5S8
It is an obfervation of Sig. Paoletti * * * § , that draining the Maremma, and cultivating it,have leffened the number of fheep in Tufcany confiderably: great flocks, before thatperiod, were kept in fome mountainous diftri&s in fummer, and paitured in the Ma-remma in winter; but cultivation has changed this. He does not fay that the peopleof the Maremma have fheep of their own, but obferves, that it is a diminution in num-ber. This is fufficient to prove, that the improvements in the Maremma have been onfalfe and vicious principles; for if they had been on juft ones, fheep would have beenincreafed inftead of leffened.
Sig. Paoletti recommends that all fheep fhould have one pound of fait in March, andone in Odtober, which makes them healthy, and to yield more wool f.
Modena. —Wool here fells from 2 livres to 3 livres per pound, wafhed; equal toI2|d. per pound Englifh. There are many fheep in the mountains, but mif'erablethings; clipped twice a year.
Parma. —In going to Firenzuola, I examined the wool of a flock, and found it morelike the hair of a dog than wool; and ail I fee, which are but few, are alike hairy; inoftof them polled, but fome with horns ; not badly made, but feel worfe. Thefe are theflocks whofe wool, Monf. de la Lande fays, is ineftimable !
Piedmont. — Pavefe .~-On entering the King of Sardinia ’s country, and for manymiles, fee little parcels, of from ten to twenty-five, of poor dirty houfed fheep, feedingon the young wheat. Afti was formerly famous for wool ;—nelli antichi tempi fatnofaper la fua la?ie J; but the country contains none at prefent to fuppert that character.
Savoy. —Unwafhed wool, iq/i the pound of twelve ounces; fleece three pounds tofix pounds; it goes to France or Piedmont. Sheep , 9 livres to 12 livres each. Thoughcattle and fheep are the great riches of all Savoy, yet no care taken of the breed, andthe wool all bad §.
The price of wool, regard being had to that only which is long, coarfe, and bad, (butnot the worfl:,) may be ftated in Lombardy at is. Englifh, the Englifh pound; luchwould fell in England, I calculate, at about 7d. or 8d. per pound.
Chap. XXX1IL— Of the Management of Arable Land.
THE minutes I took, concerning the condudt of arable land, may, for the fake ofclearnefs, be thus divided :—1. Of thecourfes of crops. 2 Of feed and product. 3. Ofthe culture of certain plants. 4. Of implements. 5. Of manures.
Sect. I. — Of the Courjes of Crops .
Piedmont. — Chentale. —A year of fallow common in five or fix years, during whichyear the land is never watered, only expofed to the fun. Wheat is fown on fallow; onclover land ; always after hemp, becaufe the land is in high order; the fame after maize,if well manured; in which cafe alfo after millet fown in June, otherwife meflin or rye.The fallow for wheat, commonly follows buck-wheat, called her efromentin, or millet.Clover is fown among rye in March, never among wheat. Millet de cottura is fown inJune; millet de refluba the end of July, after wheat; and then dung well for hemp.
* Pilfer:, p. 207. He mentions their being frotTtgiofamtnn plu numeroje. a century before, p. 221,
•f Penfieri , p. 208.
| Giul'tni, tom. xii. p. 19.
§ I may here add a miuute on goats ; Marquis Ginori introduced the Angora goats into Tufcany, formaking camblets, which manufacture has fucceeded fo well, as to be termed rtfpettabile manifaitura by Pao-letti. Petfier't, p. 220. And it is obferved by another writer, that if they are not fuperior to the antientcamblets of Bruffeis, they are at leak equal to them. Ragionamntc fopra Tofcano, p. 167..
J.a
Turin*.