young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

0/ .

Piedmont - , by the withers ; fine ones fell at 30 louis the pair. A pair will draw fourthoufand pounds of hay, each pound twenty-eight ounces, on a waggon that weighs onethoufand pounds more, with wheels not three feet high, and wooden axles. Four thou-fand pounds at twenty-eight ounces Milanefe, are fix thoufand feven hundred and feventy-feven pounds, at fixteen ounces Englifh ; and three tons being only fix thoufand fevenhundred and twenty pounds, this is a confiderable load in fuch a vehicle, and fhouldimply no bad method of drawing, yet I cannot like it fo well as by the fhoulders. Theyare never fhod, except on ftoney hills.

This farmer fattens his oxen in winter with lintfeed cake, giving five pounds or fixpounds a day to each beaft, and as much hay as they will eat; the bell for them, thatof meadows not watered. When it is fcarce, they fubftitute forage of maiz, fown thickfor mowing, and this hay they cut in a chaff-box, to the length of one or two inches.

But the great object in the vicinity of Milan, as well as in the Lodizan, &c. is a dairy;I viewed feveral confiderable ones, from four to feven miles from the city, and had myinquiries very fatisfa&orily anfwered. Some of the particulars deferve noting, for Ifhould remark, that all the dairies of the Milanefe are very famous, and few producecheefe that is not fold under the general name of Parmefan. They buy in about theend of October, Swifs heifers, with calf, generally at two years and a half old, undercontract, that if they do not calve, or do not give milk from four teats, the bargain isvoid : the price on an average, 13! louis. They keep fo long as till fifteen years old,or fo long as they breed. Till the age of fix years, the milk augments annually, butafterwards diminifhes. They are fold lean at 1 3 to 36 crowns each, 6 livres. (at 8d.)The beft two or three cows in a dairy of forty or fifty, will give thirty-two bocali of milkper diem ; but in common, twenty-four, or eighteen Englifh quarts. The cows aremoftly of a dark brindled red colour, with fmall horns * ; and it deferves noting, thatthe bed made cow in fifty-five, quaft fattening, was the beft milker.

In refpeft to cheefe, a dairy of fifty-five, which I viewed, make three hundred andtwenty in a year, at forty pounds on an average, or twelve thoufand eight hundredpounds, or two hundred and thirty-two pounds per cow (three hundred and eightypounds Englifh), at 90 livres per one hundred pound ; in all per cow in cheefe, 7I. 1 os.Englifh. The butter amounts to twelve pounds to every cheefe of forty pounds, at 2 6 f.per pound: three thoufand eight hundred and forty pounds, which at 26/*. arc 4992livres (1661. 8s. Englifh, or per cow, 3I.) The calf, at eight or fifteen days, fells at 72livres per one hundred pounds nett, and being weighed alive, twenty-eight pounds perone hundred pounds is the dedu&ion. I do not clearly underhand this note, on re.vifion, but as veal at Milan is about the fame price as in England, I fhall call the calf1 os. To fifty-five cows, feven fows and a boar are kept, which breed forty hogs thatare reared; twenty fold in fpring, and twenty in autumn, average 1 i louis each ; in allfor hogs, 60I. Englifh.

£. s. d.

-Cheefe, - - - 7 10 o

Butter, - - 3

Calf, o

Hogs, - - - 1

Recapitulation, per cow.-

10

o

10

2

o

o

12

* It is remarked by an Italian writer, that in cbufing cattle, the horns mull not be overlooked; the largerthefe are, the worfe. The Swifs cows that are reputed the beft, have fmall horns ; and on the contrary,thofe of Sardinia , that are poor milkers, have very long ones. Elementi D'dgr'icoltura di Mitkrpachcr , toma ii.p. 257, notes.

VOL. IV. 4 E AhS