D-anco-Siciss Dairy-Farming. 
91 
sooner the cost of food will be increased for that period. At that 
time of the year they are very busy in the vintage and in har- 
vesting the potato-crop ; they are always short-handed, and to 
bring down the cattle earlier than necessary means a useless aug- 
mentation of their work. The peasants have already experienced 
this diHicultv, when, in consequence of a very early fall of 
snow on the mountains, they were forced to bring down the 
cattle before the 9th of October. On the other hand, by the 
end of September the grass on the mountain pastures becomes 
scanty and thin, the yield in milk falls off considerably, and 
the cattle lose perceptibly in condition. 
The mountain system may be described as follows : — On 
Mount Jura, chiefly on the western slope and on the northern 
and southern extremities, where the declivities are not so steep 
and not so thickly covered with forest as on the eastern side, there 
exist large patches of pasture. These pastures, interspersed with 
rocks and clumps of wood, grow very good natural grasses. Their 
proprietorship is divided between private individuals and village 
communities, who let them on six years' leases, with power to 
the lessees of determining their tenancy after three years. The 
proprietors divide the land into blocks, varying from fifty 
to about sixty acres in extent, the division being made by 
means of primitive stone walls about three feet in height. In 
a convenient position a chalet is erected, its construction being 
always, more or less, on the same principle. The walls are of 
stone, and the roof of timber and shingles ; about one-third of the 
building, rudely paved, is occupied by the actual dair}', and this, 
again, is divided into the dairy proper, where the milk is set or 
the cheese is kept, and the other where the cheese is actually 
made. The other two-thirds of the building are rouffhlv floored 
■with timber, with railings running across, to which the cows 
are attached when being milked. In some cases there is a small 
division used as a piggery. Where there is a very large 
pasture, or where two pastures are joined together so that there 
are two chalets at the disposal of the lessee, one chalet is then 
almost exclusively used as a store-house for the cheeses. 
The chalet and the walls of the pasture are nominally kept 
in repair by the landlord, but practically the repairs fall upon 
the lessee. 
The lessee is locally called an " amodier." The amodier 
hires the pastures entirely for feeding off the grass by cattle, 
and under the terms of his lease he is not allowed to make hay, 
either to be eaten in the mountains or to be carried away. 
Nevertheless, as the past season has been a dry one in the 
valleys, and hay has been required down there, the amodiers 
have, in certain exceptional cases, been allowed to make hay 
