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that gives without gypfum, a carro of hay, will, with that manure, fpread about the x ithof November, produce two carri the year following; three carri the year after that; andon fome meadows even to four carri. On old poor meadows, full of hard and badgraffes, this manure does not take effefl fo foon, and requires a larger quantity of gyp-fum. (Modi di aumcntare i Bcjliami, 1777, p. 9.)
Sig. Pieropan informed me that this manure has been ufed here for eight years withmuch fuccefs, efpecially on all dry lands,, but is good for nothing on wet ones; it is fup-pofed to aft by attracting moifture; four hundred pounds of twelve ounces are fpreadon a campo ; belt for clover, wheat, or natural grafs. It is faid to force land fo much,that it demands more dung than if no gypfum had been fpread.
Parma to Piacenza .—The dunghills in this country are neatly fquared heaps.
Chap. XXXIV .—Of the Encouragement and Deprejpon of Agriculture.
IN every country through which an inquifitive man may travel, there can be no ob-ject of his inquiries more important than thefe—How far is government, and all the cir-cumftances any way dependent on government, favourable or unfavourable to the cultureof the earth ? In truth, this queftion involves the whole circle of the political fcience.In fo immenfe a range, it is in the power of an individual to give but a few Iketches,which may afterwards, by fome mafterly hands, be melted into one harmonious piece.All the writings on political ceconomy which I have hitherto read, are filled too muchwith reafonings, yet experiment ought to be the only foundation. The facts which Ihave collefted under this head, may be thus arranged: — 1. Government. — 2. Tax-ation. —3. Tythe. — 4.Commerce. — 5. Population. — 6. Prohibitions. — 7. Prices ofcommodities.
Sect. L —Of Government.
It is a vulgar error of no inconfiderable magnitude, to imagine, as many writers havedone, that all arbitrary governments are the fame. Whoever travels into countriesunder various forms of dominion, will find from innumerable circumftances, that ftrongdiftinftions are to be made. The mildnefs of that of France can never be miflaken,which was fo tempered by what was the manners of the people as to be free in com-parifon with fome others. Among the Italian Hates the difference will be found to beconfiderable.
The dominion of the houfe of Auftria has been by fome confidered as hard, harfli,and unfeeling, till the admirable Leopold retrieved, by the wifdom and humanity of hisgovernment in Tufcany, the character of his Houfe. By the conflitution of Milan, nonew tax could be affeffed or levied without the confent of the States, but Mary Therefa,about the year 1755, abolifhed the States themfelves, /which never were reflored tillLeopold came to the throne. It may eafily be conceived, that fuch a fyftem of defpotifmwas followed by meafures that partook of its fpirit; the general farms, by which I meanthe fanning of the taxes, which had from the beginning of the prefent century beengrievous to the people, became doubly fo about the year 1753, when new ones wereeflablifhed. The adminiftration of thefe farms was cruel, or rather infamous ; and theruin brought on numbers for the fmallefl infraction of the regulations, fpread a horroragainfl the government through every corner of the Milanefe, and tended flrongly tooccafion a declenfion in every fource of national profperity. The abolition of thefe farms
was