young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.
61-6
prefling the point of the withers againft the yoke, and not at all by the bows ; and inexamining them, the mafter and man contended that the ftrength of an ox lies there,and not in his fhoulders, nor in his head, or roots of the horns. It appears a ftrangepractice, but it is yet ftranger, that yoke a beaft how you will, he does his work, andapparently without diftrefs.
Chcntale to Racconis. —They have here a mod Angular cuftora, which is that of {ho-velling all the moveable foil of a held into heaps of a large load, earth, ftubble, andweeds ; they fay, per ingrajfare la terra.
To Turin . —The lands fown with wheat, on three feet ridges, is worked fine with amachine of wood, at the end of a handle, formed nearly like a hoe. Wherever onefees thefe operofe niceties, we may conclude the farms are veryfmali.
Turin . — Plough with a pair of oxen, no reins, no driver; go to work at Ave in themorning, and hold it till night, except one hour and a half at dinner, that is twelvehours work, and do a giornata a day, fomething under an acre, one bout to a three feetridge, reverfing.
VerccUi. —Price of a ploughing, 3! livres per giornata , this is about 3s. 4d. perEnglifh acre.
Milanese. — Milan to Pavia. —Hire of a ploughman and pair of oxen, 4 livres a day,but if no food for the oxen, 6 livres. The ploughs here vary from thofe of Piedmont.The handles are not above half as long, and are called Jliva ; the beam, buretto; thecoulter, coltura ; the (hare, majfa ; the earth-board, orechio ; the land-board, or echini.There is a mod grofs and abfurd error in all the ploughs I faw, which is the pofition ofthe coulter, eighteen or twenty degrees too much to the land; every one who is ac-quainted with the right ftrudure of a plough, knows that it fhould juft clear the fhare;this great variation from the right line, mult add greatly to the draft; and in difficultland fatigue the cattle.
Mozatta. — A light poor plough, the {hare with a double fin, but fo narrow as to cutonly four inches of the furrow, the heel of the plough is nine or ten inches wide, thework it performs is mere fcratching, and the land they were fowing with wheat, a bedof triticum reports and agroftis Jlolonifera. They have here a great opinion of digging ;and a proverb which fays, ha vanga ha lapunta Toro. —The fpade has the point of gold.
Codogno . —Here as near Milan, the coulters are many degrees out of the line of the{hare, and the {hares not more than four inches wide. Shocking !
Codogno to Crema. — The harrows in this country have handles to them of wood; Iam amazed that this pra&ice is not univerfal; yet I never faw it before, except on myown farm.
Venetian State. — Bergamo . —In paffing from Vaprio to this place, they areploughing with a pair of oxen a breaft, and two horfes before them in a line; wheel-ploughs, {hare five inches wide, and wnh a double fin. Near the town of Bergamo , Ilaw them ploughing a maize ftubble for wheat, as full of grafs almoft as a meadow : alad drives, and another ftout one attends to clear the coulter from grafs, &c. the ploughlow on the carriage, with wheels, the breaft all iron, and not ill formed, the fin of the{hare double, and about eight inches wide, the coulter nearly in the fame direction asthe {hare,, but clearing four inches to the land fide, two fhort handles. The furrow fullnine inches deep, but crooked, irregular, and bad work. Notwithftanding this depth,they are great friends to the fpade. From four to fix for one, are common crops withthe plough, but twelve to fourteen for one are gained by the fpade. Ihere mult be aninaccuracy in this, the difference cannot be owing merely to digging. We may bepertain that the hufbandry in other refpe&s mult be much better.