young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

59 8

a half ftajo of feed, and the produce fifty to fixty. Of fonnentGne (maze) they lowhalf a llajo, and reap twenty five.

On the plains in Tufcany, the chief produft is wheat, thefecond wine, and the thirdoil ; but on the fouthern fide of the hills, olives on fpots bad for them, and wine.Silk no where enough to be a chief object.

Modena. —The country from Modena to Reggio conftantly improves in its features,and mud be reckoned among the bed cultivated in Lombardy ; the fields are throwninto arched lands, like Flanders about twenty-five yards broad, and fmall ridges on thofe :a row of trees is planted on the crowns of fome, and along the furrow's of others: infome there are neat great trenches ; and as the fences are equally well made, and themeadows with a good afpeft, the country carries the general features of being well cul-tivated. The appearance of thefe broad ridges, in two of The bed cultivated countries'in Europe, Lombardy and Flanders, judly gives a high idea of the practice.

Parma. —From Reggio to Parma, there are many lands, three or four yards broad,now (November) deep ploughed, and the furrows cleaned out by fpades, laid up in thismanner, for planting beans in the fpring; excellent management. There are alfo agood many autumn fow.n ones, three or four inches high : produce in general, aboutVicomero, wheat four or five times the feed, and beans five or fix. To Firenzula this-practice takes place yet more, and is better done. The merit of their hulbandry ap-pears to be greater about Parma than at Piacenza ; there is a vifible decline as you ad-vance.

Sav-oy. —At Lanefbourg, they fow only rye, v'hich they harved in July, the produceabout fix for one. ,

If the intelligence concerning the produce of wheat be reviewed, it will be found, onan average, varying from five to feven and a half times the feed; generally betweenfive and fix. Suppofe the latter number, and we lhaji, with reafon, be amazed at themil’erable produffs of this rich plain, in every thing except grafs and filk. The averagefoil of England cannot be compared with the average foil of Lombardy , yet our meanproduce is eleven times the feed, perhaps twelve. Every one inuft be curious to knowthe caufe of fuch w'retched crops : I attribute them to various circumftances—but thepredominant caufe mud be fought for in the fmall farms occupied either by little pea-fan t proprietors, or, what is more general, by metayers. This abominable fyflem ofletting land is the origin of mod of fhe evils found in agriculture, wherever the methodprevails. Such poor farmers, who, in every part of Italy where I have been, are fomiferable, that they are forced to borrow of the landlord even the bread they eat beforethe harved comes round, are utterly unable to perform any operation of their culturewith the vigour of a fubdantial tenantry; this evil pervades every thing in a farm ; itdiffufes itfelf, imperceptibly to a common eye, into circumdances where none wouldfeek it. There are but few didrifts where lands are let to the occupying tenant at a moneyrent ; but wherever it is found, there crops are greater; a clear proof of the imbecillityof the metaying fydem. Yet there are politicians, if they deferve the name, every whereto be found who are violent againd changing thefe metayers for farmers ; an apparentdepopulation is faid to take place ; and the fame dupid arguments are heard, that wehave been pedered with in England, againd the union of farms. Men reafon againdthat improvement of their lands, which is the natural progrefs of wealth and profperity ;and are fo grofsly abfurd as to think, that doubling the produce of a country will de-prive it of its people.

Sect. III.