naturalist, 

 Pliny. The very olive yards that flourished in his day are still 

 to be seen here and there on his own enchanting lake, though the 

 stock has waxed old and become crooked and torn by the rude 

 hand of time, yet it yields the same delicious berry that once 

 formed the daily food of its ancient master. Who that has fol- 

 lowed the rapid Adda, or the meadows of the more gentle Mincio, 

 does not recall those admirable rustic scenes so vividly painted 

 by the poet, whose charming and truthful Georgics are the most 

 finished production that has come down from antiquity. And 

 his book farming (the sneer and butt of ignorant and obstinate 

 men in other times) did more to rouse his countrymen to the im- 

 portance and attractions of this indispensable art, than the decrees 

 of Senates and the ordinances of the Csesars. Nothing can be 

 more animated in rui-al economy than the annual peregrinations of 

 the countless flocks of sheep and goats and herds of cattle that 

 leave the plain of Lombardy in the spring in search of the sweet 

 food that grows in the high Alps, whose zones give every variety 

 of pasture during the season. Then go before them the rude 

 shepherd with their rural reeds, whose blasts, with the tinkling 

 of the bells suspended from the necks of the proud leaders, break 

 the monotony of the Alpine solitudes. Here are found almost 

 all the industry and good husbandry which have given to Lom- 

 bardy the richly merited title of garden. In fact, the basin which 

 the Po and its affluent drain may be called now what Sicily once 

 was, " the granary of Italy." Here may be seen tlie most judi- 

 cious rotation of crops and their best returns, and what is worthy 

 of all commendation, the most successful system of irrigation. 



