S»KS.\^^■^^\^^■#S■SJS^■■^-f!\^^^,^,A ^ ^ ^^^^wi^ «^\\n^'*'«^ ^''*'»- .x^CwSv.^".*,.^ ^ ^^™\!i.»cyV" ■'«*xx»*>x%«« ,tX, ^\Vfx =^ ^ N \ 1* ^ N ^xN*%\^^^ \^ilJ!^HHI ^'■^ *\ X^N"* ^-:l :M^^ "^^ ^' '^"''»^%\-'^\V^^^ \^ \ \ \ \\ ^ V * » ^mB ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^^H ^ * '^^"'^ ^'' n'jj^^^mI v^ -^^^^^mI ^» V^^^^^^'^'^|^■^^H ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges OF Agriculture and Home Economics AT Cornell University Cornell University Library S 469.I8B37 Rural Italy; an account of the present ag 3 1924 000 266 662 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000266662 RURAL ITALY. RURAL ITALY AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRESENT AGRICULTURAL CONDITION OF -THE KINGDOM. BY WILLIAM NELTHORPE BEAUCLERK, LL.D., Secretary in Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service. LONDON : RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, JPttbliahers in ODriiinars to ^er JJajeatj the (SJticcn. 1888. \^All Rights Reserved. "[ /cornel UNJVEkSITY \L8BRARVy CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION . .... II. DISTRICT I. — SICILY . . . . III. DISTRICT II. — THE BASILICATA AND CALABRIA IV. DISTRICT IIL THE NEAPOLITAN PROVINCES V. DISTRICT IV. — APULIA AND THE ABRUZZI VI. DISTRICT V. — ROME AND GROSSETTO VU. DISTRICTS VI. AND VII. — BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES VIII. DISTRICT VIII. — PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENO. CARRARA IX. DISTRICT IX. ^TUSCANY . X. DISTRICT X. — LOMBARDY XI. DISTRICT XI. VENETIAN PROVINCES XII. DISTRICT XII.— SARDINIA . CONCLUSION AND MASSA- I 14 24 37 55 66 106 131 157 165 196 234 242 RURAL ITALY, CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. At the present time, when agricultural distress is a matter of personal moment to every landowner in England, and the agricultural condition of the country- is of the highest importance alike to the State and to the individual, it cannot be without interest to learn how it fares with foreign nations, and what may be their condition and prospects in this particular branch of industry, Italy — a country admirably formed by nature for agricultural prosperity — has ever, throughout her long and eventful history, shown that agriculture has flourished in times of political superiority and declined with the falling fortunes of the nation. It is, however, the opinion of many that, " after twenty years of national government, the condition of the land and of the rural population leaves a great deal to be desired. They point out that, out of an extent of 29,600,000 hectares (nearly 74,000,000 acres), 5,600,000 are uncultivated, and half of the remaining I RURAL ITALY. 24,000,000 is scarcely more than nominally productive. The average production of grain, which is 11 hectol. per hectare in Italy (12 bushels per acre), amounts to 32 hectol. (120 bushels) in England, 22 in Holland, 20 in Belgium, 15 in France, and 23 in Germany, in all of which countries sunshine is comparatively deficient. " Italy, with three-fourths of the population and more than half of the superficial area of France, yields agricultural products to the value of 3 milliards, whilst the latter country prodiices 12 milliards' worth. Italy, indeed, does not even produce sufficient grain for the requirements of her inhabitants. The reason of this wretched inferiority is not far to seek, in the ante- diluvian system of rural cultivation prevailing in many provinces, and the crass ignorance respecting all new chemical and mechanical improvements for the treat- ment of the soil. Such misery as exists even in our wealthiest districts is unparalleled, excepting in Ireland, and the remedy can be found only in a miracle of energy, labour, and wisdom, more easy to wish for than possible to realize." So say the pessimists, and, were things actually in so hopeless a state, an inquiry would serve no purpose beyond proving the existence of an incurable malady ; but, happily, the evil has been much exaggerated. In the first place, Italy is not all a " garden of nature," as strangers who are acquainted only with its most fertile spots are fond of calling it. On the contrary, with the exception of the valley of the Po, and a few lesser plains, the country is mountainous, unproductive, and inhospitable. The Alpine and Apennine regions are stony or wooded ; the scanty hill-pasturages are in- capable of improvement; and the centre of the penin- sula is occupied with extensive marshes, which prevail INTRODUCTION. also in the south and in the islands, producing constant malaria. Fifty generations, ruled by bad Governments, are responsible for the devastation of the forests and the encroachments of the marshes. The comparison, therefore, with other countries must be made with due allowance for these drawbacks. For instance, France possesses four times the extent of naturally-cultivated land that Italy has. If the sun favours Italy for the ripening of corn, other countries have the advantage in the humidity requisite to the production of a luxuriant vegetation, which can only be obtained here by an ex- tensive system of irrigation, such as has been introduced on a very large and perfect scale in the northern pro- vinces, but cannot, for natural reasons, be applied to the central and southern districts. Italy produces rice, mulberries, oil, wine, oranges, lemons, etc., in quantity and quality fully proportionate to the extent of her territory. Real agricultural progress is evident in Milan, Bologna, Monferrato, Salerno, Bari, Palermo, Catania, and generally on the east coast of Sicily. The cattle from Reggiano, Romagna, and Val di Chiana are justly celebrated, and breeding is much on the increase throughout the country. Machinery and chemical manures are also rapidily making their way into use in various districts. As to the average production per acre, the calcula- tions must be taken with a considerable amount of reserve, for, apart from the considerations above men- .tioned, many of the best-cultivated regions of Italy produce crops of a less remunerative nature than corn, whilst the fields are intersected with olive and other trees, yielding valuable fruit, but which interfere with the growth of cereals. RURAL ITALY. Again, with regard to the complaint that Italy does not raise enough corn for the requirements of her popu- lation, it is enough to repeat that, where more lucrative produce can be obtained, it would be false economy to sacrifice the richer crop to the exclusive growth of wheat. The export of the rich products of the country will amply counterbalance the requisite importation of grain. Respecting the condition of the rural labourers, it is too true that a sad amount of misery exists among them, and that the question is one of great importance. The pellagra, for example, is a malady which, when once it has taken a hold upon the population, has a ten- dency to become hereditary. But it may be doubted whether — cceteris paribus — the state of the Italian peasant is worse than that of agricultural labourers in other European countries. At the German Agricultural Congress in 1875, Pro- fessor von der Goltz computed the average European wages of the field-labourers as follows : Minimum wages of casual workers . Maximum „ „ Minimum wages of regular workers . Maximum „ „ PER ANNUM. Marks. 387 go6 483 1,050 Comparing these figures with tho.se collected by the Committee, and considering the fact that the Italian peasant requires far less food, clothing, and shelter than are indispensable in the North, it will be found that the labouring classes in this country are not the worst pro- vided for in Europe ; and a further confirmation of this opinion is afforded by the relative proportion of emigra- tion from Italy, Germany, Great Britain, and other nations. INTRODUCTION. The land in Italy is, however, burdened with a terrible and overpowering weight of taxa_tion. The legitimate complaints which arise on all sides through- out the kingdom upon this subject are but too well- founded, and prove the fact to demonstration. Yet, notwithstanding this, the commercial value of farms and farm-lands augments year by year, and the rural population has sensibly increased during the past quarter of a century. All this is not to be taken as showing that the agricultural condition of Italy is by any means satis- factory. On the contrary, we are soon led to the con- clusion that even the best-cultivated provinces are capable of much improvement, whilst others are still in a state of infancy as regards the adoption of the most rational reforms and advancements in agrarian science. The replanting of mountain woods and the drainage of marshy districts proceed with discouraging slow- ness. The poverty of many provinces is most lament- able, and property requires to be more equitably distributed and relieved from the excessive fiscal burdens which stifle all efforts in the direction of progress. It is believed, however, that the state of affairs is not so desperate as to exclude the hope of regaining lost time and neglected opportunities by steady and united labour, provided that the Government and the nation agree to work together towards the desired reform. Italy has a Department of State, presided over by a Minister of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce, and this Ministry has worked zealously at its duties with the assistance of a talented staff of permanent officials. It has founded Agricultural Committees, local exhibi- RURAL ITALY. tions, schools of instruction, and experimental stations. It has made accurate studies and reports, and has published important treatises on special subjects, such as the pellagra and the phylloxera. Moreover, it has proposed to Parliament almost every year since 1865 some measure destined to assist the interests of agri- culture throughout the kingdom. But the success of its operations has been marred by the unfortunate circumstance that agrarian Italy was, and still is, unknown to her legislators, and that the Ministry has not the entire management and con- trol over the concerns committed to its charge. It is needful that every Department of State should co- operate to assist the work of each other Ministry ; whereas, in the struggle for existence which new Italy has undergone, political necessity has compelled the Ministers of Finance and Foreign Affairs to press taxes on property, salt, grist, etc., in the absence of other subjects for taxation. It is to be hoped, how- ever, that after twenty years of national existence, and now that the unity of the kingdom is assured, the agricultural interests of the country will be better cared for. The most apparent evils which affect the rural population, and the best apparent remedies for them, may next be briefly examined. First, the ignorance of the farmers is adduced as the prime cause of the prevalent backwardness and distress throughout the provinces. " Provide better agricultural education, and diffuse the knowledge of practical husbandry, with its modern scientific improve- ments, amongst the rural classes," say the doctrinaires, " and the problem is solved ; the rest will follow of itself." INTRODUCTION. 7 That good results will ensue from the spread of knowledge is indisputable, but the entire mass of land- owners is unanimous in the opinion that it is not all- sufficient; Italy, as a whole, is essentially the country of small and middle-sized properties, so that the inconsiderable number of large landed proprietors must not be taken as representing the entire class. But it must be noted that no good or complete classification of landowners has ever yet been drawn up. Rent rolls are wanting in many provinces, and it was computed by the Statistical Committee in 1877 that to compose exact tables of statistics of property in Italy would entail an expense of 80,000 lire (;^3,20o). The number of owners returned in the census is less than the actual number which exists, because many small proprietors in the " campagnas " have some other profession under which alone they describe themselves, and the number given in the list of persons paying taxes on farm lands is greater than the true number of landowners, since many hold patches of ground in different communes, and are thus registered several times. The nearest calculation that has been made gives — Persons paying less than 20 lire of taxes to the Treasury and provincial surtaxes 2,909,584 Ditto, from 20 to 40 lire 368,776 Ditto, over 40 lire 308,200 Persons also paying taxes on manufactures or on personal property, or both, to the amount of less than 20 lire . 624,943 Ditto, from 20 to 40 hre 269,875 Ditto, above 40 lire 413,024 Being a total of . . 4,894,402 directly interested in rural property in Italy. RURAL ITALY. Their complaints are therefore worthy of a hearing, and they have represented their case as follows : "As if the direct taxes, which are very high, were not enough, we have to pay indirect taxes to the State, as well as a multitude of obligatory expenses which are laid on the Provincial and Communal Administrations, so that the average taxation on land throughout Italy amounts to 30 per cent, on the returns actually got from the property. In some provinces, for instance in Lombardy, it rises to 40 and even 45 per cent, and in parts of Cremona to as much as 60 per cent, without counting mortgages or costs of registration which have to be paid when the property changes hands.* "In France not more than 10 per cent of the returns are taken for taxes, and no country in Europe imposes such a burden of imposts on rural possessions as Italy does. " Add to this the high duties on salt and the oppres- sive grist tax (now abolished), and it is easy to see that the agrarian population has no chance of emerging from abject poverty." They further point out that these burdens have been laid upon them at the very time when they most re- quired funds for the resuscitation of agriculture ; and, therefore, professorships and chairs are not sufficient to effect the desired object Knowledge without means is of little use. When the great mass of landowners have hardly enough to live upon at all, how can they lay out money on the improvement of their farms ? * It must, however, be taken into account that this high scale of taxation is based upon a very old valuation of the land, and that at the present day both the value of properties and the returns therefrom have increased in a very high ratio since the rent-rolls were drawn up upon which these calculations were made. INTRODUCTION. For small proprietors and the occupiers of medium- sized holdings it is obviously impossible, whilst there are in reality but few large estates in the country, and even these are gradually being split up by the abolition of entail and the constant subdivision of property con- sequent thereupon. Beyond all this must be taken into consideration the weight of mortgages lying upon landed property. No exact statistics are forthcoming under this head ; but it is calculated, approximatively, that the value of rural possessions, reckoned according to the compensation paid for the ecclesiastical property sold by the Government, amounts to some 24 milliards of francs (;^96o,ooo,ooo), at a liberal computation ; whilst the presumed amount of mortgage debts thereon comes to no less than 20 milliards (;^8oo,ooo,ooo). If these figures are correct, we find that the returns from agricultural property can amount to barely more than I miUiard (^40,000,000) after the taxes have been paid as well as the interest on the mortgages (which must be reckoned as always higher than the interest gained by money invested in real property), and this milliard must be distributed amongst over 5 millions of proprietors. Further we must deduct the Imperial charges, which amounted in 1879 to — Lire. c. Exchequer taxes .... 124,695,028 98 Provincial surtax .... 48,838,012 57 Communal surtax .... 71,874,839 70 Total . . 245,407,881 25 as well as the tax on personal property paid on mort- gages by the debtor, and the taxes on hirings, etc., which come to an aggregate sum of 30 millions more. RURAL ITALY. besides registration charges, representing 24 millions per annum ; which, added to the above-mentioned amounts, forms a total of 300 millions of rural taxation of all kinds, as against i milliard of returns exempt from payments on mortgage. Yet further complaints are made as to the unequal distribution of the land-tax ; but enough has been said to prove that the landowners in Italy are indeed in a terribly unenviable position. The primary available remedies for these evils would appear to be a readjustment and sensible diminution of the land-tax, and a mitigation of registration fees and similar severe burdens upon small properties. The communes should be relieved from a portion of their obligatory expenses ; and when all this has been done, as a matter of imperative duty by the Government, the spread of agricultural knowledge among the rural population will have some chance of showing material results. Meanwhile, it is admitted that, especially in North and South Italy, much must be accomplished before the peasants can be rescued from the depths of poverty. Wretched habitations, unwholesome food, bad drinking- water, low wages, fevers, pellagra, illness, and pauperism are the characteristics of many districts. The question is a grave one. There are over 8 millions of rural labourers in Italy ; i million of them are owners of the land which they cultivate ; the remainder are divided into two large classes, each of which is composed of about an equal number of individuals. They do not possess property ; but one portion of them is interested in the land from being tenants or partners in farms ; the other consists of mere hired labourers. The first of these classes may again be subdivided into various INTRODUCTION. designations, so as to take into account the " metayers " (who farm under a co-operative system in which the owner of the land takes one half the produce, and the farmer the other half, or such share as may be agreed upon), and other such varieties, numbering about i^ millions of men. But it is not possible to tabulate these classes with any real exactness, because they run into one another, and are mixed up to an extent which renders statistics well-nigh hopeless. The peasant proprietor is often found to be worse fed, clothed, and lodged than the hired labourer. According to census, the agrarian population of Italy is thus composed : Under Men Women. Total. 15 years of age. Agriculturists, peasants, rice- planters, vine-dressers, etc. 732,820 521,776 1,254,596 216,314 Agents, stewards, and bailiffs . 19,929 3,104 23,033 — " Metayers " at one-third or other contracts .... 9SS.43S 548,041 1,503,476 243,411 Copyholders, etc. 2>737 770 3,507 332 Day-labourers, their families, etc. 2,o8i,i88 1,199,203 3,280,391 490,715 Ploughmen and horse-tenders 39.057 4,108 43,165 5,185 Farmers, lodgers, etc. 43Z.S57 181,692 614,249 76,994 Landowners .... 1,009,134 523,661 1,532,795 188,290 Total of agriculturists S-272.857 2,982,35s 8,255,212 1,221,241 Shepherds and herdsmen . 223,643 33,149 256,792 71,76s Gardeners 27,635 9,481 37,116 3,324 Beekeepers .... 120 120 5 One of the means for improving the condition of the peasant class, suggested to the Government, is the es- tablishment of a good sanitary code for the super- intendence and amelioration of the dwellings, food, and drink of the country-people, and for making proper hygienic regulations in the rice-fields and in districts affected "With malaria. Great stress is also laid on the absolute necessity of 12 RURAL ITALY. remodelling the existing system of contracts and scale of wages, the defects in which constitute the most radical evils in the state of the rural population. A few examples of the difficulties to be met with in dealing with these evils and bringing in the proper remedies must, however, be considered. The following case is a frequent one. We find a squalid hut in the Apennines, destitute of air and light, and insufficient for the number of its occupants. In the same room sleep men, women, and children, fowls, goats, and pigs. Contagious diseases are the natural result. The house is very small, ill-built, and badly situated. The sole remedy is to pull it down and re- build it. The owner has no means whatsoever ; and who is to pay for the necessary sanitary improve- ments ."* Or, equally often we find farm-buildings on exten- sive lands in the valley of the Po (or in Apulia), where the soil is well cultivated, but the labourers and their families are as badly lodged as can be, in unpaved houses, out of repair, situated in low ground, and exposed to the damp on every side. Supposing that the owner be called upon to rebuild these houses on higher ground, he will reply : " I can prove to you from my account-books that I receive 20,000 fr. a year from my holding ; 7,000 fr. must go in taxes, and 1,000 more for the maintenance and repairs of the property. By the subdivision of my inheritance I have to pay 6,000 fr. interest on a mortgage of 100,000 fr. to my co-heirs. Hence, out of this fine estate, which returns an estimated income of 40,000 fr., but actually 20,000 fr. net, I receive only 6,000 fr. per annum for the support of myself and family according to our social position. The reconstruction of farm-buildings INTRODUCTION. 13 would entail an expenditure of 30,000 fr., which would bring me in no return whatever. To me this means simply ruin. The State may do it at its own expense, if it likes, or it may take the property off my hands at an equitable valuation." With regard to the food question, it is true that could a better quality of victuals, properly cooked, be obtained for the peasants, their lot would be much im- proved and much illness avoided. But in many regions there is an absolute scarcity of provisions ; and the sole remedy seems to consist in an increase of wages, a matter very difficult to enact by law. There are places in Italy where the peasants have never even seen wheaten bread, and live almost entirely on chestnut bread and similar inferior food. It is fairly certain that the law cannot well interfere by special enactments between the proprietor and the labourer, to benefit the latter at the expense of the former. Therefore it is rather to indirect methods that the country must look for the amelioration of the condition of the poorer rural classes. The Government can aid by improving, as far as lies in their power, the financial and commercial status of the nation, which must act at the same time to the advantage of agriculture, by diminishing the taxes on land with a system of gradual reform, and by taking to heart the true interests of the provincial and com- munal administrations. Such methods, accompanied by the spread of agri- cultural science and the development of beneficent Provident Societies, will quickly work a salutary change throughout the kingdom. So much by way of preface on the general subject. CHAPTER II. DISTRICT I. — SICILY. About one-third of the Island of Sicily has the same geological formation as that of the slopes of Mount Etna. In the best-cultivated parts the maximum of possible production is attained, and the land is even more valuable than the market-gardens in the suburbs of Paris, the annual profit upon it amounting to £2^ per acre. The duration of the feudal system for seven centuries, and the successive domination of the Arabs, Normans, Hohenstaufers, Spaniards, and Bourbons ruined agri- culture, commerce, and intellectual progress to an ex- tent from which the country has not yet revived. Disafforesting in this almost tropical climate has en- tailed the drying up of natural water sources, whilst the scarcity of cattle and their manure has exhausted the ground. Formerly, Sicily was one of the great granaries of Italy; but, as was remarked by Sir H. Davy in 1840,* " the prolonged cultivation of cereals has led to the present deplorable condition of these once rich countries." Nowadays, agriculture is backward and ill-conducted, machinery is a myth to the majority of farmers ; the * The collected works of Sir H. Davy, 1840, vol. viii., p. 58. DISTRICT I.SICILY. 15 wine industry, which should be the mainstay of the island, is very imperfect ; the quantity is great, but the quality is poor. Dessert wines and Marsala are ex- cellent, but table wines are inferior, and will not keep even for one year. No progress has been made during the past twenty years. Once the vintage is finished the produce is left to its fate, and the wine comes just as chance may decide. French merchants take the stronger sorts, and by the " Petiot " system make five times the original quantity by the addition of sugar and water. Before 1875, when the Government monopoly was instituted, tobacco was grown in every province of the island. It is still cultivated with success in Messina, Catania, Palermo, and Syracuse, but has elsewhere been virtually abandoned. The crops are generally diminish- ing, owing to legal restrictions and the excessive surveillance of the fiscal agents. Smuggling is carried on to so enormous an extent, that the quantity of tobacco seized is four times greater than that of the entire production ! The geographical position of Sicily may perhaps with justice be assigned as one of the reasons for its tardy entry into the sphere of modern civilization ; the population has evinced an instinctive repulsion — not, indeed, for liberal institutions, which have been ardently desired — but for the form in which they have been evolved. The people were not ready at the time of the unification of Italy for military, judicial, and adminis- trative ordinances, applied, as it were, to a conquered district ; hence the long prevalence of brigandage, secret societies, and terrorism, from which only the eastern provinces of the island are as yet compara- tively free. i6 RURAL ITALY. Generally speaking, the evils most complained of are — the badness of the peasants' houses, the distance of their homes from their labour, which keeps them absent from their families for months at a time, the scarcity of easy and quick means of communication, and the influ- ence of the priesthood, where, as is frequent, it is ignorant and corrupt. The rustics are sunk in ante- diluvian ignorance ; their prevalent crimes are too shocking to be described ; incest and rape are the least horrible of their ordinary vices. Crimes of violence are, however, on the decrease at Catania and Messina, and the various associations of malefactors are disappearing. The province of Palermo was formerly the head-quarters of the secret society called the " Mafia," but of late years the state of public safety has much improved. Sicily and Naples have long enjoyed an evil noto- riety as hotbeds of political gangs and fraternities of blackmailers. To the former sects belong the " Car- bonari," to the latter the " Mafiusi," " Camorristi," and others, whose centres are the galleys and prisons in which the worst miscreants are confined, and whose ramifications permeate through every class both in town and country. Political cabals die out under a firm and united Government, but it is not long since every part of Italy was infested with them. In Romagna the supporters of the Papacy were called " cats," and the Liberals " dogs ;" and the story is told that one of the latter, being an outlaw, brought an introduction to a well-known political exile living in Paris,* who was unaware of these local denominations, and asked him why he had been forced to leave his country. " Because I killed a cat," said the patriot ; to which * Mamiani, 1848. DISTRICT I.— SICILY. 17 the other rejoined, " Well, I knew that the Papal Government v/as severe, but I never imagined that so slight an offence could meet with so harsh a punish- ment." The " Mafia" still flourishes in Girgenti, a province in which morality is said to be nearly totally extinct, . where the very priests keep concubines without shame or concealment ; children are sold for prostitution by their own parents ; pandering, incest, and uxoricide (usually by poison) have reached astounding propor- tions, and are committed, as it were, by idiots, un- conscious of their actions, with no sense of ignominy or disgrace ; and all this in the midst of vast supersti- tion, superficial religious faith, and abject saint-worship in every hovel and brothel. On the other hand, in several parts of the island such extremes of depravity are unknown ; marriages are celebrated both with civil and religious rites ; there is no gambling ; vagabondage and begging hardly exist, and only the " Camorrists," who will do no work, live entirely at the expense of their victims. Compul- sory military service is not repugnant to the people, but it is found to leave them with a great aversion to the rough labour of the fields. The peasant does not keep- his word honourably, and is prone to perjury : either to oblige a friend, to serve a party, or to obey the " Mafia," he will pertinaciously and imperturbably swear falsely before the Courts, with the result that justice is very often led astray and many of the blackest crimes go unpunished. It is his rooted conviction that the law is made only in favour of the rich and powerful ; that it is " a spider's web, through which only the stronger flies can break." In many places roads are absolutely wanting, labour RURAL ITALY. is scarce, the landlords are proud and rich, the labourers little better than slaves, so that cordial relations between the two classes are impossible. Small proprietors are very few in number, and the prevalence of large estates is looked upon as an unmixed evil. The nomad shepherds form a separate category, with peculiar customs, habits, and characteristics, especially those of Mount Etna ; the flocks are generally their own property. Farmers who have capital are known as " Gabel- lotti " or " Arbitrianti ;" they often sublet their hold- ings, and always make a large profit on the investment of their money. Corn is still the foundation of the agriculture of Sicily, nearly half of the 6,500,000 acres or so which form the island being cultivated with cereals. In Catania and Palermo the wages are higher and the general conditions better than elsewhere ; labourers receive from ;^i6 to ^36 per year, and their houses and food are good. In Girgenti, however, the incomes on farms are miserably small, and the condition of the small tenants is sad in the extreme ; on an expenditure of ;^4o or ;^5o they can only make £1, whereas the speculator who farms 2,500 acres with a capital of ^2,400 may double and treble his money in six years. Loans to agriculturists bear 25 per cent, interest. The land-tax varies from 32 to 57 per cent. Most of the small farmers and mdtayers are in debt to their landlords, and have no savings. The food of the peasants is fairly good in comparison with other parts of the kingdom, but their houses are very bad indeed. In the sulphur mines many children are employed, and the question of their state is a most serious one. DISTRICT I.SICILY. 19 Sicily produces 255,025 tons of sulphur yearly, worth ^1,012,000.; the mines employ 18,862 persons. Boys are set to severe labour far beyond their strength ; they are mere slaves given over to brutality. To hasten their movements in carrying the mineral to the surface, they are cruelly beaten and pinched, and their naked legs and ankles are burnt until bare of flesh with candles or lanterns. The most infamous vices are instilled into them, and they become old in depravity before they reach adolescence. At the age even of seven these children are virtually sold to the diggers, and no further thought is taken of them ; they are forced to carry as much as 20 kilog. at least fifteen times a-day up a steep and long ladder and along the galleries of the mines, which are of considerable length. The work of the many over 9 and under 15 years old is, of course, far more severe ; deformity of the thorax is the usual result of this maltreatment. The wages of the miners vary from 8d. to is. 6d. per day, not paid regularly, and often becoming almost nominal from the various ways in which reductions are made. From £2) to £6 is the loan made for the use of a child in the mines, and this binds him for ever, since neither he nor his family can hope to repay it. There are no houses for the workers ; they sleep in summer in the open, and in winter in the mines themselves, where they are exposed to a thousand perils. In case of accident or illness, no assistance is forth- coming, and little compensation or charity is to be expected from the employers. Education is entirely lacking ; the mines are the refuge of criminals, and the miners are dedicated to the grossest immorality and dissipation. Ever since 1870, 20 RURAL ITALY. projects of law have been framed to deal with these evils, but no practical result has yet ensued. The system of extracting the mineral by manual labour is slow, and very costly ; sulphur is going down in price, the rich superficial deposits are being worked out, the mines are getting deeper, and wages are rising. But if the mineral industry were to collapse, the people would have no resource whatsoever, for agriculture is in these parts in the most primitive and neglected condi- tion, and the land is generally rocky and incapable of cultivation. In Catania is the ex-feudal property of Pantano, situated at the very gates of the city, devoid of trees and of habitations, and transformed every year into a vast marsh, which poisons the vicinity with noxious exhalations. When estates are sold in several lots, it usually happens that all are bought up by one purchaser, so that no subdivision of the land takes place. Sicily contains 2,934,072 inhabitants ; the mortgages amount to £2l,l9'^,Th1. Feudalism was abolished in 1813, and up to 1847 the domains were gradually sold for redistribution ; but the Revolution of 1848 paralyzed the action of the Government in this direction, and the municipalities of communes have usurped the lands which were destined for occupation by the poorer classes. A quantity of old feudal servitudes and taxes are still maintained. After the Treaty of Vienna, in 181 5, on the unifica- tion of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a Commission was formed for the sale of communal properties and the extinction of feudal privileges, but the attempt to enforce this legislation cost Francis I. the rebellion of 1 82 1, which was promoted by the ex- Barons. Ferdi- DISTRICT I.— SICILY. 21 nand II. took further steps for the same purpose, but the ultimate result has defeated the object aimed at, as above described. There are at the present day 360,770 acres held virtually in mortmain, to the value of ;^i, 645,000, mostly in the provinces of Messina and Catania. Agrarian committees show no activity, and are totally destitute of means ; in the few cases where they have tried to introduce agricultural machinery, their efforts have been condemned in advance, means of transport have failed or been forthcoming only at exorbitant rates ; the muleteers purposely upset the engines into the nearest ditch, and they remain for years inoperative and unsheltered. In a word, all progress of this kind has hitherto proved weak, illu- sory, and uncertain. The number of elementary schools is 3,618, attended by 135,424 pupils, of whom only from 3 to 7 per cent, belong to the rural population. The law of compulsory education is a dead letter ; it is eluded with every means in his power by the peasant, whose misery is indeed sufficient excuse ; the labourer is perforce abstemious as a hermit, patient as Job, and wretched as Lazarus ; no future dawns for him ; ignorant, diffident, malicious, and sceptical, he believes in no benefits from society but such as are palpable and immediate. Yet the rustics are desirous of instruction in the military schools, and they attend evening classes in the country ; but here they have not enough time even in many years to obtain a profitable amount of learning. There are 2,459,477 illiterate persons in the island, or 83 per cent, of the population. Sicily exports sulphur, wine, and fruit ; the coasting trade is of great RURAL ITALY. importance. It has 850 miles of railways and 5,870 miles of roads, the latter being much below the average for all Italy. Malaria is prevalent ; there are 36,140 acres of land capable of reclamation. Since Italy became a kingdom, ;^8,ooo,ooo has been voted for this purpose, of which Sicily has received nothing at all. Plenty of water exists, but nothing is done to regulate the streams, and irrigation requires much development. The foregoing is a picture in miniature of the con- dition of the island. Progress there is, but it is lament- ably slow considering the marvellous natural richness of the soil. Every cultivation is practicable, and almost every rural industry might be followed with profit and success ; but the good things of the earth are wasted, unheeded, and lost, while foreign manufactures are im- ported in their stead ; 25,000 acres or more belong to half a dozen nobles, who have no care for their pro- perties, and rarely even visit them. Lemons and many other important products have greatly fallen in price, and no corresponding advantage can be pointed to. Public safety is still in a bad state, and the secret societies draw into crime the peasants who otherwise would lead innocent lives. It has been officially re- corded that " the sufferings of the labourers are such that immorality is a necessity of their existence, and that they are compelled to steal in order to support their families." Children of five years old work in the fields. Not a day passes but poor old men and women complain to the authorities that their children are leaving them to die of hunger, and nothing short of legal compulsion will induce them to support their parents. The number of prostitutes is said to be astounding. DISTRICT I.— SICILY. 23 There are exceptions, doubtless ; there are estates where the landlords look after their people and all goes well ; but the number of absentee owners is great, and they would do well to study the words of their most eminent statesman upon this matter (" Letters of Cavour," vol. i., p. 61), and the aphorism of Socrates : " Trjv j£b)pyiav rHiv aW want of schools as in the paucity of scholars and lack' of qualified teachers. Well-to-do farmers aspire to place their sons in Government employment or in some profession, and where they cannot nourish this ambition they give slight heed to primary instruction. The middle class of agriculturists, or petite bour- geoisie, which in Northern Italy and in other parts of Europe forms a strong social element, is found in these provinces to constitute rather a source of weakness in the community. Those who should naturally belong to this category attempt no profession, but live poorly on whatever small means they happen to possess, and their number is greatly increased by the heavy taxes and minute subdivision of property introduced during the past twenty years. In this part of the country the verdict seems to be in favour of the greater prosperity of large holdings, doubtless because the landlords are usually resident upon their estates, and labour is fairly plentiful ; whereas in Central Italy large tracts of land have become almost unfertile by reason of the absence or neglect of the owners and the want of hands to till the ground. Notwithstanding the increased means of communi- cation and the aid of political liberty, Calabria and the Basilicata do not appear to have made much real pro- gress during the last two decades, the gains, which in some respects have been considerable, being checked by losses of equal moment. Only the richest families, who live at Naples most 26 RURAL ITALY. of the year, keep written accounts of their receipts and expenditure. The ordinary farmers entirely neglect this obvious duty. Especially in Calabria, the agents or bailiffs are proverbial for their honesty and manliness. During the reign of brigandage these men have been known to return from fairs laden with sums of from ;^500 to ;i^8oo, which they have successfully concealed from the robbers, and delivered untouched to their employers. The general morality and uprightness of the peasants are likewise of a high order, though not so conspicuous as they were fifty years ago. Wages have not increased of late years, on account of the mediocre profits realized from agricultural pur- suits. In character the rural classes are superior to the artisans ; they are active, very robust, and gifted with far more intelligence than the peasants of most other countries or of any other parts of Italy. There are bailiffs who cannot read and write, but who, with the aid of a wonderful memory, keep accounts amounting to thousands of lire without making the smallest error. The earth is almost entirely left to work with its natural resources, artificial manures and scientific farm- ing not having been hitherto introduced. Pasturage has enormously decreased in extent, owing to the ravages of brigandage from i860 to 1876, to the sale of State and Church property, the increase of road- making, the weight of new taxation, and the fall in the value of meat and wool (the latter to the extent of 40 per cent.), all of which causes have resulted in a greater amount of cultivation, though not necessarily in an increase of prosperity. Flocks and herds migrate from pasture to pasture. DISTRICT II.— THE BASILIC ATA AND CALABRIA. 27 but the practice is gradually being abandoned, because of the higher rent asked every year. Water is not abundant in this district ; but the soil is fertile, hence arboriculture is prevalent and profitable, manure not being required, and the cattle being chiefly fed on leaves. In the large communes of Andria and Corato, each containing some 40,000 inhabitants, a system of contract is in vogue, under which the tenant pays a small rental for a term of twenty-five or thirty years, on condition of giving up the ground, at the end of his lease, well planted with vines, olives, etc., according to the agree- ment, whilst he makes profit out of the produce of what he has planted as long as the land remains in his possession. High farming, well systematized and yielding a good profit, is rare. Fine farms may easily be found on which the expenditure equals the income, and many families keep up large flocks and herds without gain, and even at a loss, more from ancient custom than for any other reason. Every commune has a tract of well-manured land in the neighbourhood of the principal villages, which is much sought after and subdivided. Around the chief towns this tract is much more extensive, and especially near Reggio there are rich kitchen-gardens and fields of vegetables, dairy farms, etc. In many parts, however, every retired tradesman or professional person who can afford to purchase a vineyard hastens to build a villa, costing 3,000 fr. or 4,000 fr., often twice the value of his land, and which he probably never inhabits, whilst it does not occur to him to lay out a fraction of the money on improving the vines of which he is to reap the produce. 28 RURAL ITALY. Hence result the scarcity of capital and the meagre profits obtained from the land. The four provincial capitals are : Inhabitants. Reggio ... 40,000 Catanzaro ... .... 28,000 Potenza 20,000 Cosenza (according to the season of the year) 16,000 to 22,000 In the Basilicata the geological formation is almost exclusively chalk and clay, most favourable to roots and vegetables. In Calabria there are valuable mines, now exhausted or neglected, but formerly yielding rich products. The Lungro mine still produces the most important quantity and best quality of mineral salt in Italy. Olives, figs, and roots are the chief productions, cereals and pasturage being merely subsidiary. There are many very large holdings in different parts of the provinces. At the seaports there is a consider- able trade in oil, essence of bergamot, lemon-juice, dried fruits, and agricultural produce. Middling fortunes predominate in Basilicata, the heirs of feudal families not averaging more than ;^ 1 60,000 to ;^20o,ooo in landed estate ; but in Calabria there are much larger properties, the Croesus of the district, Signor Quintieri, being accredited by popular rumour with ^2,000,000, and being certainly worth at least .^800,000. The growth of his fortune affords a typical example of the phenomenal accumulation of riches in this part of the country. Quintieri inherited ;^20,ooo from his father, and lived to upwards of 90 years of age, allow- ing nearly the whole of the capital to multiply at com- pound interest. His only son lived to over 50, incur- DISTRICT II.— THE BASILICATA AND CALABRIA. 29 ring no expense beyond the education of liis three male children at the Florence Institute, and these persons all lived continually at their native place in the utmost simplicity, without cooks, horses, servants in livery, or any luxury whatever, but exactly in the same style as any small farmer in the province. Good mortgages bringing in 10 per cent., and investments in large properties between 6 and 7 per cent., it is not surprising that, with an instinctive ignorance of the requirements of refined civilization, this millionnaire should have constructed a colossal fortune, even whilst acquiring the character of a most benevolent creditor by being satisfied with 6 or 7 per cent, interest on the loans made by him to very many of the largest land- owners in Calabria. Local tradition invariably assigns the origin of large fortunes to some lucky windfall or treasure-trove, but they were usually commenced by ordinary means, or by some Government employment in the days when there were posts bringing in ^1,000 to ;^i,6oo a year, in places where living was exceedingly cheap. Again, large properties were formed by the purchase of ecclesiastical estates at nominal prices under the French Kings from 1806 to 181 5 ; and the property bought seventy years ago is now worth five times the sum then paid for it, whilst the manner and cost of living have not materially altered. In Calabria it is the invariable custom that only one son in a wealthy family shall marry, and this is usually the youngest ; but in the other provinces all the children marry, and set up separate households at an early age. In out-of- the-way towns on the Ionian shores, devoid of com- merce, unknown riches , accumulate, growing with marvellous rapidity, as soon as the nest-egg has been 30 RURAL ITALY. laid, on account of the fertility of the soil, the good- ness and cheapness of labour, and the simplicity of living. Besides these large properties, there is an immense number of very small ones, the owners of which under- take extra labour at very small wages, and hands are abundant, since it is a universally recognised fact that the poorest persons ever produce the largest families, whence, indeed, is derived the term " proletarian." On large estates pasturage and meadows abound, affording safe and constant profits to their owners. Two or three acres of land planted with vines, figs, or olives give the small proprietor sufficient work and sufficient income for the year ; but double the extent of less fertile ground devoted to cereals, when manure is wanting and bad years or extra expense occur, may lead the farmer to bankruptcy, and his property is swallowed up in the neighbouring broad domains of the rich man. It must not be forgotten that it is actually not much more than seventy years since the feudal system was abolished in this part of the world. Prior to that time many boroughs enjoyed not even the semblance of civic rights or toleration of any kind. The cities of Southern Italy, continually invaded by foreign dynasties, can show but few important vestiges of the progress of civilization. Emigration has greatly augmented in the Basilicata, not so much in Calabria. From the former there has always been a considerable exodus, particularly of musicians and tinkers, the latter going in large majority to Spain, and often returning home considerably enriched. The average wages in Calabria are i fr. per day ; in DISTRICT II.— THE BASILICATA AND CALABRIA. 31 the Basilicata, i fr. 50 c, or rather more. People's banks and friendly societies are largely increasing, as are also land and credit banks in Basilicata, where the spirit of modern progress is making way. In Calabria these institutions hardly exist as yet, for there the peasant looks only to the large landowner, by whom he is well treated, and towards whom in return he is meek and respectful, never thinking of striking for higher wages or co-operating with his fellows for mutual assistance or combined agitation. The area and population of the provinces are as follows : Potenza . Cosenza . Catanzaro Reggio . Sq. kilom. Populatiofl. 10,675 7,358 5>97S 3>923 524.836 45i>i8s 433,975 372,623 Inhabitants per sq. kilom. 49 61 73 95 Whence it is seen that the three Calabrian provinces together are not much more than half as large again as Basilicata, whilst their population is more than double. In Calabria the climate is hotter, and the people eat much fruit. On the whole they live more poorly than those of Potenza, and the small proprietors are very little superior to day labourers. The Province of Reggio was reduced to great straits by a succession of bad years from 1878 to 1880, during which the price of oil and other important pro- ductions fell very low, whilst that of corn ruled high ; consequently, many farms were for sale at exceedingly small valuations. Basilicata exports corn even in its worst years, and 32 RURAL ITALY. never finds it actually deficient nor so high in price as in Calabria. The saleable value of land averages 6 per cent, interest on capital. The province could easily hold another half a million inhabitants, and only one-tenth of its land is highly cultivated. The scarcity of annual savings for investment in land is shown by the following statistics : State domains Ecclesiastical domains, Private companies Total . Property sold. Lire. c. 333,442 49 19,807,906 12 6,926,499 48 27,067,848 09 Price already paid. Sums still owing be- sides interest. Lire. c. 323,548 47 13,158,924 99 6,200,954 12 19,683,427 58 Property still to be sold. Lire. c. 9,894 02 6,648,981 13 725,545 36 7,384,420 51 Lire. c. 32,934 93 3.532,779 51 69,277 48 3.634.991 92 These figures embrace a period of sixteen years, from 1865 to 1 88 1. Buyers were numerous and com- petition brisk, yet the annual sum invested barely ex- ceeded ;^48,ooo ; whence the" total savings may be calculated at under ;^200,ooo. Two millions and a half of acres might be brought under high cultivation at an estimate of ^20 per acre increase on the present value of ^10 per acre, but it is reckoned that the desired improvement would require at least a century for its accomplishment. In France the average value of land for the whole country was calculated in 1879 at about ^29 per acre, and there is no reason why improved ground in this part of Italy should not be made worth considerably more. The bad years in Calabria, above referred to, were accompanied by an exhaustion of credit, largely con- sequent upon the sale of Church lands from 1870 to 1875, when excited bidders bought up the lots on DISTRICT II.— THE BASILIC AT A AND CALABRIA. 33 partial payments extending over eighteen years, with 6 per cent, interest charged on the unpaid amount, whilst the land only returned 2 or 3 per cent. The bad seasons followed, and a crisis occurred, many large owners being unable to meet their engagements with- out the aid of the Bank of Naples ; consequently pro- perties were again put up for sale, and no buyers were forthcoming. Taxation in 1880 reached ^560,000 for the four provinces, with an average of about 8 fr. per head. Agriculture has to bear the whole amount, as well as all the indirect and supplementary taxes, which are. numerous and excessive. Interest, on mortgage rises to 8 or 10 per cent., and as long as taxation remains so high and capital so scarce, not much progress is to be looked for in agri- cultural affairs. Since the suppression of brigandage in 1870, after it had flourished during nine years, crimes of violence have not been more frequent than elsewhere. The people have always borne a high reputation for patriotism, and they appear strongly attached to the existing order of things. Clerical influence has never predominated in the sense of exclusive devotion to the Holy See; on the contrary, from 1799 to i860 many priests lost their heads on the scaffold or underwent exile and imprisonment in the cause of national liberty. Indeed, the priesthood in this district formed rather a burgher than an ecclesiastical caste, and afforded the sole career in which the middle classes could free themselves from the trammels of feudalism. The suppression of religious corporations and sale of Church patrimony has left a blank in this respect which is still felt by the bourgeoisie, their present resource 3 34 RURAL ITALY. being to swell the hosts of Government employes, parochial officers, small schoolmasters, Customs officials, and the like. Industry and commerce have not in this part of the kingdom taken a development commensurate with the new requirements of the nation. The few priests who remain are not averse to Italian liberty, but their ranks are rapidly diminishing, for the Church finds not many recruits under the new regime. With regard to State aid to the provinces, there is great want of additional road communication. Obliga- tory road-making is in many places a severe tax on the people. Castelsaraceno, a poor commune of 2,000 souls, on the Alpine heights of Latronico, is required to construct 20 miles of road on very rough and friable ground; this road will cost nearly ;^40,ooo, a sum equal to the entire value of the property possessed by the inhabitants. On the borders of Cosenza there are some thousand square kilometres without the vestige of a highroad. Railway extension would much benefit the district. Reafforesting is likewise essential in several regions. A special characteristic of Southern Italy is the large extent of communal property, resulting in great measure from the abolition of feudal tenure. There are throughout these provinces many charitable insti- tutions and " Monti Frumentari," not always conducted with scrupulous honesty, but still doing no small amount of good work. Manufacturing industry is almost totally deficient. Silk manufactories have almost entirely ceased to exist. There is a manifest tendency towards agricultural improvement, but means are lacking for its develop- DISTRICT II.— THE BASILICATA AND CALABRIA. 35 ment. Machinery has been adopted only on large farms in the plains, where threshing engines are coming into general use ; but if repairs are needed, it is requisite to send a long distance for workmen capable of performing the task. In character the peasants are sober, hard-working, and parsimonious. Bread, oil, and vegetables form the staple commodities of their diet, and wine is not wanting. The houses in which they live are poor and unhealthy. Two or three children, no longer of tender age, may be found sleeping in the same bed with their parents. Variety and quaintness characterize the clothing worn by the rural classes, amongst whom several symptoms of progress in manners and civilization are noted. No special diseases affect the district, but longevity is rare, old age being already apparent at 50 in both sexes. Infant mortality is great. The medical service is insufficient and defective, not even the hospitals in the chief towns being well managed, with the sole exception of that at Potenza. Though the peasants rise at dawn, they eat nothing till 9 o'clock. Day-labourers are well treated with re- gard to food, and bring home their wages intact. Herdsmen have a hard life, exposed as they are throughout the year to excessive heat or heavy rains, drying their clothing on their bodies, and living on bread, milk, and cheese; yet they are healthy and robust. The labourers are not usually in debt to their land- lords, and good relations prevail between them. Winter meetings, such as are described as taking place in Northern Italy, are not the custom in the south. 3—2 36 RURAL ITALY. Owing to early marriages of all the children, it frequently happens that the aged and infirm are abandoned in their misery, for the bonds of family are very slack. In Catanzaro bread has been entirely wanting during bad years for days together, the peasants sup- plying their need with herbs, roots, and oil. Women and children are lightly worked ; a man's day of labour is counted equivalent to that of four women or eight children. Malarious fevers carry off large numbers of victims in certain years. The emigration from this province is principally directed to Egypt, the women especially going to Alexandria, where they find ready employ- ment and high wages as wet-nurses. In Reggio-Calabria tenants are never evicted unless for some very grave reason. Here again bread is sometimes entirely wanting, and it is stated that in the winter of 1877 the men ate up several entire fields of raw "sulla,"* like cattle. The peasants' houses are comparatively good. Marriages are made rather on principles of mutual interest than from love. The silkworm-breeding industry employs much of the time of the people. Cattle-breeding and agricul- ture are capable of advantageous development. Infant mortality reaches an average of 55 per cent. Hospitals, almshouses, and orphan asylums are fairly numerous and well maintained. Compulsory military service is reported to have a most salutary influence throughout the whole district. * " Hedysarum coronarium," a herb used as cattle food. CHAPTER IV. DISTRICT III. — THE NEAPOLITAN PROVINCES. The Neapolitan Provinces are Naples, Avellino, Caserta, Benevento, and Salerno. Most of the district is mountainous, and there is a considerable watershed, but the rivers do not conduce to the healthiness of the country, nor are they of much value for purposes of irrigation. The reclamation of marshy ground has long been commenced, but the work is very far from complete. There is no region of perpetual snow, and along the coast the temperature seldom falls to zero ; much of the land is volcanic. The population of the district is about 3,000,000. In many places fertile plains appear almost devoid of inhabitants, the houses being grouped round some ancient feudal castle on a distant height ; in other parts the urban and rural populations are mixed together. Where vines are cultivated more houses have been built to contain the wine-presses, but progress in this direction is slow, owing to want of capital. Oranges are grown extensively ; olives not so considerably ; vines flourish up to 500 metres above the level of the sea, and the number planted increases daily. The cultivation of corn is unimportant. The district of Sora, in the Province of Caserta, 38 RURAL ITALY. contains 41,492 acres of forest land and considerable pasturages ; potatoes are grown in large quantities ; irrigation is ill understood and little used in this and the neighbouring districts. In the Province of Avellino there are 191,750 acres of uncultivated ground, consisting of forests and pas- tures, mostly belonging to the communes. Agricultural knowledge is very deficient, and there is a great lack of capital as well as of enterprise. The district of Salerno comprises 235,947 acres, of which 52,500 are occupied by woods, 6,035 by olives, 2,500 by orange-trees, 18,750 by orchards, and 18,172 are uncultivated ; a certain amount of irrigation is employed, and vines are extensively reared ; capital and intelligence are alike wanting. Naples, though a small province, exhibits a great variety of cultivation, the needs of a large city stimu- lating the production of much fruit and vegetables. On account of the warmth of the climate forcing is little resorted to, so that in a cold season the supply is liable to fail. The gardeners are illiterate and ignorant of everything save their profession, but their diligence and labour render them wellrto-do as a class. Chestnut poles are much in request for training vines, which are grown pell-mell with all kinds of fruit trees and amidst every sort of other produce in strange confusion. The silkworm cultivation has been almost entirely abandoned of late years. Bee-culture is rare and poorly managed. Most of the landlords are com- mercial men or manufacturers who take no direct interest in farming, but others are beginning to occupy themselves personally in the care of their properties. There is no horse-breeding in the province. The fruit cultivation cannot be said to be skilfully DISTRICT III.— NEAPOLITAN PROVINCES. 39 managed, and its results are rendered uncertain by the great variableness of the climate and the predominance of high winds. Mild winters are often followed by hard weather in spring, which destroys the buds ; but the supply of fruit can generally be kept up from other parts which have not suffered. In a good year plums, peaches, and cherries are sold in Naples at id. to i^d. per kilog. Quantity prevails over quality, as the natives prefer to eat four bad peaches rather than one good one at the same price. The fertility of the soil causes a copious production in spite of the bad system of cultivation, in which the training and trimming of the trees are almost entirely ignored. The exportation of both fresh and tinned fruit and vegetables is daily increasing. New and even superior varieties of fruit obtain no sale in the local markets, the populace refusing to buy any but the kinds known to them. There is a large export trade in walnuts, especially from Sorrento, but it has somewhat languished of late in consequence of the exporters having filled up their boxes with inferior sorts so as to satisfy the great demand and obtain a larger profit. Oranges and lemons are much grown for export. Figs, especially in their fresh state, are enormously consumed in Naples. There are twenty-three varieties, and no disease has hitherto attacked the fig. The various modes of its cultivation are very interesting, but a detailed description of them would be somewhat long. The same may be said with regard to the orange and lemon, so extensively cultivated at Sor- rento. These trees are subject to no serious disease, and fear only the cold, against which, however, no precautions are taken in this part of Italy. Land on 40 RURAL ITALY. which oranges grow lets at £2^ per acre, and sells at an even higher comparative rate, since it is small in extent and there are very many would-be purchasers. All the oranges exported are measured by being passed through a ring, and only those are packed which are of a uniform size. Increased facilities of railway transport have reduced the retail price of the fruit in distant northern countries from i fr. to less than 20 centimes. Citric acid has hitherto not been manu- factured in Italy, the lemon-juice being sent in casks to England ; but it is intended to start the industry at Ischia. Olives are extensively cultivated in the districts of Sorrento and Castellamare, and the oil produced is of excellent quality. Want of skill and attention is again manifested in this branch of agriculture. The cultiva- tion is likely to remain stationary on account of the lack of new ground available for the purpose. Grapes are grown in all parts of these provinces, both for making wine and for the table. Thirty or forty varieties of vine are grown promiscuously, whereas a few choice kinds would produce much better results. No real improvement can be expected until selection becomes general, and the cultivation of inferior vines is abandoned. The system of training vines in festoons from high poles or trees, which prevails in the south of Italy, is an irrational one ; the grapes ripen badly and make inferior wines, but, on the other hand, room is left on the ground for growing vegetable produce, and the poplars which are so much used for supporting the vines furnish valuable fuel in considerable quantity. Four vines are attached to each tree to a height of 4 metres. No rearing-houses for vines have yet been DISTRICT III.— NEAPOLITAN PROVINCES. 41 built, and the want of them is much felt. The vine diseases most prevalent are the " oidio," " antracnosis," and " torula." Vine leaves are much used as food for cattle. Not less than 141 varieties of grapes grow in the Province of Naples alone. Tomatoes are grown and consumed to a pro- digious amount, both fresh and as sauce for mac- aroni ; they are a favourite food with all classes. This cultivation is constantly assuming larger pro- portions on account of the extensive exportation of the vegetable. Amongst other produce, of which the cultivation is important, may be mentioned ' water- melons, artichokes, peas, cauliflowers of huge size, strawberries, and all kinds of early fruit and vegetables for export. There is plenty of room for improvement in the tillage of gardens and kitchen-gardens. No schools of botany exist, and ignorance holds undis- puted sway. The cotton of Castellamare is well-known and of good quality, but the growing of it is rapidly de- creasing. Hops are, as far as I have ascertained, nowhere cul- tivated throughout Italy, but there is no doubt that they would succeed admirably in many parts. In the northern provinces I have seen the hop growing luxuriantly wild in hedges ; the country people are ignorant alike of its name and of its qualities ; they smile incredulously on being told that it is a valuable plant. Every year a larger amount of beer is drunk in Italy, most of it being imported from Austria. There appears no prima facie reason why a rich and im- portant brewing trade should not in course of time spring up, and native hops be grown to supply its requirements, 42 RURAL ITALY. The wine sold at Naples is mostly of inferior quality, of rich colour, and often thick ; lighter and better kinds are rejected by the retail dealers and the mass of the population. A few higher-class wines are made, viz. : " Capri " and " Lacrima Christi ;" but, on the whole, this industry is capable of an immense development. Naples ought to be the Cette or the Tarragona of Italy. Salerno, Benevento, Avellino, and Terra di Lavoro produce an abundance of cheap wine, and the entire export might be greatly increased. What is called " Capri " wine is almost all made in Naples, and has no connection whatever with the island of its reputed origin. The Province of Avellino contains 36 spirit distil- leries, with 51 stills, producing 3,000 hectol. per annum of 54 degrees Gay-Lussac. Benevento has 10 distil- leries ; Caserta gives an average annual production of 83,000 hectol. of spirits of 38 degrees, and 30,000 hectol. of rectified alcohol of 95 degrees, from 56 dis- tilleries with no stills, which yield an average of 5,463 hectol. of spirits of 55 degrees Gay-Lussac from the distillation of grape grounds, as well as the quantity above cited, which is made from grain. Naples pro- duces 155,000 hectol. of raw spirits, most of which is rectified to 93 degrees, yielding 90,000 hectol. Sa- lerno makes 2,200 hectol. of 52 degrees, none of which is rectified. It is complained that the system of leases in use in these provinces invariably entails a conflict of interests between the landlord and tenant. The old protective abuses and general ignorance have hardly yet been superseded by the improved system of the new regime. From i860 to 1870 this part of the country was over- run by brigands, and architectural development was DISTRICT III.— NEAPOLITAN PROVINCES. 43 rendered impossible. Technical instruction has not yet been sufficiently organized and promoted to reach the farmers in a practical manner. The landlords seldom reside on their estates, or take any part in their management. The "metayage" system is general in many districts. Leases are usually made privately, and often verbally between the parties ; they are for very short periods, and frequently only for one year, so that no love for the soil is begotten in the tenants. Extra labourers are seldom employed. Wages average I lira to I lira 25 c. per day for men, and 50 c. or 60 c. for women. In the Province of Caserta written leases and large holdings prevail ; no man dares to take a farm from which the outgoing tenant has been evicted, and the landlords are forced to work such farms themselves for at least a year. Wages are higher in this district, ranging from i lira to 3 lire per day in harvest-time on account of the unhealthiness of the marshes and the distance of the villages. At Salerno, and in several parts where much wine is made, the " metayage " system is not adopted. Casual labourers are mostly poor. A writer on this district says of the country people : " Many of them are honest, but wanting in manly dignity ; the casual labourer lives the life of an ass, and dies the death of a dog." Casual labourers cannot often count upon obtaining more than 200 days of work in the year, which gives them at most ;i^i2 in wages. Naples, with its 500,000 inhabitants, should stimulate farming in the province to attain a high standard of development ; yet agriculture is left entirely to the peasant class. Long leases of twenty-five years have been found productive of very good results in the 44 RURAL ITALY. Provinces of Bari and Lecce, and are recommended for wider adoption. The peasants of the Terra di Lavoro well exemplify the name given to their province, work being the sole object of their existence. All marry, and marry young ; celibacy is a reproach. In character they are simple, frugal, loving, and jealous. Paternal authority is of brief duration, owing to the early marriages of the children. Compulsory military service is said to have shown beneficial results. The rural population subsists almost wholly on vegetable diet, of which maize forms the principal ingredient ; yet pellagra is unknown, and the people are strong and healthy. Seven hectolitres of maize is calculated as the yearly requirement of each individual. Marsh fevers abound in the low country. The average longevity is from 65 to 70 years. Infant mortality is rare. Temporary emigration for short periods is on the increase. Agricultural and pastoral interests suffered alike throughout this region during the reign of brigandage, and had virtually to make a fresh start on its cessation. Meanwhile several districts were hopelessly impoverished, and hence arose the so-called trade in Italian children, principally from the Commune of Picinisco, which furnishes most of them. These young emigrants go usually to France and England ; in Austria they are not permitted to reside. What- ever irregularities may characterize their sojourn abroad, they are found to live quietly and decently when they return home with their earnings. The Post Office of Picinisco transmits a yearly amount of from ;^4,ooo to ;^5,2O0 to the families of the absentees, most of which is expended in the payment of debts and the acquirement of houses and land. A much larger DISTRICT III.—NEAPOLITAN PROVINCES. 45 sum is brought back by the returning emigrants them- selves. In the district of Gaeta some ancient costumes are still worn by the peasants, who exhibit a certain Oriental taste in this respect. Women and children, as in very many other southern regions, act as beasts of burden, and carry wood, stones, and weights of all kinds on their heads. Sixty per cent, of the population are un- able to read or write. The peasants' houses in several parts of the province are reported as very poor and unhealthy. Men are fit for work up to an average of 60 years of age. The medical service is insufficient and ill-paid ; hospitals are much wanted in many districts. Little use is made of the savings-banks by the country people. Respect for the law is general, though the peasants mostly attribute their poverty and other misfortunes to the official and upper classes. The inhabitants around Caserta have felt the influence of the Court, so long held at that place, and are more polished than the generality of their class ; they are also more well-to-do, but the large garrisons kept in the neighbourhood have led to a considerable deterioration of morality. All the men delight in carrying arms, and consider a gun as the necessary complement of their holiday costume, so that on feast days the churches appear to be occupied by bands of brigands ; yet crimes of violence are not more frequent than elsewhere. In the province of Salerno the peasantry is honest, healthy, and long-lived ; the houses are well built, and there is a good Government medical service. There is no emigration; the standard of morality is high ; 46 RURAL ITALY. education is deficient ; great superstition prevails generally amongst the people. The rural labourers of Campagna are bad and rapacious in disposition ; their houses are very squalid and poor ; black bread and vegetables form their staple diet. Women and children work beyond their strength. I ntermittent fevers are prevalent. Longevity is general, but from thirty to thirty-five years of labour are suffi- cient to break down even strong men. Emigration is considerable from this part, and extraordinarily large from the district of Sala Consilina, in which the rural population is poor. In the Valley of Lucania longevity of 90 and even 100 years is not uncommon, but no definitive statistics of the average duration of life are forthcoming. The peasants are hospitable and good-hearted, honest and disinterested, but greatly vindictive. The relations between landlords and tenants in the Province of Avellino are more intimate and cordial than is usual elsewhere, and the former are generally much respected. Peasants' families on large farms consist of ten or twelve persons ; their food is varied and sufficient as a rule, but the houses are bad, showing no improvement of late years. Goats and fowls are fraternally admitted to share the dwelling-place. Longevity is frequent and health excellent. Men work well up to 60 years old. There are 5 hospitals, and 29 charitable institutions ; 475 day schools, and 190 evening and Sunday schools, besides 45 private schools. Marriage is almost uni- versal. Savings-banks are not made use of. Though there are many schools, yet they are not well attended, and it is reckoned that scarcely one-fifth of the popula- tion can read and write. The local authorities consider DISTRICT III.— NEAPOLITAN PROVINCES. 47 that the law on obligatory education can never be well enforced so long as the poverty of the rural classes renders children's work indispensable to them. Indeed, the one type of school adopted in Italy is far better adapted to the urban than to the country populace, for the peasant's child when educated is apt to despise his parents' means of livelihood. Other obstacles also exist. The peasants have from time immemorial regarded the Government as a natural enemy, whose every intention must be suspected, and every act combated. Very little emigration takes place from this province. The people are well conducted on the whole, but very revengeful, and apt to take the law into their own hands on all occasions. In regard to Benevento the description of Terra di Lavoro and Avellino will suffice, since the province was formed in i860 out of the small duchy of the same name, and portions of the said two neighbouring provinces. The Naples- Puglie railroad has produced great com- mercial activity in this district. There is but one hos- pital, which ill suffices for the numerous cases of mias- matic fever. Charitable institutions are almost entirely wanting. Agricultural labour is incessant, and is fre quently carried on even on Sundays. Women's labour is excessive, including the carrying of heavy burdens, and the manipulation of weighty agricultural instruments. The great public and private works continually in execution at Naples, and on which many thousands of pounds are annually expended, attract large numbers of labourers from the surrounding country. The local consumption and increasing exportation command a 48 RURAL ITALY. ready sale for all rural produce, which is mostly- hawked about the streets, and not subjected to the monopoly of wholesale dealers or middle-men. Yet the farmers are not prosperous, in spite of their hard work and sobriety ; indeed, they can hardly ever afford to eat meat. This apparent anomaly is explained by the high rental of the small farms in the neighbourhood of the capital, the increased taxation, and the want of progress or improvement in the system of cultivation, as well as by the lack of capital, and the absence of technical education. The entire blame seems to rest on the shoulders of the landlords, who devote no funds to ameliorating their properties, or making the advances so often indispensable to the tenant. North of Mount Vesuvius the peasants are no better off, the frequent droughts causing the partial or entire failure of their crops. The region of Casoria is, how- ever, more fertile and rich. The district of Puzzuoli, including the Islands of Procida, Ischia, and Ventotene, produces magnificent fruit, and is well irrigated. The unwholesome atmo- sphere renders the people at once enervated and irritable in disposition. The peasants of Sorrento are expert and indefatigable farmers ; their specialties are the rearing and care of cattle, and the cultivation of orange-trees. On the slopes of Vesuvius the wine-makers are mere babes in respect to knowledge and skill ; some large owners are, however, introducing modern improvements in this branch of industry. Speaking generally as to the whole province, the people are diligent and intelli- gent, though ignorant ; superstitious, if not bigoted ; assigning infinite influence to lunar phases, and placing extraordinary credence in sorcery, witchcraft and en- DISTRICT III.— NEAPOLITAN PROVINCES. 49 chantment, which are still practised with apparent success by old women ; they sing traditional love-songs whilst at work, the poetry being of Oriental type, rather than Arcadian, as in Tuscany and the north. Family affections are strong ; the sentiment of jealousy is intense, and the cause of most of the crimes com- mitted. Fatalism and improvidence are prevailing character- istics ; no thought is taken for the morrow. Strength and courage command admiration ; mystic legends are much in vogue, the feeling of personal dignity is defi- cient, owing to ignorance of the natural rights of man. Severe labour is undergone without complaint. Celi- bacy and permanent widowhood are very rare ; the sterility of the wife is considefed shameful and unfortu- nate, and when it occurs the husbands beat their wives, covering themselves from the sarcasms of their comrades by imputing to the woman the blame of in- fecundity. Except in the immediate vicinity of large cities the morality of the country is generally pure, and crime is comparatively unfrequent. The institution of manufactories has greatly injured the home spinning and weaving of the rural classes, thou'gh they still are carried on with fair profit in out- lying districts. Peasant's work and agricultural labour are despised in the south as well as in the north, to the extent that a man who has worked as a navvy, or, indeed, in any other capacity, would feel degraded in returning to ordinary farm-labour. The houses in the Province of Naples are better than is usual in other parts of the kingdom. Pictur- esque ancient costumes are rapidly disappearing. 4 50 RURAL ITALY. Bread of maize or corn, oil, and vegetables form the principal diet of the peasants. Well-to-do farmers eat macaroni on holidays and more rarely meat. Wages vary from i lira per day to a maximum of 2 lire. Women earn 60 centimes a day and children about the same. Work goes on all winter excepting on rainy days. Hospitals are few and insufficient ; there are no mutual aid societies, nor do the country people avail them- selves of the savings-banks. Under the late Govern- ment public instruction was unknown, so that a know- ledge of reading and writing was exceptionally rare. Now the schools are well frequented in winter, but comparatively deserted as soon as the early spring arrives. In forming a judgment on this part of Italy it must be borne in mind that the inhabitants have scarcely yet recovered from two centuries of bad government and a series of fatal events, entailing an utter exhaustion of moral, intellectual, and financial capital especially affecting agricultural interests. From the proclamation of the " Partenopea Re- public " in 1799, until after i860, brigandage accom- panied and followed each successive revolution, and was inva'riably exercised at the expense of landed pro- prietors. The lower classes embraced the cause of the King, which was one with that of religion and sup- ported by the brigand chiefs. In 1820 were organized the opposing forces of the " Carbonari " and " Calderari." The army was re- cruited greatly from the rural population and the scum of large towns. After the Revolution of 1848 the rich were more systematically and continually perse- cuted than ever, and the separation between the upper DISTRICT III.— NEAPOLITAN PROVINCES. 51 and the agricultural classes was fostered by Govern- ment as a means of keeping all alike in the state of abject subjection. Roads were wanting ; commerce languished and was discouraged. Even in 1851 the Neapolitans were for- bidden to take part in the first Great International Exhibition in London ! The worst forms of protection were tenaciously adhered to, and farmers were forced by threats and imprisonment to sell corn at unremuner- ative prices. These and numerous cognate abuses served to ruin the agricultural prosperity of a rich and fertile district, as well as to retard the prospects of future development in happier times. From i860 to 1870 brigandage ruled supreme, so that the southern provinces have had only a short time for the work of transition and material progress. A few further details will complete the description of this district : Hygienic arrangements and the feeding of cattle are much neglected. Epizootis is comparatively rare, though both the buffaloes and other animals are subject to the disease called " carbon." Cattle and horses are fed on leaves, dog-grass, melon-rinds, or,, in fact, any kind of vegetable matter which can be made available for the purpose. Small holdings prevail in the Provinces of Avellino and Naples, and in some parts of the other provinces ; large ones in Caserta. A considerable rotation of crops is practised, of which the following may serve as a typical example : I St year, maize ; 2nd year, flax ; 3rd year, corn ; 4th year, corn ; 5 th year, oats ; 6th year, beans. There are 6,232 acres of irrigated land in Avellino ; 4—2 52 RURAL ITALY. 6,885 in Salerno, and a certain further quantity in other districts. Considerable hydraulic works and reclama- tions of marshy ground are in progress, but are, as yet, far from complete. Irrigation in South Italy is capable of great development ; indeed, a Project of Law is now before the Chamber of Deputies for this very object. Marshes abound in the southern provinces. Vast stretches of land are lost to cultivation, whilst human life and health are endangered by fevers and kindred maladies. It is desired to drain this uncultivated ground and to turn the waters to account for purposes of irrigation. Companies are to be formed enjoying several rights and privileges, to which the Treasury will grant loans amortizable in thirty years, under favourable conditions and diminished registration and other taxes — the collection of sums due to be made in the same manner as by the State, according to the system adopted for the Cavour Canal in 1862. The chief characteristics of the new law are to be the concurrence of the land- lords and the assurance to be given by Government that taxes shall not be increased for thirty years, in spite of the augmented value of newly-irrigated lands. It is, however, probable that large State subventions will be requisite to ensure the success of the proposed measure ; for Italian landlords are generally poor and their estates are burdened with heavy taxes and mortgages, their spirit of co-operation is nil, so that Government aid will be as essential in this matter as it was found to be in the construction of public roads and railways. The admirable irrigation works in Lombardy were mostly commenced and carried out, long years ago, by DISTRICT III.— NEAPOLITAN PROVINCES. 53 the Republic of Lodi, by Otho Visconti, and by other heads of Government. Private enterprise would never have succeeded in achieving similar results. It is calculated that the extent of land in the king- dom capable of irrigation is 2,048,712 acres ; if the new law deals effectively with one-fifth of this extent, it will do well. Irrigation has been well defined by M. de Girardin as a sound insurance against sun and drought. As regards manure, the environs of Naples are well provided by the refuse of the streets and sewage-wells, which is at the disposal of any who choose to collect it ; but much is wasted, and the scientific treatment of manures is almost unknown. Large quantities of lupine are grown to be ploughed down for manure. A single chemical manure manufactory has lately been started at Naples. Agricultural machinery is scarce, though its adop- tion is on the increase. Wine and oil presses and winnowing machines are in use on large farms, but good ploughs and other instruments for preparing the soil are rare. The average returns of property in the province of Naples vary from a minimum of ^6 to a maximum of ;;/^32 per acre, and are generally smaller in other districts. In some parts they sink to almost nothing. The value of wool and hides in Campagna, Consilina, Salerno, and Lucania reaches an annual total of ;^22,678. Cattle give a large profit, varying from 15 to 75 per cent., in the Neapolitan provinces. The agricultural produce of the Province of Salerno reaches an annual value of ;^3, 149,460; about two- thirds of it are devoted to home consumption, and the remainder exported to foreign countries. S4 RURAL ITALY. It has already been noticed that special education is lamentably deficient in this part of the kingdom. Even where technical institutes have been established by Government it is found that the agricultural sections are seldom or never attended by pupils. Chambers of agriculture virtually do not exist, and rural credit banks are almost wholly wanting or in- efficient, the old " Monti frumentari " conferring no real benefit to agriculture. The peasants are in the habit of borrowing seed-corn from the proprietors, to be repaid with usurious interest at harvest-time. A redistribution of the land-tax is urgently required. The mortgages on land are large and numerous ; the interest paid on them is never lower than 8 per cent., and in some cases attains to rates of fearful extortion, often amounting to double the net rental of the pro- perty. The taxes, including the provincial and communal surtax and the highway rate, are reckoned in many districts at as much as 50 per cent. Rural theft, and even cattle-lifting, are somewhat frequent in several provinces ; stringent laws are re- quired to put a stop to these delinquencies, as well as to the crimes of vendetta. The interest on capital invested in land averages about 4 per cent., but reaches a maximum of 8 per cent. CHAPTER V. DISTRICT IV. — APULIA AND THE ABRUZZI. Provinces of Foggia, Bari, Lecce, Aquila, Chieti, Teramo, and Campobasso. This district forms a quadrilateral with 500 miles of seaboard ; the provinces are otherwise known as Puglia, the Abruzzi, and Molise. In the Valley of Pescara there are mines of asphalte and bitumen, employing 300 workmen and producing 7,000 tons annually, worth ;!^io,ooo. The highest chain of the Apennines traverses the district, which contains many rivers and torrents, as well as several lakes and marshes of considerable extent. These seven provinces have 690 communes, with 2,971,283 inhabitants to 9,379,575 acres ; the minority of the population being agriculturists, viz., about 14 per cent. The statistics as to the superficial area of the district and its cultivation are confused and incomplete, but it is calculated that two-thirds of the land are occupied by corn-crops, while the production of vegetables, oil, and wine is also of great importance. Both in weight and quality the wheat of Puglia is 56 RURAL ITALY. renowned, and it is mostly used in the macaroni manufactories of Naples and the Riviera of Genoa. Meadow-land is of small extent ; fruits and truffles are grown and exported from several provinces, also dried figs and raisins, edible fungi, capers, and oranges. The wine industry is making progress, though the quality is generally poor and the price low. In Bari and Lecce the production of oil is very large in quantity and excellent in quality. Cotton was extensively grown during the time of the American Civil War ; tobacco is cultivated only in Terra d'Otranto ; Capitanata and other towns have important liquorice manufactories. Aquila and Campo- basso are the provinces most abundant in forests, but they are no longer richly wooded. The Province of Teramo alone consumes more than 4,000 cubic metres of wood as charcoal, of which a great part is used in the numerous potteries and majolica works ; in the Province of Chieti a similar amount is required for the brick-kilns ; hence the destruction of timber has attained formidable proportions. The region around Monte Gargano is of the greatest natural fertility, and abounds with precious marbles ; yet the country is most unhealthy, and the people are poor and miserable. Malaria is prevalent in the neighbourhood of the lakes and on the sea-coast ; and if the disafforesting of the hills continues, inevitable ruin will ensue to large tracts of now productive land. Some 25,000 quintals of wool are produced, of which 10,000 quintals come into the market of Foggia — the largest wool mart in the kingdom. It is noticed that the price, especially of the finer wools, has immensely decreased of late years, being now as low as 2 fr. DISTRICT IV.— APULIA AND THE ABRUZZI. 57 per kilog. Interesting information respecting Italian wools in general, and those of Puglia in particular, is contained in the Reports of the International Jury of the Paris Exhibition, 1878 (Group V., Class 46). Silk -worm culture produces 90,500 quintals of cocoons yearly. The extensive pasturages of the " Tavoliere di Puglia " (Apulia) are of great importance, and have a history of their own. This vast domain covers 750,000 acres ; its origin belongs to the time of the Roman conquests and the protracted wars of the Republic which were fought out in the plains, whence they became deserted and uncultivated, fit only for public pastures in winter-time. Under the Normans in 1155, William the Bad made a special constitution in favour of the shepherds on these lands. Various changes took place under the Suabians, the Angevins, and the Spaniards, who suc- cessively ruled the country. Curious and stringent laws regulated the rights of pasturage, and for many centuries the Tavoliere was the object of an intricate fiscal system, somewhat similar to that which existed in the Agro Romano until the Commune of Rome lost its legislative rights during the Pontificate of Boni face IX. In 1806 the French Government did away with all the servitudes hitherto in force, but in 181 7 — their power having come to an end — these enactments were annulled by the reconstruction of the ancient system. In 1865 the Provinces of the Two Sicilies were united with the Kingdom of Italy, and all the former rights and limitations were swept away. However, the periodical emigrations of the flocks continue as in past times ; they descend from the 58 RURAL ITALY. mountains into the plains by a network of wide grassy- roads which traverse the region in every direction, and are called " tratturi." These lanes are over lOO yards in width, and cover a total length of 940 miles. Ever since 1547 they have been the subject of continual usurpations and reinstatements, occasioning an endless series of lawsuits. Similar roads are found in Spain, known as the " mesta," by which the flocks descend from the mountains of Asturia and Leon to the plains of Estremadura and Catalonia ; and in France also the same kind of roads exist under the name of " drayes " or " corraires," by which the sheep are led from Pro- vence and Languedoc to the pastures of the Alps and the Cevennes. Although it is evident that these immemorial rights of way and of pasturage cannot be destroyed in a moment, it is certain that the old nomad pastoral system must gradually disappear under the progress and altered conditions of the kingdom. Not less than 50,000 animals are pastured on the Tavoliere, requiring over 1,500 square miles of land for their subsistence, at a cost of ^27,000, more or less. Before i86o there were flocks of as many as 10,000 sheep and more ; now there are none of over 8,000. The value of the existing flocks is calculated at a total of ;^400,ooo, and that of the horses and mules used in connection with theni at ^68,000, whilst the wool is estimated at ^160,000 per annum, and the butchers' meat of 195,000 sheep and lambs slaughtered yearly in the whole district is worth ;^82,ooo. Five thousand persons are employed as shepherds, who receive as wages an average of £12 a year each, half in money and half in kind ; most of them suffer DISTRICT IV.— APULIA AND THE ABRUZZI. 59 from malaria, and they are with their families only 32 days in the year. The shearers come from other provinces ; their wages and expenses amount to ;^2 2,320 altogether. As much as ^488,000 is embarked as capital in sheep, but it only returns from 3 to 5 per cent., and a crisis is imminent on account of the increasing cost of the long and fatiguing emigrations of the flocks. Advantage is already being taken of the railway for the transport of sheep and other animals, but the charges are too high for this means of conveyance to become general. Meanwhile, the yearly losses are very great ; the sheep come down from the mountains in poor condition, and heavy with lamb ; they have no shelter from snow, frost, or rain ; often they do not find sufficient food, and frequently the tracks and streams are almost impassable. The most striking deficiencies in this region are the want of irrigation and of Artesian wells, the prevalence of malaria, the scarcity of capital, the lack of agricul- tural knowledge, and the shortness of the leases of farms. Local credit banks are urgently wanted in the chief towns. The capital required for an effective agricultural transformation is not less than ^12,000,000. Of late years the number of labourers has increased, and wages have risen to 2 fr. or 3 fr. per day, whilst the work has diminished in quality, and the general expenses of farming have increased by 25 per cent. The Adriatic coast of the ex-Kingdom of Naples is covered with broad marshes, whence the land is un- healthy and uncultivated. Molise and the Abruzzi have 90 miles of sea-board by 20 miles in width in this condition; the littoral of Apulia has 11,000 acres of 6o RURAL ITALY. marshy ground, and 30,000 acres of soil which is un- cultivated on account of its unhealthiness. Taranto, Otranto, and Brindisi are infected with malaria from the same cause. In several communes the mortality- has come to exceed the number of births, and, generally, the malarious provinces have a death-rate of 33 per cent., in comparison with 27 in Upper Italy. There are at least 325,000 acres of land in this district which might be drained and reclaimed, and for 15,000 acres or more the work is of urgent necessity. Little or nothing has hitherto been done by Govern- ment for this object, but ten years ago Prince Torlonia completed, at enormous expense, the bonification of 50,000 acres of the ancient Lake of Fucino, a work conceived by Julius Caesar, initiated by Claudius Nero, continued by Trajan and Hadrian, and reattempted by Frederick II. and Alphonso of Aragon. The present enterprise was commenced in 1854, and terminated in 1876. No less than ;^i,725,o88 was spent on the emissarius, canals, roads, plantations, etc.; but it is considered that the capital thus invested will probably never give a satisfactory return, and it is even doubted whether the fertility of the land has been increased or the sanitary condition of the country ameliorated. However this may be, it is certain that hydraulic works and irrigation are much wanted in this district, and that they cannot be undertaken effectively without Government aid. At present there are 88,500 acres of irrigated land in the provinces under notice. Roads and railways are much required, especially the latter ; in 1879 a law was passed, providing ;^2, 400,000 for the construction of 200 or 300 kilom. of railroad, since which date hardly 150 kilom. have been actually DISTRICT IV.— APULIA AND THE ABRUZZI. 6i made, of which only 45 are in this district, and these were built entirely by the Southern Railway Company. Such a state of things contrasts strangely with the United States, where 8,000 miles of railroad were laid down in i88t alone. Only nine agricultural schools exist in the district, and other institutions for technical education are equally scarce, and in most cases very unsuccessful. There is not much hope of progress in this direction without the aid and encouragement of the State. The veterinary service is equally unsatisfactory. Rural credit is difficult to obtain ; loans at 1 5 to 20 per cent, are considered moderate. "Monti frumentari " were created in 1697 by Car- dinal Orsini, afterwards Benedict XIII., for lending corn to the agriculturists. In half a century their number had multiplied to such an extent that in 174 1 a special tribunal was instituted for them, but after the first period of fervour, more religious, perhaps, than economical, their capital dwindled away, their functions became almost nominal, and they fell into such disrepute that they were derisively nicknamed " Monti cartolari," there being more paper and bills in their offices than corn for the use of the people. Since i860, however, these estab- lishments have revived under the form of agricultural loan banks, and these, with several co-operative societies of a somewhat similar character, are proving of much advantage to those who deal with them. It is considered that the sale of State domains and communal property ought to be proceeded with under the law of the 4th July, 1884, which also provides for reaffbresting, but which has hitherto remained almost inoperative. 62 RURAL ITALY. The mortgages are said to amount to _;^35, 920,000, and the taxation on the district is ;^920,ooo per annum, or about 45^ per cent. Registration of title would be a great boon to the country. Leases are generally of short duration, and where metayage prevails the tenancy is from year to year ; but where large estates exist, leases for thirty years are given, the farmers are men of importance, and the country is rich. On some of these extensive properties 2,500 acres are sown with cereals. In the Abruzzi advances of corn and provisions are made by the landlords to the necessitous peasants, on which the rate of interest amounts to 50 per cent. ; and . in places where this system is followed, the condition of agriculture is most deplorable. Notwithstanding such circumstances, there have happily as yet not occurred any rural strikes and agitation such as have recently broken out in Venetia and the Romagna. Under many aspects the territorial constitution of Apulia resembles that of Great Britain, from the size of the holdings and the wealth of the large farmers ; but the mass of the people are indubitably far poorer than the English rural population, in spite of the serious depression which has weighed upon us for the past five years. The sale of ecclesiastical and State property has but tended to increase the size of the larger estates and to exhaust the capital which might have been devoted to agricultural improvements ; in fact, the traditions of feudalism are not extinct in Southern Italy, and mort- main survives under absentee owners, altered in form, but as steadfast in nature as in the times of the Barons or the Papal dominion. With few exceptions, the farmers keep no intelligible DISTRICT IV.— APULIA AND THE ABRUZZI. 63 accounts of income and expenditure ; so that it is very- difficult to ascertain their financial condition with an approach to accuracy. Usury, though fortunately not general in the district, presses severely upon the peasants who are obliged to have recourse to it. Small loans at short dates habitu- ally bear 120 per cent, interest. The value of rural produce has much decreased of late, and many farms have been completely abandoned. The labourers are supported to a considerable extent by the household industry of their families — such as the spinning and weaving of wool and hemp. Elementary schools are deficient and inefficacious. Strange as it may appear, education, is more extended amongst the nomad shepherds than in any other class ; most of them are provided with some standard works, and many of their women are able to read and write. Religion tends towards superstition, and consists rather in form than in substance. The people are laborious, mild in character, and respectful to their superiors. They are indifferent even to their natural rights, so that modern ultra- socialistic theories have gained no hold upon them ; and they are unconcerned to avail themselves of electoral privileges. Families are of the patriarchal type ; goods are common property, no portion being set aside for the sons until they attain fifteen years of age. On the whole, the conduct of the women is better than that of the men ; the latter leave the parental roof at an early age. Rape is the prevalent crime among the rustics. The food is neither wholesome nor abundant, being chiefly composed of farinaceous and vegetable sub- 64 RURAL ITALY. Stances to the exclusion of meat ; indeed, the usual soup of the labourer consists only of bread and salt water, whilst many live on roasted barley cakes and carob-beans, excepting at harvest-time, when plentiful food is everywhere supplied. Salt is lamentably scarce. Wine is drunk only on feast days, but then frequently to dangerous excess. Though the dress of the peasants is good, their dwellings are narrow, dark, smoky, and dirty ; the floors are damp and unpaved ; the straw bedding is musty, and used in common. Water is often scarce. The houses in the towns or villages, rented at £2 a year, are even more wretched than those in the open country ; but I cefrain from again depicting in detail the miserable interiors of these squalid homes ; suffice it to remark, that the question of the habitations of the rural classes is perhaps the most important of all the subjects which call for urgent inquiry and energetic action. Pellagra is unknown in these provinces. The medical service is insufficient, but there are 117 hospitals or asylums, which take in an average of 10.086 patients per year. The total and temporary emigrants from the district numbered 10,064 in 1883, of whom 5,891 were agriculturists, whilst in 1876 there were only 741. They go chiefly to Servia, Roumania, Greece, Turkey, and America. This matter is of great interest in connection with the colonial question now springing up in Italy, as well as throughout the rest of Europe. On the whole, the general production and conditions of this part of the kingdom are less bad and uncertain than in most other regions, and a slow but sure pro- gress may be asserted, although the natural resources DISTRICT IV.—APULIA AJSID THE ABRUZZI. 65 of the country are far from developed to anything like their full capacity. The production even of corn is insufficient to meet the entire requirements of the population, and the commerce in wine and cattle might be very largely improved and increased. Rural credit is wanting; there is no available capital. The small farmers live in the utmost privation, and the first ele- ments of a rational or remunerative agricultural system are unknown. Many of the most important problems of rural economy cannot be solved without a considerable lapse of tirne ; but it is at least essential that the Government should take serious thought for the large class of those who labour and suffer amid the silent fields of distant provinces. CHAPTER VI. DISTRICT V. — ROME AND GROSSETO. The 5th District, comprising the Provinces of Rome, Grosseto, Perugia, Ascoli-Piceno, Ancona, Macerata, and Pesaro, is divided into three parts, viz. : 1. Rome and Grosseto. 2. Umbria. 3. The Marches. Rome and Grosseto differ in character, not only from the adjoining provinces, but also from all other parts of Italy, excepting, perhaps, some sections of Sardinia and of the southern provinces of the kingdom. The Marches, extending from the sea to the highest western slopes of the Apennines, have a fertile soil, in combination with which gift of nature the fair partici- pation of the peasants in the products of the earth renders their condition comparatively satisfactory, and even prosperous. Umbria, shut in by the same moun- tain range, and separated from the coast, is exposed to less favourable conditions of climate and position, whence the population is more scanty, and the ground less productive. In Rome the two extremes meet, and a state of DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 67 abandonment and desolation fs reached which is equally unique and anomalous. So great is the diversity in the nature and fertility of the land, that in different parts of these two provinces every kind of cultivation is possible, from the orange grove to the pine forest, and from large properties highly farmed, to the smallest and most miserable peasants' holding or pasturage. The capital of Italy is situated in the midst of a district which has more evils to be cured than any other part of the entire kingdom. Grosseto, having belonged to Tuscany, has reaped her share of the advantages which have brought prosperity to that region during the course of the past century. In the Roman State are found, side by side, huge properties extending over 60,000 or 70,000 acres, and minute possessions held by eight or ten families in undivided proprietorship. This state of things has existed for centuries without alteration. The two provinces form a large quadrilateral between the Apennines and the Mediterranean, about 175 miles long by 50 miles broad, containing 16,477 square kilom., or 4,119,375 acres, Rome being nearly three times as large as Grosseto. Volcanic formation predominates, especially in the Roman territory. From the foot of the Volscian hills as far as the sea stretches an immense tract of Marches, constituting a baleful hotbed of pestiferous emanations, and below Rome on each side of the Tiber extends the drear Campagna : " Calva, deserta come una maligna fascia di solitu- dine e di febbri." Another vast region is filled with the ruins of ancient 5—2 68 RURAL ITALY. and glorious Etruscan cities, Veii, Tarquinia, Caere, Populonia, and the like, now surrounded by a bare and deserted waste of land. Few parts of Italy are so well watered ; yet, on account of the neglect with which this natural wealth has been treated, it has become a source of fevers and ruin, instead of plenteousness and riches. The Tiber and the Ombrone feed the two provinces. It is a singular fact that, with the exception of those in the City of Rome, not a single bridge spans either river. The Lake of Bolsena covers 27,910 acres, supplying the River Marta, which spreads miasma throughout the lower country. The Lake of Bracciano, 14,532 acres in size, is 300 yards deep, but its waters are gradually subsiding owing to the non-closing of the emissarium, and are not utilized as formerly to the benefit of agriculture. Alluvial deposit is continually filling up the bed of the Tiber, for in past ages the river was navigable many miles above Rome, whilst at the present day the smallest vessels can scarcely reach the city. An em- bankment, due to the initiative of Garibaldi, is in course of construction, and other works are projected for the rectification of its course, with a view to pre- venting the disastrous inundations to which some 52,000 acres of land are subject. It is said that fifteen or twenty centuries ago the Tiber rose even higher than in the memorable floods of 1598 and 1870; however this may be, there have occurred several threatening and extraordinary rises since 1878, usually in November and December. Without counting an expenditure of ^240,000 in- curred on the Tiber alone from 1878 to 1880 in extra DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 69 works, the average annual cost of maintaining the chief water-courses of the district amounts to £6,216. The climate is usually dry and warm ; snow, hail, and frost are, generally speaking, exceptional. Northerly, south, and westerly winds are prevalent at Rome. Malaria is the great scourge of both provinces. South of Rome lies one of the chief centres of the infection to be found in Italy ; the Pontine marshes and Grosseto, as well as the whole coast-line between them, are notoriously deadly in this respect. The fever follows the valleys of the Anio even to considerable heights ; it rages in Maremma, and has no boundaries but the mountains and the sea, extend- ing up the entire course of the Tiber to the borders of Umbria. Cultivation and drainage are the only reme- dies against this insidious malady ; but their action is, of marvellous efficacy, as is abundantly proved in various parts of the Campagna. The geological formation of the ground has much to do with the existence of malaria, the upper stratum retaining humidity, and the subsoil being nearly imper- meable. Again, the admixture of salt and fresh water along the coast favours the corruption of organic matter, whilst the excessive heat of summer intensifies and in^- creases the miasma. No less than twelve different causes have beep assigned to the production of malaria, of which the above are the principal and most probable, in addition to the absence of trees and habitations in the infected districts. A map has been drawn up showing the varied inten- sity of malarious fever throughout these provinces. It 70 RURAL ITALY. is curious to observe that there are places which seem to enjoy complete immunity, standing like healthful oases in the midst of a Sahara of " pernicious " fever, which mows down a large annual number, of victims. The mouths of the Tiber are constantly shifting their position and forming marshes full of mephitic exhalations ; originally the entrance to the river was at Ponte Galera, in the time of Ancus Martius at Ostia : under Trajan the latter port was already useless, and now the sea has receded four miles further and the shore, gains about three yards per annum. Large quantities of wood and vegetable matter come down the stream when it is flooded, and are thrown up again by the sea, form- ing a barrier along the coast which stops the outflow of the inland waters ; thus the large delta of the Tiber has been formed, and the rapid putrefaction of animal and vegetable matter continually renews the supply of miasma. In the Pontine marshes, bad as they originally were, abortive attempts at drainage have aggravated the evil to such an extent that the scanty remnants of the population in Sezze, Cori, Sermoneta, and Terracina are decimated year by year, a third of them falling ill in a single day, with symptoms more severe and violent than were ever experienced in past times, or within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. The consequent scarcity of labour has entailed the abandonment of many farms formerly under cultivation, and thus the country is daily getting into worse condition. It appears to be clearly proved that where man has vacated the land desolation takes his place, bringing malaria in its train. According to Strabo, the ancient Pelasgians, who brought into Italy the earliest rays of civilization, were DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 71 attacked by serious and devastating maladies. The Etruscans, their successors, suffered in Hke manner. In consequence of the ameliorations effected by the kings, censors, and ediles, the Romans were freed from this plague, which reappeared when the wealth and extortions of the patricians swallowed up the small holdings where individual enterprise had culti- vated the ground, and created those large estates which, as Pliny avers, commenced to bring about the ruin of Italy. Under no Government have hydraulic works seriously calculated to improve the hygienic condition of the country been effectually undertaken. Many attempts have been made to drain the Pontine marshes, but without real success, whilst the few woods and forests which did exist have been subjected to slow but certain destruction. Humidity, heat, and the decay of organic substances are the primary causes of malaria. The power of the sun cannot be quenched, but the other two may be dealt with and overcome by the hand of man. A law providing for the " bonification of the Roman Campagna " is already in operation, and will be referred to in its proper place. The Province of Rome consists of five divisions : Rome, Viterbo, Frosinone, Velletri, and Civita Vecchia, with 227 communes, covering 2,979,280 acres. Grosseto has 20 communes and 1,140,095 acres. Centuries of destructive wars and vast political con- flicts have gradually reduced the population and deso- lated the country. Small communes, jealous of their existence and administrative rights, continue to struggle with over- whelming burdens of debt. 72 ■ RURAL ITALY. Rome, with an average municipal budget of ;^48o,ooo a year, has to provide for the immense expenses of administration and reconstruction in the city itself, as well as to combat the desolation of the surrounding Campagna. Other communes with few inhabitants and meagre revenues have the care of very extensive territory. Out of ninety-eight communes in the Roman State, seventy-four are in debt to a total of ;^i, 987,538, the greater part of which is incumbent on the city itself. The population of the Roman province numbers 836,704, of whom 432,497 are agriculturists ; that of Grosseto 107,457, with 77,985 agriculturists. It has been calculated that the density of the popula- tion in Italy is 90 to the square kilom., and the propor- tion of agriculturists 6870 per cent. ; hence the average of the latter would be 61 "20 per square kilom. ; but in the Province of Rome there are but 35, and in Gros- seto 1 7. The proportion of female agriculturists in the kingdom is reckoned at 55 to 100 males. A very notable fact with regard to the commune of Rome is, that there are but 556 houses in the Cam- pagna for 12,734 inhabitants, whilst in the actual suburbs of the city there are 1,048 houses for 9,748 occupants. The greater number of the labourers in the Cam- pagna are strangers from other districts, who for the eight months of their sojourn dwell in huts or wigwams, of which there are 469 ; the remainder live in caves and grottoes, or in the ruins of ancient buildings and tombs, while many have no roof but the heavens and no bed but the grass. In almost every part of the whole district the scarcity of houses in proportion to the number of labourers is DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 73 startling and well-nigh incredible. In one commune there are 456 houses to 3,127 persons, in another 316 to 1,604 inhabitants, and in a third 704 peasants with- out a single dwelling ! To render the anomaly more striking, there are places which contain many un- inhabited houses. The entire Province of Rome has 15,000 houses scattered over the country, with 1 10,000 occupants, and Grosseto has 3,265 houses for 25,292 persons. There were 64 unoccupied houses in the Roman Campagna in 1871 and 231 in 188 1. A chief cause of this phenomenon is doubtless to be found in the heavy house-tax, which is levied on all farm-buildings, whether they are occupied or not ; and I am informed that Prince Torlonia has unroofed many of his tenements in the neighbourhood of Rome to avoid paying this tax on unlet farm-houses. Hence the strange spectacle of numerous and extensive remains of buildings dating from the seventeenth century, formerly belonging to prosperous estates, but now fallen into complete decay, whilst the casual labourers live in squalid hovels or holes cut into the tufa rocks ; because the landlords cannot or will not expend the necessary capital in constructing houses, considering the gain of to-morrow as the loss of to-day, whilst the to-morrow of the tenant belongs not to himself, but to his successor, and that of the labourer means death or the workhouse. To give a final instance of the above state of things : Orbetello, with 384 square kilom. of territory, has only 36 houses for 1,737 scattered inhabitants, and the Roman Campagna has but one house on each 4 square miles of ground. The population of the capital has increased by 70,000 during the past ten years. On account of the 74 RURAL ITALY. prevalence of malaria the density of the population in this district is greatest in the mountain region and least in the plains, a circumstance quite contrary to the general rule ; but as the sterile heights do not afford sufficient means of sustenance, the people descend in gangs to seek labour in the fertile but insidious low- lands, where they suffer in health and become demora- lized in many ways. The cultivation of the land shows many different systems, hardly to be classified or described without the help of the excellent Ordnance surveys and other maps. Pasturage should be, if intelligently worked, the chief element of wealth in the region of the hills, but it is, on the contrary, the prime cause of the poverty of the people, for the large wandering flocks destroy all the young trees as well as great quantities of growing crops. From June till October these nomad flocks cover every retired valley and barren mountain, seeking their scanty food, and whenever they discover a fertile or cultivated spot their acute hunger destroys in a moment every scrap of verdure, whilst the rapacious shepherds spare nothing of any possible value on which they can lay their hands. Up to the very gates of Rome are to be seen the curious and primitive straw dome-shaped cabins inhabited by shepherds, with their ferocious dogs bred in the Abruzzi mountains. Vines and olives are the most important productions of the district, and particularly of the plains. Cattle- breeding has no great scope or success. In the lower hill region more than 1,575,000 acres appertain to large estates worked on the system of extensive farming. The marsh land on the coast-line, now covered with DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 75 a useless growth of shrubs, could, if properly reclaimed, be converted into plains of exuberant fertility. It is at present given up to the flocks from Umbria and the Central Apennines, and partially to the breeding of pigs and buffaloes. Manual labour has hitherto done nothing for this, ground, which consequently does not value more than 40s. per acre. If the land be eventually reclaimed, vines might flourish as prosperously as on the "dunes" of the Department du Gard, where the phylloxera is unknown. In former times olive-trees and vineyards covered the shores instead of the impenetrable thickets, to-day the habitat of the wild boar and goat, whilst the woods were carefully preserved even until the middle of the eighteenth century, after which they have been cut down indiscriminately both on the hills for the exten- sion of arable land, and in the plains for the manufac- ture of charcoal, from which large fortunes have been realized. On the other hand, the forests in the Pro- vince of Grosseto have been much more successfully maintained, and indeed show an increase of 32,500 acres, whilst Rome has been disafforested during the past fifty years to nearly double that extent. The entire superficial area on which chestnuts are grown in the Province of Rome is estimated at 18,000 acres out of 1,017,135 acres for the whole kingdom. Olives thrive at considerable altitudes in several places sheltered from the north wind, such as San Vito, Bellegra, and Subiaco. The latter town, once prosperous and important in the palmy days of the celebrated monastery, is now given over to poverty and misery such as I have not seen equalled in any other part of the country. Mulberry trees are not 76 RURAL ITALY. cultivated, on account of the decline of the silk industry. The vine grew wild in Etruria in the time of Homer ; under Numa the Romans had already learnt the art of making wine ; Pliny speaks of the high value of vine- yards, and mentions the fabrication of sophisticated wines as already existing in his day. The cultivation of fruit-trees is sadly neglected, except at Corneto Tarquinia, where 34,000 kilog. of fruit are grown, yearly, of which 25,000 kilog. are exported. About 500,000 acres are devoted to corn crops ; but the non-employment of manures has greatly exhausted the soil, and the importation of American wheat has reduced prices to such an extent as to make a crisis apparently inevitable. The almost total absence of agricultural machinery is very notable, and brings to mind the words of Pliny the younger, to the effect that " In Italy, where the fields are small, corn is reaped^ with a scythe or sickle, while in Gaul, where the fields are large, a machine drawn by horses is pushed into the corn, by which the ears are cut off and made to fall into a sort of tray." This quotation points to perhaps the earliest European invention of the reaping machine, and it is remarkable that Italy, whose corn- fields are no longer small, should not to this day have adopted the use of such obvious means of economizing labour and expense. Maize is largely cultivated, but green crops and vegetables, of great importance in ancient times, are now reduced to very small proportions, with the excep- tion of tomatoes, artichokes, and a few other varieties, including potatoes. Horticulture, once so flourishing on the Celian and Esquiline Hills, is in a condition of most, deplorable depression, so that Rome depends, chiefly upon Naples for her necessary supplies. The DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 77 intolerable exactions of the regraters and middlemen, who rig the market without control, are sorely com- plained of in this connection. Floriculture is equally at a discount, in mournful contrast to the former splendour of the patrician villas, which waned, together with literature and art, in the decadence of the Empire, and has never recovered from the barbarian devas- tations accompanying the fall and ruin of the Eternal City. Tobacco will doubtless become an important pro- duction whenever the vexatious fiscal restrictions at present existing are removed ; it is now allowed to be grown in only three communes, and it is found that not less than 25,000 plants per 2^ acres will yield an adequate return to the cultivator. Beetroot for sugar might presumably be grown to advantage, but the few attempts that have been made in this direction have resulted in complete failure. Forage for cattle is extraordinarily deficient ; the meadows receive no artificial tending, and hay is usually cut too late, in defiance of the Catonian maxim, " Priusquam semen maturum sit, secato." Grass crops yield far less value than should be expected, or than is known to have been the case formerly. All the land suffers from lying fallow too long. Wild boars and foxes make considerable havoc in many parts, and locusts, though their appearance is fortunately rare, have been creative of vast damage, and assumed the character of a veritable plague in 1577 and 1656. Porcupines and moles inhabit the Campagna ; the former are rapidly decreasing in number. Insects noxious to agriculture increase in proportion to the wholesale destruction of birds, for the Romans look upon any attempt at the preservation of game, 78 RURAL ITALY. which includes every winged creature, as an infringe- ment of a sacred privilege, and they wage a war of positive extermination alike upon birds of passage and those indigenous to the kingdom. Although the vines are well cultivated, the manufac- ture of their produce is badly conducted. The famous wines of antiquity have utterly lost their renown, and scarcely suffice for the consumption of the scanty modern population ; they are rich in sugar and defi- cient in the qualities which ensure preservation, whilst the late period to which the vintage is postponed in- creases this natural defect. The method of prepara- tion is rude and faulty, adulteration is extensive and on the increase, by the admixture of alum, logwood, elder- berries, and other substances, some of which may be regarded without exaggeration as virulent poisons, calculated to act with deadly effect in cases of excess ; fermentation is too much prolonged, and the casks are too small. There are, of course, laudable exceptions to the above errors, and improved presses are being widely adopted, but no special wine-making industry can be said to exist ; the vintners are ignorant and empirical, and the development of the Italian wine- trade, so naturally to be expected in consequence of the ravages of the phylloxera in France, has taken no impetus in this district. Equally backward is the preparation of oil ; the fruit is gathered when over-ripe, and the vessels used are exceedingly unclean. Good oil -mills with proper appliances are very scarce ; the oil is mostly extracted with hot instead of cold water, and the product, abun- dant in quantity, is utterly deficient in quality.. Indeed, the populace appear to prefer strong rancid oil to that which is clear and pure ; hence fraud is DISTRICT V.-ROME AND GROSSETO. 79 encouraged, and cotton-oil is freely mixed with the genuine material, to the extent that the poor use what is more fit to feed the lamp than the human body. In Grosseto, however, this is not so bad by any means as in Rome. With regard to industries derived from agriculture, the process of extracting the residue of the oil from olive-husks by means of carbonate of sulphur is ex- tending. Distillation of alcohol is virtually nil, on account of the heavy taxation to which it is subjected, and the ignorance of the manufacture and value of cream of tartar. The failure of sugar factories, above alluded to, was probably due to bad management, not making the best use of the material, and scarcity of the primary article. The produce of the pine-wood of Tombolo, near Grosseto, consisting of 14,000 trees, merits attention. It is certain that in ancient times cattle-breeding had far more importance than at the present day. An interesting bas-relief found in the Forum in 1872, representing the sow, sheep, and bull for sacrifice, and called the " suovetaurilia " ("sus, ovis, taurus"), shows to what great perfection the rearing of these animals had attained in the reign of Domitian. In the 5th District there are 126,014 oxen and 3,133 buffaloes. The former are excellent beasts of burden, fairly good for fattening, but the cows are comparatively poor for dairy purposes ; their scanty pasturage and total want of shelter shows them to be a hardy race. The ferocity of the bulls and cows in the Maremma and Campagna is proverbial, and the herdsmen have often to fight severely with them for their lives, and even to throw themselves on the ground, simulating death, in order to escape their fury. Pliny, Martial, St. Jerome, and 8o RURAL ITALY. Other writers have celebrated the buffalo in their works. By nature even more fierce and untractable than the ox, patience and art have rendered this creature actually of greater service to man in performance of the more fatiguing and arduous labours of the field ; its numbers are, however, sensibly decreasing. It would appear that horse-breeding is also much diminished, if it be true, as stated by Polibius, that the Roman cavalry between the First and Second Punic Wars numbered 70,000 horsemen, and that, as a recent author avers, between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there were 400 distinct breeds of horses in Italy, from amongst which many fine stallions were furnished to neighbouring countries. There is, how- ever, still a considerable amount of importance in the horse trade, which, together with the breeding of cattle, bids fair to become one of the principal features of these provinces. Prices of three-year-olds have lately risen from ^10 or £12 to between ;^20 and ;^35. There are 47,549 horses, 38,946 asses, and 6,288 mules; 1,337.554 sheep, 154,788 goats, and 53,211 pigs — according to the statistics. Each flock consists of from 2,000 to 4,000 sheep, tended by thirty or forty shepherds, with their dogs, and fifteen or twenty horses and mules. During their long migrations in search of pasturage they claim the right of camping and feeding on the farms bordering the line of march, without the payment of any com^ pensation to the owners. The silk industry is conducted on a very small scale, and on the most antiquated and unpractical system. Apiculture is equally neglected. Cheese is an im- portant manufacture, especially that made from the milk of sheep, goats, and buffaloes, which attains an DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 8i annual value of ^280,000. Fine wool has decreased to half its former price. There are fifty-two veterinary surgeons in the Pro- vince of Rome, of whom fourteen are paid by the communes in salaries from ^2 to ;^96. Cattle disease is almost chronic, but has not appeared on a large scale since 1863. Some attention is being paid to the scientific writings and experiments of Haubner, Greenfield, Haselbach, and Pasteur. The buffaloes suffer much from a kind of typhoid. Glanders in horses is spreading, particularly in Rome, and requires strict attention, because the peasants usually have recourse only to the farrier, or some quack veterinary, who treats the disease with charms and amulets, in total ignorance of the proper medical remedies. Cattle-salt is less used in this district than in any other part of Italy. The rotation of crops is on the three or four year system. Artificial manures are not used at all, and only a few spirited landlords have recently introduced agricultural machines, principally of English make. Silos were formerly much employed, as they are to this day in the south of the kingdom ; but they are no longer found in these provinces. The average return and profit from land appears. to be very small — indeed, not more than 22s. per acre for the former, from which 30 or 40 per cent, must be deducted for taxation, leaving only 1 5s. as the eventual profit. It is to be hoped that this is the minimum, and doubtless many estates show a far better account ; but it is most difficult to strike a precise average, and im- possible to reproduce the masses of statistics on which a general calculation is founded. 6 82 RURAL ITALY. Importation greatly exceeds exportation, specially (as is natural) in the capital, which, like a huge ogre, consumes a hundred times more than it produces. With regard to technical agricultural work and education, the Agrarian Committee of Rome has achieved good results ; but there are only three schools, and the number of pupils is small. Capital can only be procured by farmers at interest varying from lo to 120 per cent. In the mountains money is so scarce that goods are generally paid for in kind, the result being that the peasant is at the mercy of anyone who possesses a small fund of coin ; and usurers habitually charge 60 per cent, for loans in specie. The sole agrarian credit institution is the Bank of Rome, which only devotes ;^30,ooo to this branch of its business. However, Italy is making some advance in this important particular, and since 1870 a sum of ^400,000 has become available for the purpose ; and as there are ^2,000,000 on deposit in Roman banks alone, it may be hoped that more help may shortly be afforded to the agriculturists. Concerning means of communication, the great arteries of the kingdom naturally centre in the capital ; but the country is lamentably deficient in branch roads. As the proverb says, " All roads lead to Rome ;" but the nearer they get to the city the worse do they become. , There is some difficulty in keeping the roads in good repair, on account of the expense of working the vol- canic flint, which does not form a good surface. In the vicinity of Rome prisms of basaltic lava are used, which, though exceedingly costly at first, will last for fifteen or twenty years without requiring any repairs. DISTRICT v.- ROME AND GROSSETO. 83 Seventy communes are still without roads at all. Grosseto is better off than its sister province, where 625 miles of highway are still wanting to complete the requirements of the law on obligatory roads, in addition to the 2,188 miles already existing. In the Campagna all the traffic is carried on by ox- carts, horses, or mules, and in many instances the merchandise is not worth its transport, as particularly in the case of timber. There are more than 300 miles of railway, but the poverty of the district does not render branch lines sufficiently remunerative to encourage any development in this direction. Property in the Provinces of Rome and Grosseto is not of feudal origin. The municipal organization of the Romans has survived all the political vicissitudes of Italy. Under Papal government Canon Law regulated the tenure, and most of the large estates which now exist were created on the ruins of those which formerly belonged to the rich patricians. Almost all of the wealthy princes who own the extensive domains around Rome are the representatives of Papal families ; but whereas the Romans covered the land with magnificent villas, and a numerous population then cultivated the fertile soil, the country is now desolate and neglected, abandoned to poverty and malaria. The total value of landed property is estimated at ;^9,o7i,748, of which nearly one-half is in the hands of landlords whose estates exceed 2,500 acres in extent ; the remainder is divided amongst a host of small pro- prietors, and the smaller the farms the greater is the number of persons who participate in their ownership. Land may be considered as worth two and a half times more than its registered value. The compulsory sale of the huge ecclesiastical 6—2 84 RURAL ITALY. tenures in mortmain does not seem as yet to have greatly altered the price of land in the market. From time immemorial the communes have held wide de- mesnes of considerable value ; this occupancy consti- tutes a veritable mortmain in lay possession, and has the very worst influence upon the agricultural prosperity of the country. Charitable corporations, again, own real estates to the value of 7,000,000 fr., which do not bring in more than 2 per cent. Besides the usual heavy State taxation and that of the Provincial and Communal Administrations, rural property is subject to a multitude of dues and usances, dating from remote ages. In 1816 Pius VII. abolished all baronial rights, privileges, and monopolies ; but notwithstanding this and subsequent equally praiseworthy measures of a similar nature, there still exist certain usi civici, or rights of pasturage, wood-cutting, sowing, etc., which bind the hands of farmers and press additional burdens on a class of property already overweighted and sur- taxed. Mortgages cover quite one-fourth of the value of the real property. Money invested in land under favourable conditions brings in from 4 to 7 per cent. Insurance is only made against fire, and up to the enaction of the new Commercial Code many frauds were perpetrated by dishonest speculators and un- sound companies. The cattle-tax is always inopportune and often exces- sive. When the peasant is no longer able to pay the taxes levied on the nominal value of his farm, he is sold up and turned out; the collectors frequently DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSS ETO. 85 exhibit a total want of consideration in these cases, and one instance is recorded of a person being expelled from his house for a debt of is. 6d. Rural theft is abundant, and cattle-lifting far from rare ; even personal safety cannot yet be said to be fully assured. In most cases the owners and cultivators of the soil are in direct communication with one another excepting on large properties, where the farms are generally let to the " mercanti di campagna," who are at once farmers, merchants, and speculators. Leases are usually from nine to twelve years, and are put up to competition at auction ; the rent seems in excess of the value of the land, and it requires con- siderable capital to hire a large farm, or to exercise the business of a " mercante di campagna," by which, how- ever, large fortunes are frequently realized. The regular labourers and shepherds on large estates form a class by themselves ; they live in isolation and celibacy, and are almost always in the saddle. Casual labourers are generally ill-paid, and uncertain of obtain- ing employment ; their wages vary from 50 centimes to as much as 5 fr. per day. It is almost impossible for ordinary agricultural labourers to put by any savings, their earnings on an average being less than ;^io a year ; indeed, to many of them meat and wine are unknown luxuries. In the most favoured parts of the district are foiand some exceptional cases of peasants who have become rich by hard work, honesty, and intelligence, combined with economy and simplicity of life ; but the majority live as best they can from day to day, absorbed by the exigencies of perpetual work, their highest ambition being to own, however small, a property, without the 86 RURAL ITALY. primary comforts of existence, and their usual fate to die, hardly knowing that they have lived at all. There are 122,633 peasant proprietors whose indi- vidual holdings are less than 2^ acres in size ; those who labour expend their entire force in tilling the ground, those who are idle soon lose possession of their cherished property. Each year the Campagna sends a quantity of sick persons to the Roman hospitals. More than half of the 15,000 labourers are attacked annually by illness. Maize, vegetables, and thin cheese, all of very inferior quality, are their chief and often their sole food ; in many places the water is bad and scarce. Fortunately, pellagra has not yet appeared to any grave extent ; but it looms on the horizon, and the wonder is that it should not yet have given rise to serious apprehension. The natural physical condition of the people is good, and in some parts excellent ; morality is generally satisfactory and religion vigorous. Generally speaking, the condition of the rural popu- lation has deteriorated of late years. Clothing is suffi- cient, and in the case of the women sometimes almost luxurious, especially with regard to linen, but personal cleanliness is greatly wanting. The bonds of family are well maintained. Ten hours of labour is the average of the working-day. Women are tasked with- out consideration, often in excess of their strength. Hospitals are lacking in 200 communes ; only two poor-houses exist in the Province of Rome. Truly miserable is the state of the gangs of casual labourers who migrate every year from the Abruzzi and the Marches to work in the Campagna. At the time of their most urgent need, contractors advance a DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 87 small loan, and bind them for the following season under very unjust and intolerable terms. Wages, food, and lodging are insufficient in the field of their business, where they are at the mercy of unscrupulous overseers. Several thousands of these unhappy persons dwell for eight months of the year in huts, without bedding, medical attendance, or any of the first necessaries of life. Children receive 50 centimes, men is. per day. The agents make 2d. or 3d. per day out of each individual's wages by their contracts with them and the farmers for whom they are engaged. All time not actually spent in field-labour is com- pletely lost, and no trace of the regiments which fight against the malaria remains to mark their passage except the victims fallen by the wayside. Their naturally strong constitutions are sapped year by year, and when they do not die prematurely, they degenerate into chronic, fever-stricken invalids, though they do not transmit disease or debility to their children. Crowds of mendicants, mostly women and children, are thrown into the streets of Rome from this source. Every herb not absolutely repugnant to the taste, and every animal, dead from whatever cause, is devoured as a welcome addition to the costly and bad food supplied by the "corporals " or agents. In case of illness, the patient must be carried across country on an ox-cart without springs to the city hospital, or die where he lies, uncared for and alone. When " perniciosa " fever attacks the men in the midst of their labour, as often occurs, there is little hope of survival. Many an old house is inhabited by dozens of males and females, crowded together like beasts without dis- RURAL ITALY. tinction of age or sex, without adequate shelter, or any of the most elementary conveniences of civilized com- munities. The scarcely human ci-eatures, half nude, and wholly squalid in appearance, who ask alms at the entrances to the grottoes formerly spoken of, strike pity into the hearts of all who see them. A word may be added here concerning the dwellings of the poor in Rome, which are decidedly insufficient in number, and bad as to hygienic conditions. Many rooms are below the level of the street, and never get a ray of the sunshine, which is rightly regarded as the great life-giver, according to the proverb, " Dove entra il sole, non entra il medico." The smallest apartments are occupied by ten, fifteen, and even twenty persons ; under these circumstances, four cubic yards per head of air is as much as each individual can obtain. Con- sumption, fever, and immorality are the natural conse- quences of this promiscuous dwelling together. Although the police have in one month dislodged 300 persons from dens unfit for human habitation, the Augean stable is far from being cleaned out. A single speculator lately built in a central and populous part of the city no less than fifty mud-hovels 2^ metres in height by 3 in width, in each of which damp, smoky, and pestilential cabins four or five persons were huddled together for warmth and shelter. A society indeed exists for the improvement of the dwellings of the poor ; but its means are quite inade- quate. In Turin the upper floors of many large houses have been specially constructed for the accommodation of the humbler classes in airy and spacious garrets at cheap rents. As a proof of the desperate struggle for existence carried on in Rome, I may mention that for the nomination of sixty employes of the Questure, at DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 89 salaries of from ;^24 to ;^^6 a year, there were 1,735 candidates, nearly all of whom had high recommenda- tions from Senators, Deputies, Court and State officials, and even Ladies -of- Honour to the Queen. For a vacant clerkship in one of the principal banks there were over seventy applicants, including educated young men, who already possessed the diploma of advocate or civil engineer, and these instances could be multiplied ad infinitum. The reclamation of the Agro Romano by means of drainage and works of irrigation is the most important measure of the day, as being the only means of driving the malaria from its stronghold. For purposes of irri- gation the hydrographical condition of the Campagna is very favourable. It is calculated that the waters of the Anio and of the lakes could be made available for the fertilization of 325,000 acres of land. Complete absence of capital and a dread of increasing the malaria are the obstacles in the way of progress in this direction. The Roman Emperors attempted to drain the Pontine Marshes ; Theodoric made a similar en- deavour ; Popes Boniface VIII., Martin V., Eugenius IV., Sixtus v., and others down to Pius VI., gave attention to the matter ; but no really important or per- manent work was effected. The last-named Pontiff employed the engineer Rappini, and expended nearly ;^36o,ooo between 1778 and 1794, during which time 83 square miles were reclaimed. In the Province of Grosseto the Tuscan Maremma has ever been notorious for unhealthiness. Pliny wrote : '■ Est sane gravis et pestilens ora Tuscorum quae per litus extenditur." Here, however, Cosimo I. and the Grand-Dukes of the Medici family, his successors, were the first to attempt 90 RURAL ITALY. the sanitary redemption of the land, chiefly by desicca- tion and embankments. This work has been carried on to the present day, but much remains to be done before either the Maremma, the Pontine Marshes, or those of the Tiber can be rendered safe for habitation, and in many parts not even a commencement has yet been made. In the Roman Campagna alone there are still over 500,000 acres of unredeemed soil in the country for- merly containing many flourishing Volsian and Etruscan towns, but which fell to waste when the Empire was transferred to Constantinople, and in the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the Popes went to Avignon. A law for the " bonification of the Agro Romano," which has been above alluded to, was proposed at the end of 1878, and is now coming into operation for the reclamation of 78,540 acres round Rome. The recla- mation of the ground is declared obligatory on the proprietors, a Commission is appointed to inspect the lands and notify the ameliorations to be made, estimat- ing the expense and the time required for their com- pletion ; the outlay may be paid in annual rates during not more than twenty years. Should the owners neglect to comply with the requirements of the Act, their property may be occupied temporarily or ex- propriated by Government. New labourers' houses will incur no taxation for ten years, and increase of rents in consequence of the improvements will be exempt from land-tax for twenty years. Prizes in money will be given for the construction of healthy and comfortable buildings for working men and cattle, and for agricultural progress in other directions. The State expenditure will amount to ;^30o,ooo. It is DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 91 cordially to be hoped that this measure will be crowned with success, and its action extended in course of time, until Rome shall no longer be styled " ferax febrium," as she so long has been and still is, not without perfect justice and truth. It is grievous to be obliged to give a bad account of almost every District brought under our notice; but the fact remains that the general description of the agricul- tural condition of the kingdom is decidedly unfavour- able, and one may search v^ell-nigh in vain for redeeming points in the sombre narrative of want and misery. Rural property suffers deplorably from malaria in its best regions ; it is cut up into over-minute divisions, fettered on the one side by collective ownership, and yoked on the other to burdensome privileges and dues ; overwhelmed with taxes, debts, and mortgages ; want- ing in every means of inter-communication, and afflicted by the insecurity of life and property. Under such circumstances, none can wonder at the wild and sterile aspect of these provinces ; and we can only hope that the enigma of their amelioration may eventually be solved in a satisfactory manner by the eminent men whose most serious attention is now directed to the matter. UMBRIA AND THE MARCHES. Umbria is, generally speaking, a poor district ; the land is mostly mountainous and sterile, though a certain fertility is met with in the valleys and along the rivers. Property is equally divided between owners and tenants or labourers. The population is truly agricultural, the towns being relatively of small importance. Consider- able industry is shown in cultivation, but not much initiative or enterprise. 92 RURAL ITALY. Most of the peasants have houses of their own, or conceded to them by the landlords ; they are poor, but rarely miserable, and are usually moral and honest. The Marches have fertile plains stretching from the hills to the sea- coast, well situated, large in extent, and in many cases very productive. Both the town and the country people are well off, strong, and industrious, ready to adopt innovations and improvements, but more restless and turbulent than their Umbrian neighbours. The relative prosperity of these provinces eliminates many of the serious problems which affect the Roman territory, so that the only questions for careful con- sideration are the want of instVuction, technical know- ledge, and the capital necessary to restore a proper equilibrium between the production of the soil and the consumption which it is called upon to supply. Metayage is the prevalent system, and appears to be the one best suited to the requirements of the people, since the plague of usury, which is so rife in other parts of the country, is thereby greatly lessened and avoided. Umbria contains 9,628 square kilom. ; Perugia is its capital, and the chief towns are Foligno, Orvieto, Spo- leto, Terni, and Rieti. The Apennines run from north- west to south-east for a distance of 87 miles. Ammonite fossils are abundant, but minerals very scarce. There are eight lakes, that of Trasimene being the most famous ; its fishery is worth ;^300 a year. Unfortu- nately the surrounding country, which should be most fruitful and pleasant, is reduced to the condition of a vast and wretched marsh, as it was in the time of Hannibal, by the encroachments of the water, which submerges many acres, and produces a great deal of fever. The landlords are ready to undertake the works DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 93 necessary to remedy this evil, but they are prevented from doing so by Government, on the plea that certain vested rights belonging to the State would be interfered with. Besides the Tiber, twelve rivers run through the province. The climate is temperate, though variable ; there is little snow, frost, or hail. Of the 549,203 in- habitants, more than two-thirds are agriculturists. The district is, however, scantily populated with reference to its extent. Wine should naturally be the most important product of the land ; but the ground is laid out with no discernment, maize or corn occupying large and fertile tracts, which are capable of bearing far more remunerative crops, whilst their biennial rotation ex- hausts the soil, and the supply of manure is totally inadequate. The sale of State domains has led to the complete disafforesting of over 50,000 acres of woodland, mostly purchased by speculators, who reaped enormous profits by the sale of the timber. Olive-oil reaches an annual value of nearly ^280,000; the cultivation of the mulberry-tree is of some im- portance. Both the defective method of planting the vines and the faulty preparation of wine cause great loss, for instead of good and cheap wines, such as ought to be made, hardly anything is found except sour liquor, which will not keep and cannot be exported ; as usual, the grapes are mixed up black and white, ripe and unripe, and only a few persons take the trouble to produce choice wine of superior quality. Vines are planted anywhere, irrespective of the nature of the soil, and in defiance of the maxim, " Non omnis fert omnia tellus ;" most of the wine is white. 94 RURAL ITALY. Cereals attain an annual value of ^1,180,000. The commerce in vegetables, fruit, and flowers is of merely- local importance ; and the same may be said of flax, hemp, and similar products. A large sugar manufactory was established some time ago at Rieti, and beetroot was grown in conse- quence, but this industry has now failed and ceased. Tobacco is grown with lucrative results in three communes, producing ^4,000 a year, and the area devoted to this purpose is being gradually extended. Silkworm culture, after languishing for twenty years of disease and non-success, is now reviving. Cattle are badly kept, so that the breed has de- generated, and the milk, butter, and cheese are small in quantity and poor, in quality ; the produce of wool is likewise insignificant. The veterinary service is of the poorest kind. There are not more than 26,000 acres of meadow- land throughout the province. Peasants' families average in number from eight to eighteen persons. A fair amount of irrigation is practised, but the system is capable of great development. There are in Umbria 99,525 oxen, 724,940 sheep and goats, 213,132 swine, and 42,893 horses and asses. The International Exhibition at Perugia in 1880 was very successful, especially with regard to the in- troduction of agricultural machines. It is calculated that by an enlightened management, a little capital, and the adoption of technical improve- ments the value of farms may be increased to three or four times their present worth. The province exports a considerable quantity of corn, maize, potatoes, pork, wood, wine, and oil. DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 95 Aleatico, vinsanto, orvieto, and est-est-est are the choicest wines produced. The interest on loans amounts to 7 or 8 per cent., whilst capital invested in land does not bring in over 5 per cent. A good system of roads runs throughout the district, measuring about 4,630 miles. Charitable institutions own a good deal of property, which is better kept than that belonging to the communes, but might be vastly improved. Peasant proprietors are very few in number. Most of the land is heavily mortgaged. Taxes, as usual, are enormously high, the minimum amounting to 25 per cent, of the esti- mated revenue. Perugia possesses a parchment land-survey, dated 1 36 1. Other surveys have been made at intervals since that date, but a new one is much required. Rural theft on the part of the poor and unemployed day-labourers is very extensive, and in 1874 had reached such an unsupportable pitch of audacity, that stringent regulations were framed by the local authori- ties to suppress it ; but as far as I have ascertained, this measure has not even yet obtained Government sanction, and in 1881 it had certainly not done so. The morality, manners, and customs of the peasants in Umbria are extremely good ; their wages are very small, but they receive ungrudging assistance from their employers, to whom they are always in debt, but whom they repay by honesty and hard work. Their food is simple, consisting chiefly of maize ; but it is apparently sufficient, though only two meals per day are usually eaten — at 9 a.m. and in the evening. Water fermented in the lees of grape-must is the ordinary beverage. At harvest-time, however, a per- fect saturnalia occurs — five or six meals a day and 96 RURAL ITALY. wine in abundance being given to the labourers. All articles of food have greatly increased in price of late years, and wine is becoming dearer throughout the kingdom. The houses of the rural classes are unhealthy, dirty, and bad ; their vesture is rough and scanty, but they are well shod. The payment for boots and such articles of clothing as must be purchased is usually made in kind, for money is exceedingly scarce. Health is good ; but the pellagra appeared in the vicinity of Lake Trasimene in 1840, and has extended increasingly since that year. Schools are poorly fre- quented by the peasants, most of whom are entirely illiterate. Compulsory military service has had most excellent results. On the whole, this tranquil and laborious people, favoured by a climate exceptionally benign, may be considered amongst the best of all agricultural popula- tions, and will compare to advantage with those of any other part of Italy, and, perhaps, of Europe. The region known as the Marches comprises the four Provinces of Ancona, Pesaro, Macerata, and Ascoli-Piceno (to the north lies the interesting little Republic of San Marino). Its extent is 9,552 square kilometres, and its population 915,844, or 96 to the square kilometre. The agriculturists number 371,848, or 40 per cent. Great varieties of territory and climate are found from the mountains to the sea-coast, the greater part being eminently fertile and salubrious. Metayage is again the prevalent and most satisfac- tory system of farming. The relations between owners and labourers are most cordial, and the former willingly overlook the constant petty depredations com- DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 97 mitted by the tenants upon the produce which should be equally divided between them. Of these thefts a curious instance is recorded. After the corn has been threshed on a large farm and stored in the granary, the peasant girls feel a strong impulse to invoke the blessing of Heaven upon it. For this purpose they take the rosary, and walk round the heaps of grain while they recite the prayers. As each bead of the rosary is passed these pious women place a handful of corn in their aprons until their prayers are ended and they can carry no more. Having thus satisfied the requirements of religion, they sell the corn with an easy conscience, and buy articles of dress or finery. Both men and women work very hard, the latter with far more speed than the former ; women carry heavy burdens, working as masons' assistants, or hand- ling the spade and mattock with equal strength and dexterity. Children commence to labour before they can speak distinctly. Many of the peasants' houses are well built and com- fortable, especially where silkworms are cultivated ; others, however, and particularly those of casual labourers, are most miserable. Unmarried men and youths generally sleep in the stables during winter, and in straw huts outside during summer. -The peasant is frugal in his eating, both from habit and necessity, excepting at weddings, when so much food is provided that each guest carries some home with him. Love of finery and the modern fashion of dress adopted in towns is a distinguishing feature of both sexes, specially, of course, of the women. Family harmony is not so prevalent as in former 7 98 RURAL ITALY. days. Earnings are very small, varying from 2^d, to IS. per day for supplying all the requirements of life, but the rustics are mild in disposition and gay of heart ; their character is eminently calculating and mercantile, to the extent that a man will mourn the loss of an ox more than the death of a relative, and will take a wife just before the heaviest period of farm work in order to have an additional labourer in his fields. The shepherds and herdsmen lead a life of the utmost simplicity and thrift ; even when they have grown rich no change is made in their existence. At Vissano one man is credited with the ownership of 3,000 cattle and 6,000 sheep, as well as a large number of horses and mules. An ordinary herd consists of 1,000 sheep. The tax of 2s. per head of sheep presses hardly on the smaller farmers. Most of the flocks migrate for pasture to the Roman Campagna, so that the shep- herds only pass a fortnight during the whole year at their own homes. These men in many instances are well educated, and spend much time in reading ; it is not rare to find the " Jerusalem "* of Tasso, or similar books, in their huts. Casual labourers suffer severely from the lack of regular employment, for their numbers are daily in- creasing ; in case of an illness they are utterly desti- tute and miserable, the children beg or collect dung ; the women gather or steal firewood ; the cottages are made of mud and straw, devoid of furniture, and ex- posed to rain and wind. The new rdgime in Italy has done much to destroy the sentiment of religion amongst the lower orders, very little perhaps to supply its place ; the consequence * " Gerusalemme Liberata." DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 99 is, that faith and moral principle have disappeared, whilst prejudice and superstition survive ; nor is this wonderful in the district which holds the " Santa Casa di Loreto," certainly the most astounding stronghold of Roman Catholic credulity remaining extant at the pre- sent day. In the Marches no profit has been drawn from the devout nature of the rural classes, and the lower clergy, who naturally have no small influence among them, are left in a pitiable condition. The peasants are avid of learning, but the Education Laws remain virtually a dead letter, all progress in this respect being more apparent than real. The number that have a complete elementary knowledge cannot be reckoned at more than i, or at most 2, per cent. It is most rare to find a countrywoman who can read or write, instruction being regarded as perfectly useless for females. Patriotism in favour of the reigning dynasty is not remarkably vivid. The rustic knows that he pays higher taxes than before, but he sees little else. He votes at elections at the bidding of his landlord or his priest, without attaching any importance to the act, or in any way appreciating it as a privilege. The municipalities, as elsewhere, are prodigal in expenditure, but without discretion. They erect theatres in every small town, but seldom think of founding a rural school. Great beauty distinguishes the peasant girls, espe- cially when set off by the picturesque local costume. The majority of them are brunettes, fair women being exceptional. There is great infant mortality, but the longevity of the district is above the average of the rest of the kingdom. 7—2 RURAL ITALY. Marriages of consanguineous persons are rare ; the peasant invariably asks for his landlord's consent before taking a wife. The Marches are entirely exempt from malaria, which is more than can be said for any other district of Italy. Pellagra has, however, appeared of late years, whereas it was unknown thirty years ago. The number of patients now amounts to 1,565. Emigration to foreign countries is small. Temporary emigrants number 25,682 annually, most of whom re- pair to the Roman Campagna or the Maremma. Generally speaking, the condition of the people may be described as fair. It is doubtless far from idyllic perfection, but many other parts of the kingdom are in much less happy circumstances. Landlords feel most the increase of taxation, unaccompanied by any im- provement in their income, which rather has diminished. The wooded area in the Marches covers about 280,000 acres, chiefly of oak and beech trees. Its extent has been greatly diminished during the past half-century, and the art of forestry is sadly neglected. In former days this region was well wooded, but it has been subjected to a long course of improvident destruc- tion. With regard to reafforesting, the Government has proposed much and effected little ; the Provincial and Communal Administrations have neither proposed nor done anything whatever, even where their own interests are directly concerned. Vines occupy 685,000 acres, or nearly 30 per cent, of the ground devoted to agriculture ; olives are not extensively cultivated. Fruit is quite a secondary branch of rural industry, though formerly the district of Piceno was very fertile in this respect, according to the words of Strabo, " incolunt Picenes regionem ad omnae DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSS ETO. loi vitae usutn comodum, arborum tamen fructibus, quam frumento praestantiorem." The growing of apples and pears might be made a considerable source of riches to this country. In round numbers, 675,000 acres are apportioned to corn, which yields a harvest varying from three to thirty times the quantity of seed, according to the position and quality of the land. Beans are the most important vegetable produce, no less than 75,000 acres being given to their growth. The wine of the Marches has no renown in the market, principally owing to the inferior quality of the grapes. Oil is of the most excellent kind, but the pro- duction is small. There are in the four provinces 1 2,054 horses and mules, 21,457 asses, 198,310 cattle, 532,715 sheep, 71,142 goats, and 144,872 pigs. Horse-breeding is of small importance. The rearing of fowls is very exten- sive, and the eggs of 1,400,000 hens form one of the chief articles of exportation from the district. Silk is a notable industry, the Province of Ancona alone pro- ducing an average of 490,000 kilog. per annum ; the native yellow breed is everywhere preferred. At Jesi and Osimo a very superior thread is spun by numerous factories, some of which I have visited with much interest and pleasure. This article is eagerly purchased by merchants from Piedmont and Lombardy. Butter and cheese, excepting that made of sheep's milk, are not manufactured. There are 469 veterinary surgeons, of whom only 217 are licensed. Great difficulty is experienced by farmers in obtaining salt for cattle on account of the formalities and restrictions imposed on the sale of this Government monopoly. 102 RURAL ITALY. Irrigation is not of much account, because the course of the rivers is exceedingly rapid and unsuitable for the construction of hydraulic works ; indeed, in summer most of the streams are absolutely dried up, or only contain sufficient water to turn the mills. Agricultural implements remain of the primeval type. There is considerable export of corn, cattle, and pork. Rural credit banks are deficient, their place being supplied by the old " Monti Frumentari," the adminis- tration of which appears to be very bad and frequently dishonest ; they are even described by several reporters as "useless and pernicious establishments." The system of roads comprises a network of about 1 1,000 miles, and is fairly complete. A considerable extent of land is farmed by ancient associations, which still retain primitive charters and customs. For example, " the Consorzio of the original families of Serra Sant' Abbondio " owns 3,095 acres, and consists of 170 families; the "University" of Frontone has 132 families, owning 3,965 acres; the three " Universities " of Visso have 8,072 acres, be- longing to 1 70 shareholders ; the forty-two associations in the district of Arquata number 1,839 families, having the proprietorship of 10,035 acres. A very interesting account is given of the origin of these societies and of the communal property, so extensive in Italy. The Serra Sant' Abbondio was formerly held on leases of ninety-nine years, and eventually became the property of the Austrian College in Rome, from whom the ground-rent and all other rights were purchased in 1839 for 500 crowns, the valuation of the estate being 2,617 crowns. The association known as "the twelve original DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 103 families of Chiaserna" has a statute as recent as 1870, which still retains many antique provisions. Women are debarred from participation in the profits and from succession, so that a species of tontine — or, rather, estate in tail male — is established. Other peculiarities of this and similar institutions resemble the " Allmend " of Switzerland, their prototype, and the " Landes- gemeinden " of the cantons. In many communes the "jus pascendi atque lig- nandi," as well as other like usages or servitudes, still survive, the system of communal property having existed under the Romans. Large sales of State domains have taken place, that is to say, of the land belonging to religious corpora- tions now suppressed, their value from 1866 to 1879 amounting to ;^i,663,750. The natural conditions of the soil, the habits of the people, and the present division of property are all obstacles to a radical transformation of the system of agriculture in the Marches, even were great changes likely to lead to increased prosperity. Gradual and partial reforms of the most useful nature may be adopted with very hopeful prospects of success, but the extensive and profound measures of progress which have been taken in other countries, and which might operate with brilliant results in some parts of Italy, would probably in these provinces lead only to most disastrous social consequences. In terminating the account of this district, I take occasion to refer back for a moment to the condition of the emigrant and casual labourers in the Roman , Campagna. During the summer of 1884, when the cholera was spreading rapidly throughout the country, a meeting of I04 RURAL ITALY. the " mercanti di campagna " was held for the purpose of taking measures to check the progress of the disease at the period when field-labour is recommenced. Amongst the resolutions adopted was the following ..." That dead animals shall be buried in quicklime to prevent the peasants from digging up and eating them, as often happens." This is no isolated or extraordinary fact, horrible though the circumstances must appear ; for, as has been amply proved, the misery of the labouring-classes is as intense in almost all parts of Italy as it is in the neigh- bourhood of Rome. Those who have seen these unhappy persons moving in gangs at early dawn towards the fields where they are at work, conducted by an overseer on horseback, can scarcely have avoided a mental comparison between them and the slave-droves of ancient times. Whilst they work in line from sunrise to sunset, the horseman continually passes up and down to watch that there may be no shirking or neglect of the task set by the employer. Men and women bending to the ground, shivering in the chill mists of morning, toiling in mourn- ful silence, they might be but a herd of human cattle, resembling their fellows, but belonging to a different and degraded race of captive helots. The resolution above mentioned was quoted by almost all the Italian newspapers without comment or astonishment, as the natural and simple record of a daily occurrence ; but in contemplation of the state of things thus revealed, it may well be asked whether greater importance should not be attached thereto than to the questions of transcendental politics, which seem to occupy the entire attention of Parliament and of the press. It has taken twenty years to bring about the DISTRICT v.— ROME AND GROSSETO. 105 inquiry of the Agricultural Commission, but it was instituted more on account of the American and Asiatic competition with which trade was threatened than from the desire to ameliorate the condition of the rural popu- lation. The most serious factor in this problem is, that a vast field lies open to the workings of socialistic propa- ganda ; for when democracy shall have consolidated its scattered forces, of whose strength it is yet ignorant, it may be too late to apply remedies where preventive measures would now be sufficient. Government is not blind to this danger, and it is only to be hoped that the many projects already existing for alleviating the sufferings of the people may come into action in time to avert a catastrophe. CHAPTER VII. DISTRICTS VI. AND VII. — BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES. In the 6th District (Provinces of Forli, Ravenna, Bologna, Ferrara Modena, Reggio-Emilia, and Parma), the agricultural population are distinguished by their industry, sobriety, and simplicity. They are rough in manner, but religious in feeling, and addicted to family life. Two meals a day are taken at home, where they are cooked ; a third is eaten out of doors. Not much difference is observed between the various classes. What change has recently taken place is rather for the worse. Drinking and gambling are on the increase as the consequence of bad habits contracted under the com- pulsory military service. The peasants are generally heavily in debt to their landlords. In some parts the latter are paid by taking 5 or 6 per cent., one-half, or all of the farm produce, be it cattle, lambs, grapes, hemp, or what not. The relations between the different classes are generally good, though not quite so cordial as formerly, BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES. 107 owing to the dying out of old families and the purchase of their estates by new men. Rural theft is prevalent. Meat and vegetables are not much used ; coarse bread, chestnuts, and herbs form a chief part of the diet of the people ; oil and salt are scarce, but bacon, salt pork, cheese, eggs, and milk are plentiful. Wine has become dearer on account of bad vintages for several years past. Where vines are not cultivated the people drink water only. Soup, maize, and polenta complete the list of eatables. Casual labourers are much worse fed than they formerly were : polenta and water are their ordinary food. Houses are fairly good. The old ones are generally defective ; but new or repaired dwellings are well con- structed ; those, however, of the day labourers are in every respect exceedingly bad. In winter, where fuel is not plentiful, families and strangers congregate, and sleep in the cattle-sheds. Morality suffers, as well as the health both of the animals and of the human beings. There is a rage for fine clothes, procured by all available means, silk and velvet being prized and worn by both sexes on holidays, whilst the children go half- naked and dirty. Families are ruled by the father in the old patriarchal style. The women spin and weave the household clothing. The field labour done by women and children is not excessive, except in the district of Parma; "they seldom plough or dig." The average longevity is about 60 years; average age, 35^ years ; mortality, 2-94 per cent. io8 RURAL ITALY. Intermittent fever is prevalent, pellagra not serious. The excessive use of maize and the lamentable poverty of the peasants are the chief causes of illness amongst them. Schools are ill- attended, although they are sufficiently numerous ; the^. nature of the education given might well be altered and improved. The good and evil effects of compulsory military service are about equally balanced. Temporary emigration is frequent, total emigration rare. The inhabitants of the mountain districts show a higher standard of morality than the rest of the popu- lation. In the plains thefts, assaults, and the " vendetta " are prevalent ; they are committed with impunity, if not with the connivance and protection of those who should prevent their occurrence. Whole villages practise an organized and extensive system of depredation with incredible audacity and violence ; the robbers spare nothing, taking the entire crops of fruit and grain from the fields of poor farmers, both near and far ; no one takes notice of their misdeeds, and poverty is taken to be an ample excuse for the worst of crimes. The gleaning of corn and grapes should be restrained by law, too great liberties being given to the people in this respect in Bologna and all the ex-Pontifical States. •As many as 200 vagabonds have been seen busily engaged in gleaning in fields where the labourers were still occupied in getting in the harvest. The 7th District consists of the Provinces of Pia- cenza and the whole of ancient Piedmont, including the Provinces of Turin, Cuneo, Alessandria, Novara, and the Departments of Bobbio and Voghera, now BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES. 109 belonging to Pavia. Twenty-five sub-districts are comprised in this region. With respect to the geography, it may be observed that the proportion of plain to hilly or mountain sur- face in the Province of Cuneo is approximately as 3 to 8. Stone, marbles, alabaster, and porphyry are found in abundance. Iron-works are not developed. There are extensive " landes " in the watershed of the principal rivers, the Tanaro, Bormida, etc. Much diversity of climate and temperature exists, according to the various altitudes of different parts of the pro- vince. The rainfall is less than that of the valley of the Po, where it is calculated at eighty-eight days per annum, and it constantly diminishes towards the west. The Province of Turin covers a superficial area of 10,800 square kilom. ; it is certainly one of the most beautiful in the kingdom. About three-fourths of the ground is mountainous. The centre is intersected by the great plain of the Po, the waters of which carry down immense quantities of soil, owing to the destruc- tion of timber on the neighbouring hills. The amount of solid matter in suspension in the river is calculated at I cubic yard in 300 of water. There are no large lakes, but many small ones. Climate is temperate, except in the highest Alpine regions. Great variations of temperature during spring frequently cause much damage to agriculture. Alessandria is a province of 5,055 square kilom. ; the Po traverses 9,540 metres of its territory, and is navigable at all seasons. Irrigation and traffic are also afforded by the Carlo-Alberto and other fine canals. Mild and healthy weather prevails, though hail and frost often destroy the produce of the ground. RURAL ITALY. The Province of Novara measures 6,543 square miles of greatly varied land, from the region of arid rock and perpetual snow to that of extensive rice-fields and vineyards. Its waters chiefly flow into Lago Maggiore and the Ticino. Monte Fenera is remarkable for its formation, con- sisting of a basis of quartziferous porphyry, with an upper stratum of dolomite chalk, rich in ammonite and fossil caverns, which have been unwisely sold by the Commune of Borgo Sesia. The destruction of woods and forests has entirely extirpated the olive, which, three centuries ago, was extensively cultivated. Frost is the scourge of the province, and hail works much devastation. One Insurance Company paid ^24,000 in 1878, about ;^33,i6o in 1879, and ^28,000 in 1880, for losses from this cause. In the last year hail fell seven or eight times, desolating four times the same tracts of land. On the 24th June a single hail- storm lasted 70 minutes, and hailstones were picked up weighing as much as 35 grammes. Piacenza is traversed by the Po, and intersected by numerous torrents. The climate is good. Hailstorms are frequent during summer. There are iron and copper mines at Ferriere, and petroleum wells in other parts of the province, but the latter are neglected and unproductive. In the Province of Cuneo the urban is to the rural population as 20 to 80, and the density of the latter is about 80 inhabitants per square kilom. Most of them live near to their work ; the whole province is essen- tially agricultural, and the proprietors do not disdain to work personally on their farms. The villages contain from 10 to 150 houses, tenanted by 50 to 1,000 persons. BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES, m with an average of from 200 to 300. Turin is a thickly populated province ; the villages contain from 10 to 20 families, whose hygienic condition is generally unsatis- factory. In i\.lessandria the rural is to the urban population as 7 to I, and is entirely occupied in field labour, especially since the decline of the silk industry ; the rural population is much scattered ; its proportion to the urban population is as 58 to 19, and its density about o'5786 per hectare. In Novara agriculturists form the great majority ot the inhabitants. Cereals, fruit-trees, mulberries, and vines are cul- tivated in the plains and valleys of the district with constant and immense labour, agricultural resources being exceedingly limited. In the forest and pasture regions large properties are the rule, but in the plains they are subdivided to an extraordinary extent, which is the immediate and inevitable cause of considerable temporary and permanent emigration. The hill region is very extensive and important, chiefly for vine-growing ; its inhabitants are, on the whole, fairly prosperous. A portion of the plains is almost destitute of water, and here agriculture is in. a very bad state, only to be remedied by the strong coalition of intelligence, labour, and capital, the latter being especially wanting. The valleys of the Po and Its tributaries are well irrigated, and abound with natural meadows ; the farms range from 30 to 450 acres in size. Artificial irrigation is employed in the lower plains of the Province of Novara, where capital is more plentiful, and large properties prevail ; parts of this region resemble in cultivation the fertile plains of Lom- bardy. 112 RURAL ITALY. In the Province of Cuneo the rotation of crops is ahnost universally biennial; there are some 150,000 acres of uncultivated land, at least four-fifths of which are, however, by nature utterly unproductive. In Turin* the mdtayage system is much in vogue ; taxation reaches 30 per cent, upon land, and progress is necessarily slow in consequence. Re-wooding is greatly required ; there are some 3 1 6,000 acres of waste ground in the province. Meadows and rice-fields predominate in the irrigated plains of Novara. Agricultural machinery and the plough are fast superseding the mere use of the spade, and the abundance of fodder prompts a considerable amount of cattle-breeding. The mountain and hill regions are far behind this part of the province in rural prosperity and development. The question of reafforesting is as important in this district as throughout the remainder of the kingdom. Italy, according to official statistics, has 270 important rivers, besides an almost infinite number of torrents and smaller streams ; the mountainous area covers over 42,500,000 acres, or about 57 per cent, of her entire territory. The area capable of reafforesting is very large, amounting for this district alone to 208,1 16 acres, at an estimated expenditure of about ;^520,ooo. During 1878-80 some 5,477 acres were re-wooded throughout the country at nearly ^3 per acre, a small percentage of the total extent of 969,080 acres requir- ing reafforesting, at an estimated cost of ;^i, 916,591. However, notwithstanding the continual and indis- criminate destruction of timber, Cuneo has still 375,000 acres of wooded ground, Turin over 149,082 acres, * For the sake of brevity " Turin," " Cuneo," " Alessandria," etc. will be used for the " Province of Turin, Cuneo," etc. BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES. 115 and the other provinces forming the district are far from destitute of woods and plantations. The number of forest-keepers is very insufficient, and rural theft is unchecked. Grapes and garden fruit are extensively cultivated in Turin, and largely exported ; this industry is unde- veloped in the other provinces. In Alessandria the woods have in many parts been totally destroyed. In all the provinces considerable losses are suffered from " crittogama " among the vines, and from potato disease. The inordinate destruction of all kinds of birds menaces to bring a plague of insects upon the district. Wine-making in Cuneo is reported to be conducted on " the most irregular, old-fashioned, and absurd prin- ciples ;" the value of this industry is set down at about ;^8oo,GOO per annum. The wines do not contain much alcuhol, and the laws of 1870 and 1874 have re- duced the number of distilleries from over 800 to less than 140, not more than half of which are generally at work. . In Turin wine and vermouth are important in- dustries ; the wine is of good quality, and keeps well. The manufacture of sugar from beetroot has been tried ; and in 1871 a company was formed for the ex- traction of sugar from maize, of which 6,000,000 kilog. were purchased, and 25,000 kilog. were worked per day by the best procurable machinery ; but neither in- dustry prospered, and the manufactories were soon closed, the reason alleged being the poverty in sugar of the materials used. In Alessandria wine is made with little care : the full maturity of the grapes is not waited for, the separation of different varieties is not cared for, and the must is trodden out with the feet. 8 114 RURAL ITALY. In Novara more attention is paid to the subject, and some really choice wine is produced. According to a census of cattle taken in 1881, the following are the principal figures for the entire king- dom : Cattle... Sheep . . . Goats . . . Pigs ... Asses ... 4,783,232 8,596,108 2,016,307 1,163,916 674,246 Sheep preponderate in Central and Southern Italy, and in the islands, but specially in the south and on the Adriatic and Mediterranean coasts. Piedmont is the district which shows the most notable augmentation in the breeding of cattle and sheep, viz., 76 and 63 per cent, respectively. Lom- bardy and Venetia are the next in order. It appears that throughout the country all the above-mentioned animals have considerably increased since 1869, with the exception of pigs, which are bred in smaller proportion in Italy than in any other European country. Of late years the exportation of cattle seems to have decreased and the importation increased. The total value of all kinds of cattle in the Seventh District is estimated at .^11,373,920; the number of oxen is 955,344. Horse-breeding has hitherto assumed but very small importance. Only in Novara are cheese-making and the produc- tion of butter and milk worthy of special notice. There are 600 veterinary surgeons in Piedmont, 315 in Lombardy, and 722 in Emilia. In spite of much neglect of hygiene for the cattle, dis- eases amongst them are neither frequent nor disastrous. BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES. 115 The annual consumption of meat per head of the population in various nations has been given in recent American statistics thus : United States. Kilog. 55 England ... ... ... ... 50 France 3° Switzerland ... ... ... ... 23 Germany ... ... ... ... 22 Russia ... ... ... ... 20 Austria ... ... ... ... 18 Spain ... ... ... ... 13^ Italy ... ... ... ... 13 Portugal ... ... ... ... 9 Oxen to 100 inhabitants : United States... ... ... ... 66 Norway ... ... ... ... 56 Sweden ... ... ... ... 46 Switzerland ... ... ... ••■39 Roumania ... ... ... ... 38 Germany ... ... ... ... 38 Holland ... ... ... ... 34 France ... ... ... ... 32 Denmark ... ... ... ... 29 Belgium ... ... ... ... 26 Italy ... ... ... ... 17 It is calculated that out of an area of 1,013,029 hec- tares of plain in this district, 955,190 are watered by irrigation, and that there are some 180,440 hectares re- maining capable of irrigation in the united territory of the various provinces. Novara is the most important in this respect, having 1,600 square kilom. watered by this means. Respecting the use of manures, it may be said that not more than half the requisite quantity is given to the land. Where cattle abound, natural manure is forthcoming ; where they are scarce, hardly any 8—2 ii6 RURAL ITALY. manure is employed by the peasants, who are averse to chemical compounds, except phospho-guano, or simple bone-manure, locally prepared. In Novara alone are the meadows and rice-fields supplied with a good amount of manure. Agricultural instruments in general are of a primeval type ; the plough is the only implement which has been improved in more modern shape, though in some parts, e.g., in the district of Aosta, that described by Virgil is still in use. Sowing and threshing machines have been partially adopted on large holdings since the Turin Exhibition was held under the auspices of the Agricultural Com- mittee of that city. Other machinery has as yet scarcely been introduced at all. Granaries, barns, and store-rooms are badly con- structed and ill-kept. With regard to the great question of progress in agricultural production so as to make a stand against the importation from America, and to secure the future existence of the rural population, the verdict of the land-owners is thus given : " As long as millions of acres remain unreclaimed and untilled, as long as the majority and the strongest of the men are under arms, as long as huge armies entail excessive expenditure, and agriculture is suffo- cated by a weight of taxation, which absorbs from one-third to one-half of the returns, and so long as education, credit, and manures are wanting, we cannot strive with a reasonable prospect of success." In France, 44,000,000 fr. are yearly spent by the State on behalf of agriculture; in Austria, 30,000,000 fr. ; in Prussia, 20,000,000 fr. ; in Switzerland, 10,000,000 fr. ; in Italy, 4,000,000 fr. BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES. 117 Tlie transport tariff on the railways is anomalous and excessive, rather favouring foreign importers than native producers. Maritime freights are open to the same charge. It is difficult in Italy to form any correct estimate of the relative expenses and gains of farmers, since they, generally speaking, keep no accounts ; some scattered details, however, can be given. In Cuneo a farm of 10 acres gives a yearly profit of 714 fr. on a gross revenue of 1,394 fr. A vineyard, costing 927 fr. to lay out, brings in 195 fr. out of a yearly value of 555 fr. ; woods and plantations give a much larger proportion of gain. Fr. c. Fr. Corn shows a profit of . ■ 6 50 on a return of . • 137 5° Hay J) • 13 00 jj . 140 00 Potatoes j> 7 00 jj . 160 00 Hemp )j 1 1 00 )) . 196 00 Vines )) . 125 00 j» . 610 00 The expenses of cultivation are never less than 50 per cent., without counting extraordinary losses, insur- ance, repair of implements, or veterinary care. In Turin, meadow-land gives a profit of from 180 fr. to 250 fr. per hectare; the price of purchase being 5,000 fr. Good vineyards sell at 10,000 fr. per hectare. Speaking generally for the whole district, without going into a mass of statistical calculations, it appears that vines, meadows, woods, and rice-fields yield a fair return, and that the farmers can live where some capital and a great deal of labour are expended on the land, but that the net profits are usually very small indeed as compared with the real value of the ground. ii8 RURAL ITALY. Exportation includes timber, cattle, poultry, eggs, fruit, silk, and wine from Cuneo, which imports horses and mules, corn, petroleum, candles, etc. Much the same may be said of the other provinces. In 1880 the district exported 386,588 hectol. of wine in cask, of which nine-tenths went to France. It is reckoned that the average production of corn per hectare is 32 hectol. in England, 25 in Germany, 22 in Holland, 20 in Belgium, 15 in France, and 11 in Italy. One of the chief causes of this inferiority is the want of technical education in agricultural science. In Cuneo the influence and results of the technical schools are reported to be practically nil, and the same is said of the Agrarian Committees, which have been formed in every arrondissement of the province. In Turin there are fourteen technical institutes, all well at- tended ; but the theory of agriculture is the science to which least attention is given. The Committees have done some good, but most of them are deficient in funds. Similar remarks apply to the remainder of the district. Rural credit banks and " Monti Frumentari " do not exist in Cuneo, Turin, or Alessandria ; the interest on loans made by other establishments is high, but not usurious. Voghera alone possesses well-organized agricultural credit and savings banks. Amongst the improvements most immediately urgent are deeper ploughing, more extensive fruit-tree cultivation, the introduction of American vine- grafts as a precaution against phylloxera, the permission to grow tobacco, increased irrigation, horse-breeding, and manuring, longer leases to good tenants, and the estab- lishment of sound rural credit institutions. Many additions might be made to these suggestions, but it is BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES. 119 sufficient to say that it is incumbent on the owners and farmers as far as possible to remedy the defects shown to exist in their system of agriculture and in the condi- tion of the labouring classes. The remarks made on other districts concerning the subdivision of property, the rotation of crops, etc., are of general application. In 1 87 1 the number of proprietors in Piedmont and Piacenza was, to that of the whole population, as i to 6'57 ; in 1881 the proportion was i to 4'33. Piedmont had, in 1871, a total of 1,132,074 persons engaged in agricultural pursuits, including one farmer- proprietor per seven inhabitants. In all Italy 32 per cent, of the population were agriculturists, with a proportion of 50 women to 100 men. In Piedmont the proportion of women to men was 74 to 100, and the same is the case in Umbria, the Marches, and Lombardy. The sale of ecclesiastical property has greatly promoted the subdivision of land, by creating a class of speculators who purchase entire estates and resell them in small lots. Where large properties exist, it does not at all follow that farming is on a large scale. ' Most of the communes are owners of land, generally consisting of pasture or plantations, which are looked upon as common property, to be wasted by all, and repaired by none. In Valsesia, when the commune forbade free pasturage for a time, in order to reafforest a devastated tract, the intelligent peasantry set fire to the woods, and totally destroyed them over several hundreds of acres ! According to statistics collected in 1878, the charit- able institutions in Italy possessed property to the RURAL ITALY. gro-ss value of ^65,040,000 (net value, ^53,680,000), with a gross revenue of ;^3, 640,000 (net ^1,880,000). In Piedmont there are 2,386 charitable establishments of all kinds, enjoying a net income of ;^3 16,446 per annum. It is asserted by several writers that the mortgage debt in this district amounts to 60 per cent, on the revenue ; adding at least 20 per cent, for taxa- tion, there remains to the landowner just 20 per cent, of his income for all purposes. Loans for the improvement of land are rarely re- sorted to. The sale of property is found comparatively easy. Interest on capital invested in land varies from 2 to 6 per cent. The total mortgages amount to the sum of about ;^55,832,9i i. We now come to the consideration of the condition of the rural labourers, and here again the observations recorded respecting other parts of Northern Italy might almost be repeated verbatim. Small farms are usually leased for three, six, or nine years ; larger ones for nine to twelve years ; longer leases are rare. The wages of farm-servants are from £6 to ;!^io, and sometimes £\2, with their board and some clothing ; the board may be reckoned at 70 centimes per day. Ox-herds receive from 15 to 90 fr. (i2s. 6d. to ^3 I2s. per annum!), with board, lodging, and a few clothes. A female servant in the house of a small farmer has board, lodging, and from £2 to ^4 a year wages. An able-bodied day-labourer earns from .1^1 8 to ;^20, which, by extra work, and by rural theft, he may increase to as much as from ^32 to ^48. Women are largely employed in field-labour, and their assistance is essential on account of the scarcity of hands ; they gain about half the wages of a man, or a little more. BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES. 121 A great deal of work is done by the job, and some of it is paid in kind. Notice to quit must be served on a tenant on March 31st for the nth of the following November; this leads to much disadvantage for landlords, who may be obliged to keep for the best part of the year a bad tenant who will do his utmost to profit at his master's expense, since otherwise he would be merely working all the season with no prospect of gain from his labour. Farmhouses are generally given rent-free to small tenants, whilst the latter supply the owners with a certain proportion of the produce of the farm. Though most of the leases are for three years, families often remain for thirty or forty years on the same spot. In Novara longer leases prevail. The tenant is usually bound to keep a certain number of cattle per acre of grass, not to sell litter or straw off the estate, and to give up the farm at the end of his term in the same condition as when he took it, or even with im- provements. From fifty to seventy beasts per hectare is the average. Wages vary from 75 centimes to 2 fr. per day for ordinary farm-labourers, according to the season, and to whether they are or are not lodged gratis. The men work in small gangs ; the higher fixed workmen and superintendents receive better pay. In the hill and mountain regions the condition of the peasantry is better than on the plains, where a little pork is the only meat ever eaten, and wine is an un- known beverage. Even when the labourer is appar- ently satiated he suffers from chronic physical hunger, because his food is deficient in nutritive quality. In Piacenza the peasant is, in many cases, bound by contract to work during the whole year for his master, 122 RURAL ITALY. receiving lodging gratis, and payment only in kind, with the addition of £2 a year in money. Notwithstanding the extreme paucity of the sums above quoted, it is reported that labourers' wages have increased throughout the district by 25 to 30 per cent, principally on account of the emigration and consequent scarcity of hands. Not considering the case of such as can exist tolerably upon their gains, it may be said in a word that i fr. per day — the average wage of the poorer labourer — is miserably inadequate to provide food, clothing, and the necessaries of a bare life for a man, and much more so if he have a wife and children. Whilst men will walk 40 or 50 miles in order to engage in the lowest and foulest work, such as rice-cleaning, in order to gain 30 fr. by forty days' labour in the heat of summer, provided only with the bread which they can carry or procure in the neighbourhood, it is no wonder that social disturbances crop up, and that the law of compulsory education remains, to a great extent, a dead letter as far as the rural population is concerned ; nor is it surprising that the peasant, driven by want and misery, should quit with tears his poor but beloved habitation to. seek better fortune in distant lands, leav- ing his starving wife and little ones to do the best they can, while awaiting his return with some means of sub- sistence. No small changes in the character and manner of life of the rural classes have taken place since the political events of 1848.' These changes have been partly for the better, and partly for worse. The old family ties, respect for the landlord, love of home, and fatalistic, resignation to all circumstances have been succeeded by restlessness for change, bad faith, and mistrust towards superiors, and a decided loss of BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES. 123 religious feeling. The peasants' houses are, doubtless, better than formerly. Costumes are gradually losing all local peculiarity. Only the mountaineers retain their ancient habits of life. Amongst the peasantry the sentiment of strict honesty declines gradually in descending the social scale. Generally speaking, how- ever, no grave charges can be brought against even the lowest farm labourers with respect to sobriety and good conduct. The landlords have' very rarely occasion to complain of their tenants or dependents being in debt towards them. In Cuneo and Ales- sandria, at least, their mutual relations are excellent, with the exception of the herdsmen, who seldom get on well with their employers, and are continually changing their situations. The example of resident proprietors, where they are to be found, is of great value in furthering practical improvements, because the peasants place but little faith in the theories of professors of agricultural science, but they attentively observe the proceedings of their neigh- bours, and readily adopt such as are manifestly advan- tageous. Distinctions of class are rigorously adhered to, even down to the herdsman, who considers himself the social superior of the ordinary day-labourer, and would be loth to give him his daughter in marriage. Mutual rela- tions between the urban and rural populations, and of the latter amongst themselves, are, however, sufficiently cordial. Families usually consist of eight or ten persons, in some instances of as many as from fifteen to twenty. A herd of 200 or 250 oxen is kept by five or six adult males and females. In the Province of Turin the peasants are mild in 124 RURAL ITALY. disposition, courteous, and hospitable, strong, and very hard-working, but often excessively ignorant and pre- judiced. They limit themselves in summer to only three or four hours' rest during the night. Crime is rare in the country districts. Only on the occasion of the yearly " Festa Padronale " the young men, excited by wine, are apt to revive ancient clan rivalries, which lead to fighting with knives and stones, and end in prison or the hospital. The women are generally moral. Socialism is making some way, especially in the vicinity of large towns, showing itself in a growing want of respect for superiors and envy of the rich. Day-labourers, who possess nothing, are the majority of the inhabitants ; they amount in Piedmont to one- fifth of the rural population. The landlords are habitually absentees, taking no interest whatever in their tenants, in return for which the latter have excluded almost every man of means from the list of councillors at the communal elections. The towns- people deride and despise country folk, and are looked upon by them as proud and selfish. . In Novara the farm-labourer is said "to contend with every species of privation from the cradle to the grave." His infancy is passed in the care of strangers or rolling in the mud ; at 7 years old he receives a few months per year of elementary schooling, and passes the remainder in tending goats ; at 10 he already gains some small wages ; at 1 2 he sleeps away from home, and is regularly employed ; and at 1 5 he undertakes the hardest farm-work. The men rise in summer at 2 a.m., in winter at 4 a.m., awakened by beating a stick on an empty box ; in the former season they work from twelve to fourteen BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES. 125 hours per day. When ill, the hospital receives them ; when old and unfit for work, they are forsaken and un- cared for. Yet the peasants seldom take to begging, even when deprived of nearly all resources. Girls take part in field-work at the age of 14 or 15, At night they catch frogs and fish in the marshes, and steal corn or wood. At 30 they are mature women, old at 40, decrepit at 50, with bent backs and bronzed faces. Many families lead a nomadic life. Every Michael- mas their household goods, worth perhaps a total of ;^6, are packed on a bullock-cart, and a new home or situation is sought. In corn or garden districts the small farmers are comparatively prosperous, and in the hill regions the same is the case, though here many of the villages are notable for their excessive filth. Throughout the plains masters and workmen live together for years without the exchange of a syllable of good- will. In every hamlet class distinctions are complete down the entire gamut of the social scale. Where irrigation has been introduced farms have much improved, always with the exception of the peasants' houses. The relations of the rural classes with the urban population are strained, the former entertaining an unconcealed antipathy for the latter. Labourers usually have many children, " and," says an official report, " indeed they have nothing else." In the remainder of the district the same charac- teristics prevail, but food is somewhat better and more varied in Piacenza, Voghera, and Bobbio, and the use of wine is greater ; also landlords are more solicitous for the welfare of their dependents. Card-playing is the favourite pastime of the people. It is remarked concerning Cuneo that the food of the 126 RURAL ITALY. peasants is wholesome and fairly sufficient, since unripe or mildewed corn, etc., is given to the cattle. The habit of sleeping in cattle-sheds during winter is general throughout the district. All the labourers wear strong boots and adequate clothing, the annual cost of which may be put down at 60 fr., but personal cleanliness is entirely neglected. The old patriarchal type of family life is fast disappearing. More employment ought to be provided during the winter, when the peasant, ignorant of every trade, passes much time in forced idleness. In Turin the primitive unity of families still exists. The houses and food could be vastly ameliorated, though labourers take four meals a day. The metal mines in the mountains might be extensively worked to much advantage. Women labour as hard, if not harder than men, but the strength of children is not overtaxed. In No vara the food of day-labourers is scanty and bad ; the miller robs them of from 10 to 14 per cent, of their corn. Bread, which costs 20 centimes a kilog., is baked only once a fortnight, and soon goes bad. The extortions of the miller amount to 12 or 15 kilog. (worth about 3 fr.) per quintal of grain, and have passed into a proverb, " Pagarvi da mugnaio." There are, of course, in this, as in every province, parts where the food and houses are good, but they are rather the exception than the rule. The peasants' house-rent comes to 50 or 60 lire out of an income of barely 400 lire. Drainage is totally neglected. Each house of any dimensions is owned by a dozen part-proprietors, and the condition of these tenements easily explains the ravages of the cholera in 1866 and 1867! More manufactories are found in Novara than in the other BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES. 127 provinces. Women work incredibly hard, carrying burthens of 50 or 60 kilog. on the mountains with ease, and labouring in the rice-field, bending, down all day, with half their bodies in the water and half exposed to a burning sun. Attention is drawn to the extensive adulteration of even the simplest food which prevails in this part of the kingdom, though perhaps the evil is not worse than in other districts or in other countries. The general health of the district is satisfactory, and the longevity is normal, but the mortality of infants is large. Babes are tightly swaddled for six months, often in filthy rags, and their rearing, whether in health or sickness, is grossly neglected. The medical service, though for the most part insufficient, is well performed, but poorly recompensed. In the towns i fr. per visit is paid by the lower classes, whilst in the country whole families contract at the rate of i fr. per head annually. Doctors paid by the Municipalities receive from ^32 to ;^48. In the valley of Susa, Province of Turin, the average duration of life is only thirty-eight years ; this is chiefly due to the utter disregard of all principles of hygiene on the part of the natives. Women rise from childbed in a very few days, and return to work. The military conscription has abolished early mar- riages, the peasant now always completing his term of service before taking a wife. Cretinism is decreasing. There is a great want of doctors and chemists in the Province of Turin, where local quacks enjoy more confidence than skilled practi- tioners. Voghera, in the valley of the Po, has^beenjdecimated at intervals by all the great epidemics which have 128 RURAL ITALY. traversed Europe during the present century. Typhus, cholera, and diphtheria have each in turn depopulated this unfortunate region, where hospitals are very in- sufificient in number. The following statistics of the prevalence of pellagra show a notable decrease : PELLAGRA. In 1881. In 1879. Cuneo .... Turin .... Alessandria Novara .... Pavia .... Piacenza .... 219 416 316 342 418 1,575 34 1,042 4°3 213 800 4,326 + 185 - 626 - 87 + 129 - 382 - 2,751 Total . 3,286 6,818 - 3,532 In 1880 there were 7,742 lunatics in Piedmont, Lombardy, and Emilia, of which 2,975 i" the ten asylums belonged to the Eighth District. Of the large proportion of the population who are unable to read or write, about nine-tenths belong to the rural classes, and consist principally of women, or men over 40 years of age. It is noted that the women especially soon totally forget the rudimentary instruction which they have received during childhood, so that at 20 years old they again become as ignorant as they were in their earliest infancy. The effects of compulsory military service are reported to be beneficial. The peasants imagine' the entire Government of the country to be concentrated in, and to emanate from, the King. Novara furnished fully one-fourth of the workmen who made the St. Gothard Tunnel. This province is BOLOGNA AND NEIGHBOURING PROVINCES. 129 remarkable for the absence of crime, always with the exception of rural theft, concerning which the proverb runs : " La roba che fe nei campi fe di Dio e dei Santi." For educational purposes the communes expended over ;^35o,ooo in 1881. In 1880 there were 4,591 total emigrants and 24,818 temporary emigrants from Piedmont. Religious sentiment is still generally strong ; less superstition prevails than formerly, but there is still implicit credence in even the most absurd miracles, as well as in other things — for example, in Cuneo, the women boil swallows' nests in milk and drink the decoction as a preventive of diphtheria (they call the swallows " chickens of the Madonna"); in other places the church bells are rung to conjure away tempests, and a belief in witches, supernatural beings, ghosts, etc., is almost universal. Amongst the improvements suggested for the future amelioration of the country is the introduction and strict application of game and fishery laws. Much must, indeed, be done in every way before it can be again said of the agriculturists : "O fortunati nimium, sua si bona norint." Before proceeding to describe the next district, I take occasion to note the continuance of disturbances in the neighbourhood of Ravenna during the year 1883. At a meeting of agriculturists concerning these disorders, it was recorded that the peasants were often driven to eat grasses and bran, and to make soup for their sick children from the offal of fowls picked up in the gutter. Insurance on oxen costs 10 per cent. The 9 130 RURAL ITALY. peasants must carry fifty loads for the landlord. Drivers are paid 25 centimes per journey of twenty-four hours. A day's labour is paid 30 centimes, and is not given in cash, but carried to the account of old debts. All wood is the property Of the landlord ; but if a tree dies the peasant must pay a fine of 20 fr. Recently 400 day- labourers entered the town and demanded work at the Municipality. On the formal promise that work should be found for them, they retired quietly. If the^e facts do not justify the illegal actions com- mitted by the peasants, they at least explain and, in a great measure, extenuate them. CHAPTER VIII. DISTRICT VIII. PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENOA, AND MASSA- CARRARA. The Eighth District is divided into two parts, the first comprising the Provinces of Genoa and Porto- Maurizio, known as Liguria, and the second Massa and Carrara. The old administrative partition of the provinces has separated from Liguria proper a portion of territory which would appear, ethnographically, historically, and agriculturally speaking, to be strictly connected with it, whilst another portion would be better united with Parma and Lucca. The individual character of the Ligurians is mani- fested in their agricultural condition. Each one labours independently on his own account. Most of the agrarian population are simple farmers, or rather peasants. Landlords care little for the condition of their estates, and devote no funds to the improvement of them ; but the tenants are very laborious, and firmly attached to their homes. No great goodwill exists between the two classes, and the latter are accused of seeking every possible excuse for evading the payment of their debts and obligations towards the former. 9—2 132 RURAL ITALY. In ancient times Liguria consisted of an uninterrupted chain of rocks and woods. Industry and perseverance, inspired by the beauty of the country, created cultivated ground out of the barren soil. The ossiferous caves in the Ligurian mountains indicate a prehistoric popula- tion, and may become a source of riches to the modern inhabitants. This region possesses no plains beyond the narrow strips of land adjacent to the beds of rivers ; but the ruins of Roman bridges and other buildings point to the former existence of many bays and firths of the sea, which has now receded, leaving an alluvial soil, forming rich land for cultivation. The Ligurian sea-coast, extending upwards of 170 miles, occupies the first section of the Apennines. The ground has a light covering of sand, mixed with earth and pebbles, brought down by numerous small rivers and streams subject to inundations ; such land is readily converted into fields and gardens, but the hills are only cultivated, at the cost of immense labour and patience, in terraces after the Chinese fashion. Hence it may be said that Liguria is not in reality an agricultural region, though its fertility is so various and so exuberant that cultivation is encouraged by Nature, and may yield a rich harvest in the future. There is great scope for increasing the production of olives, vegetables, grapes, lemons, etc. As early as 1808 the Abbe Picconi wrote a book on the possible improvement of Ligurian agriculture ; and his suggestions might still be adopted with advantage, since little has been done in the meanwhile. The chief obstacle to progress is the character of the farmers themselves. The Ligurians are by nature shrewd, calculating, and enterprising, but too fond PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENOA, MASSA-CARRARA. 133 of adventitious gains. Hence, in Genoa commerce flourishes, but agriculture is at a disadvantage. The hope of sudden profit leads the people to make abrupt changes in the system of cultivation, uprooting trees and crops before they have had time to ripen, in order to replace them by others which are expected to return a larger interest. Communal lands are mostly quite barren, and large tracks of good ground are sacrificed to military uses in connection with the forts of Genoa. Some progress has been made in road-making, but much remains yet to be done. In the neighbourhood of the city handsome villas and country houses abound, mostly the residences of success- ful merchants or tradesmen ; but the soil is poorly cultivated. Far from the chief towns the peasants' dwellings are poor and wretched. With regard to irrigation, nothing has been done for the past fifty years or more beyond the commencement of the Lunese Canal, which seems to meet with obstacles rather than with encouragement. The wooded area of Liguria covers some 25,000 hectares, most of which is in great need of reafforest- ing. Landed property, as reported in 1837, was worth ;ifj'4,8i3,57i in the Province of Genoa alone; but it carried mortgage debt to the amount of ^3,640,000, and now Liguria may be said to have exhausted its credit, and to live on debt. Obligatory road-making, which in two years cost .^8,520,000, and of which the communes paid ^5, r 20,000, ruined many towns without bringing much advantage to the country people. The want of elementary instruction in agriculture for 134 RURAL ITALY. the peasants is much felt, and the demand for the reduction or abolition of the salt-tax is universal. [On the frontier of the Canton of Tessin salt is extensively smuggled back into Italy, after being bought by the Swiss at a very low price, in virtue of a Convention with the Italian Government. The system of working the contraband is by infiltration. With a view to stop salt-smuggling in this direction, salt is in future to be supplied to Tessin from the lagoons of Venice, instead of from Cagliari, the difference in colour and crystallization enabling the Customs officials to detect the latter quality at a glance.] It must be remembered that the term Liguria, here applied only to the Provinces of Porto- Maurizio and Genoa, formerly embraced a far larger territory, and in ancient times comprised the whole of Upper and Mid- Italy as far as the Arno, as well as Provence up to the border of Spain, and a part of Savoy and Switzerland. The Province of Genoa is divided into five districts, viz., Albenga, Savona, Genoa, Chiavari, and Spezia, and comprises forty-seven wards. Porto- Maurizio is much smaller, its greatest length not reaching 50 kilom.; it contains 14 wards and 106 communes. In some parts the inhabitants live at great distances from the seats of local government, which gives rise to many inconveniences. The population of the two provinces in 1871 was : Genoa, 4,114 square kilom.; 902 towns; 716,759 inhabitants, of whom 198,092 were agriculturists; 515,054 of the population living in towns, and 201,705 in the country. Porto-Maurizio, 1,209 square kilom, ; 127,053 inhabitants, of whom 56,444 were agricul- turists ; 120,114 of the people living in the 257 towns, and 6,939 in the country. PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENOA, MASSA-CARRARA. 135 The great majority of the peasants are engaged in simple farming, a certain proportion in shepherding or cattle-tending, and a smaller number in forestry or gardening. Emigration statistics are as follows, but their accuracy is somewhat disputed : From the Province of Genoa : Emigrants. 1876 2,984 1877 3.4" 1878 3.04s 1879 5,416 Of the total for the latter year, 3,475 emigrated entirely, viz., 2,310 males and 1,165 females, 587 of whom were under 14 years of age ; 1,941 persons emigrated temporarily, viz., 1,360 males and 581 females, 370 being under 14 years old; 2,108 of the total number of emigrants were agriculturists ; i ,084 went to other European countries, 4,249 to America, 67 to Africa, and 16 to Asia or Australia. In 1881 Liguria sent forth 3,358 emigrants (2,292 males and 1,066 females) permanently, and 2,035 temporarily (1,680 males and 355 females), of whom 2,666 were agriculturists. In the Province of Genoa there are about 300 miles of highroad, and in the whole district considerable progress has been made in road-making since 1873 ; but many lines of communication are yet incomplete, and several highways are so ill-prepared that the sacrifices and expenditure incurred in their construc- tion threaten to be entirely wasted. One-fifth of the communes of Liguria, in the moun- tain regions and on the northern slope of the Apennines, is utterly destitute of roads, and even the paths and mule-tracks are in the worst possible state. Several 136 RURAL ITALY. Government roads are projected, but they are destined exclusively for military and strategic purposes ; of these, the most important is that designed to connect Spezia with the road from Genoa to Piacenza. The sea-coast is generally far better provided with roads than the inland counties. On account principally of the many considerable towns existing in Liguria, the rural products of the dis- trict are inadequate to the demands of local consump- tion ; hence there is no exportation of any consequence, but the imports attain to a high figure. Northern Italy, the Levant, and America sen'd large quantities of corn ; Piedmont, Lombardy, and Emilia furnish maize, rice, wine, and flax ; oil is brought from South Italy, from Tunis, Tripoli, and the East, and after being refined and mixed with pure oil, it is re- exported to the various European markets. Oranges, lemons, fruit, and vegetables are imported from Naples and Sicily. The greatest exportation and importation is at the port of Genoa. With regard to education, it must be borne in mind that, at the end of 187 1, y^i V^^ cent, of the population of Italy were unable to read or write, and that the law on compulsory education was only passed in July, 1877. Therefore, not much has yet been accomplished for the instruction of the rural population. In France, in 1874, there were 42,000 rural schools, of which two-thirds had small gardens annexed to them. Elementary education has reached a compara- tively high standard at Genoa, both with respect to the number of teachers and scholars. There are 1,286 primary public day-schools, with 65,204 pupils. Of the teachers, two-thirds are laymen, and the rest priests and nuns. In the province there are also 183 private PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENOA, MASSA-CARRARA. 137 elementary day-schools, with 162 teachers and about 4,000 pupils of both sexes, and 341 Sunday and even- ing schools, which are very successful in their operation. Yet there remain some 14,000 persons who, for various reasons, are still completely uneducated. On the whole, the masters are up to their work, and do not come under the general accusation levelled against their class in 1878 by the Minister of Public Instruction : " That the Italian schoolmasters are deficient in number and wanting in capacity." The average salary of ^24 a year hardly justifies the expectation of finding teachers of superior qualifi- cations. Some of the communes have tried the experiment of employing soldiers to teach in the rural schools, and good results have generally been obtained, though such instructors are, perhaps, • not the best-suited to an exclusively agricultural population. School attendance is mostly regular, and few children are prevented from completing the proper course of instruction. In technical agricultural education, however, the district is not so fortunately situated. The Province of Genoa is almost entirely devoid of all means of such study, and though elementary agrarian schools are increasing in number, the teachers in them are not up to the mark. Signer B. Marsano has given more than ;^20,ooo for the establishment of a practical agricultural college, but the building has not yet been commenced. The remainder of the district has no agricultural schools at all, and the few Agrarian Committees or similar institu- tions which exist are of no importance. It is noteworthy that the poorer classes, and even the 138 RURAL ITALY. most illiterate amongst them, have no kind of prejudice against the education of their children, but rather take pride and delight in sending them to school, excepting only at the time of the olive harvest, when all hands are required, from the youngest upwards. Large properties do not exist in Liguria; indeed, very few exceed ;^4,ooo in value, and estates of equal extent vary greatly in worth according to their situation, the proximity of roads, and the system of ojWvation employed. Olive-trees form the real and almost the only wealth of the district. During the past twenty years land planted with olives in favourable positions has doubled in price, such ground, on the sea-coast, being now worth from i to 1 5 lire per square metre, whilst land in the hill country fetches only from 5 to 50 centimes. Property is microscopically subdivided by reason of the density of the population, the hilly nature of the land, and in consequence of an ancient and curious Genoese statute, under which purchasers were granted a right of pre-emption over their neighbours' land with a reduction of one-third of the market-price. Sales of land are nowadays very rare. Peasant proprietors form the great majority of the Ligurian agriculturists ; the poorest of these live in huts barely possible for human habitation. The density of the population increases towards the mountains. Especially in the Province of Porto- Maurizio, there is a great deficiency of rain-water. Labourers are scarce, and their work is comparatively dear and bad. The cultivation of tomatoes has been highly developed in several communes, and in that of Riva alone there are more than 200,000 plants, producing fruit to the value of ;^8oo. PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENOA, MASSA-CARRARA. 139 Previous to the Ligurian revolution in 1797 the estates belonged to a few noble families, termed the " magnifici," and to the priests ; it is since that period that the land has been continually subdivided, until now a property of 2 hectares only is not considered small. In the north of the Province of Genoa there are two or three estates of 3,000 hectares, but these are very exceptional. The average value of land is £2> P^i" hectare in the forest region, ^24 in the chestnut district, and £160 in the garden and olive grounds. In some parts the latter values are decreasing, owing to various causes, and particularly because property is not valued by acreage, but according to the estimated worth of its productions, and such estimates are made on an antiquated and very erroneous system. Owners com- plain that olives now do not return more than i^ or 2 per cent., and many families formerly 'wealthy from this source are now reduced to poverty. The destruc- tion of woods and forests is a primary cause of this depreciation of property ; but the great scarcity of cattle and a vicious system of farming are also to blame as contributing to the same result. The proportionate value of labour performed by a peasant proprietor, by a regular labourer, and by a day- labourer has been estimated as 100 : 94 : 64. The communal lands of Liguria are mostly situated in the least favourable hill regions, and may be said to be virtually wholly unproductive, exposed as they are to every abuse of rural theft, vagrant cattle and sheep, neglect, and ill-cultivation. Charitable corporations possess but very little property, and there is reason to fear that their funds are often misappropriated or badly managed. I40 RURAL ITALY. Taxation is excessive, especially that imposed by the provincial and communal administrations. Land as usual bears the heaviest burdens — one-third, two-thirds, and in some instances the entire annual income, is thus absorbed. In Porto-Maurizio the land-tax averages 48|- per cent. ; in the Province of Genoa it varies from 31^ to 74, and even 88 per cent. ! A reform of the land-tax is urgently required. The total mortgage debt in Italy has doubled in fourteen years, from 1862 to 1874, and is quoted at the enormous sum of 20 milliards. Of this, about one- tenth belongs to Liguria. The Province of Porto- Maurizio, in 1 88 1, had mortgages to the amount of ^11,840,000, or nearly ^9,800 per square . kilom., being 50 per cent, of the actual value of the land and buildings, which do not return more than 3 per cent, interest on capital, while interest on mortgages costs from 5 to 6 per cent., so that in many cases the land is farmed for the benefit of creditors. Few landlords live on their properties. Farms are ususally let for a fixed money-rental, the landlord provides houses and cattle-sheds, vine-poles, and wine-casks, conduits for irrigation, and pays the taxes and the greater part of the heavier expenses of keeping-up the farm. Farms are never let by public auction. Wages range from 50 centimes per day for females to 2 fr. 50 c. for male labourers. The labourers are generally well housed and fed, and have excellent relations with their employers, who treat them with kindness and regard. Tenancies are annual or biennial ; the metayage system is much in vogue, and under it the peasants get the lion's share of the produce of the land. PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENOA, MASSA-CARRARA. 141 Liguria is one of the most mountainous districts of Italy. The watercourses are of no importance. Climate is mild and pleasant. Very curious caves are found in several of the mountains. Some of them are of great size, and have served as human dwelling-places and sepulchres in prehistoric times. In particular, the " Arene Candide " grotto, near the small town of Finalmarina, which was explored between 1864 and 1877, is worthy of notice. This cavern has three large entrances, leading into a vast chamber measuring 70 metres by 15 wide, and a labyrinth of passages conducts into many smaller caves. Thirteen tombs were here discovered, and seven layers of earth, con- taining -various relics of a people whose existence is attributed to the " Age of Stone." Arms, shell and bone ornaments, the remnants of funeral banquets, and the vestiges of a former race of large wild animals, were also taken out of these interesting caves. The mountains furnish excellent stone for building purposes, many varieties of fine marble, and a large quantity of slate. The quarries of the latter material produced in 1880 a total of 32,500 tons, worth ^50,960. Chalk and limestone are also abundant. The marble quarries are very little worked in comparison with their extent and capabilities. There are two good mines of lignite, and several of copper, the best of the latter being at Libiola. This mine has eighteen galleries with railways, seven large pits, and thirty shafts ; it is worked by 180 miners (fifty of whom are women) ; the annual production averages 1,500 tons of mineral, with ID per cent, of copper, and 350 tons of marzial pyrites, with 40 per cent, of sulphur. The whole of the mineral is shipped direct to Swansea and Newcastle. A little gold is also found, but not enough to be worth 142 RURAL ITALY. seeking for. After the copper mines, those of manga- nese are the largest and most important. The following table gives the production of the Ligurian mines in 1880: Mineral. No. of Mines. Tons. Value, Francs. No. of Workmen. Copper Iron pyrites . Manganese . Fossil fuel . 3 I 2 I 5,662 1,285 810 9.23s 47,368 i 12,850/ 39.340 99,240 450 123 83 In Liguria the soil is almost exclusively cultivated by manual labour, without the aid of animals or of agricultural machinery of any description. The system of farming is capable of much change and im- provement. Both the wine and oil are badly made, the people are ignorant of the proper use of manures, they merely work the surface of the ground, and they will not labour more than eight hours per day in summer or hardly six in winter. Rural credit-banks and similar institutions do not exist. In 1873 and 1874 a mania for speculation broke out in the country, and the shares of the " People's Bank " went up to an enormous premium, but the money put into the concern was wasted in bad speculations. The want of agrarian credit on a sound basis is felt severely in many parts of Italy, and a Project of Law came before the Chamber in February, 1884, for its estab- lishment, having as its chief object the leaving of securities, such as cattle and agricultural instruments, in the possession of the debtor, instead of depriving him of their use. In former times the heights of the Apennines were crowned with extensive woods and forests which PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENOA, MASSA-CARRARA. 143 formed a protection for the Ligurians against their foes, so that the Romans were wont to say that it was more difficult to find than to conquer them. From the eleventh to the thirteenth century the timber was used for building the numerous fleets belonging to the Republic of Genoa in the epoch of its greatness ; and since that time the cutting down of trees continued without intermission until the mountains were entirely denuded. In the Province of Porto-Maurizio the production of lemons reaches 14,000 fruits per hectare, worth 20 fr. per 1,000. In that of Genoa this cultivation is less extensive. Liguria possesses only 62,988 head of cattle on 5,324 square kilom. of territory. In 1876 there were 3,947 horses, 10,957 mules, and 10,077 asses. Most of the horses are imported from Hungary or from other parts of Italy, and are used in tramways or omnibuses. The celebrated so-called Genoese mules in reality come from Savoy and the valley of Aosta ; their value is from ;^20 to ;^32 each. In 1878 there were 129,671 goats and sheep, but the number is yearly diminishing, whilst that of the horses and oxen is on the increase. The number of pigs in 1875 was 13,235. Eggs are dear, often costing 16 centimes apiece. Apiculture, which was in a flourishing state in 1870, has gradually declined up to the present time, and is still on a very small scale, but it is now again making some progress. In certain parts on the sea-coast, where cold weather is virtually unknown, the bees are incited by the warmth of the air to leave the hive in winter-time, but as the chill evening comes on, they lose their strength and perish by thousands, whilst 144 RURAL ITALY. others, awakened from their torpor by the heat, eat up the honey stored in the hive, and thus leave none for the profit of the bee-master. The cheese-making industry is of little importance, excepting in a few communes, as, for instance, at Luni, celebrated by Martial : " Caseus Hetruscse signatus margine Lunse, Prsestabit pueris prandia mille tuis." Leather is prepared in many tanneries all along the Riviera. There is a great deficiency of veterinary service throughout the whole district, but notwithstanding this, and the scarcity and badness of the salt for cattle, epizootic diseases are very rare. Both oxen and sheep suffer much from the bites of vipers, which abound in the hill country. A rational system of irrigation is unknown and un- cared for. The Ligurians, and especially the Genoese, turn their entire attention to the sea, with the result that no Agricultural Associations are formed, and no capital is devoted to farming. The natural manure produced is insufficient to the requirements of the land, and the peasants look more to the quantity than to the quality. Agricultural instruments are few in number, and of the most primitive kind. Even ploughs are but little used, and the appliances for making oil and wine are of a very rude and ancient description. A detailed and most lurid description is given of the squalid filth and misery of the poorer dwellings both in town and country throughout Liguria. The depreda- tions of corsairs in former times compelled the inhabi- tants of the villages on the coast to crowd their houses PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENOA, MASSA-CARRARA. 145 together for mutual protection. The security of later centuries has not induced the people to think of im- proving their streets or houses, which are in the most deplorable condition. It is needless to enlarge upon the loathsome particu- lars concerning the state of the lower classes ; suffice it to say that they surpass in horror the most naus- eating pages of Zola. Any traveller who has experi- enced the dirt of the H6tel de France at Porto- Maurizio may imagine the condition of the garrets and hovels crowded with labourers or fishermen. What- is indescribably bad in the principal cities is even worse in the smaller towns. Pieve di Teco, with 2,345 ^^' habitants, consists of houses from 50 to 300 years old, the best of which — that of the Syndic — is wretched in the extreme, whilst the lower quarters of the town are inconceivably ruinous and disgusting. But the height of fetid impurity is reached at Lovegno, where viscid uncleanness characterizes every alley and every house and room. In the country some "almost human" habitations are to be found, but the cattle-sheds invari- ably form part of the cottages, and no regard is paid to the most elementary principles of hygiene." Fortunately, the mildness of the climate obviates the necessity of the peasants spending the winter nights in the sheds, and they themselves, being well fed, are not subject to pellagra, nor are they plunged in the depths of poverty and misery to be met with in some other parts of Italy. Personal cleanliness and health leave much to be desired. Most of the people are fairly clad, and wear shoes. They are generally averse to compulsory mili- tary service, but desertion is very rare. Religious feeling is high, but the standard of morality is a low 10 146 RVRAL ITALY. oitle. Not much superstition survives among the pisbple, except that they beheve epileptic persons to be possessed by evil spirits, and cause them to be exor- cised. The military short-service system is said to have given satisfactory results. Electoral privileges are not well comprehended by the peasants, but they take some pride in the import- ance of voting. No holiday is complete without the pomp and circumstance of a full religious service. The amusements of the people are few, rare, and unin- teresting. The statistics of mortality and longevity are good ; the average of the latter is 60 years. Marriages usually produce half a dozen children. Infant mortality is quoted at 18 per cent. Fever has decreased since eucalyptus has been abundantly planted. The medical service operates well, and is regularly established in nearly every com- mune. At San Remo and Ventimiglia the hospitals merit remark, especially that for leprosy in the former city, situated in the ex-Monastery of St. Nicholas, which has done much to check the prevalence of the disease on the Riviera. The women of Liguria are notorious for the facility with which they yield to seduction ; hence prostitution is practised somewhat extensively, more especially in a clandestine manner, and syphilis is prevalent in several parts. Public security is excellent, and crimes of violence are very rare. Vagabondage does not exist, and the rural population furnishes less than one-third of the delinquents of all kinds. Massa- Carrara, as a province, has no topographical PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENOA, MASSA-CARRARA. 147 raison d'iire. Its population is 169,469, of whom 55,086 are agriculturists. A long period of financial decline and moral apathy- has reduced rural industry to a low ebb. Emigrants. Males. Females. In 1880 there were i8-8i „ . . . 1882 „ . . . 2,111 2>S39 2,414 1,926 2,364 2,244 185 17s 170 There are about 20 miles of railway and 227 miles of road, with 390 more in course of construction or pro- jected ; but four-fifths of the country are yet deficient in this respect, partly owing to the mountainous nature of the land, and partly to the political vicissitudes previous to 1859. Many of the communal roads, on which large sums were spent, are so neglected as to be no longer practicable, and are more like the beds of torrents than anything else. The proportion of imports to exports is as 3 to 2 , the former consisting chiefly in corn, maize, and other aliments of primary necessity. An immense quantity of chestnuts is grown in the hill country. Elementary education is well provided for through- out the province, with the exception of agricultural and technical instruction, but of late years some improve- ment has taken place also in this direction. The extent of the province is 1,780 square kilom. Mountains rich in marble offer a field of wide interest to the geologist. Pellagra has made its appearance in consequence of the extensive use of maize of inferior quality, and the increased prices of food. 10 — 2 148 RURAL ITALY. In general, the character of the peasantry is mild and inoffensive ; but this is not the case in Massa and Pontremoli, where deeds of violence are more frequent in the country than in the towns, and drunkenness is a prevalent vice. Begging is practised on a vast scale. Many of the small farmers hold perpetual leases. Otherwise than in Liguria they are mostly poor, and have no savings whatever. The cultivation of oranges, lemons, vines, and olives is capable of great development. Sunday and evening schools are not sufficiently numerous. Friendly-help societies are much wanted. Children are set to labour at too early an age. Pellagra is increasing, and becoming the predominant disease in this province. In this mountainous region the climate varies to no small extent. At Limigiana a phenomenon has at times appeared which carries ruin to the olive-trees and desolation to the people, but which, happily, is not extensive in its action, being apparently confined to this particular commune. During the most intense cold of winter, a derise mist falls, accompanied by minute rain, which freezes on the trees in heavy masses, breaking the branches and uprooting the trunks by its weight, so that in some cases the fruit is destroyed for many years. This phenomenon, known as " verdeghiaccio," in France as " verglas," and in Germany as " Glatteis," is of common occurrence at Berlin, and happens also in several northern countries. In Limigiana it appeared in January, 1777, and again in the same month of 1820, wreaking such wholesale destruction on the latter occasion that the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in pity for PORTOMAURIZIO, GENOA, MASSA-CARRARA. 149 the distress of the peasants, remitted certain taxes to the suffering district for nine years, to the total amount of ;^6,o66. The terrible scourge was last renewed in 1846. Vines are well cultivated in many parts of the province, and being given the full benefit of the sun, the produce is excellent, the wines realizing the de- scription of Dante : ' Guarda '1 calor del Sol che si fa vino Giunto all' umor che dalla vite cola.' (Purgatorio, canto xxv.) As in many other districts, it is lamented that the whole tribe of birds is ruthlessly slaughtered, so that there is no natural check to the multiplication of insects noxious to agriculture. Eagle-hunting is a favourite occupation with the natives of the higher Alps, where wolves and other wild animals are still found. The number of cattle and sheep, etc., in i88r was 71,623, worth ;^i 59,478. Some very fine bulls are reared ; the breeding of sheep might be advantageously increased here, as well as in other parts of Italy, which, though having nearly 10,000,000 of them, is obliged to import wool to the annual value of ;^2, 800,000. Irrigation is of some importance. In 1839 the Duke of Modena, Francis IV., ordered the construc- tion of a grand irrigatory canal to supply the whole of the land on the left bank of the river Frigido as far as the border of the ex- Duchy of Lucca. This canal is 3,000 metres long. At the same time, fine mills were erected, as well as a tobacco manufactory, which was suppressed by the Italian Government in 1871, to the great loss of the people. Fifteen marble works, with eighty-two saws. ISO RURAL ITALY. and numerous other appliances, are also established along the canal, which, with its tributaries, has been a most complete success, and of immense advantage to the country. In 1849 Francis V., son of the before- mentioned Duke of Modena, extended thte benefits of irrigation on the right bank of the river, by means of a huge cast-iron syphon, 48 centim. in diameter, and 4 centim. in thickness, composed of 119 tubes, and costing ;^ 1, 498. Its total length is 178^ metres. The period of irrigation is from the i6th June to the 15th September. The canal is now let put for ;^500 a year. In 1879 the total taxation of the province amounted to ;^49,ooo, being an average of from 5 fr. to 1 7 fr. per head of the population. The morality of the peasants is generally good, but many of them are sadly wanting in civility and manners. They are mostly well fed and sufficiently clothed. This province in nearly every respect resembles Tuscany rather than Liguria, and would have been better classed with the former district, both geographi- cally and ethnologically. The difference between the Tuscans and the Genoese has been always very accen- tuated since ancient times, when they were ever at warfare with one another, and the hostility of Tuscany for Genoa found expression in the proverb, " Mare senza pesce, montagne senza alberi, uomini senza fede, e donne senza vergogna," and in the words of Dante : ' Ahi Genovesi uomini diversi D'ogni costume, e pien d'ogni magagna ; Perchfe non siete voi del mondo spersi ?' {Inferno, xxxiii., 151-153.) Amongst the most important products of Massa- Carrara chestnuts hold a high position ; the inhabitants of the hills subsist almost exclusively upon them, and a PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENOA, MASSA-CARRARA. 151 large quantity is exported to other parts of Italy. Sixty-six kilog. of chestnut-flour are worth from 12 fr. to 20 fr. There is also a large commerce in edible fungi, which in the month of September are sold in the Commune of Garfagnana alone to the value of several hundreds of pounds. In a fortnight's time some 3,000 to 5,000 lb. are gathered and sent to Rome, Genoa, Lucca, and other towns, at an average of 5 centimes per lb. A still larger profit is made from dried fungi, which are worth from 2 fr. to 3 fr. the kilog. to the original seller, and find a ready market all over Italy and even in America, where they are highly esteemed. Merchants have been known to spend as much as ;^400 in one day in the purchase of these fungi, and the com- mune is said to have gained as much as ;i^4,8oo by the traffic in a good year. In the Commune of Pontremoli, as well as in other parts of the province and of Italy, children are set to work at a very early age, and their health suffers in consequence. Girls of 18 to 20 years old carry on their heads burdens weighing 30 kilog., men carry 45 kilog., and children of 12 or 14 take 20 kilog. With these loads they walk 6 or 8 miles in the mountains. Heart disease is the usual result of this excessive labour. Fortunately, a Bill is now before Parliament to regulate children's work, at all events in mines and factories, and it is to be hoped that its provisions will be extended to marble quarries and rural labour as well. Other social legislation is being directed to the liability of employers towards workmen employed in dangerous trades, and this will find plenty of scope for its operation in the marble works of Carrara and the powder manufactories of Pontremoli. Numbers of fine trout are found in the streams and 152 RURAL ITALY. rivers of this part of the country. Fish have been caught weighing as much as 8 kilog. Unhappily, the laws are quite a dead letter, and poaching with lime and other poisonous substances, and even with dyna- mite, is extensively practised, and bids fair to extermi- nate the trout altogether. The apathy of the peasants " renders them inca- pable of good or evil," so that delinquencies are unfre- quent. In the powder factories the workmen only receive from IS. to IS. 6d. per day as wages, and in case of accidents from explosions, which are not rare, the em- ployers will do absolutely nothing for the victims. The chief riches of Carrara are derived from the world -renowned marble, of which there are 645 quarries, though only 327 are at present worked. During each summer that I have spent in Italy I have employed my leave of absence in visiting some district, in order to corroborate the accuracy of these reports by personal observation. In this manner I have travelled in Tuscany, Venetia, the Neapolitan Provinces, Liguria, and other parts of the country, and in 1882 I thus visited the marble quarries of Carrara. I am happy to note that the odious cruelties to the numerous oxen formerly used in the transport of marble, which have been narrated by so many writers, have now almost entirely ceased, in consequence of the construction of railways from the seaport into the heart of the marmiferous mountains. In 1879 the total amount of marble brought out of the quarries was 65,841 tons, and there is a yearly in- crease of the quantity. From 1860 to 1880 the tolls levied on marble by the PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENOA,' MASSA-CARRARA. 153 Commune of Carrara amounted to the sum of £111, yg2. Over 5,000 men are employed in the works, 3,000 of them working as miners, hewers, and polishers in the quarries themselves ; there are 100 studios of sculpture, etc., with over 1,000 workmen ; 60 sawmills, with 275 mechanical saws, worked by 350 men ; and 22 polishing-wheels, occupying 70 men; whilst 400 others work on marble at the seaport. The labour of excavation is hard and perilous, the quarries are far from the homes of the workers, and the paths leading to them are often very difficult and dangerous. The men work on the summits of precipi- tous rocks, exposed to the full heat of the burning sun and to every blast of the violent winds, without any kind of shelter ; many of them are suspended by ropes from vertiginous heights. The refraction of the sun from the white marble is well-nigh intolerable, and the atmosphere is impregnated with an impalpable dust, raised by the wind from the continued pulverization of the roads and material, which is most prejudicial to the health of the labourers. Most of the quarries are at an altitude of from 100 to 200 metres, and from these heights blocks weighing from 20 to 50 tons are let down by ropes, the men being obliged to accompany them in their descent, which is extremely hazardous, and is rendered the more so by the primitive and careless way in which it is conducted. All the work of cutting out and blasting is done under the most antiquated system, no modern scientific or mechanical inventions being adopted. The em- ployers are apathetic and niggardly, the workmen fool- hardy and ignorant. Hence numerous accidents occur in every operation. 154 RURAL ITALY. Children are set to work at a tender age, and hitherto the Government appear to have taken no notice of the whole matter, beyond the collection of taxes. The lower classes of workmen come down to Carrara from the mountains with their wives and families, the latter finding places as domestic servants or begging on the roads. Wages average only 2^ fr. or 3 fr. per day. Nothing is drunk but water, and that often putrid and bad. Breakfast and dinner alike consist only of dry bread with a raw onion or two. Employers pay their men by the week, and make no contract with them for a longer period. In case of a suspension of work from whatsoever cause, no compen- sation is given, and in the event of accidents it is only occasionally that some small present is made to the mutilated and helpless sufferer. Yet the owners make fabulous profitg, especially when they hit upon a vein of marble pf unusual beauty and value. The hours of work are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in winter, and from 4 a.m. to i p.m. in summer ; but the distance of the quarries and the excessive fatigue of the work must be taken into account, The habitations of the workmen are miserable in the extreme. Their children, exhausted by premature labour, grow up dwarfed and lean, and as adults appear pale, meagre, bent, and weak ; far different from the Herculean navvy whom one would expect to find engaged in such colossal exertions. No education or improvement is even attempted for 'this unhappy class. Worn out by incessant toil and insufficient food, they abandon themselves on holidays to complete sloth and frequent drunkenness, whence naturally follow crimes of violence and indecency. PORTO-MAURIZIO, GENOA, MASSA-CARRARA. 155 Thus the miners have become a turbulent and dis- solute race, with no ideas of co-operation or fraternity, to whom the friendly societies and similar establish- ments are of no use or advantage. It is needless to say that Government inspection and supervision are urgently needed to alter such a state of things. The remedies are obvious, and the evil is great. The quarries of the Massa mountains are reported to be in even a worse condition ; they are, however, of great importance, from the fine quality of their marbles, and their value is daily augmenting. At Serravezza alone the works are better looked after, and the men are paid lower wages in consequence ! The annual value of the Carrara marble is estimated at _;^ 1 60, 000 ; it is exported to every European country, France taking the largest quantity. In Massa there are 200 quarries ; the workings were only opened in 1836, and in 1864 the exportation amounted to 10,000 tons, worth ;^36,ooo. At Serravezza in 181 7 there were only ten quarries ; now there are 140, exporting 48,000 tons, worth ^48,000. The price of marble varies, not only according to its quality, but rather in proportion to its beauty, and the size of the blocks for purposes of statuary, viz. : £ £ 12 to 64 per square metre. 9 12 12 Cost at the seaport — I St quality, from 2nd „ Spotted marble I St quality, pure white 2nd „ „ 3rd „ „ I St „ veined . 2nd ., „ Violet-hued marble . 6 10 7 6 10 7 14 20 iS6 RURAL ITALY. Some blocks for sculpture have no fixed value ; there is said to be one in the possession of a rich trader at Carrara for which he asks ;^2,ooo. Many valuable minerals are found in these moun- tains, and the establishment of a Government School of Geology and Practical Mechanics is urgently re- quired. CHAPTER IX. DISTRICT IX. -TUSCANY. Statistics prove that Tuscany no more holds the first agricultural rank in Italy than does Italy in Europe. On the contrary, the province occupies the last place in Continental Italy in this respect. The general average of Italy is 3 2 '46 agriculturists per 100 inhabitants, which is about the same as that of Hungary, higher than that of — Per cent. England and Wales (1871) . . . Tgi Belgium (1866) i6-o8 Switzerland (1870) 2o"S7 Prussia (1871) 28'39 but lower than that of — Cisleithan-Austria (1869) France (1872) Per cent. 3676 47-87 The average per square kilometre is somewhat different, viz. : Italy 29 agriculturists per square kilometre. France . 33 Belgium and Prussia 26 Austria-Hungary 21 Switzerland 14 England and Wales . 12 iS8 RURAL ITALY. In proportion to the other provinces of Italy, Tus- cany has 33 agriculturists per square kilometre, and is higher than — Naples . • 27 agriculturists per square kilometre. Umbria . • 25 )> ») Rome . ■ 19 J) jj Sicily . 18 )) »j Sardinia . • 7 » » lower than^ Lombardy • SI agriculturists per square kilometre. Liguria . ■ 49 )7 » The Marches . • 39 » J) Piedmont ■ 38 >> ') Venice . ■ 37 )> 1) Emilia . • 34 J) )» Neither is agriculture developed and perfected in Italy to its fullest extent, nor does Tuscany show ex- ceptional fertility in comparison with the rest of the kingdom. Poverty and want of progress are rather the characteristics to be met with. The land-taxes in Italy amount to four times the sums received from taxes on commerce and manufac- tures, whilst the proportion in Tuscany, which bears a very heavy land-tax, is not more than one-third greater than the payments made on the other industries. Oranges, lemons, sumach-trees (the leaves of which are used by curriers), also cotton and liquorice, are not cultivated in Tuscany. There are no permanently- wandering flocks of sheep and cattle, as in Sardinia and elsewhere. Co-operative dairies have not yet been in- troduced. Irrigation works are conducted under no fixed system. Meadows are scarce, and rice-fields not numerous. Artesian wells are not used. The chief productions of the province are oil and wine. In the DISTRICT IX.— TUSCANY. 159 plains, where irrigation is employed, two crops are obtained in the year. Agriculture generally has improved during the past half-century, but is still only mediocre in its results. The productiveness of the province might be much increased ; the chief obstacles to progress are the want of capital and the lack of special education. Properties are too much subdivided, and are very heavily burdened with taxes and debts. The large landowners pay little attention to the cultivation of the soil, and small proprietors have too scanty means to effect improvements. The condition of the farm-labourers is financially as bad as possible ; morally also deplorable ; nor do they seem to strive for bettering themselves. The metayers are for the most part fairly moral but generally poor. Their morals, however, tend to degenerate ; and their finances to improve, through the abolition of the grist-tax. The farmers, owners, and tenants sometimes ap- proach the condition of the former, sometimes that of the latter of the two above classes, but they are morally better in all cases than the labourers. Progress will only be attained by providing better education, by reducing taxation, and by establishing some working system of agrarian credit. Meanwhile, the management of the hill water-courses should be improved, and manuring better handled, whilst the replanting of the mountains and the cultivation of pasturages should command more attention. Vines and olive-trees should be more extensively raised, both in the hill districts and in the Island of Elba. Cattle-breeding might also be further extended with advantage. i6o RURAL ITALY. The Tuscans as a rule seek but to obtain an easy competence, without aspiring to great wealth. If they make a certain sum in business, they are content to purchase a small estate and live quietly on their income, giving up the struggle to become rich where others would consider that they had merely made a good commencement. The labourers pass most of their days and evenings, when not at work, in taverns and cafes ; they are fond of gambling, like all other Italians. The care of their families seldom occupies much of their attention. The farmers, on the other hand, spend all their time at work or with their families ; on holidays they go to church and gossip in the village square, or play at bowls. In winter the women knit and spin, whilst the men weave baskets, if not sleeping after the fatigues of the day's work. Singing and dancing sometimes break the monotony of the long evenings. Girls marry young, but seldom under 19 or So years of age; men, from 25 to 30, when they have finished their compulsory military service. The bride brings a small dowry, including the marriage bed and what other furniture can be afforded, a slender trousseau and a little jewellery, particularly the beloved pearl necklace. In some mountain districts sheep occasionally form part of the dower. Where the farm is a large one, several daughters marry in succession and live with their husbands under their parents' roof. The marriage feast commences at noon and ends at nightfall with a procession to the house of the bride- groom. In Val Tibcrina and a few other places, the bride is accompanied to her husband's house by a married female relative ; the door is found locked : they DISTRICT IX.— TUSCANY. i6i knock, and it is opened by the bridegroom's mother, who embraces the bride and puts on her a new apron, thus receiving her into the family. The rehgious ceremony always accompanies the civil marriage. Births are the occasion of little festivity, and deaths, especially of the aged and infirm, cause little mourning. Feasting and dancing also accompany the vintage and chestnut gathering. It is observed that the wholesale destruction of small birds is prejudicial to the interests of the agri- culturist, on account of the consequent increase of insects. This remark is equally applicable to the whole country, and the Government is indeed preparing a law establishing a close time for game and small birds at the very time when the game-laws are being abol- ished in England. A description of Tuscany without reference to the wine industry would be naturally incomplete. In some parts of the province it is not allowed to commence the vintage until the municipal authorities publish their permission to do so. In most parts, however, no restriction is imposed on the people, who olten gather their grapes too early, on account of the frequency of rural thefts, from which the peasant is unable to save himself, excepting by a continual, difficult, and fatiguing watch over his property. In many places the vintage begins simultaneously, in consequence of an old established custom, like the ancient right of gleaning in England, by which all are free to enter the vineyards in search of grapes, as soon as the gathering is finished ; so that no one cares to leave his fruit standing, as too easy a temptation to the gleaners in the neighbouring vineyards. n i62 RURAL ITALY. For these and other concurrent reasons, much of the grapes is gathered in an unripe state. Usually the grapes are all thrown together and pounded without being separated from the stalks. The owner receives from the tenant, or mdtayer, from 7 to lo per cent, of the wine produced. During the transport of the grapes from the vine- yard to the owner's house, they often are exposed for many hours to the sun, which does not improve their condition. The grapes arie trampled by peasants with naked feet, and much good wine is lost by this primitive process. Careful proprietors use wooden wine-presse.s, but mechanical presses are hardly employed at all. » The best wines of Tuscany are the " Chianti " and the " Montepulciano." The latter is made with more than ordinary care, and consists of a mixture of about three-quarters of black to a quarter of white grapes. Three qualities of wine generally result in the vin- tage. The first quality, clear wine, goes to the owner ; the second, "mezzo vino" or "vino stretto," usually belongs to the tenant ; and the third, " vino piccolo," is left to the peasants for the use of themselves and their families during winter. Barrels contain about 42 litres, glass " fiaschi " a little over 2 litres. Only choice wine is bottled and kept for two years before going to market. , The better kinds of Tuscan wine undergo a second fermentation, and are then rectified with choice must in the proportion of 4 to 8 kilog. per hectolitre. This process is called the "governo," and is stated to ameliorate the taste and quality of the wine. The casks are usually made of chestnut wood, some- times ,of oak. DISTRICT IX.— TUSCANY. 163 Not much " vin de luxe " is made, the best sorts are red and white muscat, "pomino," and " aleatico." The wine of commerce is good, wholesome, and cheap. On the whole the production is satisfactory ; but no doubt much improvement is still possible, and the subject is a very important one for Italy at the present day. France imports an immense quantity of wine from the coast of the Adriatic and other parts, which is made into " Bordeaux " to supply the deficiency caused by the ravages of the phylloxera ; Italian wines are coming into use in England and elsewhere, and the reduction of duty is eagerly sought for by Italian financiers. The following are the results given by experiments on a large property in 1880 : II quintals (1,100 kilog.) of grapes yielded — Kilog. Of clear wine ..... 571*20 Of second wine 1 92*00 Of grape-grounds ..... 235"oo 998 "20 loi'So kilog. were lost by evaporation in fermentation. The 763 "20 kilog. of wine were further reduced to 687*20 kilog. by. evaporation in the wine tubs ; thus each quintal yielded — Kilog. Of wine 62*454 Of grape-grounds 21*363 The grapes fetched 19 lire per quintal, the grounds being worth 50 centimes per 2 1 quintals ; thus, 62 kilog. of 65 litres of wine brought 18^ lire, equal to 28 lire per hectolitre. This wine would now have sold for 10 lire per hec- tolitre more, owing to the increase in price. For this SI — 2 i64 RURAL ITALY. result the peasants had to keep guard day and night for a fortnight against thieves. It is scarcely necessary to say that the above is merely an outline of the wine-making process and its results. Detailed descriptions of the olive cultivation, the rice-fields, and other specialities of provincial agricul- ture, however interesting, must perforce be omitted. The statistics of emigration for Tuscany show that with a population of 118,851, of whom 5,902 belonged to the rural classes, the total numbers of emigrants were — In— 1876 ........ 1,649 1877 2,283 1878 1,778 1879 2,398 Total for the four years . . 8,108 CHAPTER X. DISTRICT X. — LOMBARDY. LoMBARDY, the tenth district, comprises part of Pavia, with the Provinces of Milan, Cremona, Mantua, Como, Sondrio, Bergamo, and Brescia. This district contains 25 circuits, 1,965 communes, and 5,380 centres of population, with a superficial area of 23,526 square kilom., and a population of 3,460,824 inhabitants, of whom 1,062,937 form the agricultural element properly so-called. The territory is naturally divided into three regions, viz. : 1. The region of the mountains ; 2. The region of the hills and high ground ; 3. The region of the plains. The first extends from the large lakes of Lombardy to the Swiss and Tyrolese frontier, and includes half the Provinces of Como, Bergamo, and Brescia, and the whole of Sondrio. The second embraces the remainder of Como, and parts of Milan, Bergamo, Brescia, and the north of Mantua. What remains of the district comprises the region of the plains, and is particularly to be noticed on 1 66 RURAL ITALY: account of the importance of the extensive system of artificial irrigation used therein. The Mountain Region. — The chain of the Alps on the side of Lombardy, as compared with the Swiss and Tyrolese side, has a generally mild climate, devoid of excess of heat and cold, and little exposed to storms of hail or snow. Vines, chestnuts, and mulberries grow to a considerable altitude, whilst lower down olives and wheat are somewhat extensively cultivated. But the easy slopes and richer vegetable soil of the Swiss side afford a larger crop of natural trees and herbaceous produce than that of Italy. The valley of Bitto is noted for its cheeses ; that of Grosina for its cattle, which is also excellent in the valleys of Camonica, Vezza, Corteno, and Saviore ; whilst the wine of Angolo is of good repute. A large area of this mountain region is, however, invincibly sterile. The productive zones are divided into pastures, forests, and farm-lands. Ice, perpetual snow, and inaccessible rocks are the characteristics of the northern range throughout three- fifths of its entire extent, whilst one-fifth of the more southern portion is equally unproductive. Summer pasturages are found at an elevation of 2,200 metres. The forest zone extends both above and below the height of 1,400 metres. The agricultural zone does not rise above 800 metres in sunny positions, or from 600 to 650 metres in shady places. Naturally, the mountain region is the least favour- able to agriculture. The entire zone of summer pasturages and at least three-fifths of the forest zone are the property of the communes ; private properties are so greatly sub- divided that almost every inhabitant is a proprietor. DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 167 By a very ancient custom the peasant uses wood taken from the communal forest at an exceedingly low price for the building and repairs of the houses ; his fuel is obtained from the same source, and his cattle are pastured at a cheap rate on communal lands. Poverty drives many of the mountaineers to tem- porary emigration, but their intense love for their homes usually brings them back to end their days in their native place with what funds they may have been able to amass. It is very difficult to compile exact statistics of the average or actual wealth of this class of the population. The condition of the public roads in Upper Lom- bardy now leaves little to be desired. Not long ago an inhabitant of the Valtellina required eight days for a journey to Milan, most of which was made on horse- back, and after he had taken care to draw up his will. Now the whole district is traversed by some of the finest roads in Europe, and the railway will still further increase the facilities of communication. The first effect of the construction of the roads was, how- ever, bad for the prosperity of the mountain region. Forests were rapidly cut down in consequence of the ease with which wood for building purposes could be transported to the plains and sold. Wheat also fell in value, owing to the increased competition from the lower ground. But a sensible improvement is evident during the past ten years, both in general productiveness and in the wages, food, and dwellings of the rural labourers.' Complaints are heard, it is true, from various quarters, particularly as to the low value of cattle in consequence of the French Tariff and the scarcity of fodder pro- duced by the dry summers. The evil is, however, of a i68 RURAL ITALY. transitory nature, and on the whole the state of the agricultural population is certainly changing for the better. In the upper zones of pasture bears are still found, but not in such large numbers as was formerly the case. A good natural meadow cannot yield more than about 1 5 quintals of green grass per hectare (about 1 2 cwt. per acre) ; but a meadow naturally manured will give at least four times the quantity. The communal forests and high pasture grounds are entirely solitary and uninhabited during winter-time, i.e., from seven to ten months of the year according to their altitude. The " casual " shepherds include boys from 8 to 1 2 years of age, who tend the small flocks and herds of the peasants on the communal lands at a small "charge per head, or even gratis. These shepherd lads are a living denial of the compulsory education laws. The usual charge made by the communes for a season's pasturage is from 3 to 5 lire for cattle, i or 2 lire for sheep, and less for goats. Farmers who employ a herdsman to tend and pasture their cattle pay 15 fr. to 20 fr. ahead for them, reserving the usufruct of the milk. The shepherds live for several months in the year in the most complete isolation from the human race ; they are the last representatives of a prehistoric community in the midst of modern civilization. Until late in spring the meadows are barren, but with the first appearance of summer a few weeks suffice to cover them with a splendid growth of aromatic herbage, which flowers and matures its seed with astonishing rapidity. On the basis of the census of cattle taken in February, 1881, the number of goats in this zone amounts to about DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 169 100,000. Professional goatherds are very few in num- ber ; their flocks contain twenty or thirty animals. Most of the goats belong to poor Alpine peasants, who own four, eight, or fifteen head per family, and who remain in the mountains instead of taking their flocks into the towns for the sake of selling the milk. Such an amount of damage is wrought upon the young growing trees, that it has been seriously proposed to prohibit the rearing of goats altogether. But poor mountaineers in many instances live solely by their goats, which cost them almost nothing, and yield one- fifth of the quantity of milk given by a cow, whilst kids are worth 3 or 4 lire apiece. Sheep-farming is in a bad way, and gives no promise of amendment. The two principal breeds in Lombardy are the large " bergamasca," perhaps the original sheep of the country, and the " valtellinese ; the former has poor flesh, but yields from 4 to 5 kilog. of wool per head ; the latter gives both better meat and superior, though not such abundant wool. There are about 143,000 sheep in this zone, of which, perhaps, one-half are owned by peasants, who have 4, 8, or 12 head each, the remainder belonging to profes- sional shepherds, who ascend almost to the region of perpetual snow in search of pasture, especially for the " bergamasca " flocks. It is calculated that formerly as much as twenty times the number of sheep were reared than at the present day. In the plains cattle-breeding is found to be more profitable ; in the hill districts sheep cause in- calculable damage by nibbling the tender mulberry- shoots and eating the young corn, so that they are only bred on mountain pastures, which are not rich enough for feeding cattle, and even then they must migrate to 170 RURAL ITALY. the plains for winter in search of farms, where they will be allowed to feed in consideration of the excellent manure which they furnish to the land. Several com- munes have, however, refused to allow nomad flocks to pass through their territory, excepting on the pro- vincial highways, in consequence of the damage done by them to roadside crops. Hence the shepherds, as a class, are poor, yet they are an honest race, and there are found amongst them men of exceptional strength and manly beauty. The estimated number of cattle in this region is 215,000 beasts. The original breed is rather small, generally gray or brown in colour, and giving a fair quantity of milk. Former carelessness in breeding has caused a certain degeneration ; but much improvement is visible, since the price of beasts has risen to ^18 or ^20 a head on account of the large demand for good milk-cattle in the plains. In this district are riiade the famous Parmesan and Gorgonzola cheeses, as well as excellent butter. Cattle is pastured both on the nomadic and the home system. Co-operative dairies have been formed at Bormio and other places for the sale of milk, cheese, and butter, produced by cows belonging to various owners and kept at the same establishment. Wood-growing and cattle-breeding are the best industries of the mountain region, which is already beginning to hold its own against the large importation of beasts from Switzerland ; but more attention must be paid to the hay crops to insure complete success, as well as to the building and condition of the cow-sheds, the rearing of calves, and the veterinary service of the country. The question of the conservation of woods and DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 171 forests is one of great importance. In pursuance of ancient rights and customs, the shepherds, herdsmen, and peasants in general are in the habit of regularly devastating the communal forests, and they are fast disappearing altogether. Where resinous trees have been felled by wholesale, the damage appears irrepar- able. The disastrous grants of forest-freedom made at the beginning of this century, combined with the con- struction of new roads throughout the country, has vastly increased the evil. All the well-known ill effects of the disappearance ol forests have followed in their natural course. To take but one example : in Valtellina, previous to 1820, floods occurred once in fifty-one months; from 1821 to 1831 they happened every forty-one months ; and from that time to 1852, when the greatest feUing of timber took place, there was an inundation every twenty months. Since that time a slight improvement is visible from the gradual cessation of the primary cause of the misfortune. A complete restoration and replantation of the woods and forests would involve immense labour, a colossal expenditure, and a long period of years. As far back as 1 8 1 1 decrees ^yere issued with the purpose of staying the promiscuous destruction of timber, but they availed little, since the entire popula- tion was hostile to them, and the communes regarded their forest property as a fund upon which to draw for covering every kind of expense, whilst each inhabitant drew his supply from the same source, according to the Lombard proverb, " Roba di comun, roba di nessun " (Communal property, nobody's property). Indeed, when the people saw that a new order of things was commencing in political life, at the end of the last century, the " original families," who boasted 172 RURAL ITALY. their descent from the most ancient occupiers of the land, adopted the simple expedient of dividing the com- munal property amongst themselves ; and they might have succeeded in retaining it for ever, had not the proceeding clashed with the interests of the majority of the population, who brought the matter before the Government. When the Austrians possessed Lombardy they found the forestal laws a dead letter ; and as it appeared impossible to prevent the growing waste, they made a law, in 1839, for the sale of uncultivated lands, and urged the communes to dispose of their property to private individuals. This law gave rise to much dis- content, but some good was wrought by it. Several communes let their woods on sixteen or twenty years leases, and forbade the cutting of trees of immature growth ; yet, at the present time, not more than two- fifths of their woods have passed into private hands, in spite of the law for the sale of waste lands of 1874 and the Forestal Law of 1877. It is reckoned that in twenty years' time the transfer may be completed. Charcoal-burning constitutes an extensive industry in the forest zone. Waste lands capable of being wooded are worth about 50 to 100 lire per hectare ; once covered with plantations, they would fetch from 300 to 500 lire. From r hectare (2^ acres) of plantations 1 2 quintals, or 23 cwt., of charcoal may be made in the year when they are cut. The agricultural zone of the mountain region consists exclusively of private properties. In winter the entire population of the region is congregated in this zone ; hence, as the extent of the district is very limited, its population is relatively dense. DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 173 Artificial meadows, abundantly manured, and receiv- ing a large amount of rain-water, are mown twice a year, and produce large hay crops of excellent quality. The commercial value of such land reaches £i22>, £160, and even ;^240 per acre, a price as high as that paid for the " Marchite," near Milan, which are mown even nine times a year. Not less important are the chestnut woods, which furnish an important aliment of the people. They pro- duce some 900,000 quintals of nuts (about 88,000 tons), of which a considerable quantity is exported. The chestnut-tree is of slow growth, only yielding fruit after twenty years from the time of planting, but it lives several centuries, and a good plantation produces 20 quintals per hectare (15 cwt. per acre). The district of Valtellina is in a worse state than the remainder of this region, on account of the large extent of marshy ground, which covers nearly one-half of the lower valley. The inhabitants are small in stature, and subject to fevers, goitre, ague, cretinism, and scrofula. Extraordinary labour has been expended on hillside cultivation ; the very soil of the terraces has been brought up from below by manual exertion ; and though all kinds of crops flourish on these small farms, it is evident that the immense amount of work laid out upon them must far outweigh the profits realized by the owners. Notwithstanding the fertility of the valleys, there is not sufficient corn raised in the mountain region to suffice for the requirements of the population ; and it is considered that agriculture can never be the basis of the development of this portion of the country. The Valtellinese wine is of good quality. The average yearly production amounts to some 110,000 174 RURAL ITALY. hectolitres, and 2,200 hectolitres of acquavite ; but the entire failure of the vintage for several successive seasons has caused an almost irreparable disaster, from which the district is but slowly recovering. Vine-plants are renewed every 10 years. A good vineyard at Sondrio costs 16,000 lire per hectare (.1^256 per acre), and at Tirano, where the wine is less choice but more abundant, the price is 24,000 lire per hectare (.1^364 per acre). The science of wine- making is progressing. The land, being cut up into an infinite number of small inheritances, presents almost the aspect of a coloured mosaic. A father leaves 6 hectares of pro- perty to his three sons, in equal parts, consisting of meadow, arable, and chestnut plantation ; but each must take one-third of each separate kind of land, so that the farm has to be sub-divided into nine shares. The result is that each man passes half his day in going from one division of his land to the other, some- times no small distance, and the heirs are prevented from making an equitable and convenient exchange by the laws which tax such a transaction as though it were an actual purchase and transfer of property. From all the above causes it results that emigration is frequent ; and it is an undoubted advantage to the country, excepting when it is employed by the inhuman and grasping band of speculators who rob the poor emigrant, and leave him to starve and perish in the most sterile and unhealthy regions of Brazil. The inhabitants of the mountain region are the worst housed in all Lombardy. Their squalid huts are built of stones with very little cement ; they are full of filth and litter. Beds are made of dried leaves. Were it not for the mountain air and the goodness of the drinking DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 175 water, disease would be inevitable. Pellagra exists, but is happily not extensive. Meat and wine seldom form a part of the food of the peasants, and the pellagra is caused by the almost exclusive use of " polenta," made from bad maize, coupled with crowded living in unhealthy atmosphere. The illness frequently becomes hereditary, but it never seems to arise without a combination of the two above-mentioned causes. Most of the bad maize comes from the coast of the Black Sea. However, in the Province of Sondrio, containing 1 20,000 inhabitants, only seventy -one cases of pellagra have been reported, and this is a mere nothing in comparison with the prevalence of cretinism, goitre, rickets, scrofula, and kindred maladies. The intellectual and moral condition of the peasants is more favourable. They are fond of learning, re- ligious without superstition, and patriotic in the highest degree. 2. The Hill Region. — The region of the hills and upper plains is the smallest in size and the least favoured by nature. Small and medium-sized holdings prevail throughout this part of the country, which is tilled by the plough or the spade, according to the density of the population and the nature of the soil. The poverty of the land is due to the great want of water and the prevalence of hail-storms. Yet in this region we find one of the densest populations in Europe, and many of the farmers are fairly well housed and fed. The fact is, that this is the most active manufacturing district of Italy. Silk, linen, and cotton spinning is carried on in every village. Silk cocoons being obtained on the spot, and plenty of operatives being at hand, the cultivation of mulberry-trees has been yearly developed. J 76 RURAL ITALY. The beauty and salubrity of the country has attracted many wealthy persons to build summer residences ; but were the silk industry to fail and the villas to cease to be frequented, unparalleled poverty and misery would certainly overtake the population. Summer drought is the oft-recurring misfortune of this region. Lemons are extensively cultivated north of Salo along the Lake of Garda. The lemon-tree is costly to rear, but, when exempt from disease, 20,000,000 of the fruit can be gathered on 60 hectares of ground, to the value of 500,000 lire. The same district produces 12,000 quintals of oil, and is capable of yielding a large quantity of garden fruit, the sale of which is much facilitated by the opening of the St. Gothard Railway. Twenty-five years ago the hill region was covered with vineyards, yielding an annual produce of 2,000,000 hectolitres of indifferent wine, worth 1 8,000,000 lire, or 55 lire per hectare. To-day scarcely one-fourth of that quantity is obtained, owing to vine disease and the competition of Piedmont and the other chief wine- growing provinces of Italy. The region is now almost exclusively devoted to silkworm culture, which gives incessant labour to thousands of persons, and alone saves them from destitution. In 1 88 1, which was a year of great abundance, about 1 7,000,000 kilog. of silk cocoons were raised in Lombardy, of which 9,000,000 came from the hill region alone ; that is, 27 kilog., worth 90 lire per hectare, on 326,000 hectares of ground, without inter- fering with the cultivation of the soil on which the mulberry-trees stand. Some farms even produced as much as 50 kilog. per hectare or 175 lire, at 3^ lire per DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 177 kilog. on a low estimate. In 1873 cocoons fetched 7 lire per kilog., but the importation from Asia is bringing down their value. About fifteen years ago various diseases broke out among the silkworms, threatening the entire destruction of the industry and causing intense panic. Eggs were imported from Istria, Dalmatia, Albania, Epirus, Mace- donia, Wallachia, Asia Minor, and the Caucasus, and also from Portugal, but the disease gradually spread to all those countries, and the misfortune appeared irretrievable, until eggs were brought from Japan, which resisted the malady and gave excellent general results. Silkworms have since been bred from the produce of Japanese eggs with complete success. Of 568,700 ounces raised in 1881, over 200,000 ounces came from Japan, 325,299 were reproduced and crossed with the Japanese breed, and 62,181 were the produce of the yellow European breed, which yields more abundant and more valuable silk than the former. The most minute care is requisite for silkworm- rearing ; the houses must be large, airy, and wholesome ; if a door or a window be left open for ten minutes, if a due supply of leaves is omitted, or if for a few moments the necessary heat is not maintained, the whole of the precious insects may be lost. Small farms are the prevalent and necessary charac- teristic of the hill region ; they range in size from 5 to ID acres ; some have 250 to 500 acres, and a very few as much as 2,000 acres. Land is generally at a fairly high price, varying from ^19 to ^72 per acre. Money brings 3, 4, or 5 per cent, interest. Alternate crops of corn and maize are generally grown on the farms. Notwithstanding the difficulty of finding proper fodder 12 178 RURAL ITALY. for cattle, 185,000 beasts are bred in this small region, and cattle-raising shows considerable progress. Artificial manures are not much used, owing to their high price, the prevalence of adulterated articles in the market, and the dislike of the peasants to their adop- tion ; but where experiments have been made in the vicinity of Milan large results have been obtained from the employment of " pozzo nero " and chemical manures. Much of the fertility of the soil is due to the extensive use of the spade in place of the plough : " The ploughshare is made of iron, but the spade is pointed with gold," says the proverb. In fact, land tilled with the spade will yield double the amount of corn obtained from ploughed land, though of course the greater manual labour must not be lost sight of. About one-third of the entire region is cultivated with the spade. Tobacco and beet-root might be cultivated with advantage ; and the whole system of agriculture is capable of considerable improvement and development if the owners will aid the farmers and work in cordial co-operation with them. Most of the existing contracts allow the farmers to cultivate their land on systems chosen by themselves, as long as they furnish a yearly fixed tribute of grain to the proprietor, but their system could be bettered by a more intelligent rotation of crops under the advice and with the aid of liberal and enlightened landlords. Now, there are both good and bad landlords in Lombardy. The latter think only of receiving their due, and do nothing for the farmers. They hand over their farms to agents and bailiffs, whose only duty is to see that the landlord's share is duly forthcoming, and DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 179 they seldom visit their properties excepting for a short stay during the summer months. No district more truly exemplifies the proverb — " A poor tenant makes a bad farm." * The majority of the landowners are, however, of a middle type — neither good nor bad. Hence the pro- gress of the region is slow and small. Besides the landowners, there are many religious corporations holding land, which farm out their property by auction. The result is, that in good years the hirer keeps the profits for himself, and in bad years he presses hardly on the peasants to save himself from ruin, whilst the peasant, in his turn, takes all he can out of the im- poverished ground to preserve himself from starvation. ' In no case is the condition of the peasant improved or the state of the soil ameliorated. Hence charitable institutions, founded expressly for benefiting the sick, are found in many cases to propagate disease under the above system. In fact, large properties in this region are productive merely of an " exploitation de I'homme par I'homme." The mdtayage system is very prevalent in Lom- bardy. Under its original form all the produce of the soil was equally divided between landlord and tenant, but the participation assumes many varieties. Silk and grapes are usually handed over entirely to the landlord, who returns to the tenant a certain share of the profits realized. Frequently the contracts are in writing, but more generally they are verbal, and made for a year, commencing on St. Martin's Day. * The poverty and misery of the peasant class have caused a con- siderable spread of socialistic doctrines amongst the population of Lombardy and the Romagna. The increase of agitation and dis- turbances is much noticed in the Italian press. 12 — 2 i8o RURAL ITALY. The division of the produce is executed to the letter, but in many details the spirit of the original contract may be, and often is, evaded on both sides. It is an antiquated system, no doubt, and an object of ridicule to many, but it raises the dignity of the tenant by making him a partner with his landlord, and is thus a means of the preservation of social order not to be despised. Metayage has its advantages and its disadvantages. The landlord is indisposed to lay out money the eventual profits of which will be shared by a partner who has contributed nothing to the expenses of improve- ment, whilst the tenant prefers sparing the labour of his cattle to obtaining a larger crop, which he must divide with his landlord. Financially speaking, the peasants appear to thrive more under this species of contract than any other, and it is a question with which the law is not well able to interfere. But mdtayage is in- dubitably an obstacle to agricultural progress, and it affords temptation and facility to the tenant of defraud- ing his landlord. Hence in many cases a mixed con- tract is substituted, by which the tenant gives from 2^ to 8^ hectolitres of corn per hectare to his landlord, and retains the remaining produce of his land for himself, excepting silk and wine, which are equally divided, and certain extras, such as house-rent, irri- gated meadows, etc., which remain under the metayage system. Some peasant families consist of from twelve to twenty-four persons. The payment of a fixed quantity of corn per annum is occasionally commuted for a yearly sum of money, which leaves the tenant free to farm his land in what- ever manner he may prefer, and is, in fact, simply the ordinary English system of rents. There are instances DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. i8i of illiterate but intelligent peasants paying 4 guineas per acre on a farm of eight acres, and living well into the bargain. The taxation in this region amounts to 30 per cent, of the net returns of property. The peasants' houses, as a rule, are fairly good, and they are gradually being rebuilt and improved ; but there are still many places where men and women sleep promiscuously in the granaries or cattle sheds in winter- time, with equal ill-effect on health and morality, and where the bread or polenta is made from rotten grain. Their clothing is generally good. The men princi- pally wear fustian ; the women adorn their heads with a semicircle of long silver pins and their necks with several rows of garnets ; for greater effect on the Sabbath they dress their hair with very putrid oil, which does not increase the seductions of their great natural beauty. The cleanliness of the houses is not exemplary. On the whole, the peasants are strong, well behaved, and religious, but a want of respect for their betters is increasing amongst them. Education is spreading. The want of good and sufficient food is the worst evil of the region. Bread, polenta, and vegetables form the staple diet of the great majority of the population, and even of these they do not get enough, nor is the quality wholesome. Flour made from musty maize contains a poison which produces the pellagra, that dreaded disease now so prevalent throughout the kingdom, and the bread is so ill-made that the poison is often generated in the hard yellow loaves, cooked only on the outside, and damp and musty within. Co-operative bakehouses are, however, being built to remedy this evil. The Lombards are charitable and good-hearted, as is i82 RURAL ITALY. amply proved by the number of their beneficent institu- tions ; but the scope of their good works is chiefly limited to the towns, through ignorance of the wants existing in the agricultural districts. 3. The Region of ihe Plains.— This lower region is a distinct type, differing not only from the rest of Europe, but probably finding no counterpart throughout the civilized world. The fertility and richness of the Lombard district, so long vaunted and gloried in, has reference to this particular region ; but it has been considerably exaggerated and misunderstood. The region is much larger than that of the hills ; perhaps not quite so extensive as that of the mountains. Its great characteristic is the artificial irrigation, which covers an area of some 1,375 acres. The system of irrigation was not unknown to the ancient Romans. Virgil writes in the Georgics : Claudite jam rivos pueri, sat prata bibere ; but the real initiative of the new agriculture is due to the Cistercian monks of the Chiaravalle Abbey, near Milan, in the twelfth cen- tury. St. Bernard, in accordance with the wishes of the citizens of Milan, chose a sterile situation called Rovagno, and there founded a fraternity of agricultural monks, after the pattern of the famous Abbey of Clairvaux in France, from which also they took their name. This Brotherhood converted a marshy and malarious district into a fertile plain, and sowed the seeds of a future prosperity, which was, however, not fully matured until the middle of the last century. The system of irrigation has called into active being the principle of co-operation, so difficult to implant in Italy. Private interests have had to yield to the com- plicated requirements of an organization involving the well-being of thousands of individuals. DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 183 The natural fertility of the soil is of no account, though its productiveness has been brought to un- paralleled perfection. The fecundity is, however, en- tirely artificial, and has been created at the expense of immense capital, whilst large funds are daily requisite to maintain and realize its value. Nature has indeed dowered this region with a plen- tiful water supply, contained in the large lakes, as reservoirs, and in subterraneous conduits flowing over argillaceous and stony ground ; but incalculable labour has been necessary to form the network of canals and their infinite small tributaries, to adapt the fields to the requisite levels and inclinations, and to utilize the sub- soil water by a complete systeih of engineering. It is computed that a milliard ni francs has been expended upon this work, viz., about £2^ per acre. Imperfectly irrigated land is worth £2/^ per acre, whilst the best ground costs ten times that sum. It is thus evident that a very great outlay is still required to complete the irrigation of the whole region. The value of land may be considered to be equal to the amount of capital which has been expended upon it. The combined effect of sun and water works miracles; rice, maize, and grass grow abundantly, large quantities of cattle are reared, and their manure completes the fertilization of the soil : " Chi ha prato, ha tutto " (he who has a meadow has everything) says the local proverb. Large properties are the rule throughout the region, as is both natural and essential. The economy of the water-supply requires that a profitable farm should contain at least from 15 to 20 hectares. On the best land sixty cows or more can be kept on a farm of 50 acres. Farms of 100 to 300 acres are relatively still r84 RURAL ITALY. better, since, the more milk can be got, the higher is the price obtained for it at the cheese factories. Properties are called large which consist of more than 300 and rise to as much as 1,000 acres. For a farm of the latter size a working capital of ;^20,ooo is necessary. There are properties even larger than this ; some in the rice- growing district are of even 2,500 acres and upwards ; but these are quite exceptional, and are not relatively so profitable as those of medium size. Contracts and leases are made for terms of nine or twelve years. The tenant requires a working capital equal to three years' rent. So the hirer of a holding of 250 acres must have a capital of ^2,400 to be in a proper position to realize the profits of the farm, on which he pays a rent of ;^8oo a year. Manual labour is diminished, and the exercise of capital and intelligence increased in proportion to the perfection of agriculture on irrigated lands, where the operations are so vast and complicated that the simple peasant is unable to grasp the entire scheme of their administration. Yet, though paid labour is the rule in this region, the principle of partnership in the produce of the ground is so deeply rooted throughout Lombardy, that even here it is the custom to stimulate the diligence of the pea- sants by assigning to them a certain share of the rice, maize, or flax grown on the property. A space is reserved in every field to each peasant family engaged in its cultivation, from which they receive one-third or one-fourth of the annual yield, besides having a house and orchard given to them. This system is not applied to meadows, which are rented out or worked by paid labourers, and where silk is cultivated the owner and tenant take equal shares of the produce. DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 185 In the western part of the region high farming prevails. In the eastern portion the irrigation is less perfect, and there remains still an extensive tract which may be denominated as the dry plain. Many essays have been written upon the important west zone of the region of the plains. Its chief divisions are severally characterized by the (i) mar- chite, or water-meadows, (2) rice-fields, (3) white-tre- foil-fields, and (4) flax-grounds. The trefoil-fields, after three or four years of meadow cultivation, have a rotation of crops of flax, maize, corn, and even rice. The marchite are continually covered with a thin sheet of running water, and they are richly manured twice a year. They extend only over 8,000 or 9,000 hectares, one-half of which are in the immediate neigh- bourhood of Milan. Those meadows thrive best which are irrigated with water from beneath the ground, which is warmer than the air, but the most fertile of all are the sewage farms near the city. A good meadow produces as much as 1 5 tons of hay per hectare, and is mown six, seven, or even nine times a year. In Vettabia twenty- five tons per hectare are obtained, and one meadow has been even proved to yield 140 tons of grass per hectare, equal to 75 tons of hay, or 30 tons per acre ! Most of the grass is used for feeding cows, without being made into hay, so that it is not surprising that sixty large cows can be reared on fifty acres of such land. Indeed, such a yield of grass is quite unequalled else- where in the world, and would appear incredible were it not a perfectly ascertained fact. Many meadows are given a rotation of crops where continual irrigation is impossible, and these produce magnificent crops of maize and other corn i86 RURAL ITALY. when tilled for the first time after a long period of repose. The cattle are all brought from Switzerland ; they produce a great quantity of milk on the rich grass diet given to them, but run dry in five or six years at the most, and are then discarded. The produce of the rice-fields probably surpasses 2)\ million hectolitres, varying in proportion per hectare according to the nature of the soil and the rotation of crops. Rice will grow on marshy ground where no other crop can be raised, and it has been cultivated for several successive centuries. No little care is re- quired in laying out the fields with the proper dams and channels. Nowadays a rotation of eight years is generally prevalent, viz., three years of meadow, one of maize, one of corn, and three of rice. The competition of Asiatic rice is severely felt. So large an amount of humidity is diffused over the rice- grounds, that their vicinity is most unwholesome. Shallow wells become infiltrated from the rice-fields and produce fever, whilst the labourers work at sunrise and sunset, the worst hours of the day, on poor food and drink, devoid of the requisite tonics to preserve them from illness, which is rife when the water is drawft off the fields, giving rise to the putrefaction of much animal and vegetable matter. The fields of trefoil are the best ground for rotatory crops. Here is made the " formaggio di grana " or Parmesan cheese. This land also yields marvellous results of cultivation. As soon as the crops are off the ground it is left to the sole agency of nature, when it at once covers itself with an apparently spontaneous growth of trifolium repens, produced in reality from the seeds contained in the natural manure which has been DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 187 previously spread over the fields. The grass is mown four times a year, and excellent milk is obtained in large quantities from these extensive pastures. The milk-cattle are from Switzerland, but Lower Lombardy breeds 400,000 native cattle, which cost from £16 to ^24 per head, when brought into the market at 3 or 4 years old. The native cattle yield 25 hectolitres of milk per annum, but the Swiss cows produce 32 hecto- litres when fed on the irrigated meadows during ten months of the year. Milk is worth 12 centimes a litre, or a little more. Gorgonzola and Stracchino cheeses are made in this district as well as Parmesan, but the manufacture of the latter is by far the most extensive. It is carried on, however, in the most ignorant manner and in squalid huts, extremely ill-adapted for cheese-making, so that one-third of it is lost and another third is of inferior quality, because the makers do not know how to perfect it, and, indeed, look on the whole process as a mere lottery. Gorgonzola can only be made during the last three months of the year, but Parmesan is made all the year round. Large numbers of pigs are reared on the refuse of the cheese. In 1881 some 125,000 head were registered in Lombardy. The flax-grounds are mostly in the fertile district of Cremona. They are cultivated on the quadrennial rotatory crop system, and occupy only about one-fifth of the land, which yields far more important crops of maize, hay, and mulberry-leaves. The flax produce amounts to about 6,000 tons of fibre of fine quality. Mulberry-trees are extraordinarily prolific, some of them giving as much as 7 tons of leaves. Of 100,000 horses bred in the three regions, 72,000 i88 RURAL ITALY. come from the region of the plains, and the best and largest number of these are reared in the Provinces of Cremona and Mantua ; but the supply is far from equal to the demand, since Italy imports an immense quantity of them every year. The east zone of this region is in a state of far less agricultural development, but is slowly being trans- formed and ameliorated. The want of capital is the chief obstacle to a more rapid transition, coupled with an undue subdivision of property. It is calculated that ;^20,ooo laid out in the purchase of land in one pro- perty might well be doubled in twelve or fifteen years, if ground could be bought cheap or at its real value. But, from various artificial causes, land fetches a high price. Throughout the whole region rents vary from £2 to £1 1 per acre, according to the nature and value of the ground. On the best lands nine years' leases are usually granted, but longer ones would be advantageous when good tenants can be secured. The fertility and prosperity of this fine region are counteracted, however, by the monstrous taxes imposed upon it. Reference has been made to this subject in previous chapters, and I recur to it only to give further proofs of the enormity of the taxation by means of one or two cases in point. In some provinces of Lombardy, under old valuations, the taxes amount to 40 or 45 per cent,, not of the valuation merely, but of the net returns. This is especially the case in the lower plains. In Cremona the taxes are more out of all proportion to the returns than in any district in Europe ; and they rise to 60 per cent, on the net returns, not of the variable production of the year, which may be very DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 189 large or very small, but on the fixed basis of the nine or twelve years' lease valuations as obtained by public auction. For instance, the Great Milanese Hospital, which is the largest landholder in the basin of the Po, is taxed to the extent of 35^ per cent., exclusive of the expenses of administration. The average amount of land-tax paid by every Italian is 9 fr. 15c., by every Lombard 12 fr. 13 c, and each inhabitant of the Province of Cremona has the unjusti- fiable privilege of paying 18 fr. 55 c, though many territories are richer than his ! The principal beneficent institutions of Cremona holding land are taxed nearly 41 per cent., exclusive of administration charges, whilst some have to pay 45, 48, 59, and even 65 per cent, on the rent valuations. When expenses of annual repairs, maintenance, and administration are added to this abnormal weight of taxation, the net returns sink to zero. Again, the tax- payer receives the visits of the collectors regularly every two months, and the payments for maintenance and repairs cannot be postponed, whilst it is the rent return which is invariably delayed in case of a bad year or what not. Hence, a small owner is often poorer and less safe than a ploughman and his family on a good estate. The flagrant injustice of such taxation as this is known and recognised by all. Cremona seems pre- destined to spoliation ever since Octavius confiscated the province for his veterans. Not until real reparation is given for the hardships complained of will the people be able to say, with more truth than Virgil did, Deus nobis hcec otia fecit. In the midst of the exuberant fertility of even the water-meadow district, it is sad to record that the dwell- 190 RURAL ITALY. ings of the peasants are very bad and full of fever. Wages are small, food is poor, and the general con- dition of the agricultural labourers is precarious in the extreme. The fever produces almost as much misery as does the pellagra in other districts. It seems an irony of fate that the peasant should well-nigh starve amid so much natural wealth. In the Province of Mantua are to be seen huts built and thatched with canes and mud like the dwellings of savages in Africa or Australia. The air of the irrigated plains is damp and heavy. Though the landlords are, as a rule, well-to-do, they have to lay out such large sums on their properties that they do not care to spend further amounts on improving the houses of the labourers, and of course mere tenants will never do so. Many of the proprietors are saddled with heavy mortgages or family settlements, and they have not the means to repair the cottages " which have stood for 200 years, and may well last for some time longer." Even were money expended in rebuilding the wretched tenements, it would be difficult to recoup it on the sale of new leases, owing to the heavy registration charges laid by the Government on all transfers of property. The further east one goes in the region of the plains the better are the peasants' houses ; but this fact does not save the population from the awful scourge of the pellagra, which, indeed, commits more ravages here than in the whole of the rest of Lombardy, and particularly prevails in the flax district. In the arrondissement of Lodi there are 4,030 cases of pellagra among 173,000 inhabitants, viz., about 24 per 1,000; in that of Cremona there are 4,190 cases among 175,000; and in Verulanuova there are 3,400 DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 191 cases among only 57,000, or 6 per cent. In Brescia and Chiari the proportion is 27 and 43 per 1,000 respec- tively. The reason of the spread of the disease in the flax district is that maize is grown there as an autumn crop, and if the season be at all damp it does not ripen, or when matured cannot be properly dried, in which case it rapidly gets mildewed. The inhabitants sell the good corn for export and live on the bad, which generates the illness. It is hard to find the best remedies for these evils. To forbid entirely the cultivation of autumn maize on account of the pellagra, and of rice on account of the fever, would be like cutting off the patient's arm because he is wounded in the hand ; it would appear preferable to eradicate the diseases by a more stringent supervision of the housing and feeding of the peasant classes, and by the total prohibition of the manufacture of bread and polenta from bad maize corn, whether of native growth or imported from abroad. The wages of field-labourers even in the richest districts are very small. A peasant family in the neighbourhood of Milan finds it difficult to earn more than ;^i8 a year. Milk is abundant, and is in daily use, but apart from a participation in the produce of the ground, it is a problem how a labourer is to live on 6^d. a day ! The highest average earnings of a family amount to £2^ a year. It is quite impossible for the law to attempt to interfere with the question of wages. The tendency of former times was to employ many hands at small wages ; the modern system is to use fewer labourers, but to pay them well, and this method will become more general with the greater adoption of 192 RURAL ITALY. agricultural machinery. Hence the best, if not the only, remedy is to be sought in the emigration of poor and especially of casual labourers. The peasant is robbed by the miller and by every village tradesman, for he will not readily part with his money, but is always prepared to pay double the value of his purchases in kind. He buys the worst of every commodity. From diseased meat he makes rancid sausages, and he spends in a single Sunday at the inn on bad wine and spirits or worse beer as much as would provide good wine for his family once a week. Co-operation, well-directed charity, and the develop- ment of savings banks, might do much to help them in bettering their condition, but the labourer adscriptus glebcB will ever be lower in the social scale than the small owner who is independent, however poor he may be. The former has no cordial feelings towards the bailiff, steward, or tenant of the farm on which he works ; family life is quite unknown to him ; for his family is scattered about during summer, and in winter is huddled together with a dozen other families in barns and sheds. Lastly, military service presses more severely on this region than' elsewhere, since every youth may earn some wages, however small, to help the household in keeping the wolf from the door. To sum up the characteristic disadvantages of the whole of Lombardy, we find : 1. One of the densest agricultural populations in the world, congregated in a country of which one-half is occupied by arid mountains ; for in Milan and Cremona there are i6i inhabitants to the square kilom. respec- tively, and in Como (a mountainous province) 67, whilst in England the proportion is 30, in Ireland 60, DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 193 and in France 40. Flanders alone equals Milan in density of population ; and there, in a marvellously fertile and well-cultivated country, the condition of the rural classes is even worse. 2. The soil is not naturally fertile ; prolonged sum- mer drought is the prevailing feature ; and an immense expenditure of capital and labour has alone produced the richness of the land. 3. Taxation is fabulously high ; a territory of 23,526 kilom., of which not more than 16,000 are capable of cultivation, paying in simple land taxes alone 42,000,000 lire, or 1,784 lire for every square kilom., and 2,620 lire for the cultivated area. 4. Property is greatly subdivided, and all the large estates put together (viz., those particularly of the beneficent institutions) do not equal in extent the pos- sessions of a single one of the Roman princes. 5. The. large and admirable charitable foundations of Lombardy extend their benefits almost entirely to the inhabitants of the towns, doing little or nothing for the rural classes. It is indisputable that the condition of the agrarian population of Italy calls loudly for radical amendment ; but no recipe can be given for a sudden and complete cure of the evils from which it suffers. All classes must co-operate in the work, and take the interests of the country districts really to heart. The peasants have no force of initiative, and the appellation of " villain " or " peasant " is a designation of scorn throughout the kingdom. Generally speaking, it may be said that it is the primary duty of the Government to cause correct statistics to be drawn up respecting the ownership of 13 194 RURAL ITALY. land, and to this " Domesday Book " should be added precise data as to the existing niortgages on property. Of not less importance is the question of the duties of the State in the matter of emigration. In 1881 no less than 600,000 persons emigrated from Europe to America without impediment from their Governments. The State should exercise a strict superintendence over emigration agents, to prevent the possibility of an inhuman white-slave trade, and to direct emigrants towards the most healthy and prosperous regions. In the Argentine Republic there are now 70,000 Italians, and that country still offers th6 best field for Italian emigration. The experiment which has been made, of founding Lombard colonies in the Neapolitan provinces, has not been found to give good results, for the new settlers found the best locations already occupied, and the only ground available for them was infected with malaria. Provincial, communal, and State taxation increases year by year. It is absolutely necessary that it should be equalized and diminished. Without energetic Government action on this point, the problem of agri- cultural improvement is as difficult as squaring the circle. Almost universal ignorance concerning the condition of rural Italy has hitherto blocked the path of ameliora- tion. It is suggested that reports should be furnished to Government every five years from all parts of the kingdom. With regard to Lombardy in particular, horse and cattle breeding should be aided and encouraged ; the cheese manufacture should be perfected, and better agricultural instruction should.be afforded on the model DISTRICT X.—LOMBARDY. 195 of the higher agricultural college of Milan and kindred establishments. The rewooding of the forest zone and the enforce- ment of the Forestal Law are essential. Without a readjustment of the land-tax and a diminu- tion of registration charges on the transfer of property, nothing whatever can be done. The aid of the State is urgently needed in helping the landlords to remedy the bad state of the peasants' houses and the other evils before noticed in connection -with the subjects of wages, food, contracts, etc. I have dwelt at considerable length upon the descrip- tion of Lpmbardy, as being that of one of the most important districts of Italy. CHAPTER XL DISTRICT XI. VENETIAN PROVINCES. The Venetian provinces exhibit great misery prevalent amongst the peasants, whose sad condition imperatively demands amelioration. Emilia and Tuscany are In a like condition. The peasants' houses are alike wretched in the upper and lower regions of this territory. The houses are small, ill-repaired, ill-built, and ill-ventilated, often merely thatched with straw. The number of occupants is excessive, and the dwellings are frequently damp, low, and dark, with manure-heaps piled up against the walls. The inhabitants of these hovels are generally the owners of them, but dire poverty prevents them from maintaining their cottages in repair. Most of the houses are destitute of the most elementary domestic conveniences. The miserable occupants are huddled together without distinction of age or sex. The universal cry is for a reduction of taxation. Wages are inadequate. Even where the soil is fertile, labour is unremunerative. In the district of Fruili labourers are bound by contract for 50 centimes a day, without food ! Casual labourers receive rather more, but they know not where to look when the period of their work is done. Women work with men, and receive only 30 DISTRICT XI.— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 197 centimes a day. The men go away to seek for a living, out of the country, and the females are left alone to labour. Even children of six years of age work at tasks far beyond their strength. In the Province of Belluno wages range from 60 centimes to i fr. 25 c. Emigration alone saves many from absolute starvation. In the region of Treviso the average wages hardly reach i fr. a day. Casual labourers abound, and some thousands of peasants live exclusively by organized depredations on the Montello Forest. The Provinces of Padua, . Vicenza, Verona, and Rovigo are not much better off. In that of Venice alone the rural labourer is more fortunate. Bad years and reduced profits have augmented all the other evils complained of, and the high prices of provisions, added to the prevalence of lawsuits, further oppress the impoverished farmers. Religious super- stition and illicit unions of the sexes abound as a natural consequence, as well as constant thefts. In Venetia quarrels terminating in bloodshed are happily rare, but the rural population is much given to drinking, and takes the second place in the scale of deaths from the excessive use of spirituous liquors. For strength and robustness the Venetian peasants come tenth on the military list, though they are by no means the worst in Italy. The pellagra rages at its fullest extent in this pro- vince, the last statistics giving the alarming number of 29,836 cases. No remedies have hitherto been applied for this terrible scourge. Hospitals have been opened in the Province of Udine, but they are not an efficient preventive. The Province of Belluno requests permission to 198 RURAL ITALY. cultivate' tobacco, as has been done at Arsia, where 2^ millions of plants were successfully raised on some 200 acres of ground. It desires the extension of railroad construction and State supervision of emigration, which it would see directed to other parts of the country rather than to the West. The Province of Verona appears generally rich and fertile. The last harvest was abundant and of superior quality, but the peasants complain that the prices of bread and rural produce do not fall in due proportion to the weight of the crops. Irrigation is employed, on both banks of the river Adigeand its tributaries, but there are no other impor- tant water sources for this purpose. Sowing and reaping machines have only recently been introduced, and do not find much favour with the farmers, but threshing and winnowing machines are greatly used. The following statistics of exports and imports are important : Article. , Hectol. Import. Export. Remarks. Wine, in cask 3.5°° 6>35° „ . in bottles . No. . 3,000 20,000 Spirits of all kinds Hectol. JOjOOO — Coffee Kilog. . 396,690 — Mostly beet-root Sugar; . i jj 3,966,900 • — ■ sugar from Ger- l- many. Chicory 120,000 — Hemp, flax, etc. . 1,000 10,000 Wool . 6,000 15,000 Silk (cocoons) . — 2,000,000 .. (eggs) • 806 88 ~ Firewood . 3,000,000 . Marble 2,000,000 rXhe amount ex- Corn . 4,440 24,000,060 ported in- good years is double - . .^ I this figure. DISTRICT XI:-^VENETIAN PROVINCES. 199 There is also a considerable exportation of chestnuts, potatoes, rice, grapes, fruit, vegetables, poultry, and eggs (10 millions yearly), all of which points to the richness of the province. As almost throughout the whole kingdom, it is com- plained that the great mass of landowners dwell in the towns, and take no personal interest or part in the cul- tivation of their properties. The mountainous region is almost uninhabited, and is frequented only in summer by shepherds, unaccom- panied by their wives and children. These men live in complete isolation for the time being. They ob- serve the Sabbath strictly, and congregate in the nearest chapel to attend Mass. The inhabitants of all the hill country are robust, honest, and of kindly dis- position. They are fairly well clothed and fed, but their houses are usually small and unclean. In their persons and clothing they are also dirty. The con- dition of the peasants becomes worse in every respect as we descend into the plains. Meat is eaten at most twice a year, at Christmas and Easter. Wine is rare, and the water is bad. The country folk are very religious, and super- stitious. They cause their dom.estic animals to be blessed by the priest, especially when pregnant. The priests are obliged to foster these superstitions, since, if they refused to comply, they would be held respon- sible foi^ subsequent misadventures. Obligatory rudimentary education is provided in every commune at the expense of the Municipality. It has been found expensive and difficult to enforce and maintain, since in summer the entire population of all ages is at work in the fields; and beyond this, especially in the plains, illiterate parents keep their RURAL ITALY. children from frequenting the schools in winter, whilst in the hill regions the cold is often very great, and the houses lie at considerable distances away from the villages. Feather-beds without mattresses are in general use ; they are warm for the winter, but enervating and unhealthy in summer-time. The labouring classes rise at dawn and retire to rest at sunset. They also rest at intervals during the day when the weather is hot. The financial condition of the peasants has sensibly im- proved during the past ten years, yet they are generally and permanently in debt to the owners of the land. Good relations on the whole prevail between the owners and their dependents. The food of the agricultural classes is poor and in- sufficient, consisting chiefly in maize polenta. The men alone drink half a pint of wine on holidays at the village inn. During winter, meetings of the peasants are held in the barns and cattle-sheds ; they commence at dusk and last till 1 1 p.m. In some instances the owner of the shed exacts a kilogramme of hemp from every wom.an attending the meeting. The men stand hand in hand telling stories, or they shell maize ; the women spin flax and sing, whilst the young ones make love with their sweethearts. The young labourers usually marry as soon as they have completed their obligatory term of military service, and carry away " the portion of goods that falleth to them " to set up house on their own account ;■ but the eldest son frequently remains at home to supply the place of his father as head of the family when the latter is no longer fit for work. j DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 2or Comparing the amount of agricultural labour done respectively by men, women, and children, the following proportions are approximately correct : Men. Women. ■Children. In the Mountain region . „ Hill region .... „ High plains .... „ Lower plains .... 10 lO ID 10 4 5 5 8 I I 2 4 Work in the rice-fields is frequently prejudicial to the health of women and children. It is very rare for the peasants to attain the age of 8o years. Girls are married at, about i8 years old. Widowers generally marry again immediately. Men work hard in the fields from i8 to 6o years of age. Children are weaned in eighteen months. Artificial nursing is seldom resorted to. There is great mortality amongst infants in arms, from the work done in reaping and in the rice-fields by the women, who carry them in their bosoms, and are in constant movement, continually bending down, and frequently standing in mud or in water up to the middle of the body. Deficiency of natural milk and suitable nourishment, the want of which is supplied by rancid oil or indigestible pap, is another cause of the large death-rate among children. Pulmonary and gastric diseases and fevers are the prevalent illnesses of the peasants. Pellagra causes fearful ravages. Madness and lunacy are on the in- crease in the Province of Verona, as well as in other parts of the kingdom. The following were the statistics of mortality for the City of Verona in 1876 : RURAL ITALY. Diseases of the chest and lungs Gastric diseases Heart diseases. ... Cerebro-spinal diseases Apoplexy .... Zymotic diseases — Typhoid ........ 74 Scarlatina . . . . . . . .21 Diphtheria ........ 29 •Small-pox 3 Whooping-cough . . . . . . -25 Marasmus ........ 60 Eclampsia (convulsions) , . . . . .21 Cancer 48 Surgical cases . . . . . . . -53 Delirium tremens ....... 7 Scrofula and rickets . . . . . . .132 Pellagra ......... 5 Puerperal fever ....... 8 Hydrocephalus and imperfect development . .112 Violent deaths -19 Unclassified deaths 389 Total . . .2,128 The population of the city and district is 121,294. There are about a dozen hospitalg in the province and forty-nine charitable institutions. , The latter possess a capital of some ^540,000, with an income of about ^32,000. Beyond this the communes provide an annual sum of ;^23,2o8 for philanthropic uses, so that over ;^55,2oo is annually expended in the province on behalf of the poor. There are twenty-one Benefit Societies (" Societd di Mutuo Soccorso "), but the peasants make little use of them, nearly all their members being artisans. The same observation applies to the Savings Bank. DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 203 ■^ " ' Silkworm cultivation has improved the condition of the rural classes perhaps more than anything else. • From 1862 to 1878 the number of schools in the provinces was increased from 262 to 672 as follows : 1862. Higher class schools for males ..... 2 „ „ for females . . . . i Lower class schools . . . . . . -259 Total attendance — Males ...... 12,357 Females 2,937 . . . 14.294 1878: ^ '; Higher schools for males ...... 36 ,, „ for females .• .■ .• . . 24 Lower schools . .612 Total attendance — Males . . J . . . 21,715 Females ..... 16,544 38,259 In 1878 the Municipalities expended the large sum of 615,892 lire 64 c. upon education, as against a com- pulsory legal expenditure of 281,608 lire 64 c. Compulsory military service is well received by the peasants, who are ready and willing to serve in the army. The system appears generally productive of good results. The total emigration from the province during the years 1876, 1877, and 1878, was — To European countries . . . • -429 To America 2,355 2,784 204 RURAL ITALY. The morality of the agricultural classes is high. Their character is mild and suave, though somewhat obsti-: nate. They are sober and easily contented, fairly in- telligent, but tenacious of ancient habits and customs, and ill-disposed to adopt novel or progressive ideas and measures. The Province of Vicenza comprises the districts of Vicenza, Lonigo, and Barbarano, with the following population : In the Towns. About the Country. Total. 24 Communes of Vicenza . 10 „ Lonigo . 10 „ Barbarano 54,833 14,572 5,469 36,947 19,086 10,577 91,780 33,658 16,046 Total. 74,874 66,610 ,141,484 Passing over lengthy but interesting details respect- ing the geography, climate, geology, hydrography, and orography of the province, as well as a large quantity of local information with regard to the landed property, rural contracts, system of cultivation, rotation of crops, and many other matters, which are treated of elsewhere in more general terms, I shall confine my attention to such peculiarities as seem to call for more special notice. It is, however, most difficult to curtail and summarize the abundant materials which are procur- able for the purpose of description, since the further one goes into the subject the wider seems the field opened for investigation, and the less justifiable does it appear to omit statistics and appreciations which are of undoubted value in themselves. These observations apply equally to every separate portion of the inquiry. DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 205 In the mountain region of this province capital is entirely wanting, and the whole cultivation of the soil depends on manual labour and individual enterprise. Also in the plains more capital is urgently needed, and a lack of professional intelligence is complained of. Oxen for labour are more esteemed, and reared in greater quantities, than milk cattle. Sheep are gener- ally disliked, on account of the damage done by them to growing crops and plants. Flax and hemp are not grown on a large scale. Cotton is not cultivated at all, excepting on one estate, pilthough it has been proved that it grows well, and produces, at a low estimate, three times the value of an equivalent extent of maize, which is, as usual, the favourite crop. In the neighbourhood of Vicenza there is a good deal of meadow-land, watered by irrigation ; but the muddiness of the river, and its liability to floods, render the crops of grass and hay uncertain in value and amount. The wine of the province was formerly much re- nowned, but both the quality and quantity produced appear to be on the decline. Alcohol is distilled, from grape-grounds only, in forty- five distilleries, but the quantity produced is small, the high taxes now imposed having considerably checked this industry. Chemical manures are little used. Wages average 1 lira per day for men in summer ; 60 centimes in winter ; 50 centimes for women in summer ; 40 centimes in winter. The silk industry is well developed. It is calculated that a profit of 33 lire 35 c, can be made on each card of eggs costing 1 8 lire. 2o6 RURAL ITALY. In 1868 an' Agricultural Committee was formed at Vicenza, which publishes a monthly report, owns a good library of over 600 volumes, and receives nearly sixtyperiodicals, corresponds regularly with the Ministry of Agriculture, and Sells salt for cattle, at a minimum profit, to the amount of some 20,000 kilog. per annum. Machinery, seeds, plants, chemical manures, and even cattle, are also purchased and resold by the society, which numbers over 400 members. Similar societies have been formed in the districts of Lonigo and Barbarano, but without much success. Rural credit banks, as such, do not exist. There is, however, a " people's bank " at Vicenza, which counts 6,200 agriculturists among its clients. A want, apparently much felt in the province, is that some means should be found for approximating more nearly the size of the farms to the means of the culti- vators ; but it is needless to state that such an opera- tion is very difficult to carry out. The priests have much influence amongst the agricul- tural population ; their blessing is eagerly sought for cattle, crops, silkworms, and domestic animals, as in the neighbouring province. This power might be used most advantageously in leading the peasants towards greater progress and enlightenment, and in some instances it is so employed ; but as a rule the priest confines himself to his spiritual functions, allowing his flock to look after their worldly interests according to their own degree of knowledge and intelligence. The extent of communal property in the province amounts to 1,591 hectares. Rural thefts, especially of wood, are frequent, par- ticularly on the part of labourers, who have no othet resource for providing their households with the primary DISTRICT XI.— VENETIAN. PROVINCES. 207 necessities of existence. Grapes are also greatly stolen at the time of vintage, and many large vine-owners employ men armed with guns or stout cudgels to patrol the vineyards day and night at that season of the year, The payment of casual labourers is, as a rule, utterly insufficient for their daily needs ; in consequence, they put no spirit into their work, and at the end of their engagement they laugh at the demands of the land- lords, which they are evidently unable to satisfy, and betake themselves to some other farm, where the same unsatisfactory history inevitably repeats itself. The permanent farm-labourers are not in much better case, for their small wages are entirely suspended when work is not forthcoming or when illness overtakes them, whilst their earnings have to support their families as well as themselves. Labourers paid throughout the year are better off; they rfeceive from 75 centimes to 2 lire per day, besides certain fees and occasional presents, as well as, in. many cases, a cottage rent free. The ox-herdsmen, whose wages are fixed, are much addicted to constantly changing their situations, apr parently more from the love of novelty than for any other reason. At the festival of St. Martin they always seek a new place, so that it is said of them that " their home is on the waggon." Farm-stewards, or managers, are very ill-paid. They are, however, for the most part, ignorant men, little qualified for the more important duties of their pro- fession. Peasant proprietors are generally contented w,ith .their lot, and proud and fond of their business. They seldom live in large families, though the tenant labourers frequently do so. In the households of fixed yearly 2o8 RURAL ITALY. labourers there is usually but one woman. The wife contributes her share to the necessary furniture. As elsewhere, the increased facilities of intercommu- nication throughout the country have caused the disap- pearance of most of the ancient religious and local customs. Festivals, bonfires, the may-pole, and the celebration of the return of spring, have fallen into disuse. In former times in Valstagna and Bassano passion-plays were enacted, and as late as 1 705 a score of live children were burned in the fires of the horrible "car of purgatory," following the procession of the Corpus Domini!* A good deal of superstition still survives, mixed with a wholesome respect for religion, and a shrewd appre- ciation of its real meaning. ' Weddings are conducted with much circumstance. The betrothal festivities take place in the house of the bride ; those of the marriage itself are provided by the bridegroom. Even the poorest furnish abundant dishes of meat and a large quantity of wine, whilst the banquets of the more wealthy are famous for the terrific solidity and enormous number of courses served. Pies containing live birds are offered to the bride, and great hilarity characterizes the proceeding. A short wedding tour, according to the means of the happy couple, follows the marriage. The dead are not long mourned, but on All Souls' Day liberal gifts of wine are made to the bell-ringers, who toll the church-bells all night long in honour of the deceased. * This appeared to me so extraordinary an assertion that I was unwilling to let it stand without further authority. I therefore wrote to Cavaliere Lampertico, the original author of the statement, who has informed me that he quoted the passage from known standard works, and has no doubt of its accuracy. — W, B. DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 209 The winter evenings are passed, as usual, in the cattle-sheds, which are the great field for courtships. The young woman who aspires to matrimony lets fall her spindle, and the youth who picks it up is thereby constituted her sweetheart. Generally speaking, the peasants are sober, charitable, and intelligent. Quarrels, and especially premeditated assaults, are very rare. Of late years mendicancy has considerably increased, the poorer class of labourers having no other resource for their old age. Want of work drives many, even of the young men, into begging. The maximum of mortality is attained by infants under i year old ; the medium is between the age of 40 and 65, the minimum from 4 to 20. The labourers' houses, as usual, are small and bad. Whole families live, eat, and sleep in huts of only a few square yards in size, the floors of which consist of the bare ground.- Privies are not even thought of in the construction of these dwellings. As in other parts of the kingdom, the worst houses are often found in the most fertile parts of the province. Blue is the prevailing colour of the garments worn by all the rural population. On festa days the majority are better dressed than their poverty would seem to allow. The women ornament their hats with a profu- sion of flowers and coloured ribbons. Those who are young and well-to-do load themselves with an astound- ing quantity of jewellery, and wear earrings of great weight. Food is scanty and of poor quality. An instance is recorded of a farmer, holding 300 fields, serving a duck carved into eighteen portions at the dinner-table of his household. Polenta is the sole nourishment of the 14 RURAL ITALY. labourers, and they consider themselves fortunate if they can be always sure even of getting a sufficiency of that unsavoury diet. Compulsory military service is not repugnant to the inhabitants of the province, and its influence is recog- nised as healthy and advantageous to them. Emigration of a permanent character was unknown until a few years ago. The bad harvests of 1875 ^^'^ 1876 caused an emigration of 4,111 persons in 1877 alone. Since that time both permanent and temporary emigration have diminished. The population is gradually increasing. Although belonging actually to the Province of Verona, the district of Bassano may be considered apart. It comprises the four communes of Asiago, Bassano, Marostica, and Thiene, with a population of 139.13I5 a-nd a superficial area of 1,050 square kilom., of which, however, 20,000 hectares consist of dense forest and rocky ground. The plains are fertile and beautiful ; the hills are also covered with vines, fruit- trees, and corn, whilst the mountain region is grand and imposing in its rugged aspects and the unbroken silence of its extensive woods. This is not the place for descriptions of scenery or the beauties of nature ; but I cannot refrain from adding my testimony to the marvellous loveliness and grandeur of the Valley of the Brenta. Silkworm cultivation and the cutting of timber form two of the most important industries of the district. The Asiago woods yield an annual profit of ;^ 16,000. The wine of the country is justly renowned. Fruit is abundant. From Lugo and Calvene alone 2,500 quintals of apples and pears, at 15 lire the quintal, besides 50,000 kilog. of chestnuts and 10,000 of nuts, DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 211 are sent to market. The district between Marostica and Astico produces 4, 700 quintals of fruit. The market of Bassano disposes of 20,000 kilog. per week. Agri- cultural machinery is more extensively used than in most other provinces. One of the most important industries of the defile of the Brenta is the cultivation of tobacco, conceded to this district in ancient times by the Venetian Republic and continued by successive Governments. Many miles of ground are devoted exclusively to its growth, and every available square yard of land is taken ad- vantage of by the privileged peasants, who display the greatest industry in walling-off terraces on the moun- tain-side, and carrying up water several times a day in dry weather to almost inaccessible places, often to be reached only by the aid of ladders. Government taxes and severe regulations render the profits derived far smaller than might reasonably be expected. All the tobacco must be sold to the Government monopoly, which takes no proper account of the quality, but pays by weight, so that the growers are dis- couraged from experimenting with the lighter and finer sorts, which are worth two or three times as much as they can obtain for them. The 634 hectares under cultivation produce 20 mil- lions of plants, viz., 31,550 plants per hectare. A thousand plants yield 60 kilog. of seasoned leaves. The Government pays 60 lire per quintal on the spot. The produce is divided into four classes, at from 28 to 120 lire the quintal. Smugglers who know its value will pay 300 lire per quintal for it ! This tobacco burns well, is rich in nicotine and salts of potass. It makes good smoking leaf and snuff. However 14 — 2 RURAL ITALY. good it may naturally be, the cigars smoked through- out Italy are as bad as any that can be found in Europe. Oil is not produced in any notable quantity, and the mills are of a very old-fashioned kind. The distillation of alcohol is also on a small scale, especially since the passing of the recent law, under which a large num- ber of distilleries have been closed throughout the kingdom. Wood for building purposes and charcoal are im- portant products of the district, particularly in the Sette Comuni. The forests belong to communes, to charitable institutions, and to individual owners. Some 44,770 trees are felled annually. Cattle-rearing shows good progress. Eggs are ex- ported to the annual value of ;^24,ooo, and are sent to Germany, and even to London. Silk, cheese, and honey are the most-cared-for pro- ductions. The account given of the general condition of the district is satisfactory. Three thousand hectares of land are irrigated by conduits from the Brenta. The public roads are excellent. Greater productiveness could be obtained by a more thorough cultivation of the soil, wider use of machinery, and technical knowledge of agriculture, as well as by augmenting the number of animals and the means of providing fodder for them. Large flocks migrate from this and other parts of the country to the Maremma for pasture, and thus the land loses much of the natural manure which it ought to have. Drainage is scanty and defective in all the district. Irrigated land is worth over ;^i2o per hectare. DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 213 Other good ground fetches from ;^8o to ^100. In the mountain region the land is minutely subdivided. The population is annually increasing on an average of 400 in each commune, and nearly double the number in the mountains. The universal complaint recurs with regard to the food of the poorest of the rural classes. They have no wine whatever in the midst of rich vineyards, and they live on bad polenta (for which they pay the value of the superior qualities), in the country where maize is the predominant crop. As usual, the peasant is robbed in every purchase which he makes. It is calculated that in this district there are over 74,000 persons who never eat meat, and over 36,000 who get no wine. During the past century the prices of provisions have increased 45 per cent., and in some instances they have doubled and even tripled in cost, whilst no correspond- ing increase in wages has taken place. The houses of the labourers are bad in the extreme, and even dangerous to their inmates, not only from their unhealthiness, but also on account of their un- stable condition. Drinking-water is of good quality throughout the district. A great falling-off in the quality of the cloth sold for garments is manifest. That which cost 10 lire forty years ago would last ten years. The same quantity now costs half the money and lasts one-fifth of the time. The same remark is applicable to army clothing. Straw-hat-making, introduced in 1640 from the Levant, is the chief indoor occupation of the peasants, of whom some 13,000 are engaged in this manufacture, 214 RURAL ITALY. earning from 25 to 40 centimes per day. The men working in the manufactories gain larger wages ; the majority of the industry is carried on by women and children. There is a good number of factories of various kinds in the district. The climate is good, and the people are mostly tall and strong. During the past half-century the popu- lation has increased by 31,797 inhabitants. The average mortality is normal. Pellagra has increased to an alarming extent. The medical service is good, though insufficient, and the doctors are ill-paid. Hospitals, charitable institutions, and private bene- ficence spend a large amount of money, and of late years their good work has been widely extended. Rudimentary education is provided by 195 schools, frequented by 14,322 pupils (8,615 males and 5,707 females), who are taught by 123 male and 112 female teachers. There is one school to every 713 inhabitants, one master to every 70 boys, and one mistress to every 51 girls ; the total cost being 153,688 lire. The peasants are thrifty and acquisitive ; moral, and fond of their homes and families. Crime is comparatively rare, but delinquencies are somewhat frequent and on the increase, being mostly traceable to the poverty of the labourers and the severe taxes and regulations of the tobacco monopoly. Both temporary and permanent emigration show large figures of late years. The vicinity of the Austrian frontier leads to a good deal of smuggling in tobacco and salt. Capital is not wanting, but technical knowledge is deficient. The physical and material condition of the DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 215 peasants contrasts unfavourably with that of former times. FamHies cannot exist on the slender and un- certain wages earned by the father and mother. Rents are as high as they can possibly be. There is no efificient law regulating the labour of children in the manufactories. In reviewing the official reports upon which the above observations are founded, the foremost Italian newspapers say : — " The fifth volume published by the Agricultural Inquiry Commission deals with the Pro- vinces of Venetia, Verona, Vicenza, etc., and again exhibits the miserable condition of the peasant classes, who are generally deep in debt to their landlords, and find it impossible ever to free themselves from the bonds of their engagements towards their personally unknown creditors. " Whole families gain no more than from 50 to 70 fr. a year, besides their food. " Early and prolific marriages produce large families ; two couples, after fourteen or fifteen years, counting as many as twenty children. " All food, except maize, polenta, and a very scanty allowance of vegetable or dairy produce, is exceptional. Bread is generally bad, and even, such as it is, is looked upon as a luxury to be reserved for the sick. Eggs are sold, meat is a myth even to invalids, whose most generous diet consists in a kilogramme of broth per week supplied by some charity. Salt goes to the cattle. Oil and vinegar are scarce, and bad. In truth, the remains of the single meal of a well-to-do citizen would suffice to provide gastronomic luxuries for an entire peasant's family throughout the year !" Where water is not the exclusive beverage, it is replaced by the residuum of the vintage fermented in water which 2i6 RURAL ITALY. is often putrid. Even these wretched aliments are in- sufficient in quantity for the starving population. With regard to the houses, the same cry of distress comes from every quarter. They are small, ill-con- structed, and most unhealthy. Words fail to describe the squalid misery of these wretched huts, in which persons of all ages and of both sexes are crowded together. A room is mentioned, less than 12 cubic yards in size, devoid of any window beyond a hole measuring 50 centim., and communicating with a smoky kitchen, in which three sick persons dwelt and slept — *■ ab uno disce omnes." Taking advantage of a short leave of absence granted to me in the summer of 1883, I visited a considerable portion of the provinces now under consideration, and thus feel justified in personally corroborating the evidence of the Commissioners. I can also fully' ap- preciate and deplore the increased and widespread desolation caused by the disastrous floods of the pre- vious autumn. Amongst the subjects which occupied my greatest at- tention, the first place belongs to a detailed study of the pellagra, so often previously mentioned in these pages. As even the name of this dread malady is generally unknown in England, no apology is needed for devoting some space to a description of its causes, origin, and general features. My investigations were much facili- tated by the courtesy and attention of the hospital authorities and the officials of the lunatic asylums at Verona and elsewhere. The Pellagra. The disease to which the name of " pellagra " is now applied has largely increased of late years, and has DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 217 appeared in parts where it was hitherto unknown. It shows itself most in spring and summer. The first warning of its presence is that the labourer feels an unwonted weakness and melancholy. Those parts of the skin which are exposed to the sun become red, and subsequently livid, dry, loose, and scaly. In autumn the symptoms frequently disappear almost entirely, but return with renewed virulence in the following year. The lips next become pallid, the tongue is affected, and frequent spitting of salt saliva ensues. Burning pains in the stomach, sickness, and a tendency to diarrhoea are now the manifestations of the disease. The patient suffers from nervous disorders, want of sleep, troubled dreams, vertigo, and tremor in the limbs. The weak- ness approaches paralysis, and madness often super- venes at this stage. Diarrhoea increases, great emaci- ation and profound melancholia lead to the desire of suicide, which is very frequently attempted — in most cases by drowning. The progress of the malady is extremely varied. Sometimes it is very rapid, and at other times so gradual as to be almost imperceptible. In Italy the zone affected by the disease lies be- tween 40° and 45° of latitude north. Thirty-seven per cent, of the cases in the hospitals of Verona exhibit madness as the result of pellagra. The disease is not actually hereditary, but it is always predisposed to be- come so. There is no known remedy beyond a generous diet, quinine, and general restorative treatment. Unfortu- nately, the impoverished sufferers, on leaving the hospital, must return to the hardships and privations of their previous life, when the illness is encouraged to return with fresh vigour. 2i8 RURAL ITALY. Frequently the external appearance of the patient is ruddy and healthy. This is called " pellagra florida." In ordinary cases the face and hands are spotted and scabrous ; the former, when the disease is fully de- veloped, being covered with a kind of mask of chocolate colour. Pustules appear on the tongue. In some instances the body is affected with spasms. A terrible atrophy reduces the limbs to mere skin and bone. All ages are subject to the disease ; but I saw no children suffering from it in the hospitals which I visited. In most cases the peasant does not have recourse to the hospital until his strength is utterly exhausted, and he is no longer able to conceal from himself the exist- tence of the malady. Where the evil can be dealt with in its earlier stages, there is every probability of a cure. The first pamphlet written upon the subject, in 1771, as well as subsequent works, describes the pellagra as already of ancient date in Italy. There are records of its existence in the Milan Hospital as early as 1578 ; but it seems to have been generally known in Europe towards the middle of the last century. In 1730 it appeared in Spain amongst the peasants of the Asturias under the name of " mal della rosa." Many different names have been given to it at various epochs, such as "Alpine scurvy," "Asturian leprosy," etc. History shows that the same causes have produced the disease in different countries and at different times. Generally speaking these causes may be summed up in the words, " Populorum miseria morborum gene- trix." Towards the end of the eighteenth century the pellagra was already spreading and assuming serious DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 219 proportions. In 1 784 a hospital was specially founded for its treatment at Legnano, in the neighbourhood of Milan. The Venetian provinces were at the same time desolated by the ailment. Piedmont, Trent, and the Tyrol equally suffered, and the complaint spread rapidly through Parma, Modena, Bologna, and Ancona; crossed the Apennines and visited Tuscany, arriving as far as the vicinity of Rome. In France it became known in 18 18 as existing in the Landes, and subsequent observation established the fact of its extensive prevalence in the south and south- west departments of that country. After 1858 it was recognised at intervals in the Danubian provinces, Hungary, Roumania, Poland (during the famine of 1846), Greece, and in parts of Africa and Egypt. Little was actually done for the victims of the pellagra at the time of its first extensive ravages, on account of the great European wars which were then raging. In 1848 the malady increased strongly in Italy, as a consequence of the war with Austria. Since that period it has occupied the attention of Government and of provincial and communal Councils at various times and to a great extent. They have never failed to admit the known causes of the disease, and to inculcate the proper means for barring its progress ; but the diffi- culties of putting in practice the necessary remedies were found to be well-nigh insurmountable, and the same obstacles which then existed still bar the way to success. ' A great medical controversy is yet going on as to the actual causes of the illness, the two principal theories being — (i) that it is due solely to the poverty and in- sufficient diet of the rural classes ; (2) that an actual RURAL ITALY. poison, of the nature of strychnine, is generated in the mildewed maize, from which so much polenta is made. The principal upholder of the latter theory, Professor Lombroso, has made a series of experiments upon animals ; but, at all events, in the case of fowls, his suppositions have not been fully borne out. Certain it is that rotten maize produces a minute poisonous fungus, and that maize is comparatively indi- gestible as a sole nutriment, generally ill-prepared. Variation of food is essential to good digestion, and it is easy to understand that it must be unwholesome for men to live entirely on one substance, of which they require aS' much as 1,300 grammes per day for their nourishment. It is noted that pellagra appears chiefly in the northern districts, where a meat diet is more essentia.lly adapted to the population. Another Professor claims to have discovered myriads of animalculse in the blood of pellagrous patients, and the same in bad maize flour and in the water of irriga- tion channels in maize-growing districts. Without attempting to decide where doctors disagree, It may be inferred that each theory has an important basis of fact. " Zea maiz " was introduced first into Spain from America by the followers of Columbus in 1493. So highly esteemed was it in Peru that, in ancient times, the months of the year were named according to the stages of its growth, whilst in Mexico, a god and a day of the week were named from it, and it had its place in the cosmogony and in the origin of man. It was not extensively cultivated in Spain (Andalusia) until the end of the sixteenth century, towards which time it was DISTRICT XI.—VENETIAN PROVINCES. brought by Spaniards into their possessions in Lombardy and other parts of Italy. Between 1620 and 1700 it had come to be largely cultivated throughout Venetia. As early as 1752, during a period of famine, the pellagra is spoken of in connection with the prevalent use of maize polenta without salt. This want of salt is to this day a certain and fertile source of illness among the poor, and so it must remain, as long as salt continues to be a highly-taxed Govern- ment monopoly, regarded by the peasant as a luxury to be reserved for the cattle. Maize is known to contain certain toxic properties, to which are imputed the germs of pellagra. Since the first introduction of it into the country, about half a century appears to have elapsed before it became an habitual — then exclusive — and, finally, dangerous article of food. Recent statistics give the number of cases through- out the kingdom as 103,958, of which (in 1881) there were 36,627 in Lombardy and 55,893 in the Venetian Provinces. Padua alone (in 1880) had 23,258 cases, and Verona, 2,576. The hospital at Verona received an average of 98 pellagrous patients, also attacked with madness, yearly from 1873 to 1877, In 1878 the number arose to 184, and in 1879 to 222. It is found that men were more, numerous than women, and that the latter exhibited pellagrous madness, for the most part, between 30 and. 60 years of age. Perhaps hardly more than one-third of the actually existing cases come to the notice of the authorities through admission to the hospitals. It has been calculated that the number of suicides 222 RURAL ITALY. from pellagra amounts to over 20 per annum in Venetia alone. With regard to the 2,576 patients in the Province of Verona, it is reckoned that they belong to 2,053 families, composed of 9,741 persons, few, if any, of whom will eventually escape the dread clutches of the disease. Eighty-eight of the existing cases in 1877 appeared in children of from i to 10 years of age. The symptoms have been observed even in infants only 8 months old. There were — 226 cases in persons of from 10 to 20 years old. 662 „ „ 20 to 40 ,, 1,426 „ „ 40 to 60 „ The males numbered 1,240 and the females 1,162, In Lombardy, Umbria, and Verona alone, the number of pellagrous madmen exceeded that of the women, who, in all other provinces, were more liable to this form of the malady. Permanent labourers and farm- servants furnish the greatest number of patients, and it is remarked that married persons are more generally affected than those who remain single. The pellagra is, as its name indicates, a disease of the skin, the symptomatic appearance of which is called " eritema." It is officially recorded that one-half of the peasants' houses in the Province of Verona are unfit for human habitation ; and it is stated that pellagra exists in one- half of the families living in Venetia, In Verona 62 1 cases have been declared hereditary. Hydromania is a symptom of the complaint which has been noted in several instances. The families of pellagrous labourers usually consist DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 223 of about five persons, who have to Hve on the wages paid to the father and mother, viz., an average of ^17 a year, which cannot give more than 18 centimes a head per day for food. The result of this is that their diet is truly described as " polenta — e poco polenta." Statistics prove that frequently these miserable families do not get more than half the necessary amount of their wretched food, and that they never taste wine. The possible measures for the prevention and cure of the disease have already been touched upon. They consist, in brief, of the exclusion of mildewed maize from commerce, and from the diet of the people ; the amelioration of the peasants' houses, food, drinking water, and general hygienic condition ; the erection of co-operative ovens and bakehouses for drying maize and making wholesome bread ; and provision for the proper storing and preservation of corn and maize. It has likewise been suggested that rabbits should be extensively introduced, and reared as food for the rural classes ; that the charitable institutions, landlords, and private individuals, should be urged throughout the country to aid in the work, and that better technical education should be promoted by Agricultural Com- mittees and local schools. Endless other suggestions come from the different communes, many of them, how- ever, of a very impracticable nature, such as the use of horse-flesh *as an article of food, forbidding the impor- tation of maize, limiting the exportation of cattle and of eggs, abolishing the cultivation of maize, ceasing to manure the ground with human excrements, preventing emigration, favouring emigration, exiling or isolating the patients, and hindering them from marrying, etc., whilst two communes were actually in favour of praying 224 RURAL ITALY. God to send manna for a second time upon the earth ; and one advised that triduums should be sung in the churches to exorcise the plague ! Twenty-one felt themselves unable to tender any counsel whatever. More practical are the recommendations that taxes should be lowered, and the salt-tax in particular abolished, cattle-rearing facilitated, and wages, if possi- ble, increased. Respecting the doubts as to the origin of the disease, it is a curious fact that it does not exist in many other countries where similar causes appear to prevail. Here the increase of the evil renders it peremptory that some stringent and effective measures should be adopted, as has been successfully accomplished in deal- ing with the phylloxera and the trichinosis. Charity and beneficence have solid foundations, and large sup- port in Italy, and it may be hoped that this great and difficult social problem will ere long be triumphantly solved, for : "... A bold peasantry — their country's pride — If once destroyed can never be supplied." Meanwhile, a commencement has been made ; the hospitals are clean, and very well managed by the doctors, attendants, and Sisters of Mercy. The patients are happy and contented, better off indeed than in their own houses, to which they are frequently unwilling to return. The piteous fate of the victims of pellagra cannot but move the most callous to profound compassion. It is their unhappy lot to live in misery and starvation, to fare worse than the very beasts which they tend, and to die of a lingering and loathsome disease for want of the. primary necessaries of existence, transmitting the fatal DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 225 germs of the plague which destroys them to their wretched and helpless progeny ! As if to counterbalance the natural fertility of the soil, not only are the richest districts of Upper Italy desolated by the pellagra, but they are also subject to terrible inundations.* It is difficult to estimate, or even to imagine the widespread destruction wrought by the floods in Venetia during the autumn of 1882. Rivers and torrents rising to abnormal heights broke down the most solid embankments, invaded large tracts of well- cultivated ground, placed towns, cities and villages alike at the mercy of the waters, overthrew houses, and interrupted road, railway, and telegraphic communi- cations. The Government has done all in its power to remedy the disaster, with the aid of the civil engineers, the heroic devotion of the soldiery, and the zealous efforts of both official and private persons. Already most of the breaches have been repaired, and many districts have been liberated from the waters. It is hoped that no long time will ela.pse before all the embankments are restored, as the work is being pushed forward with all possible activity ; but some points, especially at Legnano, are found to present great technical difficulties, and even when everything has been done to prevent further damage it will be years before the country can recover from the effects of the inundation, whilst the continuance of wet weather during the winter momentarily threatens a recurrence of the floods. A committee has been formed to report upon the extent and details of the losses hitherto incurred, and it is already known that 192 communes have suffered in * Written shortly after the occurrence. 15 226 RURAL ITALY. the Provinces of Venice, Udine, Treviso, Padua, Vicenza, Milan, Rovigo and Verona ; embankments have burst in i6o places, inundating 691,507 acres of land, and 248,832 inhabitants ; destroying 3, 133 houses, and damaging 9,797 more, breaking seventy-five bridges, and causing the loss of ;!i 3,009,43 2 in the destruction of embankments, and of public and private property. Nor is this all, for only the larger rivers have been taken into account, whilst many smaller streams have caused much desolation, both in the above-mentioned provinces, and also in those of Brescia and Belluno, the amount of which has not yet been ascertained. The total width of the breaches noted above was 12,575 metres, and 117 cuttings have been made for carrying off the water. The relative damages were : Lire. To dykes and embankments .... 14,035,300 To public works 4,459,500 To private property 56,741,000 Total 75,235,800 Of the rivers which broke their banks, the principal were the Meschio, Meduna, Piave, Tagliamento, Monti- cana, Livenza, Gua, Brenta, Bacchiglione, Gorzone, Fratta, Frassine, Adige, Tartaro and Adda, besides several canals and other waterways. The details of the ravages ensuing from the floods are too long to be given in full, but a few of the v/orst instances may be mentioned. The River Tagliamento overflowed on October 28th in no less than twenty-one places : eleven on its right and ten on its left bank ; the Livenza rose to 4'43 metres and overflowed twice — on DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 227 September i8th and October 30th ; the Piave inundated the surrounding country on two occasions, bursting its banks in ten places ; the Brenta rose to nearly 5 metres, and broke down 560 metres of its embankment ; on the following day (September i6th) it rose to 6 "45 metres, destroying the roads and flooding 52,720 acres of land ; the dyke was not reclosed until November 9th ; the Bacchiglione rose to 5"82 metres, covering 37,500 acres with water, breaking the bridge of Pontelongo, and destroying 1,325 houses ; its waters mingled with those of the Brenta, which had levelled 171 houses, and broken five bridges; the Adige flooded 43,125 acres, drowned 16 persons, caused the migration of over 5,000, of whom 2,600 were reduced to absolute poverty, destroyed 823 houses, damaged 451 ; broke nine bridges and damaged five others ; its waters had not yet subsided entirely at the beginning of December in the Provinces of Padua and Venetia ; the same river caused the migration of 8,000 inhabitants in the Pro- vince of Verona, of whom 5,000 are still entirely dependent on charity ; in the Province of Rovigo more than 70,000 persons migrated ; 60,000 of them are completely destitute, and 35,000 are houseless ; 62,500 acres were still under water in the Province of Verona alone at the end of November, besides the entire extent inundated in that of Rovigo, where 352 houses and thirty bridges were destroyed, 8,159 other houses and all the remaining bridges being damaged. It is needless to extend this sad list of misfortune and ruin. For the repair of the principal dykes and ramparts, it is calculated that ;^6oo,ooo will be required for Government work alone, and that the local Adminis- trations will want at least ^160,000 for mending roads and repairing watercourses. The State is prepared to 15—2 228 RURAL ITALY. pay half of the expenses inevitably incurred by those bodies. With these premises the Government finds it needful to provide for an immediate charge of from i6 to 17 million lire, and a Bill has been presented to Parliament for this purpose. Private charity is doing much to succour the thousands who are destitute of shelter, food, and work, but Government action is none the less imperatively requisite to cope with this unparalleled calamity. Meanwhile, supplies of bread, biscuit, blankets, and other necessaries have been furnished to the sufferers by the Ministry of War, and still continue to be forwarded to the inundated districts. Credit will be given to the provincial and communal Adminis- trations, which are able to make use of loans at low interest, and gifts of money will be made in other cases as far as the resources of the Treasury allow. The Chamber is asked to vote ;^2 60,000 for extra- ordinary expenditure under this head, other sums being forthcoming from ordinary Budget estimates and re- serves, and it is reckoned that the State accounts for 1882 will not be interfered with, even by the total outlay of ^720,000 required by the Government. At the same time, another Bill has been presented for the purpose of postponing the payment of taxes in Venetia on account of the floods, to the amount of 666,746 lire 34 c. Similar suspensions of taxes have frequently occurred, even during the past ten years, e.g:, in 1872, on account of the eruption of Vesuvius and the inunda- tions of the Po and Ticino, and in 1873, on account of the floods, hurricanes, and other disasters which occurred during the preceding year ; also in 1879, by reason of the losses occasioned by the overflowing of the Bormida and its tributaries, as well as the Po, and DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 229 by the eruption of Etna, and several earthquakes ; again, in 1880, for the damages caused by rivers and torrents in Calabria, and in 1881 and 1882, in conse- quence of the earthquakes at Ischia, and in the Abruzzi, and of the hurricanes in the Province of Forli, and elsewhere. The deferred payment relates, however, only to the land-tax, the provinces and communes being free to suspend the surtaxes, or not to do so, as they please. In certain cases of the total loss of property, ade- quate relief from taxation will be accorded to the victims, and in the examination of claims for exemp- tion, the greatest possible latitude will be given in order that none may be excluded from ' the benefit of the Act. The suspension of taxes will include those due in 1882 since the date of the floods, and the whole of 1883, and they will be repayable in twelve instal- ments : six to be made good in 1885, and six in 1886. This law will concern some 96,271 persons, whose estimated incomes amount to a total of something over ^560,000. Both of the above measures, as proposed by the Ministry, will, no doubt, be immediately passed by the Chamber. Government is also busy with the examina- tion of other points of pressing necessity, such as the low rate of labourers' wages throughout the country, and the rewooding of the Alps and Apennines, as well as the disastrous summer droughts in Sardinia, which are attributed to the wholesale destruction of timber in that island. Malaria. — The question of the prevalence of malaria has recently been prominently brought forward in a pamphlet issued by Senator Torelli. 230 RURAL ITALY. From this work it appears that out of 8,331 kilom. of railway now working in the kingdom no less than 3,762 run through districts more or less infected with malaria, and necrological statistics prove that the probabilities of death amongst the officials belonging to the worst of these lines are eight times, and on the best of them four times, greater than in healthy regions. Between 1875 and 1879 the number of soldiers attacked by marsh fever amounted to 1 1 5,000, or 23,000 per annum ! Only six provinces in the whole country are exempt from malaria, viz. : Genoa, Florence, Port Maurice, Massa Carrara, Pesaro, and Plaisance. The chief causes of the complaint are said to be stagnant waters and the destruction of timber. It is observed that in France the forestal service costs the State 14,000,000 fr. per annum, whilst Italy spends no more than 150,000 lire. France has laid out 23,000,000 fr. on rewooding her forests during the past twenty years ; Italy in five years has completely denuded of timber 1,500,000 hectares of land! Emi- gration increased from 19,000 persons in 1876 to over 40,000 in 1879, to a great extent on account of the malaria. The sole practical effort to combat the plague has been made by the individual energy of the French Trappists at the Monastery of the " Tre Fontane," near Rome, where they have planted eucalyptus-trees on a large scale in one of the most unhealthy parts of the Campagna. A leading article on this subject in an Italian news- paper recently said : " Had Italy during the past ten years devoted one-fourth of the energy expended in sustaining the rdle of a great Power to the amelioration DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 231 of her material condition, our hills might have been rewooded, and our waste lands reclaimed ; whereas, now the financial riches of the State have been amassed at the expense of the communes, some of which — even the most prosperous in former times — viz., Florence, Turin, and Naples, are forced to appeal to Government for pecuniary assistance." Beyond all these evils must be noted the continu- ance of strikes and agrarian agitation in the districts of Cremona, Ravenna, and elsewhere. The peasants do not appear to conceive the possibility of improving or changing their agricultural system, and socialistic agitators have spread their doctrines easily in places where wages are inadequate, and the competition for work IS intense. A service of cavalry patrols has been formed in the Province of Ravenna. It is to be hoped that the agitation may not spread further ; but for a time it has already threatened to invade Padua, Brescia, and Milan. The Project of Law, dated April 28th, 1882, for the reform of the land-tax did not meet with a very favourable reception in the Italian Parliament. It was, consequently, referred to a Committee, which reported thereupon on July 22nd. Whilst approving the general principles of the Bill, exception was taken to various of the means proposed for its execution. Twenty years ago a Royal Commission was ap- pointed to examine this question, and its labours re- sulted in the Law of July 14th, 1864, which left the ancient Cadastre untouched, and redistributed the tax with an addition of 5,000,000 lire. This Law is still in force, though it was intended only for four years' 232 RURAL ITALY. duration. Projects of reform were mooted in 1869, 1874, and 1877, by the Ministers Digny, Minghetti, and Depretis in turn, but without result. As has previously been recorded, the land-taxes, together with the provincial and communal surtaxes, amounted in 1881 to ;^io,ii3,i55. The surtaxes, in spite of the restrictive measures several times imposed upon them, already exceed the Exchequer taxation, and they have a constant tendency to increase ; indeed, since 1871 there has been an absolute augmentation of 47,000,000 lire of extra taxation in ten years, the pro- vincial surtax having risen 49 per cent., and the com- munal 69 per cent. Meanwhile, the State has taken possession of the entire taxation on personal property as well as of most other sources of income, leaving the land to bear the whole burden of the surtaxes. So unequally is taxation distributed that some de- partments pay 17 per cent, on the nominal value of their acres, whilst others have to give as much as 79 per cent. The differences within the several districts are even more striking, and the result is that the regions originally unjustly taxed invariably sustain the greatest weight of the increased imposts. The im- possibility of farming under these conditions is daily proved by the quantity of small holdings sold up by the tax-collectors, or falling into the hands of the Government. The Committee are unanimously of opinion that the reform and redistribution. of the land-tax should have no fiscal advantage in view, both to facilitate its proper accomplishment and to avoid causing disturbances amongst the population, which is already over-taxed ; and the Minister of Finance has explicitly adhered to this view, proposing to insert an additional Article in DISTRICT XL— VENETIAN PROVINCES. 233 the Law to the effect that no increase of taxation shall take place for ten years from the date of the new- valuations. It is proposed by the Committee to sub- stitute the net returns of property by a tariff of rent- valuations according to classes and quality of cultivation as the basis of the new assessments, Also to free farm buildings from taxation, so as to encourage the recon- struction and amelioration of labourers' houses. With regard to the time required for the surveys, it is noticed that the measurement of Tuscany took from 1819 to 1827, the extent of the province being about one-fifth of the whole kingdom, and 278 surveyors being employed. The survey of France lasted forty- two years (from 1808 to 1850), but was frequently interrupted by political vicissitudes. The Royal Italian Commission of 1871 was of opinion that the work might be done by the communes within five years' time. The expense of the entire operation is estimated at from 50,000,000 to 60,000,000 lire. It is remarked, incidentally, by the Committee that the tax upon purchases and sales of property, amount- ing to nearly 5 per cent., falls mostly upon land, in addition to the heavy burthens already so often spoken of This tax produced 31,833,977 lire in 1881 ; its abolition is urgently recommended to Government. CHAPTER XII. DISTRICT XII. SARDINIA. The Island of Sardinia is not much smaller than Sicily; it contains 6,060,512 acres. Cagliari and Sas- sari are the capitals of its two provinces ; the other chief towns are Iglesias, Oristano, Lanusei, Alghero, Ozieri, Tempio, and Nuoro. The work of Albert La Marmora is the best authority upon the condition of the island. Formerly, the Sardinians were in the habit of giving up all business during the summer months, and even the public offices were closed, but this custom has now had to make way before the exigencies of modern progress. The climate is mild, but the unchecked gales from the. Gulf of Lyons cause torrential rains in their season, and the summer brings great heat and dryness. Malaria is the scourge of the inhabitants ; it existed in the time of the Romans, when the population was numerous and agriculture flourishing, as we know from the letters of Cicero to his brother. Many villages have been ruined of late years by the vine disease. There is great necessity for a proper conservation of water ; no river is embanked and no torrent is regu- DISTRICT XII.— SARDINIA. 235 lated ; the ruins of several regions bear sad testimony to the inundations, which due care might have pre- vented. Fever is the direct result of the subterranean accumulation of water, which is lost to useful purposes. Attention to this subject was called as long as forty years ago, yet nothing has been done. The forests, which were wisely protected in 1771, have now been cut down by greedy speculators ; it would now cost nearly ^^200,000 to reafforest the two provinces. In ancient times Sardinia had six times its actual population, and numerous cities, roads, aqueducts, and public works. Her prosperity disappeared under the devastating incursions of the Saracens, Pisans, and Genoese. Since her decadence until 1848 nothing was done to open new roads ; immense distances were traversed on horseback ; every farmer owned three or four horses, and even the day-labourer possessed his sorry steed ; hence the Sardinians became noted eques- trians. In 1867 the island was still very deficient in highways ; but at present good progress is apparent in road-making, and some 2,000 miles are open to traffic, as well as 256 miles of railway. The population now numbers only 680,450 ; less than one-fourth that of Sicily. It is estimated that there were fully 2,000,000 inhabitants before the san- guinary struggles for independence against the Car- thaginians and Romans, which converted the country into a huge necropolis. An increase of population must be accompanied by corresponding means of subsistence ; few nations can, like America, double their census in twenty-five years. Italy requires an average of 105 years for this purpose, and for Sardinia an even longer period is requisite. 236 RURAL ITALY. The levy of troops has been severely felt under these circumstances ; the peasants had an invincible aversion to military service, and resorted to any extreme of self- mutilation to escape conscription, fathers even blinding their sons of one eye in order that they might be rejected. The rural populace exceeds that of the towns in the ratio of 4 :^i ; the men are robust, tall, courageous, in- telligent, excitable, patriotic, and intensely attached to their native land. Gambling is unknown, and the State lottery has not a single office in the island. No country has preserved so religiously its ancient customs. Pure lambs' wool, woven at home in a manner sur- passing the produce of factories, serves for dress. The people are temperate in the use of wine, but extra- ordinarily particular as to the quality of bread, which is almost their exclusive food. It must be perfectly white, well kneaded and well baked ; in fact, the women spend six days of the week in its preparation. Intense odium was created by the grist-tax whilst it existed. Beggars abound in every village; the poor have a deeply-rooted objection to the hospital. In the farm-houses the sons of the owners live with the servants, and sleep in their clothes on a mat in the kitchen during winter and in -the open air in summer. Some of the dwellings are clean and well found. Even the labourers have their own homes, for it is their first object in life to possess a house, and they seldom marry until they have one. Farm-servants usually eat with the family. Lon- gevity prevails, though the peasant does not change his clothing when wet, but dries it on his body before the fire. DISTRICT XII.— SARDINIA. 237 Corn takes the place of money in the southern parts, where it is more cared for than human beings, as the latter are relegated to the damp ground-floors, whilst the grain is stored in the higher and more wholesome chambers. Cattle are kept in the courtyards, and great heaps of manure are piled up in front of the house, which are proudly exhibited as evidences of prosperity. Personal cleanliness is utterly disregarded by all ; well-to-do farmers' wives go barefooted in the house, and are readily mistaken for servant wenches. The symptoms of mourning are curious and un- sanitary. On the death of the spouse brown clothes are worn until a second marriage ; the shirt is un- changed for months ; cape and hood are worn even during the hottest part of summer, and the beard re- mains unshaven. Two Universities exist, at Cagliari and Sassari ; they seem not to be praiseworthy institutions. Secondary education is improved ; elementary schools are deserted, and ignorance is yet unconquered. Property is not duly respected ; the people are quick to anger ; the vendetta is swiftly resorted to, and human life is not secure. Much of the island is mountainous ; 397,000 acres of land are stony and unproductive. Vines, olives, corn, vegetables, and fruit-trees flourish in all parts of the country. Corn is the main supply of the Province of Cagliari. The half-tamed oxen are yoked by the horns to the primitive plough, which the people cannot be induced to exchange for improved modern implements, on the argument that it is well adapted to the nature of the ground and the size of the bullocks, and that it is very 238 RURAL ITALY. cheap and easily repaired, none of which things can be said of recently-invented instruments. Harvest is a time of universal hard work, merriment, and good cheer : the reapers are famous for their skill ; gleaning is everywhere permitted, and causes no small loss to the farmer. No sowing, reaping, threshing, or other machines are in use, and where their introduction has been attempted the eye of the tax-gatherer has at once been attracted to them as fit objects for payment under the head of " personal property." Sulphuration has greatly benefited the vines, which are well cultivated, and yield abundance of excellent grapes : the prickly-pear or Indian fig grows with wondrous luxuriance ; it is chiefly used for fattening pigs. The cultivation of olives, almonds, figs, etc., might be enormously developed, and the dried fruit trade ought to be an important element of exportation instead of the reverse, as is the case. Vines are being planted more extensively every year, in spite of the local proverb, " Chi ha vigna ha tigna " (" vine cultivation brings vexation"). Oranges, lemons, peaches, and cherries flourish admirably ; but the steamboat tariffs are too high to permit of the export of garden produce even to the Continent. [ The ordinary wants of life have vastly multiplied here as elsewhere. Even the priests must work, for the best paid of them does not get more than ;^4o a year ; in many communes the churches are closed, and there is no resident minister of religion. Rural labourers receive corn as well as wages ; they are well fed, happy, and contented, respecting their masters as friends and not as tyrants. Formerly, the ties between master and man were closer still ; an offence to the servant was an offence to his superior ; DISTRICT XII.— SARDINIA. 239 innumerable instances are recorded of the heroic de- fence of the houses and families of the landlords by those in their employ, and the saying " Tot hostes quot servi " had no application in the island. The fixed labourers receive ^20 a year, as well as food and boots ; day-labourers get i fr., as in other places. Contracts are almost always made verbally. Vine- diggers are paid as much as 2 s. 6d. per day ; though ignorant themselves, it is their greatest pride to have their children educated, and to send them into the world as lawyers, priests, or clerks, at whatever sacri- fice to themselves. Sardinian wines are excellent, and are largely exported ; the ordinary kinds are too alcoholic, but the finer brands are of exquisite flavour. Under the long rule of the Spaniards, both men and money were exhausted by incessant wars and State spoliation ; landed property as such well-nigh vanished under a form of feudalism, which allowed no man to call his land his own. The shepherds claimed right of pasture which ruined the farmers, and a struggle began in which the weakest went to the wall, but which resulted in reprisals and culminated in atrocious hereditary vendette. Even under the House of Savoy feudalism held its own for more than a century. King Charles Albert abolished it by the Decree of February 26th, 1839, but the result was far different from the intention. When the rights of common pasture were taken away properties were inclosed on all sides, but with the most violent opposition on the part of the shepherds, who destroyed by night the walls or fences constructed by day, considering them as a wrongful usurpation of their time-honoured privileges. 240 RURAL ITALY. It would be well could the Law of Succession be modified so as to prevent the further subdivision of small estates, and could help be afforded to ease the weight of taxation, which is excessivdy burdensome. A strange contrast is visible between the character of the Italians generally and the Sardihians in particular and that of their neighbours, the Corsicans. The former are industrious and hard-working, th.t latter proud and lazy ; 60,000 Italians have temporarily emigrated to Corsica, where they do all the labour, gain a good sum of money in six months' time, and return home with their savings. The " mouflon " or wild sheep is still found in both islands, and excellent sport is to be obtained. An excessive tendency to precocious marriages is a salient characteristic of the Sardinian peasantry. Agriculture is in the throes of a severe crisis ; American competition is strongly felt in the corn trade, and there are those who even go so far as to predict that the agricultural population must retrograde to the pastoral state unless things change for the better — a spectacle which might well astonish the universe. But the future of Sardinia lies in its olive plantations and orchards, which are well capable of restoring the pros- perity of the island, if an outlet can be found for their produce. The cultivation of cereals is too extended and the harvest is invariably inferior to expectation, in spite of the hard work of the farmers ; England raises 23 hectolitres of corn per hectare (about 65 bushels to 2^ acres) ; Sardinia only 9 hectolitres. During the past thirty years some progress has been made all round, in spite of a thousand obstacles ; labour has increased, production has augmented, new fields have been sown, new gardens, vineyards, and olive DISTRICT XII.— SARDINIA. 241 grounds have been planted ; but the results are insuffi- cient, and much more remains to be accomplished before the farmer can breathe freely, or look without apprehension to the coming year. Many parts of the island are very beautiful, rich, and fertile, awaiting only the outlay of capital, which is not forthcoming. I have visited Caprera and Maddelena, but was prevented from making a projected tour of the whole of Sardinia. 16 CONCLUSION. Agricultural Italy presents as many different features as may be found among all the countries of Europe, from Scotland and Norway to Egypt and Spain. Large feudal properties still under primitive cultiva- tion, and others where the highest farming is practised, small scattered holdings side by side with the greatest development of production, land bringing in 5 fr. per hectare and land that is worth ;^30 an acre per annum, every species of tenure and every degree of condition, from considerable wealth to the most abject misery. When Italy commenced to claim attention by the political events which led to her becoming a modern State, she was generally regarded as a very rich agri- cultural country, neglected on account of the sloth and ignorance of her inhabitants. Now, the labouring classes are certainly ignorant, but they cannot with truth be accused of sloth, whilst the richness of the soil is indisputable. Wealth and poverty, of course, are relative and com- parative terms. Half a century ago Italy was reputed rich, because most other nations had made but small progress in rural economy. Central Europe was just getting rid of the remnants of feudalism. Eastern Europe was emancipating itself from serfdom, the CONCLUSION. 243 United States were but commencing to export grain, all South America was convulsed by anarchy, Spain was a prey to civil war ; Asia Minor under the yoke of Turkey, and Egypt under the Khedives, were sterile ; the south coasts of the Mediterranean, hardly cleared of pirates, offered to France a field of military conquest in Algeria, but nothing more; India was just being opened up by England ; Japan and China had hardly unclosed their ports to European commerce ; Australia, retarded by the convict settlements, and reached only by long sea-voyages, had not yet blossomed into a group of flourishing Colonies ; thus it was that Italy, though ill-administered and backward, invaded by malaria, devastated of timber, and with a great part of her land untilled, held the first place in supplying silk, oil, wine, lemons, rice, etc., and her corn markets were prosperous, especially away from the seacoast. Rural labourers were badly off, but no one dreamt of con- sidering their condition, or suggesting to them the possibility of better things ; they were entirely over- looked by politicians, and supposed to be sunk in apathy, even with regard to their own unhappy lot. How do matters stand now ? Italy feels herself agriculturally poor, and the future looks worse than the present ; but certainly her production has increased in quantity, roads and railways have been constructed, internal Customs offices on the frontiers of each petty State have disappeared, many improvements have been introduced, and a spirit of enterprise has sprung up. Cattle-breeding is much increased, the export amount- ing yearly to ;^i, 800,000. Wine is exported to the annual quantity of 2,000,000 hectolitres, agricultural machinery and chemical manures are being adopted, and general progress is manifest. The country is like 16 — 2 244 RURAL ITALY. a growing child. The value of property has augmented not a little, wages are higher than they were, rural habitations are not worse than they used to be, and their rebuilding is going on, particularly in Tuscany and the Valley of the Po. On the whole, the material condition of the lower rural classes is in many ways better, and efforts have been commenced on their behalf which were not formerly thought of. In the application of science to agriculture, Italy is yet much behindhand. Those who live on the revenues of their land alone are certainly poorer than they were. The discontent which has lately sprung up amongst labourers has been a fruitful source of emigration and of strikes, even in parts where actual misery does not exist ; the well- dressed classes are hated, and improvements, which a generation ago would have been looked upon as veri- table benefactions, are derided as of no account. Materially the country has advanced ; but morally it has retrograded. Now, whilst Italy was engaged body and mind in the reconstruction of national unity, the rest of Europe was enjoying a period of profound tranquillity, during which material prosperity increased, experimental science developed, and surplus capital accumulated. After the formation of the new Italian kingdom several causes retarded the agricultural progress of the country. In the south brigandage ruled supreme ; State domains were sold on a vast scale, and three plagues devastated the richest products of the land. Brigandage has been spoken of in the account of the southern provinces. When the holders of State paper got 7 or 8 per cent, interest, and State or ecclesiastical property was in the market at very low priceSj the temptation to buy was .CONCLUSION i4S irresistible, but much of the property thus purchased was entirely neglected by the speculators, who in bad times were unable to resell excepting at a ruinous loss. For many years the vineyards were desolated by " crittogama ;" oranges and lemons, worth for export ;!f 1, 520,000 a year, were long subject to the "gum disease ;" and the silkworms, valued at the lowest figures at ;^8,ooo,ooo per annum for the exportation of cocoons, were for years almost annihilated. With the olive-oil and cattle trade the above are the most valu- able productions of Italy, and the reduction of them well-nigh reached extinction, and proved a truly national calamity, affecting especially the peasants under the metayage system. Again, the prices of silk, corn, maize, rice, Hax, and other articles fell very consider- ably at this time, owing chiefly to foreign competition^ the mixture of cotton and , wool with pure silk, the adulteration of olive oil, and similar causes. It is said that the abolition of the forced currency deprived the farmers of the slender gain realized by the protective nature of the low paper money, and that this proved in many cases " the last straw which breaks the camel's back." Lastly, Italian unity has brought taxa- tion to a phenomenal height, rural Italy paying 300,000,000 lire of direct taxes out of returns not ex- ceeding 1,000,000,000, not to mention salt-tax, tax on personal property, catde-tax, and the huge burden of indirect taxation, all of which falls on the land. Some writers maintain that the want of technical instruction is the real and greatest evil with which agriculture has to contend, and they would have the Government devote all possible funds and energy in this direction ; but the difficulty is far more com- plex ; the want of capital and the deeply-rooted pre- 246 RURAL ITALY. judices of the peasantry are far more serious hindrances to progress than the widespread and crass ignorance which prevails. Others desire a revision of the law as regards rural contracts, many of which are doubtless unjust ; but this is a matter with which legislation cannot well interfere. Rich and unjust landlords are exceptional, properties are immensely subdivided, the owners numbering 5,000,000, of whom the small and middling proprietors are the prevalent type, except in Calabria, Latium, and Sicily. They form, perhaps, the poorest class in Italy, and to them belonged 61,831 persons, whose holdings to the value of ^180,000 were seized by the State between 1873 and 1881 for non-payment of taxes, no purchasers being found, even when the lands were put up to auction a second time. The mdtayage system, so characteristic of Italy, works well upon the whole, and should not be inter- fered with, and so many different forms of contract exist, that a law enacting a sole form of contract would be impracticable. Nor can a minimum of waged be laid down for the benefit of labourers, for the law cannot intervene in the question of supply and demand. Something indeed might be done towards putting the rural classes more on a par with citizens with regard to sanitary conditions, proper dwellings, and the due participation in charities, etc. Next come the arguments as to free trade or protec- tion, which cannot be dealt with here ; suffice it to say, that Italian agriculture cannot be resuscitated by means of protection and prohibitive import duties. American competition in the corn trade is not really dangerous to Italy, which country, though a large importer of- iron. Conclusion. 247 coal, timber, and other industrial materials, is emi- nently an exporter of agricultural produce of all kinds, including corn to a very considerable extent, and the wheat which is imported from abroad barely surpasses in value the eggs alone which Italy exports to the yearly value of ;^i, 360,000. American competition has no doubt lowered the price of corn ; but this is everywhere the case, and Italy imposes a duty of i fr. 40 c. per quintal on foreign wheat and i fr. lo c. on other cereals, including rice. One of the principal reasons of the unsatisfactory condition of rural Italy is, that the country is in this respect still in a transition stage. The kingdom has obtained unity and progress, politically, commercially, and industrially ; but after a quarter of a century of change and advancement agriculture still lags behind in flagrant anachronism, as it has ever been wont to do. " Pagans " was a word synonymous with " rustics " in the early ages, when Christianity had already pervaded the towns. At the present day the old systems of weights and measures are still retained in almost all country districts, though the decimal method has been in universal use for industry and commerce for four-and- twenty years ! To return for a moment to the question of the natural richness of agricultural Italy, we may compare the words of the German ballad : " In Italy macaroni ready cooked rains from the sky, and the vines are festooned with sausages," with the words to-day rife throughout the kingdom, " Rural Italy is poor and miserable, and has no future in store for her." The fact is, that Italy is rich in capabilities of production, but exhausted in spontaneous fertility. Her vast forests have been cut down, giving place to sterile and mala- 248 RURAL ITALY. rious ground; the plains and shores formerly covered with wealthy and populous cities are now deserted marshes ; Sardinia and other ancient granaries of the Roman Empire are empty and unproductive* Two- thirds of the kingdom are occupied by mountains im- possible of cultivation, and the remainder is to a large extent ill-farmed and unremunerative. To call Italy the " Garden of Europe " under these circumstances seems cruel irony. The devastation of timber causes the yearly importation of wood to the value of ;^i, 280,000. The drought of summer destroys the grass and all crops requiring moisture. Indeed, as an agricultural country, Italy is one of the least favoured by nature^ Manual labour, though in many parts far too scarce for the requirements of the land, is excellent in character, as is evident from the eagerness with which Italian labourers are hired wherever their ser- vices can be procured. But one thing is certain, the day of the old system of simple farming is at an end. There are four means of improving the condition of the country ; ist, reclama- tion of waste lands and reafforesting ; and, the adop- tion of better agricultural machinery, the larger use of manures, and a more rational system of rotation of crops ; 3rd, the increase of fruit and vegetable cultiva- tion and of irrigation ; 4th, the development of the natural capabilities of the rural population. By more active and intelligent farming the productiveness of the soil might be doubled at least. Tobacco, beet-root, horse-breeding, wine, corn, oil, alcohol, cream of tartar, beer, and, generally speaking, almost all rural in- dustries, await and are capable of an immense expan- sion. But capital, enterprise, and intelligence are wanting, especially capital ; several generations must CONCLUSION, 249 perforce elapse during the period of change, and public opinion must be awakened to the necessity of a com- plete transformation. The experience of every nation has proved that a purely agricultural country is necessarily poor. The savings of farmers are slowly made; money is dear, and difficult to obtain, hence usury flourishes ; interest on capital is smaller than in commerce, and only the pleasure of proprietorship induces the successful merchant to invest his gains in landi Yet the new owner of this class is more enterprising than the inheritor of property, and more disposed to lay out money on costly improvements for the benefit of his successors. The sums expended in Europe in this manner are enormous, representing probably three or four times the original value of the land, and bringing in only 2 or 3 per cent., which would be considered in commerce as a bad speculation. Nevertheless, in Italy, as elsewhere, a little peace and prosperity suffices to stimulate much land invest- ment in the neighbourhood of all the large towns. In Lower Lombardy the capital expended on irrigation is far greater than the total present value of the land itself. Large properties are decreasing in number, in con- sequence of the equal division between the sons under the new Law of Succession. An important improvement throughout the kingdom would be the employment of fewer fixed and well-paid labourers, instead of large numbers of casual, ill-paid, and bad workpeople. Even the slaves of the South American States were well-fed and well-housed, for they were permanent labourers. 2SO RURAL ITALY. No doubt, in Italy, many casual workers must exist, because there are places where malaria effectually pre- vents residence, and others where so numerous a rural population lives in so small a space that the resources of the ground, however highly farmed, are utterly in- adequate for the sustenance of the inhabitants, whence emigration becomes inevitable. In many provinces property offering a return of 7 per cent, finds no purchasers, but this will probably cease to be the case when commerce and industry shall have further developed. The discoveries of Columbus and Vasco di Gama turned the current of trade away from the Mediterranean ; the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages declined, and their shores during the Turkish supremacy became deserted, sterile, and in- fested by pirates ; but in modern times, and especially since the opening of the Suez Canal, commerce has returned with fourfold vigour to its ancient channel. Italy has made vast progress, and would have advanced still more but for her lack of native coal and iron. The recent exhibitions at Milan and Turin show what rapid strides her industries have accom^ plished in spite of this drawback. Feudalism and mortmain have been abolished, but the rural population have had no place in history ever since the Second Punic War. To this hour the appella- tion of " peasant " is considered an insult by the lowest class of the dwellers in towns. Charitable foundations, so numerous in Italy, are for the poor of the cities only, Politicians have succeeded in carrying out a magnificent idea, but at a heavy cost. Italy was an exclusively agricultural country, capable of becoming rich, but poor meanwhile, and standing much in need of the very capital which politics have devoured. The nation which CONCLUSION. 251 the other day was termed a mere "geographical ex- pression" has created a powerful army worthy of a great Power, a formidable navy with vessels costing ;^i,ooo,ooo apiece, a network of railroads, a mass of Universities and scientific institutions, and a complete system of Government and Municipal Administration ; the grist-tax and th« forced currency have been got rid of, but so heavy a weight of taxes has been im- posed on land for the advantage of the State, the pro- vinces, and the communes, that it may well be asked whether the Government is not killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Were ;^4,ooo,ooo of taxation taken off the country, it might be sufficient to save agriculture from ruin, and if this is impossible to-day it may become feasible in the course of a few years' time, whereas at the present moment the candle is being burnt at both ends. If anything is to be done, it is expedient that land- lords should take more personal interest in their estates, both for their own advantage and on behalf of .their tenants and labourers. Friendly Societies should be encouraged for the latter, who do not obtain proper food at reasonable prices. The peasant will pay four times the value of a thing in kind sooner than part with his coin, and he is as much defrauded in this manner as he is by the miller or the usurer. Agriculture must abandon its old-fashioned systems^ which are unsuitable to modern requirements and out of date. Rural theft must be considered by the law as much a crime as the theft of a box of matches is in the city. Promiscuous trespassing in pursuit of game should be restrained. At present in many districts the vintage is hurried on, because if maturity were awaited not a single grape would be left on the vines. 252 RURAL ITALY. The day of the democracy of property is at hand, as shown by Guizot in his " History of Civilization in Europe." In Italy the large meadow-lands must re- main in the hands of capitalists, but the small hill- terraces will belong to peasant proprietors. Land is continually changing hands, and the largest estates now belong to bankers and merchants. The times of Louis XV., when the peasants were " taillable etcorve- able a merci," are at an end. The Italian labourers during the Roman Empire were mostly slaves, after- wards " adscripti glebae :" even after their liberation they were for ages oppressed with all kinds of hardship and tyranny by the Princes, until now they are inferior in status, weak, poor, and miserable, but already aspir- ing to better their condition, A great social question has sprung up in rural Italy as well as amongst the working classes in towns. Every category of the peasants requires some kind of assistance, either by pecuniary advances or other- wise. Temporary emigration appears usually beneficial, permanent emigration rather the reverse ; not that it is suggested that Government should prevent or even check the latter, even after the lamentable fate of Italian emigrants in Brazil, but that they should judi- ciously aid and regulate it (which in fact is now being done). In order that rural Italy should become what it ought to be, Government action is necessary in .several directions. Already Commissions are examining the condition of charitable institutions, the revision of the Customs Tariffs ; and laws are in course of preparation dealing with reafforesting, the land-tax, the reform of the provincial and communal administrations, and other CONCLUSION. 253 cognate subjects. In addition to the requirements previously stated, the Agricultural Commission demands from the Ministry of the Interior that a check shall be put upon the excessive expenditure of the communes, that the sewers and supplies of drinking-water shall be better attended to, that some kind of country hospital accommodation may be provided to afford primary aid to the sick, who suffer greatly in the long journeys to the towns when attacked by illness, and that the quality of drugs, and particularly quinine, in rural dispensaries, may be inspected more rigorously ; that the system of rotation in the rice-fields may be made more rational, and the condition of the workers in them bettered by effective sanitary regulations ; and that measures may be taken to combat the pellagra by preventing the sale and consumption of mildewed maize, and by other means suitable for the purpose. The gravest difficulty of all consists in the improve- ment of the peasants' dwellings ; this can hardly be met excepting by financial aid from the State, three-fourths of the said houses being in need of repairs or rebuilding, In this question the entire problem of the hygienic condition of the rural classes is comprised. The Ministry of Grace and Justice is asked to render civil causes less expensive "and more expeditious in procedure ; to extend the jurisdiction of Arbitrators, who can now only judge cases in which not more than 30 fr. are at stake ; and to liberate land actually as well as nominally from the many servitudes, burdens, privileges, rights, usances, etc., which still cling upon it in many districts. It is desired that the Minister for Foreign Affairs should look after agricultural interests in the conclusion of Commercial Treaties ; that the War Office, in calling 254 RURAL ITALY. out the military forces, should take account of the time of year when the most important agricultural operations are in progress ; and that the Department of Public Works should regulate the railway tariffs, and pay attention to the public watercourses. But it is to the Treasury that the most important work belongs with regard to the reduction of taxation. Rural Italy, paying in taxes one-third of her revenue, three times as much (comparatively) as France, is ham- strung in her march of progress, and cannot advance without assistance. The war-tithe should be taken off the land-tax, and houses not be taxed apart from the land. Rural credit should be aided and encouraged. The Ministry of Agriculture has done its best by the foundation of Agrarian Committees, schools, shows, and experimental stations ; it has established forty depots of agricultural machinery, several " haras " and stud farms, and has published many valuable treatises, aided useful undertakings, extended irrigation, pro- moted forestry, and energetically combated the phyl- loxera. It is suggested that a Government Report on agri- culture should be compiled every five years, and that more vigorous measures of reclamation and reafforest- ing should be taken than those which now obtain, and resemble the attempt to empty the ocean with a hand- pump. The reclamation of marshy and waste lands may be left to private speculation, but the State alone can deal satisfactorily with the question of reafforesting. Technical education must also be provided more liberally than at present. The whole problem is very complex, and therefore the solution of it must likewise be complex. The remedies required are mostly indirect in character, and CONCLUSION. 255 will require a long period to work with efficacy. Pauperism in the true sense of the word does not generally prevail, but it exists. The agricultural world is not isolated from the remainder of humanity, but participates in the existence of every social class ; and if the condition of the rural population in Italy can be ameliorated, and the causes of their discontent removed, a work will be accomplished of which the nation may well be proud. THE END. BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. G., C. &- Co.