Italian Pictures

Horowhenua Chronicle, 16 May 1914, Page 4

Italian Pictures

The Hon. D. Buddo,, M.P. to; Kaiapoi, is at present on a trip to Europe. In a letter to a friend in Ivaiapoi he gives the following account of his travels in Italj and his impressions of life on the land:--

"Landing at Naples, I took a trip to Pompeii to see the remains of the town that Vesuvius buried wih volcanic ashes 1900 years ago. The Italian Government lias carted off some eighteen feet of this volcanic shower from an area as big as the town of Kaiapoi, and now one can see how they ground their corn in a big stone hopper inside another with a hole for a stick to go through and one can fancy the old Romans being set to turn this machine in their spare time. The best liguses had their walls painted in what even yef are beautiful designs. These old chaps seem to have been quite up-to-date—public baths, both hoi and cold, and evidently a Turkish bath pystem with checks to go in. They had a really good theatre, too big to roof, seated for 5000. Evidently when an entertainment was on half the town turned out.

"But I must- get back to the land. To a New Zealander it seems that every rood of good land supported a worker. _ Hardly any fences, the boundaries being* a few stones in line a foot high. The cultivation is mostly spade work and the whole family turn out and dig and I don't think an eight-hour day is the rule. Where the farms are larger, say 50 to 100 acres, a plough is iised, with a pole to which are fastened two useful bullocks, man drives and turns over a good deep furrow. I saw no Horses ploughing, but on a large farm harrows were working, each drawn by two bullocks. On the whole the system of working mav be old fashioned, but I do not think it possible to take more out of the land than Italian farmers do. Yines on high poles run up every ridge in a field of oats 01* wheat, and after harvest the land is dug up or ploughed and green stuff sown. A great deal of vegetables must be used. Every hill of reasonable height that is not rocky is terraced and grows grapes as high as half way up Mount Grey. Everybody seems comfortable. I was informed that nearly all the gardens or farms were leasehold (this has no reference to New Zealand land tenure), but whatever the system is intense cultivation is making Italy support a population of some thirty-five millions.

"I spent some time in Rome and met lots of dukes ;uul princes visiting the city of churches. They were riding; I was walking. Everywhere I went there were crowds of visitors to this ancient seat of Government that ruled a great part of the world. I will not describe the rums, but will remind Kaiapoi that the old Colosseum or theatre would probably seat all the people in Qhristchurch on a first-class shownight.

"Between Milan and the Alps is one of the best districts for silkworms. The trees run for many miles along the railway and are generally growing on land cultivated for grain. There is little grass for pasture grown in Italy. Everywhere it is cultivation and though there were no cows in the fields I could quite understand when the warm weather came they would be tethered or herded on the small plots of grass not used for hay. By the way, the cattle were a very useful} lot, fine workers in the dray or plough, and I saw some good cows being driven in some of the towns that would be very profitable on a New Zealand dairy farm. There were no mixed herds of cattle. The Italian sticks to his own breed. The sheep I saw were just middling, and would hardly make good Canterbury half-breds, and the wool was very short—evidently a mutton breed. Altogether the Italian farmer or gardener makes the most of everything and if he does drive a very small donkey or pony cart and ploughs with bullocks he wastes nothing and does much to make sunny Italy a prosperous country.