OR LOMBARDO-VENETIAN KINGDOM.**

This beautiful kingdom, comprising one of the richest and most interesting parts of Italy, and forming one of the most valuable provinces of the Austrian Empire, came by degrees and at long intervals into the possession of the House of Austria. The war of the Spanish succession contributed to form its nucleus, and, a century afterwards, the late French wars enlarged it to its present size.

After the battle of Turin, won by the Imperial army under the command of Prince Eugene of Savoy, September 7, 1706, the duchy of Lombardy, which the French occupied in virtue of the Spanish rights, was surrendered to Austria by the treaty of March 13, 1707, between the Emperor Joseph I. and Louis XIV. Thus Spain, after having held it for nearly two centuries, lost it without her concurrence or previous consent to the treaty having been asked. The duchy of Mantua, which its last Duke Ferdinand Gonzaga had allowed the French to occupy during the war, was also given up to Austria by Louis XIV., in order to obtain more favourable terms for himself. After the victories of Napoleon in Italy, these possessions, by the treaty of Campoformio, October 17, 1797, were given up to France, and went to form part of the short-lived Cisalpine republic. Austria received in exchange most of the territories of the Venetian republic; Venice itself included, to which, as a free state, Napoleon had already put an end.

By the final treaty of Vienna of 1815, Austria preserved all the Venetian States; had Lombardy and the duchy of Mantua restored to her; and, to round these possessions, she received in addition the districts of the Valtelline, Bormio, and Chiavenna, formerly part of the Swiss canton of the Grisons, and the Polesine, detached from the papal territory on the left bank of the Po. With the exception of Istria and the other former Venetian possessions beyond the Isonzo, all these states were erected by the treaty into the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, which is thus a compact territory, bounded on the N. by Switzerland and the Tyrol, on the E. by Illyria and the Adriatic Sea, on the S. by the Papal States and the duchies of Parma and Modena, and on the W. by Piedmont.

A view of the history of the country down to our own times has already been given in this work, under the head of ITALY; and under LOMBARDI will be found a notice of the northern invaders, from whom the name of Lombardy was derived. To avoid repetition, a fuller account of the stirring events from 1846 to 1850 will be given in the article SARDINIA (Kingdom of), with the history of which, during that period, the history of Lombardy is closely connected.

The kingdom extends over an area of nearly 13,208 square miles. Great part of it is a plain, sloping southwards towards the Po and the Adriatic from the main chain of the Alps, which form its northern boundary from the Swiss canton of Lugano to the frontiers of Carinthia. Some of their lower ranges enter the kingdom, and inclose entirely the districts of Valtelline, Bormio, and Chiavenna, where their loftiest points are,—the Splagen, 8130; the Legnone, on the Lake of Como, 8120; the Godena, 7549; the Tremezzo, Lombardy. 5106; and the Corno di Canzo, 4260 feet in height. Some of the mountains on the frontier towards the Tyrol are still higher.

The principal rivers are the Po and the Adige. The former (Padus, Eridanus), the largest river in Italy, rises from two springs on the eastern side of Monte Viso, one of the highest summits of the Western Alps, at a height of 6562 feet above the level of the sea, and after a course of more than 380 miles, enters the Adriatic by many mouths. In its progress it receives the waters of numerous tributaries, the principal of which, on its northern side, and within the kingdom, are the Ticino, which takes its rise from several small lakes near the summit of Mount St Gotthard, and joins the Po 4 miles below Pavia; and the Adda and the Mincio, the former issuing from the Lake of Como, and the latter from the Lake of Garda. The whole valley of the Po declines towards the E., but in its lower part so gently, that the fall of water in that river, from where it is joined by the Ticino, near Pavia, to its mouth, a direct distance of nearly 180 miles, is not more than about 328 feet. But though languid in its current, in the spring it is generally so much swollen as to cause extensive inundations on both its banks. A more detailed account of this important river will be found under the head Po in this work.

The Adige or Etsch, next to the Po the largest river in Italy, rises in the Rhaetian Alps of the German Tyrol, in a small lake near the village of Reschen, and after being increased by the Eisach and other smaller tributaries, it flows by Trent, where it becomes navigable for large boats, and enters the Italian plains above Verona. After a course of more than 200 miles it enters the Adriatic near Chioggia, a few miles N. of the mouth of the Po. The Brenta, the Piave, the Tagliamento and the Isonzo, are all considerable streams, navigable for small boats, and enter the Adriatic N.E. of the Adige.

There are two descriptions of lakes—those of fresh water on the northern frontier at the foot of the Alps, and those of salt water in the flat country on the borders of the Adriatic. The former lakes are of unspeakable advantage, for, never being frozen in winter, they serve the purpose of internal communication, and feed the numerous streams for the irrigation of the lower country. The most remarkable of them, for extent as well as for the picturesque scenery on their banks, are the following:—1st, The Lago Maggiore or di Locarno (Verbanus), the most westerly of them. It begins in the Swiss canton of Ticino, and, entering Italy, extends into the boundaries of Lombardy and of Sardinia to Sesto. It is formed by twenty-six brooks, and chiefly by the Ticino, which retains the same name in issuing from the lake till it joins the Po. It is nearly 50 miles long, and varies from 5 to 8 miles in breadth. It is about 640 feet above the level of the sea, and reaches the great depth, according to Jacini, of 2624 feet, or 1984 feet lower than the sea level. In this lake are the Bonomoean Islands, of which a description has been given in this work. 2d, The Lago di Lugano, which also is partly in the Swiss territory, and is about 24 miles in length, and from 2½ to 6 miles in breadth. It is of great depth, and its surface is 870 feet above the level of the sea. It receives the water of forty-three rivulets, and discharges it partly by the small river Tresa into the Lago Maggiore, and partly by an artificial canal into the small lake of Piano on the E. 3d, The Lago di Como (Larius), which is surrounded by lofty, abrupt mountains, that constitute the great romantic beauty of its borders. It has a depth of 1928 feet, is well stocked with fish, and its banks are studded with farms and picturesque villages. Its elevation above the sea is about 650 feet; the length is 27 miles, or 33 if the small Lago di Riva at its northern end be included; and its breadth varies from 1½ to 3½ miles. At Bellagio it divides into two arms, of which the south-western one, ending at Como, has no outlet; but at the extremity of the south-eastern arm, near Lecco, it discharges itself by the Adda, which, with 195 smaller streams, has already fed it with water. 4th, The Lago d'Isco (Sebinus), 18 miles long and 5 broad. This lake is 630 feet above the level of the sea, and in some parts has a depth of 985 feet. In its centre there is an island 1½ mile long. It is chiefly supplied by the Borlezza and the Oglio torrents, the latter of which, after passing through the lake, finds the only exit for its waters at Sarnico. 5th, The Lago d'Idro, through which the River Chiese (Clusius) passes before it joins the Oglio, is only 7 miles long. 6th, The Lago di Garda, the ancient Benacus, the largest and one of the most beautiful of the lakes of Italy. It is nearly 40 miles in length and 10 miles in its greatest breadth. Its surface is 255 feet above the level of the sea, and its greatest ascended depth is 941 feet. It is chiefly fed by the River Sarta, and the discharge of its waters at Peschiera forms the River Mincio. Being nearly in a straight direction from N.N.E. to S.S.W., the winds from the Alps sweep down it with unbroken violence, and cause most violent storms. It was the subject of the panegyrics of Virgil, of Pliny, and of Catullus, and was rendered celebrated by the victories of Napoleon over Wurmser in the year 1796. 7th, The small lakes of Varese and Pusiano need only be mentioned.

The salt-water lakes and lagoons are formed by the rivers which descend from the Alps, and spread along the shores of the Adriatic; they are defended from the sea by steep artificial walls, not unlike the dykes in Holland, which, in some degree, prevent the influence of the rise and fall of the tides; but in some cases, where the force of the sea has broken through, harbours have been formed. Of such havens, there are four large ones, viz., Malamoco, San Nicolò, Chioggia, and Tre-Porti; and two inconsiderable, viz., Lido Maggiore, and St Erasmo.

There are mineral springs of various degrees of efficacy and reputation for medicinal purposes. The most remarkable of them are at Bormio and Massimo, in the Valtelline; at Albano, in the province of Padua; at Caldiero, near Verona; at Recoaro, in the province of Vicenza; at Trescore and St Pellegrino, in the province of Bergamo; and Cesedol and Piano, in that of Treviso. The climate is mild, except on the border mountains. On the plains the snow scarcely ever remains on the ground, and it is rarely that ice is found in the still lagoons near Venice. What falls from the heavens in winter is much more commonly in the form of rain than of hail or snow. The winter scarcely lasts more than two months; and in February the fields are covered with new grass. In May the hot weather begins, and the harvest is secured in June and July. In September and October the annual labours of the vintage are performed.

The climate, on the whole, is healthy, except in those districts where rice is extensively cultivated, as well as in the vicinity of Mantua, and in the marshy districts extending from the mouth of the Po towards Venice.

The kingdom is divided into two governments or divisions: Venice, which extends from the Isonzo to the Mincio, including all the seashore on the Adriatic to the mouth of the Po; and Milan, which, besides Lombardy proper, includes the former duchy of Mantua, the Grisons districts, &c. Each government is divided into provinces; each province is subdivided into districts; and each district into communes for the administration, and into parishes with regard to ecclesiastical matters. In 1856, with an area of 13,208 square miles, it had 6,503,473 inhabitants, or 416 to the square mile; all of these, with the exception of 7000 Jews, adhering to the Roman Catholic church. Of this population, 2,493,908 belonged to the government of Venice, being, over an area of 6938 square miles, 359 to the mile; whilst the government of Milan, extending over 6270 square miles, had 3,009,505 inhabitants, or 480 to each square mile. The whole country is governed by a viceroy, who is always an imperial archduke, resides at Milan, and receives an allowance of L6000 a-year; his entire expenses, at the same time, being defrayed by the state. Under him are governors of the two divisions of Milan and Venice. There is a military commander-in-chief, who resides at Verona, and who, with the assistance of a military board, has the direction of the army, and of the several fortresses, with their stores and garrisons. Six regiments of infantry, and two of cavalry, were recruited in the kingdom before 1848; but since that time, the conscription has fallen more heavily, and the contingent has varied in each year. In 1856 it was 6977 for the Lombard, and 5829 for the Venetian provinces, or at the rate of $2\frac{1}{2}$ per 1000 of the population.

At Verona is also the supreme senate of the kingdom, which hears the final appeals from the courts of Venice and Milan. Since 1848 there has been no viceroy, and all the vice-regal powers were till very lately in the hands of Marshal Radezky, the commander-in-chief. In February 1857 he retired, and the Archduke Maximilian, a brother of the present emperor, was appointed governor-general.

The chiefs or heads of the ecclesiastical body are,—the Patriarch of Venice, who extends his jurisdiction over the archbishopric of Udine and the suffragan bishoprics of Adria, Ceneda, Chioggia, Concordia, Belluno, Padua, Trasviso, Verona, Vicenza, and other sees in Istria and Dalmatia; and the Archbishop of Milan, who is the metropolitan of the episcopal sees of Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Crema, Cremona, Lodi, Mantua, and Pavia.

The government is an unlimited monarchy. The law of Lombardy, April 15, 1815, called into existence provincial assemblies (congregazioni provinciali) of deputies, selected by the government out of three names given for each deputy by the communes; and created, likewise, central assemblies (congregazioni centrali) for the two divisions of Milan and Venice, of representatives named directly by the government. But the functions of these congregations are merely to represent to the sovereign the wishes and wants of the people, and to suggest such measures as may be conducive to the welfare of the country. They do not in any way extend to the voting or altering of the taxes, to the framing of the laws, or even to the prevention or suspension of the operation of such laws as may be promulgated by the central authority at Vienna, or by the local viceroy. The resolutions and observations of the provincial congregations are to be submitted to the central congregations, and, if approved of, transmitted by them to the viceroy or governor-general. They have no means of direct communication with the imperial government at Vienna. According to the law, there is no fixed time for the meeting of these congregations; but the viceroy, or governor-general, after previously obtaining the permission from the aulic council at Vienna, may summon them whenever it is deemed advisable. The central congregations were never summoned till 1845; after the insurrection of 1848, they were, for the first time, recalled into existence in July 1855. Their attributions were defined by an imperial ordinance of November 3, 1856; but they were not assembled till the end of January 1857. The provincial congregations have been summoned oftener; but their suggestions and representations have remained useless for the want of the central congregations, which are their legal organ of communication with the government.

The communal or municipal representation given to Lombardy, by the edict of December 1755, which had been abrogated under the French government, was recalled into existence, and applied to the whole kingdom, in 1816. All landholders, who are neither under age, nor soldiers, nor curates, nor debtors of their respective communes, including the legal representatives of women and minors, meet twice a-year in a general assembly (consiglio), to discuss the budget of the coming year (the presuntivo), and to approve of the expenses of the past year (the consumato); to appoint teachers, doctors, surgeons, and midwives; to decide upon roads, works of public utility, assistance to the poor, and to vote the taxes required for carrying them out. They also name a triennial committee of three of their members, who, after their nomination has been approved by the government, administer gratuitously the communal property, carry out the resolutions of the consiglio, make the first investigation about crimes, and have the supposed criminals arrested by the gendarmes, &c. Each consiglio is presided over by a commissary, who ought to confine himself to record the resolutions of the meeting, and prevent their overstepping their attributions, without giving any vote himself, or influencing public opinion in any way; a part of the law scarcely, if at all, attended to of late years. All communes that have more than 300 landholders, to avoid too numerous a meeting, appoint a triennial council of thirty members, to whom all municipal attributions are delegated.

The revenue of the kingdom is derived from direct and indirect taxes, and in some degree from national domains, part of which once belonged to the Church. The most important tax is the territorial impost, an ancient payment, which has been alike collected under the several rulers who have at different times administered the finances of the country. In order to equalize its rate according to the productive powers of the soil, the Emperor Charles VI., in 1718, named a commission to form a catasto, or general Lombardy, registry, in which the extent and value of all lands and buildings that were capable of giving any income, however small, should be duly entered. Its execution was impeded many years by the opposition of privileged classes, and by the war of 1738; but it was resumed in 1749, and finished in 1760, when it came into force. The value of property was set down in scudi (about 3s. 7½d.), and the assessment was in cents (centesimi) of lire (£2s. 6½d.) on each scudo.

Not many years elapsed, however, before it was found that the valuation in some instances fell short of, and in others exceeded, the real income; and that, therefore, the taxes weighed in a very unequal degree upon different estates. At length, in 1822, with a view to rectify the valuation, and equalize the impost, a new general cadaster for the whole kingdom was begun; but the commissioners appointed to do it have proceeded so slowly, that as yet it is completed only for the Venetian, and for a few of the Lombard provinces. The new cadaster registers, not the capital value of property, as in the old one, but the supposed net yearly income in Austrian lire, and rates the corresponding tax in cents of lire.

This tax, which before 1802 was only 11 centesimi (9 for public, and 2 for municipal burdens), had increased in 1847 to about 24, and in 1851 it reached at least 34 centesimi for each scudo of valuation. The 11 cents paid at the beginning of the century were then reckoned to represent about 22 per cent of the net income; in the same proportion, the present tax of 34 cents would absorb nearly 70 per cent of the net income. But the production of the soil has so much increased during these fifty years, that, according to Signor Jacini's account, in his interesting work, lately published, on landed property in Lombardy (La Proprietà Fondiaria e le Popolazioni Agricole in Lombardia), those 34 cents represent on an average only 32 per cent of the net income, though numerous instances occur in which they represent 50, and even 60 per cent. Such is the case with the marcelli, or winter meadows, the produce of which has scarcely increased from what it was already in the last century; and with lands derived from mortmain, which, in compliance with the spirit prevailing at the time, were greatly overcharged at the original formation of the cadaster. In several districts, however (as the Polesine, part of the provinces of Brescia and Milan, &c.), military rates, local municipal taxes for roads, drainage, &c., are so much higher than those above stated, that taxes of one kind or another are said to absorb from 60 to 70 per cent of the actual income.

With these exceptions, all public burdens on the landed property in the kingdom, for the present year 1857, may be stated to amount to 36 per cent of its net revenue, of which nearly 23½ per cent forms the direct government tax. About 6½ per cent is for local taxes, collected and employed by the municipal authorities; 2 per cent, for extra taxes, to meet military expenses of 1848 and 1849; and the remaining 4 per cent is absorbed by the tax on the transfer of property, introduced by the law of February 1850, by the forced loan of the same year, &c. As this impost is collected from the proprietor, it is regularly paid, and attended with little cost in the collection.

The whole produce of the direct government tax on land in 1856 was, in round numbers, for Lombardy, L.950,000, and for the Venetian provinces, L.576,666—total, L.1,526,666; being for Lombardy alone above L.465,006 more than what it was before 1849.

Previous to 1846, the kingdom had to transmit to the imperial treasury at Vienna a net yearly sum of L.1,066,666, in two half-yearly remittances. Neither the gross sum of the revenue at present produced by the kingdom, nor the clear amount that reaches the imperial treasury, are known; but an idea of them may be gathered from the fact, that the gross sum of direct and indirect taxes for the government of Lombardy alone, in 1855 and 1856, averaged L.2,833,333 from L.2,933,333.

By comparing these items with the gross revenue of the Austrian empire, which, in 1855, according to the official returns, was L.26,378,688, of which L.6,074,812 were derived exclusively from the direct land tax, the following interesting results may be gathered. The Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, which is nearly one-fifteenth in area, and little more than one-seventh in population, contributes not much less than one-fourth of the whole direct land tax revenue of the empire; and Lombardy alone, which, compared to the whole Austrian empire, has less than one-thirtieth of its extent, and one-thirteenth of its population, contributes more than one-ninth of the whole gross revenue of the empire. The results will be equally remarkable if their respective agricultural wealth is compared. The official returns of 1850, whilst giving L.129,846,800 as the whole gross agricultural produce of the empire, stated that of Lombardy as L.12,021,000, or less than one-tenth; yet the landed property in Lombardy pays about one-sixth of the direct revenue derived from the whole landed property of the empire.

Lombardy extends over about 5,292,447 English acres, of which 340,277 acres are lakes, rivers, and barren rocks, which, yielding no produce, are not included in the general cadaster. The remaining 4,952,170 acres are all surveyed lands, of which a little more than one-half, or 2,799,224 acres, are regularly cultivated, and the other 2,152,946 acres consist of woods, indifferent mountain pastures, marshy tracts, building land, or poor land, yielding scarcely any produce. The net income from all the surveyed land being, according to Jacini, more than L.4,300,000, gives an average return of about 17s. 4½d. for each English acre. But as that landed property is encumbered with L.17,566,666 of mortgages, producing L.790,500 of interest at the average rate of 4½ per cent, it follows that, after deducting that interest, and the L.1,500,000 of government and municipal taxes, the net income that remains to the Lombard proprietors from their lands will be reduced to L.2,009,500, which, capitalized at 3½ per cent, the usual rate at which land is valued in the country, gives L.57,414,285 as the net value of the landed property of Lombardy. Though there are many large estates, yet most of this property is much divided, and its subdivisions increase every year. The number of landholders, which in 1888 was 385,826, in 1850 had increased to 487,725. But as many of those who hold property in various districts reappear several times in the returns, it is estimated that the land is actually distributed among 350,000 different owners; of whom about 3000 belong to the class of noblemen, and own, in the aggregate, less than one-fifteenth of the soil. There is therefore a landholder for every 8 inhabitants, for every 15½ acres of the whole area, or for every 8 acres of the cultivated land of Lombardy.

For the Venetian provinces there are no such detailed statistics. Their surveyed lands, capable of yielding a return however small, extend over 4,511,506 acres, of which 54,890 acres are exclusively devoted to vineyards. Nearly one-half of the whole extent, or 2,213,400 acres are arable lands, in many of which mulberry or olive trees, and vines, are scattered among the corn fields.

The following table shows the whole rateable income from lands and buildings in the Venetian provinces, as well as the comparative wealth of each province:

| Provinces | Income | |-----------|--------| | Venice | L.1,203,597 | | Padua | 290,676 | | Rovigo | 151,112 | | Verona | 298,356 | | Treviso | 210,481 |

Total: L.1,739,775 The quantity of cultivated lands in Lombardy, and their relation to the whole area in each province, as well as the mortgages that encumber them, and their net value, will be seen from the annexed table:

| Provinces | Lands regularly cultivated. | Total extent of surveyed and unsurveyed lands. | Values of surveyed lands and buildings. | Average value of each acre, valued or built upon. | Amount of mortgages. | Net value of the property. | Ratio of the mortgage to the value of the property. | |-----------|-----------------------------|-----------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|---------------------|--------------------------|--------------------------------------------------| | Bergamo...| 197,593 | 241,080 | 378,673 | 1,052,839 | 9,500,000 | 1,680,000 | 7,820,000 | 17.68 per cent. | | Brescia...| 7,191 | 62,970 | 70,161 | 1,002,790 | 1,755,667 | 828 | 26,667 | 1,749,000 | | Como......| 7,824 | 239,913 | 247,737 | 613,091 | 6,766,667 | 676 | 1,616,667 | 5,150,000 | | Mantua....| 48,929 | 459,991 | 508,920 | 558,725 | 9,288,666 | 450 | 1,610,000 | 7,678,666 | | Milano... | 129,402 | 263,800 | 393,202 | 450,884 | 10,566,667 | 105 | 2,100,000 | 8,466,667 | | Cremona...| 129,402 | 165,502 | 292,108 | 305,502 | 8,500,000 | 75 | 1,500,000 | 7,000,000 | | Lodig.....| 196,328 | 43,628 | 240,956 | 292,359 | 5,166,667 | 8410 | 800,000 | 7,366,667 | | Pavia.....| 144,814 | 71,567 | 216,381 | 247,668 | 7,303,333 | 63 | 800,000 | 6,503,333 | | Total.... | 1,055,652 | 1,744,056 | 2,799,718 | 5,292,447 | 80,800,000 | 716 | 17,566,667 | 63,233,333 |

In few parts of Italy is education so general as in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. In Lombardy alone, in 1854, there were 5488 public and private institutions for elementary education,—2522 for men, and 2666 for women. In the same year, the children of an age to go to school were 192,545 boys, and 191,224 girls; and those who actually went were 146,907 boys and 128,199 girls. The largest attendance was in the province of Bergamo, where out of 37,010 children, 30,784 went to school; and the worst in the province of Mantua, in which, out of 33,895 children, only 16,445 frequented schools. For the higher branches of education there are lyceums at Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Mantua, Vicenza, Treviso and Udine; seminaries attached to every episcopal see; the universities of Pavia and Padua; medical and surgical colleges at Milan; several scientific and literary institutions, &c. In 1855 there were 12 newspapers and 47 scientific and literary journals and reviews published in the kingdom. Of the 6874 works published in the Austrian empire in 1853, 1444 were published in Lombardy, and 1194 in the Venetian territory; total 2638,—of which 128 in folio, 621 in 4to, &c.; 2550 of them were in Italian, 50 in Latin, 8 in French, 7 in Greek, 4 in English, 4 in Armenian, 4 in German, and 11 in other languages. The largest items were—

| In Lombardy. | In Venetian. | |--------------|-------------| | Accelites... | 161 | 53 | | Medicinal and Veterinary | 139 | 161 | | Novels and Tales... | 122 | 36 | | Theatre... | 113 | 14 | | Theology and Ecclesiastical History | 112 | 99 | | Historical... | 119 | 64 | | Legal, Economical, Statistical | 84 | 185 | | Education... | 93 | 59 | | Philology, Antiquity, &c. | 75 | 90 | | Geography and Ethnography | 81 | 73 | | Chemistry and Natural Philosophy | 63 | 23 | | Agriculture and Horticulture | 58 | 14 | | Belles Lettres... | 33 | 3 | | Commerce and Industry... | 29 | 24 | | The Fine Arts... | 27 | 43 | | Poetry... | 26 | 50 | | Architecture, Railroads, &c. | 23 | 47 | | Encyclopaedias, Collections, &c. | 17 | 114 |

In Lombardy, in every 26 births, there is one illegitimate child; the proportion is about the same in the Venetian provinces. Yet the state of public morality, especially among the numerous agricultural classes living scattered in towns and villages, is much better than what that number would represent, as many legitimate children, secretly left at the foundling hospitals by parents utterly destitute of means to rear them up, are calculated as illegitimate. They are often the unfortunate offspring of marriages entered into too hastily, and without means, by very young men, in the hope of evading the law of conscription.

The poor find some relief in their want and illness from numerous hospitals, houses of refuge, charitable institutions, &c. The aggregate income of all these establishments in Lombardy in 1844 was L.427,022, of which L.149,980 being absorbed by burdens and expenses of administration, there remained L.286,797 a-year for charitable purposes. Their revenue has increased considerably since that time. There are besides 27 Monti di Pietà, or public pawning-houses lending money at a very low interest. Their total circulation is nearly L.100,000 a-year, for which they receive about 300,000 articles in pawn.

Great convenience is also afforded to the poorer classes by savings-banks, the first of which was opened at Milan in 1823. At present there are 14 in Lombardy, all under the management of a central committee. They receive deposits of from 1 to 300 lire (from 8d. to L.10), on which they pay an interest of 3½ per cent. From the 1st July 1823 to the 31st December 1855, they had issued 169,989 account-books, and had received 1,108,598 deposits for L.4,967,510, on which L.1,479,697 of interest had accumulated; they had made 526,339 reimbursements to the amount of L.3,715,756. On the 1st of January 1856 they had a balance of L.1,731,450 deposited by 66,134 different persons, giving an average of L.26 for each person. On the 30th December of the same year the amount deposited had increased to L.1,897,562. In the government of Venice it is only within these few years that savings-banks have been introduced; but their operations as yet are not very considerable. On the 31st December 1854, they held a balance of L.62,998, deposited by 1837 persons, each at an average amount of L.34s. 5½ d.

The whole kingdom may be divided into three distinct regions:—

1. The Mountain Region, which comprises the whole province of Sondro, the greater part of the provinces of Como, Bergamo, and Belluno, more than two-fifths of the province of Brescia, and some districts of the provinces of Udine and Vicenza; altogether about one-third of the kingdom. It is the region where property is mostly subdivided. Its trees are chiefly fir, larch, birch, oak, and chestnut. There are summer pastures in the mountain slopes and valleys. The vine, the mulberry, and common fruit trees, are grown on its southern declivities, which are cultivated with great care and labour; the ground is formed in terraces, which are sometimes supplied with earth from some distance to replace what is washed away by the heavy rains.

2. The Hilly or Sub-Alpine Region and Upper Flat Country.—It embraces the southern part of the provinces of Como and Belluno; the northern part of the provinces of Milan, Mantua, Verona, Vicenza, Treviso, and Udine; and the central districts of the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia. Its chief productions are,—silk of the finest description, wine, maize, millet, chestnuts, fruit, and vegetables. Even lemons are grown on the southern shore of the lake. Lombardy, of Garda. It is the region which contains most of the manufactures of the kingdom.

3. The Low Flat Country, which comprises the southern part of the provinces of Brescia, Bergamo, Milan, Mantua, Padua, Treviso, and Udine; and the whole provinces of Pavia, Lodi, Cremona, Rovigo, and Venice, including the marshy lands and extensive lagoons all along the shore of the Adriatic. It is the region of irrigation and of malaria. In many of its districts, sickness is marked in the complexion of the inhabitants, and numbers of Tyrolese and Illyrian peasants who descend from their mountains to gather the harvest, fall victims to the marsh fevers. The whole central part of the basin of the Po, on its left bank, is within this region. Its chief productions are—the Parmesan cheese, rice, silk, wine, maize, flax. Property is less subdivided than in the two other regions.

As Lombardy is the most densely peopled, so it is the best cultivated district in Europe. Its wealth and prosperity being derived chiefly from the productions of the soil, an extended view of its agriculture must be of much importance; and we enter upon the subject here, because in the description of the agriculture of the other parts of Italy, it will only be necessary, in the progress of this work, to refer generally to the practices of Lombardy, and to point out the few differences that may exist.

The importance of irrigation is more felt, and the practice of it more extended, in Lombardy, than in any other part of Europe. This depends much on the physical features of the country, which, as it has been stated, forms in great part a gentle slope from the foot of the mountains, where are those large reservoirs of water already described, to the bed of the Po, into which finally empty themselves the numerous streams that, issuing from the lakes, serve the double purpose of internal navigation and of irrigation.

The facilities for irrigation in the best districts have been much increased by the construction of canals, which, whilst they serve the purpose of inland navigation, are made use of to convey streams of water over the fields, which pass from the property of one proprietor to that of another, till they again enter the canals at a lower level. Some of these canals are the work of remote ages. The most ancient, as well as the most considerable of these, is the Naviglio Grande, which was opened in the year 1270.

An ancient law of Lombardy has contributed, from the most remote period, to the extension of the distribution of water. The whole of that substance was the property of the sovereign. An individual, or a corporate body, might purchase the water, and thereby acquire the right to conduct it by canals in any direction, and there to sell it to the cultivators. But they could not carry it through gardens or pleasure-grounds, and were bound to pay the owners of the land the value of that portion which was made use of for the passage of the water. In process of time the right of the sovereign over the water was ceded to those who became the purchasers thereof, and was at length extended to those who had springs on their ground, or should afterwards discover any.

The value of water in Lombardy is best seen by a comparison of the rent paid for land of the same quality, according to the power of obtaining irrigation. Dry meadows will let at from 24s. to 40s. per English acre, and that so situated as to be accessible to water is eagerly rented at from 48s. to 160s. per acre, according to its greater or less capability of obtaining water.

The purchase and sale of water is a traffic of much importance in Lombardy. There are individuals whose sole but respectable incomes are derived from such operations.

The distribution of water is settled for a term, with strict covenants between the parties. Fixed days and hours are appointed for opening and shutting the sluices, and watchful guards are appointed; but, in spite of all precautions, the courts of law are supplied with most abundant processes Lombardy, from the several parties. The volume of water is reckoned by means of a local measure called the oncia, being about two English inches. A mechanical contrivance, invented by Ferrari, has for a number of years been applied to the measuring of water, and has been found to be accurate in its operation.

The value of water depends upon a variety of circumstances, and the purchaser can afford to pay more for that which is applied to gardens and to meadows than for what is wanted on arable land. The water of the canals is of more value than that which comes immediately from springs or from small brooks. That water which has passed over the land is worth more than that immediately from the canals, as it is supposed to bring with it more nutritive particles. In the vicinity of Milan the water of the Vettabbia is more valued than any other, because it contains particles of matter collected from the filth of the city. In that neighbourhood, the common water obtained from the other canals is generally, where a constant stream is bought, paid for at the rate of from £40 to £50 the oncia. If it be bought for the winter only, the payment is not more than the same number of shillings. Some instances are stated by a writer of accuracy and veracity, where an oncia of water has been sold for more than £600. (Breislak, Descrizione Geologica della Provincia di Milano.) See Irrigation and Hydrodynamics.

Whatever may have been the original component parts of the soil of Lombardy, yet from the great facilities for irrigation, those lands which are susceptible of that operation have become the most productive of any in the kingdom, or perhaps of any in Europe. There are, however, some exceptions; they are indeed but few, and chiefly confined to the vicinity of Mantua, where, even with great power of watering, the land, which is mere sand, does not produce copiously.

These watered lands may be divided into three classes:

The first of them, "convertible meadows," or, in Italian, Prati a Vicenda, are the most abundant, and are constantly increasing. They are prepared to be laid down in grass by previous corn or green crops, and those are preferred which require good manuring, and also best tend to clean the land from weeds. The course adopted, therefore, is to grow maize and then wheat, or to sow hemp, succeeded by millet, and that followed by wheat; or, in the first year, to sow hemp and then millet, in the second year maize, and in the third wheat. In each of these rotations a half fallow is introduced, and the ground three or four times ploughed, and such fallowing is either in the spring or the autumn, as may best suit the variations in the rotation. Red clover is generally sown in the wheat, which yields a good crop the first year after the wheat harvest, which usually takes place in June, and in the following spring; but after that it disappears, and gives place to most abundant crops of white clover. It continues in grass for three, or in some cases four years, during which time it is mowed three, four, and even five times in the course of the summer. During the process of fallowing, great pains are taken to remove any such inequalities of the surface as would impede the equal distribution of the water over the whole of the field. The soil is removed by a machine contrived for that purpose, from any part above the level of the field, and thrown into the hollows. The field is divided into narrow beds, between each of which is a water-furrow. In the process of watering, these become first filled, and then from them the water is let in till it rises sufficiently high to cover the whole surface of the land. The same furrows, in excessively rainy weather, serve to drain the land of its surplus moisture. The mode of ploughing naturally raises the middle of the bed somewhat higher than the sides of it, but the difference seldom ex- Lombardy, seeds four or five inches. The application of fields of this description may be generally stated to be as follows: Three-sixths grass, one-sixth wheat, one-sixth maize, and the remainder flax, beet, rape, or other green crops. There are, as must be obvious to any one acquainted with agriculture, many variations; but, assuming the crops to be grown in that proportion, we cannot be far from accuracy. The portion of the grass land on these meadows is very great; in many instances, where there have been but three mowings and subsequent feedings, they have yielded six London loads of hay to the acre on the average of years, and in some of the best farms near Lodi, a load more. There may be mentioned amongst the convertible meadows, those which are chiefly cultivated with rice, which are on the lowest level, and where the watering is the rule, and the letting them dry the exception. The water on them is stagnant during the greater part of the growth of the crops; but, to change the rotation, it is in some years cultivated along with other plants. Such lands may be generally stated to yield, one-half of them rice, and the other half an equal portion of clover, wheat, and maize.

The second of the classes of watered lands are those denominated "permanent summer meadows" (Prati stabili estivi). These are, day by day, diminishing in extent, as the cultivators become convinced that it is more profitable to change the plants for a few years, than to leave them constantly in grass. The difference in produce between these and convertible meadows arises chiefly from the gradual disappearance of the clovers, and their place being occupied by a variety of the common grasses. They are fitted more for having their plants converted into hay than those of the convertible meadows, and less adapted for the growth of those kinds of grass which are, in conformity with the general practice of the country, most beneficial for stall-feeding. After the last mowing, they are depastured by the oxen.

The most important portion of the land in Lombardy is that part designated as "permanent meadows" (Mareite). In laying them down, great attention is paid to levelling the surface, so that no inequalities may prevent the regular distribution of the water in passing over them, and that in no part there may be hollow places in which it can become stagnant. They can only be created in situations where a flowing stream can in all seasons at pleasure be turned over them. They are usually laid down by sowing them with Lolium perenne, or rye-grass, with about one part of red clover; and the sweepings of the hay loft are abundantly scattered. As these meadows grow older, other grasses appear; and in the latter mowing of each year, a large portion of white clover is always found. These meadows are well dugged every year, and the omission of it, even once, is considered by good cultivators as an unpardonable fault. Thus, if the other descriptions of land are not manured, it is because all of them are sacrificed to the winter meadows. Everywhere are to be seen on them heaps of manure, which are to be prepared during the summer, in order to be carried out and equally spread over the surface in the autumn. Those who intend to mow their meadows in the middle of December, carry the manure on them in the latter end of September, and then begin watering them; but those who design to mow them in January carry on the manure at the end of October, or till the middle of November. If sufficient manure be not obtained from the farm, either ground rape-cake or ashes are used abundantly for the purpose, and thickly scattered over the soil.

The manure is separated as much as possible before the watering commences. At first the water is turned over the meadows in very small quantity, that it may produce the solution of the manure, and thus sink it down to the roots of the plants before the force of the stream can carry it away. Afterwards the water is let on in greater quantities, and especially when the temperature of the air is below the freezing point. At such times the greatest attention is given to create such a current of water as shall prevent it from freezing. If the cold is sufficiently strong to form a thin coat of ice, which rarely happens, the water is instantly withheld, and thus the soil remains free from frost, whilst a thin sheet of ice covers it; and if the cold, as usual, is but for a few days, an additional stream of warmer water melts the ice or carries it away, and the grass remains uninjured, and continues to grow. If, however, the frost should be so strong as to freeze the ground, the first mowing of the meadow would be lost; but such occurrences are so very rare, that they are looked at without apprehension, by the cultivators.

As the chief profit as well as the receipt of ready money to the cultivator depends upon the cheese he makes, it becomes of great importance to him to have an abundant supply of green food to produce the milk; and this, which to the farmer is afforded in the N. of Europe by the use of turnips, mangel-wurzel, or meal in tepid water, is supplied in Lombardy, during ten or eleven months, by his winter meadows. It is hence not a subject of surprise that every other portion of his land is sacrificed by the Lombard farmer to the necessity of raising the product of his winter permanent meadows to the highest possible state of productiveness.

As the lands here spoken of are continually in a state of producing crops, they would in time become exhausted in spite of the irrigation, if they were suffered to remain without the application of abundant manure. Although some considerable quantity of extraneous manure is to be procured from the large cities, by those cultivators who carry on their operations near them, or the canals connected with them, yet the larger portion is provided for by the live stock which is maintained on the land. The chief labour of ploughing, except in a part of Pavia, is performed by oxen, and horses are used for the carts and waggons only. The cows are kept in the best possible condition, in order to enable them to yield milk in the greatest quantity, and of the richest quality. The number of black cattle is considerable, as will appear from the following official account of what existed in 1852:

| Provinces | Cows | Bulls | Young Cattle | Total | Rams | Sheep | Lambs | Goats | Total | Pigs | |-----------|------|------|-------------|-------|-----|-------|-------|------|-------|-----| | Milan | 11,497 | 40,704 | 615 | 2,654 | 55,470 | 21 | 545 | 113 | 143 | 822 | 11,841 | | Bergamo | 11,069 | 44,549 | 453 | 10,849 | 66,820 | 3,207 | 38,633 | 12,263 | 19,207 | 72,710 | 15,425 | | Brescia | 33,844 | 15,079 | 344 | 4,858 | 54,125 | 925 | 12,421 | 3,036 | 5,435 | 21,817 | 19,554 | | Pavia | 4,749 | 26,231 | 917 | 3,319 | 35,216 | 35 | 218 | 31 | 30 | 314 | 13,909 | | Como | 13,846 | 52,842 | 390 | 12,355 | 79,133 | 2,433 | 21,307 | 5,560 | 18,388 | 47,668 | 8,681 | | Mantua | 38,762 | 10,686 | 152 | 7,414 | 57,024 | 405 | 4,546 | 1,519 | 414 | 6,884 | 18,705 | | Lodi | 8,539 | 27,452 | 816 | 4,661 | 41,568 | 93 | 931 | 213 | 81 | 1,318 | 17,131 | | Sondrio | 1,632 | 22,842 | 250 | 5,558 | 30,882 | 3,929 | 25,324 | 6,988 | 20,943 | 57,784 | 5,272 | | Cremona | 10,931 | 8,969 | 337 | 7,007 | 31,864 | 30 | 643 | 203 | 200 | 1,082 | 9,425 | | **Total** | **139,569** | **249,374** | **4284** | **58,675** | **451,902** | **11,084** | **104,568** | **29,926** | **64,821** | **210,399** | **119,943** | | Do. in 1854 | **137,219** | **246,191** | **4139** | **61,661** | **449,150** | **10,712** | **97,465** | **29,381** | **51,992** | **186,390** | **106,839** |

VOL. XIII. The whole of these animals are constantly fed in their stalls, or, if sent out to graze, it is but for a very short period. The use of roots, such as turnips, rata baga, and mangel-wurzel, is almost unnecessary, as the cattle can be supplied with sufficient green food from the meadows the whole of the year. The farms where the convertible husbandry is followed have abundance of litter from the straw of the wheat, but especially from the leaves of the Indian corn, which, though good food whilst they are green, are, when they become dry, used in the cattle-stalls for their bedding. Whilst this practice of stall-feeding has been found by long experience the most favourable to the health of the cattle, it is decidedly preferable on account of the vastly greater quantity of manure which it produces. On all the meadow farms a great number of pigs are fattened on whey mixed with the flour of Indian corn. These are put into the sties when they have attained the weight of 100 or 110 pounds, and are kept there during five or six months, till they attain the weight of 350 or 360 pounds. It is found that twenty such pigs yield ample manure for four or four and a half acres of the meadow-land. This kind of manure is highly esteemed for that purpose, but more especially so when proper reservoirs are constructed, out of the influence of the sun or the rain, for the preservation of the urine of the animals. In Lombardy are many small occupiers of land, who have not a number of cows sufficient to yield as much milk as will make a cheese daily. These sell their milk to the cheese-makers near them. In their agreement for the milk for the year, the purchaser contracts to keep in the seller's sties a number of fattening pigs, determined upon by calculation of the quantity of milk which the cows will yield. The number of swine fattened by the meadow occupiers, which in 1852 amounted to 119,943, was reduced in 1854 to 106,839; their flesh is in part made into hams, bacon, and especially sausages.

In a country where the land is chiefly ploughed with oxen, and where, as in Lombardy, much work is performed with the spade and the hoe, the number of other beasts for draught will be proportionally inconsiderable. This is the case here, as the following official account shows, as far as relates to the government of Milan:

**Account of the number of Draught Cattle in 1852 and 1854.**

| Provinces | Horses | Mules | Asses | |-----------|--------|-------|-------| | Milan | 10,519 | 1,907 | 2,233 | | Bergamo | 7,096 | 2,227 | 2,982 | | Brescia | 8,574 | 2,453 | 2,818 | | Lodi | 7,307 | 348 | 460 | | Como | 9,622 | 2,921 | 2,799 | | Mantua | 8,426 | 1,268 | 1,706 | | Lodi | 12,129 | 435 | 1,029 | | Sondrino | 1,413 | 462 | 694 | | Cremona | 11,764 | 878 | 812 | | **Total** | **68,550** | **12,210** | **15,141** | | Do. in 1844 | 68,738 | 12,054 | 15,557 |

So scanty a stock of this description of animals can yield but little manure, how carefullysoever it may be preserved; nor, with the addition made to it by the 186,390 sheep and goats that are kept, will it bear any comparison with that arising from the 449,150 head of black cattle.

It deserves notice, with reference to this subject, that the rural parts of Lombardy exhibit but few houses except those of the mere peasantry. The proprietors of even the smaller properties, though they may in some measure be viewed in the light of cultivators, yet, placing their estates in other hands, on the system of the *mezzeria*, seldom find it necessary to reside on or near them, and are satisfied with visiting them at the seasons when the produce is to be divided. When the estates are of small or of moderate extent, Lombardy or when they are large and comprehend several farms, the superintendence is intrusted to their agents. Such agents, also, in some cases, have the disposal of the share of produce, and account for the proceeds to the proprietors of the soil.

The great body of the population who are in circumstances of even moderate ease are thus collected in the cities and large towns; and in them is thus also collected that mass of corrupted vegetable and animal substances which is most adapted to the purposes of manure, and which is carefully preserved for that application. The cities and towns thus contain a larger proportion of the whole inhabitants than most of the other parts of Europe. If the numerical portion is not greater, the portion who, by their mode of living, produce the greatest quantities of exuviae, which are convertible into manure, is much larger. Such of these substances as are of the liquid kind, or are the most easily reduced to that form by putrefaction, are carried into the canals and rivers on which the cities and towns are built; and, when their water is distributed over the first fields with a gentle motion, to enrich them by the deposition of the matter they contain in suspension, no other manure is required to be applied. Whilst the lower grounds near the cities are refreshed by these means, the higher grounds are supplied, with little expense of labour in the conveyance, from the substances which retain a solid or less soluble form.

With the best farmers it is the custom every year to clean out the small canals of irrigation that are formed in every part of the meadow-lands. These ditches contain a compost of various earths, with a large quantity of vegetable and animal matter produced by the decomposition of many organic substances. It is obvious that each of these canals becomes a reservoir, in which is deposited the matter which the water has brought, and which being mixed with the earth in them, must have a great degree of activity in promoting vegetation.

In some lands of an inferior quality, the practice of growing green crops, and ploughing them in to form manure, has been introduced. A kind of bean called *fisola*, a species of lupin, grows almost spontaneously on some of even the poorest soils. When they are cultivated, they produce a large quantity of succulent vegetable matter, which, when covered with earth, and mingled with it, forms an excellent pabulum for other plants. By two operations of this kind in succession, some of the poorest soils on the hills of moderate height have been sufficiently enriched to bear profitable crops of wheat. There is a part of Lombardy, not inconsiderable, where very little or no manure is applied to the land, and yet it is cultivated with corn, though the crops grown are very scanty. It is a portion of the delegation of Mantua, and not far from that city. It is easily susceptible of irrigation, but the soil is one of the poorest descriptions of sand. It is chiefly cultivated by small occupiers. These tenants have no cattle of any kind, and the whole labour is performed by the sole use of the spade and the hoe. Their dwellings and their clothing are of the most wretched description; their food of the coarsest kind, and of that they have at times a bare sufficiency. Their usual course of cropping is alternately with Indian corn and wheat. The farms are from four to eight acres in extent, and are divided into two equal parts, growing the two kinds of corn. One-half of the produce is delivered to the proprietor, out of which he pays the taxes, and the other is for the subsistence of the occupier. In some cases the owner takes that half which consists of wheat, and the tenant is supported on the Indian corn. The value of these is nearly equal, as the price of wheat is commonly about one-third higher than that of maize, whilst the quantity of the latter exceeds that of the As the maize is nearly three months in the earth, and the wheat scarcely more than six months, there is an interval between the crops, during which the soil, by being frequently turned over by the spade, imbibes a certain portion of oxygen, which, with the addition of water by the irrigation, furnishes food for the plants.

A district adjoining to this, with a soil somewhat less sterile, but capable of constant irrigation, is chiefly cultivated with rice, growing almost continually, or with very short intervals, in the water. The inhabitants are scarcely maintained on better or more abundant provisions; and, on account of the maladies produced by the stagnant water, are remarkable for their sickly appearance, and for the short duration of their lives.

Lombardy comprehends a large portion of the Alps within its limits. The elevated pasture lands on these mountains are stocked with cattle only during the summer months. At that time the peasants take up their temporary residence in the chalets, and there convert the milk of the cattle into butter and cheese, as is practised in the adjoining Swiss cantons. The dung of the cattle serves to refresh the pastures during the summer, but no extraneous manure is ever applied to them.

Some mineral manures are used, the most important of which is gypsum, which is ground in mills, and then scattered on the clovers and the grass. Lime is used as a manure in some of the provinces. It is laid on the ground in heaps in October, and covered with the soil; and after the sowing of wheat, the compost with the lime, completely slaked, is spread over the field. The quantity of lime is very small.

In taking a view of the amount of the produce of land in Lombardy, it may be best to begin with the estimate of the mearete, or winter-watered meadows. These are commonly mowed four, five, and even six times in the year; but it is not very easy to determine the quantity of hay they yield, because the callet portion of their produce is consumed by the cattle in the stalls, in the form of grass.

One of the most accurate of the practical cultivators (Berra) constructed a weighing-bridge at his farm, over which every load of grass brought from his meadows, as well as the manure carried on them, was weighed and registered. According to him, the average produce, for a series of years, was as follows, in English cwt., and English statute acres:

| Mowing Date | Produce (lbs.) | |-------------|---------------| | January | 11,169 | | March | 16,512 | | May | 17,220 | | July | 9,864 | | September | 8,244 |

Total: 62,800 lbs.

That is, 560 3/4 cwt., or 30 loads.

The whole of the grass which is cut in January and in September is eaten in the green state, and the hay is made almost exclusively from what is cut in May and July. In what is converted into hay, it is found that there is a loss of weight by drying, equal to three-fourths. It is supposed that, from its containing so much more water, the grass cut in January and September would lose five-sixths of its weight, and that cut in March four-fifths. This view would give six loads of the finest hay as the annual produce of an English acre. There is good reason to believe that this may be near an accurate estimate, because the best meadows frequently, in the two mowings of May and July, yield more than at the rate of five loads per acre; but these are in the vicinity of the city of Milan, where the water that irrigates them is more fully impregnated with the rich drains from the city than that at a greater distance from it. From the last mowing in the beginning of September, till the end of November, the cows are fed on the meadows. Thus, to the estimated crops of hay, must be added the value of this pasture for the cattle during about two months. The usual price for the best hay in the cities is about 40s. sterling the load. The cost of making it, where the weather is so settled as it usually is in Lombardy, must be trifling, and that, with the mowing and carrying, cannot exceed the value of the after-feeding, so that each acre will give a profit of L1.12 sterling annually. It is not then surprising that such land can be sold as high as 1000 lire the pertica, or L200 sterling the English acre, an occurrence by no means unusual.

The profit of these meadows does not arise from the sale of hay, which, in a country where few horses are kept for pleasure, must necessarily be very insignificant, but from the fattening of cattle in a small degree, and the operations of the dairy as the most important pursuit. The dairies are extensive, and carried on with the greatest care and most scrupulous attention to cleanliness. The dairy-farms in the three provinces of Milan, Lodi, and Pavia, are mostly occupied by persons of competent capital; many by the proprietors, and the rest by tenants who are not metayers, but have leases for a term never exceeding nine years, at a fixed money rent. They, unlike the farmers in other parts, are the owners of the live stock, and of the implements of husbandry, have comfortable dwellings, are well informed and active, and with diligence unite much economy.

The dairies of the three provinces of Milan, Lodi, and Pavia produce the best cheese, distinguished by the name of Parmesan in most parts of Europe, but in Lombardy commonly called Formaggio di grana, with the addition of maggiengo or intermengo, according to the season in which it is made. The annual export of this cheese to foreign countries amounted to 1,800,000 pounds in the year 1824, besides what was consumed in the Italian and German provinces of the Austrian empire. At present, the annual produce is estimated at 51,520,000 lbs., worth at least L1,333,333 in the country itself in which it is made.

The operative part of making the cheese is confined to experienced practical men, who acquire a tact that enables them to time the several steps of the process with great accuracy, and without the aid of a thermometer to ascertain the requisite heat of the materials in each of these steps. From the nature of the climate, the milk will not keep long, but a cheese must be made every day. The cheeses are most valuable when they are large; and as the greater number of farmers have not milk sufficient to make such a cheese daily, the milk is sent by them to other farmers, so as to make up the requisite quantity. Sometimes four, or five, or more, small farms contribute their day's milk to one who has more stock, to make the cheese; and there are instances where the cheese-maker buys the whole of the milk from which his cheese is made.

The cows are milked evenings and mornings; in the first case about five or six o'clock, in the second at day-break, or just before. The milk of the evening is skimmed of what cream has risen on it before eight o'clock, and the milk of the morning, of that small quantity which is thrown up between day-break and that hour, and from that cream butter is made. Though the Parmesan cheese is thus made from skimmed milk, yet a very large portion of the cream is still left in it to enrich the cheese. The milk is then placed in a kettle, and warmed to the heat of 81° Fahrenheit, when the rennet is applied, the effect of which is increased by a small addition of vinegar, and sometimes of grated cheese, and a very small quantity of pepper. The other parts of the process so much resemble the practices in the best dairy-farms in England, as not to require any special notice.

It is salted after it is made, by sprinkling the surface Lombardy, with that substance daily during six weeks, and turning the cheese to imbibe the particles. These cheeses vary in weight, when fit for sale, from 52 to 122 lbs. avoidupois. They are kept some time before they are sold, a few at eight months, some at one or two years old, a less number at three, and a few at four years old. It requires much care to preserve the cheese against the heat of the climate. At Codogno and other places, where the wholesale trade is carried on, there are large magazines on the ground-floor, twenty feet in height, with shelves around, on which each cheese is placed singly. They have large windows, which are carefully shut to exclude the sun the whole day, but are opened during the night. It is difficult to estimate correctly the average quantity of butter and cheese produced from a given number of cows. On one farm, in the province of Lodi, there were 91 cows, from which were made 173 cheeses, varying in weight from 50 to 120 lbs., but the weight of which the man who weighed them averaged at 100 lbs. each. These had been made in the preceding six months and a half. Supposing the remainder of the year to be equally productive, the whole herd would have yielded, on an average, at the rate of 370 lbs. in the year. There was, however, no certain account of the quantity of butter made on the farm during the period; and the quantity of cheese alone, though correct, does not give any certain data upon which to frame an estimate of the productiveness of the animals. The proportion which the cheese bears to the butter varies in the different irrigated provinces. Thus, according to the estimate of the accurate Signor Berra—

100 lbs. of milk yields in Lodi 2½ lbs. of butter, 6½ lbs. of cheese.

100 lbs. of milk yields in Milan 2½ lbs. of butter, 6½ lbs. of cheese.

100 lbs. of milk yields in Pavia 1½ lbs. of butter, 5½ lbs. of cheese.

The farms in these provinces are generally small. One of 250 English acres would be denominated large; and though there are a few that exceed that extent, yet the greater portion of the irrigable land is occupied by farms much below one-half of that extent. Amongst the occupations that are confined exclusively to the marlette, or winter-watered meadows, many, perhaps the greater part, do not exceed forty acres. As the farms are small, so there are very few great proprietors. The family of Lunghi Pit have the greatest tract of the best land in the province of Milan, divided into many farms, and said to amount to 3000 acres. No other exceeds one-third of that extent.

The value and the rent of land depend less upon the natural fertility than upon the local situation, on the power of irrigation it can command, and on the capital expended on making roads to it, fences around it, and in erecting houses and agricultural buildings. In the vicinity of the city of Milan, those winter-watered meadows have the greatest value which are to the south, and are watered from the canal of Vettabbia, whose waters bring with them the precious manner of that populous place. The price of such land is about L.130 sterling the English acre, and, if it has good roads and buildings, may be let to good tenants at from L.6 to L.7 per acre. The land which has not sufficient irrigating power to form winter-meadows, but enough for the purposes of convertible husbandry, is worth from L.50 to L.60 per English acre, and may be let at from 60s. to 70s. per acre. In these cases the taxes and repairs are paid by the proprietor, as well as the contributions collected for keeping in proper repair the canal by which water is conveyed. Some parts of the irrigable provinces have lands of inferior natural quality, but being on the banks of the Po, are well calculated to grow rice, by their capability of being constantly flooded.

It is difficult for a stranger to generalize with any accuracy the value of land, or the rent of it in due proportion Lombardy to the amount of the sum invested on it. An opinion generally prevails that the capital laid out in land might be assumed to pay an annual rate of interest of about four per cent, but that as most of the rent, with the exception of the irrigated provinces, is paid in produce, those who employ factors to manage their property, or who manage it themselves, without great judgment and perpetual watchfulness, could scarcely calculate on obtaining more than three per cent.

It may serve to give some idea of the difficulty of ascertaining the amount of the rent of land, if a slight view be taken of the description of the classes of persons occupied in cultivation. The first of these is the affittuario, who somewhat resembles the middle-man now generally to be found in Ireland. They rent large portions of land at a money price, and let it out again to sub-tenants, who work it, if in small lots, by means of their own family, with an additional servant or two, or, if large, by day-labourers and their families, who are established on the property.

The next class is called conduttori, or fittaiuoli, or farmers. These are the most advantageous to the proprietors, and they are tolerably numerous, as well in the Venetian as in the Lombard provinces. This class comprehends the farmers in the watered provinces, whose chief object is the making of cheese, in some cases combined with the culture of rice. These lay out large sums at first, and have a good stock of cattle and utensils, and a sufficiency of capital. The advantage of this class to the proprietor is obvious. They take from him the labour of superintendence, and all risks from failing years and from loss of cattle; and, having leases renewed every nine, twelve, fifteen, or eighteen years, they can have no inducement to destroy the fertility of the soil. Though many of them have more extent of land, the greater proportion may be described as occupying from seven to twenty-five acres.

The third, and by far the largest class of all, are the coloni, colonists, sometimes called pigionianti chiusuranti, who occupy from an acre and a half to three acres of land, with a cottage. These premises they take either of the proprietors, of the middle-man, or of the farmers, and pay a rent by a share of the produce. Some colonists pay to their superiors a fixed quantity of corn yearly, or its equivalent in money and an agreed proportion of the other products, such as wine; or, in many cases, the whole of it is divided. When these shares are not too small, and the ground is fruitful, the most common custom is to pay a distinct measure of corn, and the half of the wine. The meadow land is paid for in money, in silk-worms' eggs, or in cocoons. The cattle, perhaps a cow and a donkey, are furnished to the colonist on credit, and if his terms are favourable, and he gets forward, he becomes the proprietor of them as well as of the utensils; but if the land is unproductive, or the shares of the proprietor too great, he must give up the cattle and the utensils, and may then be permitted to continue on the land, giving to the proprietor one-half the produce, or, if the crops prove heavy, a still larger share.

The farmers of the great estates in the watered provinces are in prosperous circumstances, and generally well educated persons; and their chief occupation consists in overlooking the workmen, and making the due bargains for the disposal of their produce. They are also necessarily furnished with some capital, as a proof of which, one near Lodi, occupying a farm of 250 English acres, upon which were 58 cows, a bull, and 8 horses, and who had on hand the cheese made in the six preceding months, asserted that the value of his stock exceeded L.800 sterling. On that farm there were 22 families of day-labourers. Six or seven men, the heads of those families, were in the constant employment of the occupier, either as herdsmen, ostlers, or Lombardy, stable-servants. All the rest, and the females and children, were only employed when there was work to be done, for which they were paid daily wages, viz., to the men about fourpence halfpenny a-day, to the women threepence, and to their children from twopence to threepence, according to the age or strength. They had also one meal a-day, consisting of rice and beans, but no wine, and meat only one day in the year. Some of them were occupied, on fixed terms, in rearing articles that required much labour to prepare them, and received a proportion of the product. Thus, of flax they received one-half; of maize one-third or one-fourth, and of rice one-seventh. When not wanted they may get occasional wages on neighbouring farms. In most of their habitations they hatch a few eggs of the silk-worm, if they can find money or credit to buy mulberry leaves; and if not, they have some occupation in winding the silk for those who are a little better situated.

In those provinces of Lombardy which are not to any extent capable of irrigation, there are few large farms and no substantial farmers. The greater portion of the land is divided into small allotments of a few acres, either directly by the proprietors, or through the management of middle-men. The real cultivators, called also colonists (colonii), with their wives and children, perform all the labour, and contract to deliver half of the raw produce to the proprietor.

Instead of two or three acres of land, a few tenants have from 15 to 20 acres, and are enabled to keep two or three cows, and perhaps a horse or a mule. The cattle and utensils are their own property. They pay a moderate money-rent for the corn land, and divide with the landlord in equal portions the wine and the cocoons of the silk-worms. Such persons, if they perform the work by the members of their own families, subsist chiefly on maize, use no wine, and otherwise practise the most rigid economy, though they do not become rich, may live in a respectable and comfortable manner.

The chief product which is furnished by Lombardy to external commerce is silk, which interests more or less every family in the country, and receives the greatest share of general attention. As the quantity and the quality of the silk depend on the worms that spin it, the subsistence of those worms becomes an object which engrosses much consideration. The leaves of the mulberry tree are exclusively the food of the worms, and the greater weight of these leaves that can be gathered, the greater is the silk that is produced. In many parts are numerous nurseries, where those trees are raised, with most careful cultivation, from seed.

The wild mulberry, or Morus alba, yields the best leaves for the nourishment of the worms, and the silk they spin whilst feeding upon them is of the finest quality; but the quantity of leaves they yield is so small, that it requires a great outlay and a great number of trees to give sustenance to an extensive silk establishment; on which account they are grafted with other kinds of mulberry trees, which have larger and dark green leaves, and in such abundance that they yield at least double the weight of leaves. The finest silk is obtained from the wild ungrafted mulberry tree; the next finest from one of a new species produced by grafting; the third from the grafted white mulberry; and the coarsest from the black mulberry. The fruit of none of these trees is in any estimation. In order to procure more leaves, the cultivators of the trees, every fourth year after the leaves have been stripped, cut off all the smaller branches quite close to the principal ones. In the succeeding year the leaves are not taken from the new shoots, but they are in the next and following years; and in the fourth year, the shoots are as bushy and thick as if they had not been tapped.

It is difficult to form an average of the produce of mulberry leaves from each tree, as much depends on the soil, but more upon the age of the tree. As soon as they have attained 6 inches in diameter, they yield from 19 to 27 lbs, and continually increase their produce till they attain a diameter of 2 feet, when they yield from 220 to 260 lb. Having then attained their full growth, they continue to increase in produce till they yield in some cases, but extreme ones, as much as 500 lb. The market prices of the leaves undergo a great fluctuation, varying sometimes 100 per cent. in a fortnight.

Some persons who have none, and others who have but few mulberry trees, yet breed silk-worms. They are careful to make contracts for what they expect to want, in March or April, when they are cheapest. It not unfrequently happens, that by a storm of hail the price is so raised that the breeder, instead of drawing a profit from his operations, finds he has paid more for the leaves than he can obtain for the cocoons. There are persons so skilful in estimating in the spring the weight of leaves which each tree will produce, that their assistance is commonly resorted to by those who make bargains for the leaves. When the worms begin to spin they require such a quantity of food as to raise the price of leaves; and if at that time a hail-storm should occur, the advance becomes most ruinous to the purchaser. In general the mulberry trees are, by the terms of the leases, let to the farmers or colonists, who divide the cocoons equally with the proprietors of the land. The tenant provides half the eggs, and superintends the insects, feeding them, and keeping them clean whilst they are working; the other half of the eggs, as well as the leaves, are the contributions of the landlord to this equally-joint-stock concern. The tenant estimates what worms can be nourished by the quantity of leaves the trees upon his farm will feed, and the two parties procure the estimated weight of eggs. If the tenant miscalculates, or if a hail-storm destroys his calculation, he is bound to purchase such a portion of leaves as will feed the insects through their working period.

The eggs of the silk-worms are made an object of trade by a few persons whose establishments are upon so large a scale as to make it worthy their attention. They are sold by weight, generally at about 2s. the English ounce. The eggs are divided into three classes. The worm from the first of them casts its skin four times, and is of a large size, and an ounce contains 24,024 eggs. Supposing each egg to produce a caterpillar, and each caterpillar a cocoon, as 110 cocoons weigh 1 lb., the whole ounce of eggs will yield 218 lb. of cocoons. The second also casts its skin, but the animal is of a smaller size, as are the cocoons; 1 ounce of them contains 25,185 eggs, and the cocoons produced from them weigh less, 216 being 1 lb., and consequently the whole weight of the cocoons is only 96 lb. The third class casts its skin but three times; 1 ounce contains 31,004 eggs, 440 cocoons weigh about 1 lb., and the whole weight of the cocoons is only about 70 lb.

In every house-room is made for laying out the worms and even in the poorest cottages of the colonists it is so contrived that some space is allotted to them. Tables of reed are formed, about 2½ feet in breadth, and from 15 to 18 feet in length. These are suspended from the roof, the upper shelf 2 feet below it, and others at 1 foot distance, with the lowest of them 2 feet from the floor. The windows are made of paper, to prevent currents of cold air, and too great heat; the shutters are of straw, and the door consists of a piece of old linen cloth. Within, the place is kept in darkness, except when the worms are to be fed or the place cleaned out, when lamps are used. In many of these places, thermometers, made of spirit of wine, are kept to ascertain the temperature; and show no other change of heat than that between the 16th and 20th degrees of Reaumur, to which limit it is deemed necessary. Lombardy, to confine their range of temperature. Habit, however, has given a tact, by which the people ascertain the degree of heat with tolerable accuracy.

Some of the colonists within a season produce as much as 140 lb. of cocoons. Taking their half of them at 70 lb., and estimating them at the average price (for there is great variation in the price) of 1s. 6d. per lb., it will yield for a month's labour, L5. 6s., which is a large sum for persons in that condition of life in that country. From it, however, must be deducted the cost of leaves, when the landlord's trees do not yield as much sustenance for the insects as the tenant has calculated when purchasing the eggs.

The planting of mulberry trees, and the consequent produce of silk, have been constantly increasing of late years. It is an object of attraction to every grade of society, from the greatest landholder to the lowest of the colonists and day-labourers, whose energy has been stimulated by the constantly advancing price of raw silk, with few exceptional years, from 1814 to the present time. It has been ascertained that three-fourths at least of the mulberry trees in the kingdom are under 40 years of age, and that one-half of that three-fourths are of less than 10 years' growth. The greater number of them are to be found in the dry provinces, though their plantation has increased much even in the irrigated districts. From Milan to Varese, from that city to Como, and between Lecco and Bergamo, the cultivation of vines has almost everywhere given place to that of mulberry trees. They are very numerous on the hills round Bergamo and Brescia. In the province of Verona, especially between that capital and Desenzano, and from Castelnuovo, through Vallego, quite to Roverbello, the surface of the country consists of masses of rounded pebbles, washed down at some remote period from the neighbouring Alps. As much strong soil is mingled with these stones which is favourable to the mulberry trees, vast numbers have been everywhere planted; but owing to a prejudice that prevails in these districts against the practice of engrafting, the quantity of leaves does not bear the same proportion to the number of trees as in some parts of Lombardy. Mulberry trees are found, with less annual expense, more profitable than any trees cultivated for their fruit. The average profit from each tree, from five to fifteen years old, is reckoned to be about five shillings sterling annually.

It appears from the official statistics, that the quantity of cocoons produced in the kingdom at different recent periods was as follows:

| Year | Quantity | |------|----------| | 1848 | 19,755,519 lb. | | 1852 | 33,513,826 lb. | | 1856 | 41,892,283 lb. |

Venice: 12,964,559 lb. Total: 32,720,078 lb.

Supposing these returns exact, the production of cocoons in the four years from 1848 to 1852 had increased by more than two-fifths; and if, in the subsequent four years, the increase is found to be less than one-thirteenth, it must be borne in mind, that both in 1855 and 1856 almost one-half of the produce was destroyed by the prevalence of disease among the silk-worms.

The 64,668,456 lb. of cocoons produced in 1856, at the low average price of 17½d. per lb., would give a value of L4,336,560. According to the ratio shown by Dandolo, those 64,668,456 lb. of cocoons, whilst requiring for their production the enormous amount of 9,043,499,700 lb. of mulberry leaves, must have yielded at least 5,021,559 lb. of raw silk, which, at a low average price of 19s. 8d. per lb., for the 3,123,546 lb. belonging to Lombardy, and 16s. 7½d. per lb. for 1,898,014 lb. of the inferior kind of the Venetian provinces, would be worth L4,647,636. The operation, therefore, of winding the cocoons into raw silk gave a gross profit of L311,276.

Of that quantity of raw silk only 4,299,471 lb., worth L3,965,000, were spun and twisted in the kingdom, viz., 2,976,557 lb. in Lombardy, and 1,322,914 lb. in Venice. The spinning and twisting manufactures gave employment for the average period of 50 days a-year,—in Lombardy to 4,500 men, 5,500 women, and 2,000 girls, besides 30,000 women more (the macamatrici) in their own houses; and produced about 2,822,217 lb. of spun or twisted silk (oronzise), worth, at an average of 23s. per lb., L3,245,556;—in the Venetian provinces to about 18,000 persons altogether, and produced 1,256,568 lb. worth, at an average of 18s. 9d. per lb., L1,178,000. The gross produce, therefore, of the spinning and twisting manufactures was, in Lombardy L317,666, and in Venice, L78,000. A comparatively small quantity of spun silk is consumed within the kingdom; much of it is sent to be manufactured in Austria Proper, in Bohemia, and in Hungary, and a much larger quantity is exported to France and England.

The subjoined table shows the distribution of the produce of cocoons over the various provinces in 1856:

| Province | Quantity | |----------------|----------| | Lombardy | 12,129,700 lb. | | Bergamo | 7,617,900 lb. | | Milan | 7,655,555 lb. | | Como | 4,409,700 lb. | | Mantua | 3,527,778 lb. | | Cremona | 3,307,275 lb. | | Lodi | 2,204,850 lb. | | Pavia | 1,102,425 lb. | | Sombrino | 441,000 lb. | | Total | 41,892,283 lb. |

| Province | Quantity | |----------------|----------| | Verona | 9,921,859 lb. | | Udine | 3,968,754 lb. | | Treviso | 3,307,275 lb. | | Vicenza | 2,645,860 lb. | | Padua | 1,102,425 lb. | | Rovigo | 771,700 lb. | | Venice | 661,425 lb. | | Belluno | 396,894 lb. | | Total | 22,776,173 lb. |

| Province | Quantity | |----------------|----------| | Lombardy | 41,892,283 lb. | | Total | 64,668,456 lb. |

After reviewing the productions of most value, the cheese and the silk, a slight notice may be taken of the results of those other operations of agriculture which are almost exclusively confined to domestic consumption.

Of corn crops, the most extensively grown is maiz. It is the chief nourishment of the working classes, and is deemed by them the most healthy and most strengthening of all grain. It has, too, the advantage of being most easily converted into wholesome food, requiring, unlike wheat, no assistance from the baker. It requires only a kettle and a little fuel to make it into polenta, a kind of thick pudding or gruel, which, without any addition, forms the common food of the peasantry. It is also a valuable product on other accounts. The grains in a green state are a substitute for green peas; the leaves, when fresh, are a fodder, on which cattle eagerly feed, and, when dry, they are used to make excellent beds, or rather mattresses; the stalks are used for fuel in that country, where fuel is scarce; and, finally, the feathery tops are converted into brushes for sweeping the houses.

Maiz is also cheaper than wheat, being commonly sold at about two-thirds the price of that grain; but, from its being the food of the far greater part of the population, in seasons of great scarcity, such as those following the harvest of 1816 and 1828, the indispensable demand for it caused the price to rise higher than that of wheat. More than one-third of all the arable land of Lombardy is destined to the cultivation of this grain, and the average product per acre is greater than that of wheat. It is grown almost indiscriminately on all kinds of soil, and is to be seen equally on the cold hills and in the warm valleys of the provinces. The culture of it does not appear to have received any improvement since its first introduction. It is in some cases sown broadcast, and covered in with the plough. From this mode of sowing it, it can only be cleared of weeds by hand, and the earth is thrown round the plants in the same way; whereas, Lombardy, in the countries where it is sown in rows or drills, these operations can be more advantageously performed by appropriate instruments. The expense of this hand-hoeing and shovelling up the earth is said to be equal to the value of one-third of the gross produce of the crop. It is customary, after the bloom is off, to strip the plant of its leaves, and also to cut the stalks above the cobs or ears, which, if not done too early, is not injurious to the grain. There are several species of this plant. The most common is that with a large yellow grain, whose cobs grow about half-way up the stalk, and which ripens in three months, if sown in the month of May. If it cannot be sown so early, or if it is sown after a crop of flax, or on clover after the first mowing, it is usual to sow another kind called brigantino, whose grains are smaller, and of a darkish brown colour. In the vicinity of Bergamo, the greatest quantity of maize is of this kind. There are some species of this corn of much smaller grains, called cinquanto and quaranto, from the number of days which pass between the sowing and the harvesting. These kinds are commonly sown on the wheat stubbles, or after a crop of flax, or of rape-seed has been gathered. It is seldom very productive, and, if the field on which it is sown be poor, scarcely repays more than the seed and the labour.

In a country where the soil and the climate are so various as in Lombardy, and where the difference in the quantity of manure applied to the soil is so great in the several portions, it is impossible to arrive at any average calculation of the produce of maize per acre. Nothing more can be done here than to state a few facts on the subject. One very accurate cultivator on the richest irrigable land, to which abundant manure was applied, stated that his crops yielded annually in a series of years from 59 to 78 English bushels an acre. Another also, in the same circumstances, a few miles distant, gave his range of bushels from 50 to 78 per acre. The other side of the picture is vastly different. According to an official valuation in the revenue office at Milan, the following average of the produce of maize in some of the poorest provinces is given, viz., in Verona, the greatest produce is rated at 15 bushels the acre; in Vicenza, from 32 to 42; in Padua, from 12 to 21; and in Udine, from 13 to 22. No other provinces are noticed in the account. To this account of the average produce of maize may be added calculations made by two of the most accurate agriculturists of Lombardy. Count Daniele informs us, that the average produce from the colonists on his estates near to Varese, on whose fields the peasantry had been induced to plant the beans called ficole amongst the maize, was 21½ bushels of maize, and 4½ bushels of beans. The average on the whole of his estate, including the part cultivated by himself, is stated to be 32½ bushels of maize, and 7½ bushels of beans. Another intelligent agriculturist asserted, that, according to the best calculation he could make, and he had taken much pains on the subject, the average produce of maize did not exceed 25 bushels the acre, which he considered to be a produce one-third greater than that of wheat. The quantity of maize grown in the Lombard provinces in 1854, was, according to the official returns, 973,024 quarters.

Rice is a plant introduced from India and China at some distant but not very remote period. According to some, it was known as early as the tenth century; but no one large field was cultivated with it, until a patrician of Milan, in the year 1522, first destined to it some marshy land upon his own estate in the province of Verona. In the province of Pavia it is the most profitable grain that is grown; and in the provinces of Lodi, Cremona, Verona, Mantua, and Milan, it always secures to the farmer moderate benefit. The yearly produce is about 165,072 quarters, much of which is consumed at home, as those who do not subsist on maize alone have one meal a-day of this article. Some of it is exported, but the amount of that portion falls far short of the quantity imported for home consumption. Rice is a marsh plant, and can only be grown where the land can be covered with water. The evaporation is injurious to human health, and hence laws are enacted regulating the distance which must intervene between the rice-fields and the cities and towns. Without these restrictions, rice would be more extensively cultivated. Some portion of rice is grown in the rich provinces, as one of the crops in rotation of convertible husbandry. In this practice, called risare a ricenda, it is most commonly sown after clover. The land is ploughed very deep, but not harrowed. The water is then turned on, so as to cover the surface, and to show any inequalities which remained by the use of the spade. The seed is then sown, or rather scattered on the water, having been previously steeped during eight or ten hours to give it additional specific gravity, so that it may sink immediately to the bottom. If it were sowed after clover, two bushels of seed would be sufficient for one acre. When it is sowed, as is oftentimes the case, after maize, the quantity is usually three bushels.

The time of sowing is from the beginning of April till the middle of May. It remains covered with water to the height of from 2 to 3 inches, and in that state remains till weeding becomes necessary. That early sown requires the operation to be performed in the middle of May; that later sown, some time in June. It is executed chiefly by the females, who, with their lower garments tucked up, stand in water over the ankles, and with the hand pluck up the weeds by the roots. If the land were dry, the weeds would break off, and leave the roots to shoot out again. The most prevalent weed is the cockfoot grass, which, at an early period, it is difficult to distinguish from the rice. Besides this, there are several other weeds, chiefly of the rush kind. In the first year the operation of weeding is performed twice. If the same field be sown with the rice in the next year, once is deemed sufficient. This is the most expensive part of the process, and is said in the first year to require 25 days' work for an acre, which, as the employment is unpleasant and unhealthy, is commonly paid for at the rate of about 10l. per day. Much of this work is executed by the colonists upon plans marked definitely in their leases. The terms vary excessively, according to the locality and the soil. A common plan is, for the colonist to receive one-quarter of the gross produce, after the quantity used as seed has been abstracted from it. For this he is bound to perform the following portions of the labour, viz., the levelling of the surface, the sowing, the weeding, the reaping, and all the labour not performed by cattle, until the crop is placed on the threshing-floor. In the case of some of the poorest land, the colonist receives one-third instead of one-fourth, of the produce. About midsummer-clay the water is allowed to run off the land, and during eight or ten days it is suffered to become dry. This is done to destroy the numerous water insects, which would prove injurious to the roots of the rice, and cause it to fall into the water.

Wheat is a grain not extensively cultivated in most parts of Lombardy, excepting in that portion of it which comprehends the mountainous Alps. There is but one species of it,—a winter wheat, sown between the first week of October and the first week of November; but the best farmers wish to finish their sowing by the 21st of October, if the season permit. The wheat is all of the bearded kind, the preference of which has been owing to the opinion that the beard is a protection against the fogs of the blooming season, and against the depredations of the small birds at the time of the grain ripening. The produce is a kind of wheat harder than that of the W. and N. of Europe; and from this circumstance it is better calculated to be converted into macaroni than our wheat would be. The Lombardy, product of the crops is less per acre than it is generally in the German dominions of Austria, and less than in England or in the best parts of the Netherlands.

It is of course most productive on the best lands of the rich provinces, where irrigation is practicable to the exact extent which the nature of the crop may require. On that description of soil it is less profitable than other crops, and therefore, only a small portion is applied to its growth; but even on the best of that land it is a rare event to obtain sevenfold the quantity of the seed that has been sown. In the neighbourhood of Mantua, where the poor colonists grow wheat and maize in alternate years, where the soil is sandy, and where, from the paucity of cattle, little manure is applied, it does not appear that the crop of wheat grown more than equals four times the seed.

In Verona, the higher part of which is stony, and the lower part sandy, the best of the land yields 10 bushels, and the worst only 6½. In Vicenza, where the soil is better, the lands of the first quality yield 18 bushels, those of the second 15, the lowest 12. In Padua, the first class of lands yields 15½ bushels, the second 11½, and the lowest class only 7 bushels. In Udine, a poor sandy soil, mixed with many pebbles, and where there are but few cattle, the first class of soils yields 10½ bushels, the second 9, and the lowest only 6½.

It is not easy to ascertain what portion of the fields is appropriated to the growth of wheat. On the best of the soils, according to the regular rotation of crops, one-half of the land is in grasses, the proportion of maize is greater than that of wheat, and some portion is sown with pulse, rye, millet, oats, flax, hemp, and other kinds of crops. In 1854 the wheat produced in Lombardy alone amounted to 697,186 quarters. The other kinds of grain are but very little cultivated.

Few things are more striking to a visitor in Italy from the N. of Europe, than the straight rows of trees of all kinds that run through the corn fields, at the foot of which vines are planted and trained, so as to extend in elegant festoons from one tree to another, exhibiting the pendant clusters of grapes. If the same mode of training the vines were attempted in the somewhat colder climates of France and Germany, the shade of the trees would prevent the grapes from ripening. This effect is not produced in Lombardy, where the berries become ripe, and, when eaten, are of good flavour; but the wine produced from them is in general of a bad or very indifferent quality. Though much of the wine is produced from such vines in the corn fields as are distinguished by the names of Campi Aratrici Vitati, or of Campi Arborati Vitati, and from vines planted in rows at such a distance from each other as to admit of maize being grown between them, and called Ronchi; yet in some parts are vineyards properly so called, because, like those of France and Germany, they alone occupy the ground, and are, like them, supported by props. The best wine is produced from the Ronchi, and more especially from the vineyards properly so called, in which, however, each vine produces less in quantity than those trained from tree to tree. The amount of produce varies greatly according to different years, different districts, and different modes of cultivation. From an approximate estimation made on many farms of various soils, it would appear that, in the most productive districts, the average produce of large vines trained to the trees around the corn fields is from 48 to 52 gallons for 100 vines; and the average produce of vineyards properly so called, from 58 to 65 gallons of wine to the acre.

In Lombardy the wine is generally of a bad quality. Its production is left chiefly to that description of cultivators before noticed under the name of colonists, who exercise little discretion and little care, either in the choice of the kind of grapes they plant, or in the management of the juice. Their chief care is to obtain the largest quantity, without much regard to the flavour or the aptitude of keeping; and commonly, as soon as it is made, they divide it in equal shares with their landlords. One cause to which the inferiority of the wine is attributed arises from the general predilection in favour of red wine, or, as it is called, Vino Nero, which is prized according to the darkness of its colour. In order to produce this deep colour, the skins of the grapes are left, in the first part of the process, to ferment with the juice. Sometimes this is suffered to continue during eight or ten days in a vat before the liquor is drawn off, and sometimes still longer, as the longer it continues the darker the wine becomes. The best wines are produced in the district near Varèse, on the sunny slopes of the hills round the lakes of Como and Garda, and in the Val Calleppio in the province of Bergamo. The wines of the localities of Sassella and Inferno, in the Valtellina, maintain the ancient renown of the Rhaetian wines, relished by Augustus and celebrated by Virgil.

The wine of the Venetian provinces is, upon the whole, of a much better quality; its superiority is owing to the nature of the soil, to a better choice of the kinds of grapes that are planted, and to the more careful preparation of their juice. The best qualities are produced in the province of Treviso, in the Berici and Euganean Hills, between Vicenza and Padua, in some districts of the province of Udine, and above all in the province of Verona, well known for its Valpolicella, the best common wine in the kingdom.

There is no old wine in the country, except in small quantities, and in the hands of a few amateur proprietors. The wine of each vintage is sold in the course of the following year; and when any of it is kept, even though it should not have become, or shown a tendency to become, vinegar, it will sell at a lower price than new wine, because it is milder, and less agreeable to the taste of the consumer.

Previous to 1851 the annual quantity of wine produced in the kingdom, in average years, was 85,837,708 gallons, of which 52,823,203 gallons were produced in the Venetian, and 33,014,502 in the Lombard provinces. The produce of Lombardy not being sufficient for the consumption of its population, nearly 4,402,000 gallons a-year more were imported either from the Venetian provinces, which produced much more than was required for their own consumption, or from the neighbouring states of Modena, Piedmont, and the Papal territory, according to the respective local produce and prices. But since 1851, when the oidium attacked all the vines of the country, the produce has so fearfully diminished that in 1856 the government found it necessary to grant a reduction of the direct land-tax on lands chiefly cultivated with vines, in proportion to the ascertained amount of loss. The whole produce of Lombardy, in 1852, was reduced to 11,004,834 gallons, and that of the Venetian provinces, in 1854, to 7,538,311 gallons of wine. The respective loss of each province was as follows:

| Government of Milan | Gallons of Wine produced | |---------------------|-------------------------| | Mantua | 10,347,465 | | Milan | 3,800,585 | | Brescia | 3,048,432 | | Pavia | 2,925,130 | | Bergamo | 2,732,434 | | Cremona | 2,665,205 | | Sonrio | 2,663,170 | | Lodig | 1,962,910 | | Total | 33,436,251 |

| Government of Venice | Gallons of Wine produced | |----------------------|--------------------------| | Padova | 10,844,592 | | Vicenza | 9,090,200 | | Udine | 9,574,266 | | Verona | 5,583,770 | | Trevizo | 7,483,287 | | Rovigo | 3,961,740 | | Venezia | 2,751,209 | | Belluno | 396,174 | | Total | 53,109,328 |

Potatoes, which form so important a part of the food of the inhabitants in the more northern parts of Europe, are very little cultivated in Lombardy. They are almost exclusively confined to the Alpine districts, or, when grown on the level country, are confined to the gardens. The absence of this root is a subject of sincere regret to the most patriotic individuals who have devoted their attention to rural economics. Count Dandolo attributes much of the dreadful consequences which followed the deficient harvests of 1816 and 1828, when great numbers perished from want of common necessaries, to the absence of that seasonable supply of food which potatoes would then have furnished. Others have made similar and ineffectual remarks. The taste for polenta is much too deeply rooted, and the dislike to potatoes so common amongst the working classes of the rural districts, that there is no present prospect of their cultivation being speedily extended.

It is generally believed that more than four-sixths of the inhabitants of Lombardy subsist wholly by the labours of the field. Of these, the far greater proportion are of the description which is here called colonists. They are small occupiers, dividing the trifling products of the soil with the proprietors. Their dwellings are small, their furniture and utensils scanty, and their dress of the coarsest materials. They generally marry early, and have families, though they have no prospect of supporting them, beyond the hope that the half of the produce of maize on a few acres of land may yield them food during the year, with the exercise of the greatest parsimony in its use. In the event of sickness, they have to resort to hospitals and charitable institutions. The charity of those who can afford it is bestowed with as fair liberality as can be expected, considering the numerous claimants that offer for its reception.

The mining operations are inconsiderable, and are confined to the procuring of iron in the Alpine valleys of Bergamo and Brescia, and of copper in Belluno.

The manufactures of the kingdom, with the exception of that of silk, which gives the most employment, and has already been referred to, are not extensive, but have of late years been on the increase. There are 33 cotton-spinning mills, of the power of 728 horses, and turning, in the aggregate, 123,402 spindles. The cotton for their consumption is introduced from Asia and America. In 1854 they spun 7,412,160 lb. of cotton, of the value of L264,718; 3810 persons, of whom 1482 were men, 1152 women, 506 boys, and 670 girls, found at these mills a daily employment, and received, on an average, each man from 1s. to 1s. 4d., each woman from 7d. to 8d., and each boy or girl from 3½d. to 6½d. per day. Cotton-weaving machines in 1845 had 15,602 looms, which in 1854 had increased to 17,014. As they are chiefly carried on in a small way by families of the lower classes, they gave employment to 34,000 persons. Their produce is reckoned at an average value of L544,948 per year. The woollen manufacturers employ about 700 persons, but are comparatively insignificant. There are only 3 flax-spinning mills, which turn 11,518 spindles, and employ 330 men, 220 women, 64 boys, and 258 girls. Venice has long been known for its glass manufactures; the annual average exports of glass, pearls, and beads of the last ten years has been L143,338, of which the largest items were—L25,000 to England; L15,666 to Calcutta; and L12,665 to France. Milan has been from remote times celebrated for its weapons and arms; and iron work of all kinds is still extensively made in the province. Besides the great branches of manufacture, most of the smaller ones are carried on, especially those of paper, glass, gold and silver articles, and domestic utensils.

The foreign trade is not material; and that of Venice has much declined since its union with Austria. There are still, however, many ships navigating the Adriatic and the Mediterranean Seas, now bearing the Austrian flag, which are built and equipped at Venice. But there is no reliable information as to the real present amount of imports and exports, and foreign trade in general; and such returns as have been published, being very far from correct, would only lead to erroneous conclusions.

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