Part 3

In the midst of this establishment there was a vast _casale_ or farm house, destitute of furniture and inhabited but a very few days in the year.--Every thing around breathed the most perfect desolation; all was vast and silent. The harvest had just commenced and a thousand labourers, of whom one half were women, had descended from the mountains to gain a small pittance during a few days, by reaping the rich grain of six hundred and sixty arpents for the lordly proprietor, and if they did not perish at their toil, to go back after having respired the elements of a miserable death. Some days had elapsed since the harvest began, and only two labourers had been attacked by the fever of the Malaria; every day would, however, increase the number, till at the completion of their task, scarcely half of them would remain. 'What then becomes of these unfortunate people?' said M. de Chateauvieux. 'They get a piece of bread and are sent off,' was the inhuman reply,--'But where do they go to?' 'To the mountains; some stop on the road, some die, others get home almost expiring with misery and famine, only to follow the same life next year.'

The Malaria is one of those singular phenomena whose origin has baffled every effort at discovery, and the remedy for which has never yet been ascertained. Attempts have been made to cultivate the soil of the Maremma, and colonies were established within its circuit, but the resistless scythe of sure and silent death swept away the presumptuous intruders.--During half of the year, a few miserable beings, armed with lances and clothed in skins, the living images of death, wander over these devoted plains with their flocks; and if accident should delay their return to the mountains, fall certain victims to this fatal disease. Immense numbers of sheep, cows, horses, and goats find a subsistence on these wastes and supply the markets of Rome and the Val d'Arno. The soil is extremely steril; the whiteness of the pure argil being only alloyed by a mixture of sulphur, which is produced in great profusion. The cause of the Malaria, as we before remarked, has escaped all the investigations of science; it still remains a mystery no less profound, than its effects are dreadful. Some have supposed it to arise from the low pools of stagnant waters, which collect on the face of the Maremma; but the disease prevails on the heights of Radiocofani and within the lofty precincts of Volterra.

Some have supposed that the disease was caused by exposure to the sudden changes of temperature at the going down of the sun.[3] This is supported, it is true, by the very weighty face related by de Bonsteten in his _Voyage au Latium_, of a man who resided at Ardea sixteen years without being indisposed. But we doubt whether any solution that has ever been proposed was so perfectly ridiculous or so completely destitute of foundation. Do the people then die in the towns of this disease, where we know it to be a custom not to go out after dark, of mere exposure to a changing atmosphere? A short distance from the Porta del Popolo at Rome are two villas, one on each side of a small lane, but both situated on high ground. We were informed that during the summer season, a man would run very imminent danger of death in sleeping in one, while he might remain in the other with perfect impunity. How is this to be reconciled with the doctrine that the disease caused by the Malaria is nothing but fever and ague, brought on by exposure? The truth is, this dreadful enemy every year makes further inroads; no longer satisfied with pursuing the wretched thousands of enervated labourers and shepherds, who at evening crowd for safety into Rome, it is advancing into the city in the midst of darkness, and spreading from the Porta del Popolo, on the one side, and from the Palatine on the other, up the sides of the Quirinal. In 1791, says M. de Chateauvieux, Rome had a population of 160,000; at the time of this visit, it numbered only 100,000, of whom more than 10,000 were gardeners, shepherds, and vine-dressers. Four years afterwards we heard it computed at from 80 to 90,000. Undoubtedly political events have had no small effect in diminishing the number of inhabitants; but still we believe the Malaria must have had a no less powerful influence. Annually it roams over the finest villas without the walls, and ravages large districts of the town within; and neither the magnificence of the villa Borghese, nor the luxuriant beauty and towering pines of Doria Pamfili, can resist the assaults of this silent and deadly foe. Time seems to hold its mantle over the queen of cities, and to prepare by a fate as extraordinary as its former history, to blot it out from the admiration of mortals. Encompassed already by the awful stillness of a desolate waste, once filled up with sixty towns, which the antiquarian in vain attempts to trace, perhaps her own site may be hereafter unknown; and some future traveller may boast with enthusiasm of having once again penetrated its deserted streets, of having visited the spot enobled by the heroic virtue of Junius Brutus, or the eloquence and wisdom of Cato the censor. But we must leave a subject, on which we could dwell still longer with delight, and conclude our notice of a book, of which we would hope our readers have received a favourable impression. The subject of the work is not only important in itself, but most interesting to us. Italy is essentially an agricultural country; she is neither a manufacturing nor a commercial state. It is by her agriculture, that she supports more than 17,000,000 of inhabitants, or about 1237 to a square league; a population far superiour to that of France or England. It is her agriculture which laid the foundations of those splendid cities which crowd her plains; it is her agriculture, which, should it ever be protected by an enlightened government, will again yield nourishment to the principles of liberty, and raise her to a level with the most respectable nations of Europe. M. de Chateauvieux has devoted himself to the illustration of this noble subject, and we are confident that his work will not only afford many valuable hints to the practical farmer, but some lessons to our statesmen, in any future attempts which may be made to elevate manufactures at the expense of the most dear and invaluable interests in our country.

[3] See Edinburgh Review for March, 1817, p. 57.

From the Edinburgh Farmer's Magazine.

PARMESAN CHEESE DAIRY.

From a Journey in Carniola, &c. by W. A. Cadell, &c.

"On the 14th April (1818,) I went to see a large cheese dairy, 3 miles from Milan, one of the dairies at which that kind of cheese, called in commerce _Parmesan_, is made. It is called in Italy, _Formaggio di grana_, because it is commonly used in a granular form, being grated, and brought to table to be eaten with soup. Much of this cheese is also made near Lodi and Pavia.

The word _Formaggio_ is from _Formaticum_, which signifies, in the Latin of the middle ages, cheese prepared in a form.

The cheese is made in the morning before sunrise.

The morning's milk, and that of the preceding evening, are put into a large brass vessel, five feet in height, narrow at bottom, and widening out like a trumpet to three feet diameter at top. This vessel is placed over a fire, which is sunk in the ground, and the vessel can be removed from the fire by a crane.

When the milk is heated, runnet, in form of paste, is put in, and a little saffron, to give the cheese the yellow colour.

When the coagulation has taken place, the copper is taken off the fire, the curd is taken out in a cloth, and put within a broad wooded hoop, the sides of which are as high as the cheese is intended to be. This hoop can be straitened by means of a rope. A board is placed on the top of the cheese, and a small weight on the board. The cheese is not cut into a press.

After this, the cheese is taken to the salting room, and two cheeses are placed together, one above the other, with broad hoops tightened round them. Much salt is laid on the top of the uppermost cheese; the salt dissolves, and the brine filters through the cheeses.

The cheeses are shifted from one place to another all along the benches of the salting room, and are beaten with a flat piece of wood, cut with straight-lined furrows intersecting each other.

The cheese is next taken to the magazine, where each cheese is placed on a shelf.

The sides of the cheese are painted with a mixture of litmus, otherwise called _tournesol_, and oil, to give them the purple colour. The tournesol is a plant collected in the south of France.

The cheeses are set on the shelf in the same order in which they were made; and the cheeses of each month are placed together.

Those of the month of October and of May are the best, and bear the highest price. The best cheeses can be kept longest, and are improved by keeping for some years.

There was an October cheese which had been kept five years, and was to be sent to the emperor.

After the great cheese is made, the liquid in the copper is again heated over the fire, and curd is collected from it to make small cheeses, called _Mascarla_.

The number of cows kept for making cheese in this dairy is eighty.--They are always in the house in winter, and at the present season of the year. They are fed upon grass all the year, except perhaps in December. The house in which they are kept is not above nine feet high to the ceiling. They are not kept very clean. In summer, they go out to the field to feed during the day.

The cows are of a dark colour, and are brought from Switzerland, which is found more profitable than rearing them in this country. The bull is also Swiss, and fourteen months old.

It is estimated that 2000 head of cattle pass the Mount St. Gothard every year coming from Switzerland into Italy. Considerable fairs for the sale of Swiss cattle are held at Lugano.

The evening's milk is put in flat copper vessels, three feet in diameter, in order to collect the cream.

There is an ice-house in the dairy, for the purpose of supplying ice for cooling the cream which is put into the churn. This, they find, facilitates the making of butter at certain periods of the year.

In the farm-yard is an inscription, commemorating the visit paid to this dairy by the Austrian emperor and the archdukes, two years ago."

WILD RICE.

From the New York Statesman.

Extract of a letter, dated Canandaigua, July, 1820.

I saw for the first time in the Seneca river at Montezuma, the aquatic plant called wild rice, or folle arvine. It grows all over the west and north; and wherever it flourishes, myriads of waterfowl are attracted to it, and derive their chief support and exquisite flavour from its alimentary qualities. In the lakes and rivers adjoining Montezuma, thousands of wild geese and ducks of all kinds congregate at the proper season for food, except the canvas back duck, or anas valsineria of Wilson, which derives its name from a water plant called valsineria, on the roots of which it feeds, and which Wilson states to be a fresh water vegetable, that grows in some parts of the Hudson and Delaware, and in most of the rivers that fall into the Chesapeake.

Some difficulty has occurred not only about the botanical name, but also about the botanical character of the wild rice, or wild oats. The confusion of nomenclature has arisen from Linnæus himself. In his Species Plantarum, he has denominated it zezania aquatica, and in his mantisa, zezania palustris--and it has been called by other botanists, zezania claurlosa. I shall prefer the first name as most characteristic. It has been well described by Mr. Lambert, as zezania panicula inferne racemosa superne spicata. Pursh represents it as a perennial plant. Nuttall and Michaux are silent on this point, and Eaton says it is an annual, in which opinion I concur.

Mr. Lambert, in a communication in the 7th volume of the Transactions of the Linnæan Society of London, has given a figure of this plant as growing at Spring Grove, the seat of sir Joseph Banks, in England. It appears that sir Joseph received some of the seed gathered in a lake, in Canada, and put it in jars of water. It was sown in a pond at Spring Grove, where he has a great quantity of the plant, growing annually, ripening its seeds extremely well in autumn, and sowing itself round the edges.

By what I can learn, this same plant grows in Lake George, and Lake Champlain, and in all the western lakes. It produces seed in some places in September, and in others in October. It grows in shallow water, and, sometimes to the height of eight feet. Some of the western Indians derive their principal support from it. The grain it bears is superior to the common rice, and if cut before ripe, it makes excellent fodder, embracing the advantages of hay and oats. Mr. Lambert's figure of the plant in the Linnæan Transactions is accurate, and exactly resembles the one growing in the Seneca River. Its productiveness may be inferred from the food it furnishes to thousands of human beings, and to myriads of aquatic animals. From the success of the experiments of Sir Joseph Banks, it is highly probable that it will grow in any part of this country and Great Britain; and if so, may it not be considered as a good substitute for the oryza sativa, or common rice. It is well known that the latter furnishes more subsistence to the human race than any other plant. Pursh mentions a grass which he calls the oryzopsis asperifolia, which he observed on the broad mountains of this country, and which he says contains large seeds, that produce the finest flour. Perhaps this species of oryzopsis, although generally different, bears the same relation to z aquatica in its importance and place of growth, as the mountain rice of India does to the common rice of that region. At all events, the more I see of this country, the more I am convinced of its vast ability to support the human species and of the propriety of calling its latent powers into operation.

ON SEEDS.

Among plants, as among animals, there are different breeds to be found, some mean, some middling, and some quite superior. The intelligent grazier, or raiser of cattle of every sort, selects the finest animals he can find for breeders of his future stock; and in this way he experiences a wonderful improvement in its value, whether the stock be of horses, neat cattle, sheep, or swine. The same precaution should be observed by the agriculturist in the selection of the seeds of different plants which he cultivates--he should constantly select his seeds from the finest breeds of plants of every kind. In some cases such selections are attended with more trouble than with others, but in all cases it is a matter of the utmost importance in the improvement of crops. Some general rules for such selections shall now be pointed out.

For _Indian corn_.--Search for such stalks as bear two ears, at least, and take the largest ear of each stalk for seed, rejecting the grains on both ends. Pursuing this practice will, in a few years, increase the corn crop at least one third.

_Wheat, Rye, Barley, &c._--Search among the sheaves for the largest and best filled heads.--Sow the grains taken from these by themselves, and when the product is sufficient for seed, sow of this selected stock only. Repeat the selection about every six years.

_Flax, Hemp, &c._--At the time of pulling the crop, select the longest stalks to be found, sow the seed of these separately, and the product will probably afford seed sufficient for the next year's sowing. Repeat this, as before mentioned.

_Carrots, Beets, Turnips, &c._--Make yearly selections of the largest and most perfect roots, for bearing a supply of seed for the ensuing year.

_Pumpkins, Squashes, &c._--Select such plants as bear the greatest _number_ or the greatest _quantity_ of pumpkins, or squashes, &c.--take the _largest_ of the produce of each plant, and after opening them, the quality for _sweetness_ of each can be ascertained. Select your seeds for the next year's crop, from the sweetest of the collection.

_Cabbages._--Preserve the stalks for seed, which bore the largest and finest heads, or leaves, according to the sort of cabbage.

_Apples, Pears, &c._--No selections from the seeds of these, will insure the same sorts of fruit as those from whence the seeds were taken. The finest of these fruits are only to be obtained by ingrafting. It is however said, that by taking the seeds only from the south sides of such apples or pears, as grow on the finest of these fruit trees, varieties of young trees will be afforded from such seeds nearly equal to those from whence the seeds were taken.

_Peaches, Plums, &c._--Make your selections from such trees as bear the finest fruit, and from that growing on the south side of the trees. If you wish to make the young stock of fruit earlier than that of the parent tree, make your selections of such peaches or plums as ripen first, and these will always be found on the south side of the tree.

For preserving the germinative power of seeds, let them be mixed with a due proportion of sugar.

There is, in most cases, perhaps in all, a very essential advantage to be derived from a change of seeds, or bringing them from one part of the world to be sown in another. Sufficient attention has not, however, been paid to this matter to enable us to ascertain what changes prove most beneficial; but in making them, regard must doubtless be had that the seeds be taken from climates not too widely dissimilar. In bringing southern seeds to be sown in northerly climates, the danger is, that they will want sufficient time for ripening, and in pursuing the reverse of this, the crop may ripen so early as to be, on that account, lessened in its products.

In raising seeds of plants of which there are different species, it is essential that the seed plants be placed so far apart as to preclude any danger of the pollen of the one being carried by the winds to the other; for if an intermixture of breeds take place, a degeneracy of the plants must ensue, by mixing the valuable qualities of each. In the _Brascia_ tribe, for instance, there is one species denominated cabbages, of many varieties, and are valuable for their heads or leaves; another species is the common turnip, of several varieties, and valuable for its bulbous root; and another is the Swedish turnip or Ruta Baga, whose principle excellence is its bulbous stalk. The effect, therefore, of an admixture of these plants, must be a diminution of the bulbs of the two latter, and an increase of foliage, while the cabbages would lessen in the heads and leaves, with a proportionate augmentation of stalk and roots.

[_Plough Boy._

HOLKHAM SHEEP-SHEARING, (ENG.)

This festival, established by T. W. Coke, Esq. forty-three years ago, commenced on 10th July last.--Among the company present this year were, his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, Princes Potemkin and Trabetzkoy, (Russia,) the Marquis of Downshire, Earl of Albemarle; Lords Waterpark, Erskine, Anson, Ebrington, Lynedock, Delaware;--Hon. Mr. Keppel, Hon. Geo. Walpole, Hon. Gen. Fitzroy, Hon. Mr. Thellison, Sir John Sinclair, Bart. Sir Wm. Hoste, Bart. T. W. Coke, jr. Esq. M. P.; G. W. Hall, Esq. Thos. Gay, Esq. (Herts,) Robert Patterson, Esq. (Baltimore,) C. Deering, Esq. (Middlesex,) Mons. Petit, Esq. (Paris,) Thos. B. Beevor, Esq. J. Ellman, Esq. (Sussex,) and many eminent agriculturists from Norfolk, Suffolk, and various parts of the kingdom. This festival, instituted for the improvement of agriculture, assumes, at every anniversary, a greater degree of interest and importance.

Among the sheep exhibited there was an Arabian, and one from New Zealand; likewise a half-bred Zealand lamb, from a Southdown ewe. The Arabian sheep is a large animal, covered with a close coat of hair, like our pointer dogs. The colour of the one exhibited was white, with a black head and neck. The tail is very singularly formed--a large piece of loose flesh projects from the rump, above which grows a tail, about four inches in length, exactly resembling that of a young pig; the sheep has also a large pouch under the jaw.

A simple but most effectual method of preventing rats and mice from injuring corn stalks, was recommended by Mr. Gibbs. of Quarles, a tenant to Mr. Coke. The cost is not more than 6s. or 7s. per stack; and it has been found by several gentlemen who have made the trial, to be a complete bar to the depredations of those destructive vermin. The stack is cut round, and merely plastered with common lime and hair, about three feet high; and when properly done, it will be found that no vermin can possibly make their way into the stacks.

Mr. Coke pronounced the _grubber_ to be one of the most useful implements upon his farm, and pointed out its superiority over the scarifier, which cuts the roots of the weeds in pieces, and thereby multiplies them; instead of which the grubber forces them up in an entire state, and even their finest fibres are destroyed. Alluding to his own farms as a proof of what a better mode of husbandry would effect, Mr. Coke observed, with respect to what was frequently said of the injury accruing from the introduction of machinery, that he employed more hands with the machinery than he could any other way. Of the mode of _driling_, he said, it should be from north to south, instead of from east to west. This might appear of trivial moment, but he could assert that it was worthy of attention.

About 500 persons each day sat down to dinner in the noble mansion; when a scene of hilarity and cheerfulness, intermixed with valuable information from the gentlemen whose healths were drank, was exhibited. Mr. Coke, at the close of the meeting on Wednesday evening, delivered the prizes to the successful candidates in the various classes.

AGRICULTURAL MEMORANDA.

_Flax for Cambrics._--The culture of this species of flax is an object of great importance to every farmer.--The produce of a single acre has been known to bring in Flanders upwards of $380. It requires a deep and rich soil, and must be sticked or supported nearly as peas, as it grows twice as high as the ordinary flax; but the labour attending this is amply compensated by the produce.

_Hops._--The essential oil of hops, obtained by distillation, and afterwards mixed with a small quantity of sugar, is found to be the best way of using that plant in brewing, and the most effectual method of preserving it for years.

_Squashes._--It has been asserted, as the result of an accidental experiment, that squashes sown in the Fall will survive the frosts of winter and spring, and will ripen much earlier than any which can be raised by sowing in the spring. Those sown in the spring, and those sown in the fall, were, in the case alluded to, exposed to a severe frost; the former were killed, while the latter survived. It may be worth a more satisfactory experiment. The earliest salads, we know, are grown in this way. The same has been said of a species of beans, and even potatoes.

_A Hint for Farmers._--For 3 or 4 years past Hemp and Canary Seed have sold, on an average, at 5 and 6 dolls. per bushel, in this city; and within the last twelve months the last mentioned seed (Canary) has been sold as high as 12 dols. per bushel.--The above seeds are as easily raised in this country as wheat--why then should we depend on Europe for our supply, while wheat is selling for seventy cents per bushel?

[_E. Post._