168 On the Manufacture of Italian Bonnets, &c. * 
I have been informed that the crop of two acres is sufti- 
cient for all the straw of the hat manufacture in ‘Tuscany. 
This straw is the product of a beardless wheat, harvested 
before it is quite ripe, and whose vegetation is whitened by 
the sterility of the soil. This soil is selected among the 
ealcareous hills; it is never manured, and the seed is sowed 
very thick. These habitations so near to each other, shew 
of themselves, that the domains to which they belong are 
very limited, and that property is remarkably subdivided 
in these valleys. In fact, the extent of these little planta- 
tions is only from three to ten acres. ‘They lie around the 
dwelling, and separated into lots by small canals and rows 
of trees. ‘These trees are sometimes mulberries, almost 
always poplars, whose leaves serve to feed their animals. 
Each of them sustains a vine, whose branches the cultiva- 
tor entwines in a thousand directions. 
These lots, laid out in long squares are extensive enough 
to be cultivated by a plough without wheels drawn by two 
oxen. ‘There is one pair of these creatures among ten ora 
dozen of these tenants; and they are employed in succes- 
sion for working all the farms in the connection. ‘These 
oxen come from the states of Rome, or Maremmes ; they 
are of the Hungarian breed ; and are exceedingly well kept, 
being covered with white cloths, decorated with a great 
deal of embroidery and with scarlet tassels. 
Most of these land-laboures, keep a horse of a fine and 
elegant form. He is harnessed toa small two-wheeled 
cart neatly constructed and painted red. It serves for all 
the purposes of transportation on the farm, and more espe- 
cially to convey the good man’s daughters to the mass and 
the ball. Accordingly, on holidays, the roads are filled 
with hundreds of these little carts, moving in all directions, 
and carrying the young girls adorned with flowers and rib- 
bands. 
The farms of the valley of the Arno, have not forage 
enough to support cows; the cultivators therefore raise 
heifers only. These they buy at the age of three months, 
and keep them until eighteen when they are sold to the 
butcher, and younger ones bought in their places. It is 
from the pastures of Maremmes that the drovers bring the 
heifers to the fairs in the valley of Arno. 
