39 



for one, but these are extraordinary cases, and can- 

 not serve as data for a general estimate. 



The common crop in the middle districts is from 

 sixty to seventy for one, and from forty to fifty in 

 the maritime. Between the 24th and 34th degrees 

 of latitude the husbandmen irrigate their fields by 

 artificial means, which renders their crops generally 

 more certain than in the southern provinces, where 

 they depend upon the dews, although the rivers and 

 streams offer them the same advantages. The esti- 

 mate which I have made might, however, be increas- 

 ed, were the grain which is lost during the harvesting 

 to be taken into account ; as the husbandmen have 

 adopted a very injurious custom of not reaping their 

 corn until it begins to shell out, in consequence of 

 which much is wasted and serves as food for the 

 birds ; and it happens not unfrequently, that what is 

 left produces a second crop without any tillage or 

 farther sowing of the ground. 



The difference in the vegetation of the maritime 

 and middle provinces depends upon the qualities of 

 their respective soils. That upon the coast resem- 

 bles the rich grounds of Bologna; its colour is 

 brown, inclining to red, it is brittle, clayey, con- 

 tains a little marie, and is filled with flint, stones, ^ 

 pyrites, shells, and other marine substances. In the 

 interior, and in the vailles of the Andes, the soil is 

 of a blackish colour, inclining to yellow; it is brit- 

 tie, and frequently mingled with gravel and marine 

 substances in a state of decomposition. This qua- 

 lity of the soil is continued to a considerable depth. 



