THRIFT AND CHARACTER OF THE TUSCAN PEASANTRY.—REVIEW OF LEIBIG ? S VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 311 
paragraph in which the “ shedding of horns” is 
mentioned, that they must of course use the term 
in both places with the same meaning, and that, 
therefore, the old teeth do not fall out, but that the 
enamel of the tooth becomes loosened only, so as 
to “ allow the growth of the bone.” 
Oct. 9ih, 1843. 
THRIFT AND CHARACTER OF THE TUSCAN 
PEASANTRY. 
M. De Sismondi, author of the Fall of the Ro¬ 
man Empire, who had an estate in Tuscany, and 
was thoroughly acquainted with the character and 
condition of the country and its inhabitants, gives 
us the following delightful picture of the thrift 
and character of the Tuscan Peasantry. It cer¬ 
tainly represents a very happy state of society ; one 
which, compared with the restless, changing, am¬ 
bitious character of our own population, leaves us 
little we think to boast of The true philosophy 
of a happy life, has ever seemed to us to consist 
more in circumscribing than in increasing our 
wants and desires. 
The land is cultivated for the proprietor on 
shares, he furnishing the land, house, and im¬ 
plements, and receiving half the product. The 
metayer, (peasant,) receives from the hand of Na¬ 
ture his whole subsistence. He has little want 
of money, for he has scarcely any payment to 
make. He hardly knows the existence of taxes, 
for they are paid by the proprietor; and as he has 
nothing to quarrel about with the government, he 
is in general attached to it. Neither has he any 
interest to settle with the church, tithes having 
long ago been abolished. He is a partner with 
his proprietor in interest, and has nothing to dis¬ 
cuss with him, usage having fixed his rights and 
obligations. His contract may, it is true, be bro¬ 
ken any year by his misconduct; but experience 
teaches the proprietor that he loses and never 
gains by discarding a peasant. Thus he lives on 
the land as if it were his inheritance, loving it 
devotedly, and laboring to improve it, and believ¬ 
ing that it will be cultivated by his children and 
grandchildren. They understand it with a pre¬ 
cision that the feeling of property alone can give. 
The terraces elevated one above another, are often 
not more than 4 feet wide, and the character of 
each is known to the metayer; this is dry, that is 
too cold and damp; here the soil is deep, there it 
is merely the incrustation of a rock; wheat thrives 
J>est here, barley there; here it would be lost la¬ 
bor to plant Indian corn, even beans or pease ; a 
little farther flax flourishes wonderfully, and the 
border of this brook is wonderful for hemp. Thus 
in a space of 10 acres, the soil, the aspect, and 
the lay of the land, present a greater variety than 
a rich farmer finds on 500 or 600 acres. 
The gentleness and benevolence of the Tuscan 
character are often spoken of; the reason is, that 
all cause of quarrel is removed from the cultiva¬ 
tors, who constitute three fourths of the population. 
When you leave the great roads, and climb up 
the hills of the valley of Nievole, you meet at every 
step little paths, which, winding among the vines 
and olives, are never traced by a wheel, and are 
only passable for mountain-horses with their loads. 
Among these paths, you meet at every hundred 
steps, upon some flowery hill-side, a little house, 
which presents the sweet image of industry fully 
rewarded, of man’s love of the land, of abundance 
and peace. The house is substantially built with 
good walls, and has always one, and often two 
stories above the ground floor. The most spacious 
and airy of the rooms are devoted in May or June 
to the growth of the silk-worm. 
All the linen and working-dresses of the family 
are home-made. One can hardly imagine the 
quantity of linen and linsey-woolsey the women 
accumulate by assiduous labor. 
The following is an inventory of the bridal clothes 
of one of a family living on the half product of 
ten acres of land , their circumstances being about 
an average of this class:—28 chemises, 3 gowns 
of colored silk, 4 gowns of coarse ditto, 7 gowns 
of cotton cloth, 2 winter working gowns, 2 summer 
ditto, and skirts, 3 white skirts, 5 calico aprons, 
1 black silk apron, 1 merino ditto, 9 colored work¬ 
ing ditto, 4 white handkerchiefs, 8 colored ditto, 
3 worked veils, 3 towels, 14 pairs of stockings, 2 
hats, 2 gold cameos, 2 gold ear-rings, &c., &c. 
Truly, a fitting example for our enlightened and 
more highly-favored countrywomen. R. L. A. 
Translated for the Gardeners* Chronicle , 
from the German of Dr. Hugo Mohl. 
REVIEW OF LEIBIG’S VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 
(Concluded from Page 270.) 
In a subsequent part of this chapter Dr. Liebig 
expresses his surprise, that in all the works of 
Agronomists and Physiologists, one looks in vain 
for the leading principles of cultivation ; neverthe¬ 
less, at the end of this part of his work, he states 
that cultivation supplies every plant with that sort 
of food which it requires for the development of 
such organs or substances as are most available to 
man. He further dwells on the means of arriving 
at that end, viz., the chemical analysis of the inor¬ 
ganic ingredients of soil. But these latter facts, 
says Dr. Mohl, were known long before Liebig, 
Charles Sprengel having written a series of me¬ 
moirs, to demonstrate the importance of the inor¬ 
ganic ingredients of the soil, both for the general 
growth of crops, and for that of certain organs in 
particular. Under this head, Liebig certainly ought 
to have mentioned the name of Sprengel, and al¬ 
though he has not done so, (concludes Dr. M.,) the 
history of science will amply repay the omission. 
In the last chapter, which is headed “ Rotation 
and Manures,” Liebig opens the difficult question, 
why several crops of the same plant will not suc¬ 
ceed on the same soil in an uninterrupted succes¬ 
sion ? and why, therefore, farmers resort to rotation ? 
He thinks De Candolle’s theory the best explana¬ 
tion of this, forgetting, it seems, that that coarse ex- 
crementitious theory has no better foundation than 
bad and injudicious experiments of Macaire Prin- 
sep, the same man who misled De Candolle on 
other occasions also. Liebig, however, (says Dr. 
Mohl,) who has no idea that these experiments 
are fallacious and controverted by all succeeding 
ones of the same kind, works out this theory in its 
most minute details, and proves, a priori , that 
