olive tree grows nowhere more than thirty leagues distant from that sea.
I suppose, however, that both Spain and Portugal furnish proofs to the
contrary, and doubt its truth as to Asia, Africa, and America. They are
six or eight months at a time, here, without rain. The most delicate
figs known in Europe, are those growing about this place, called _figues
Marseilloises_, or _les veritables Marseilloises_, to distinguish them
from others of inferior quality growing here. These keep any length of
time. All others exude a sugar in the spring of the year, and become
sour. The only process for preserving them, is drying them in the sun,
without putting any thing to them whatever. They sell at fifteen sous
the pound, while there are others as cheap as five sous the pound. I
meet here a small dried grape from Smyrna, without a seed. There are few
of the plants growing in this neighborhood. The best grape for drying,
known here, is called _des Panses_. They are very large, with a thick
skin and much juice. They are best against a wall of southern aspect, as
their abundance of juice requires a great deal of sun to dry it. Pretty
good fig trees are about the size of the apricot tree, and yield about
twenty pounds of figs when dry, each. But the largest will yield the
value of a louis. They are sometimes fifteen inches in diameter. It is
said that the Marseilles fig degenerates when transported into any other
part of the country. The leaves of the mulberry tree will sell for about
three livres, the purchaser gathering them. The caper is a creeping
plant. It is killed to the roots every winter. In the spring it puts out
branches, which creep to the distance of three feet from the centre. The
fruit forms on the stem, as that extends itself, and must be gathered
every day, as it forms. This is the work of women. The pistache grows in
this neighborhood also, but not very good. They eat them in their milky
state. Monsieur de Bergasse has a wine-cellar two hundred and forty
_pieds_ long, in which are one hundred and twenty tons, of from fifty to
one hundred _pièces_ each. These tons are twelve _pieds_ diameter, the
staves four inches thick, the heading two and a half _pouces_ thick. The
temperature of his cellar is of 9 1/2° of Reaumur. The best method of
packing wine, when bottled, is to lay the bottles on their side, and
cover them with sand. The 2d of April, the young figs are formed; the
4th we have Windsor beans. They have had asparagus ever since the middle
of March. The 5th, I see strawberries and the Guelder rose in blossom.
To preserve the raisin, it is first dipped into ley, and then dried in
the sun. The aloe grows in the open ground. I measure a mule, not
the largest, five feet and two inches high. Marseilles is in an
amphitheatre, at the mouth of the Veaune, surrounded by high mountains
of naked rock, distant two or three leagues. The country within that
amphitheatre is a mixture of small hills, vallies, and plains. The
latter are naturally rich. The hills and vallies are forced into
production. Looking from the _Chateau de Notre Dame de la Garde_, it
would seem as if there was a _bastide_ for every arpent. The plain-lands
sell for one hundred louis the _carterelle_, which is less than an acre.
The ground of the arsenal in Marseilles sold for from fifteen to forty
louis the square verge, being nearly the square yard English. In the
fields open to the sea, they are obliged to plant rows of canes, every
here and there, to break the force of the wind. Saw at the Chateau
Borelli pumps worked by the wind.
April 6. From _Marseilles_ to _Aubagne_. A valley on the Veaune,
bordered on each side by high mountains of massive rock, on which
are only some small pines. The interjacent valley is of small hills,
vallies, and plains, reddish, gravelly, and originally poor, but
fertilized by art, and covered with corn, vines, olives, figs, almonds,
mulberries, lucerne, and clover. The river is twelve or fifteen feet
wide, one or two feet deep, and rapid.
From _Aubagne_ to _Cuges, Beausset, Toulon_. The road, quitting the
Veaune and its wealthy valley, a little after Aubagne, enters those
mountains of rock, and is engaged with them about a dozen miles. Then it
passes six or eight miles through a country still very hilly and stony,
but laid up in terraces, covered with olives, vines, and corn. It
then follows for two or three miles a hollow between two of those
high mountains, which has been, found or made by a small stream.
The mountains then reclining a little from their perpendicular, and
presenting a coat of soil, reddish, and tolerably good, have given place
to the little village of Olioules, in the gardens of which are oranges
in the open ground. It continues hilly till we enter the plain of
Toulon. On different parts of this road there are figs in the open
fields. At Cuges is a plain of about three fourths of a mile diameter,
surrounded by high mountains of rock. In this the caper is principally
cultivated. The soil is mulatto, gravelly, and of middling quality, or
rather indifferent. The plants are set in _quincunx_, about eight feet
apart. They have been covered during winter by a hill of earth a foot
high. They are now enclosing, pruning, and ploughing them.
_Toulon_. From Olioules to Toulon the figs are in the open fields. Some
of them have stems of fifteen inches diameter. They generally fork near
the ground, but sometimes have a single stem of five feet long. They
are as large as apricot trees. The olive trees of this day’s journey
are about the size of large apple trees. The people are in separate
establishments. Toulon is in a valley at the mouth of the Goutier, a
little river of the size of the Veaune; surrounded by high mountains of
naked rock, leaving some space between them and the sea. This space is
hilly, reddish, gravelly, and of middling quality, in olives, vines,
corn, almonds, figs, and capers. The capers are planted eight feet
apart. A bush yields, one year with another, two pounds, worth twelve
sous the pound. Every plant, then, yields twenty-four sous, equal to
one shilling sterling. An acre, containing six hundred and seventy-six
plants, would yield thirty-three pounds sixteen shillings sterling. The
fruit is gathered by women, who can gather about twelve pounds a day.
They begin to gather about the last of June, and end about the middle of
October. Each plant must be picked every day. These plants grow equally
well in the best or worst soil, or even in the walls, where there is no
soil. They will last the life of a man, or longer. The heat is so great
at Toulon in summer, as to occasion very great cracks in the earth.
Where the caper is in a soil that will admit it, they plough it. They
have pease here through the winter, sheltering them occasionally; and
they have had them ever since the 25th of March, without shelter.
April 6. _Hieres_. This is a plain of two or three miles diameter,
bounded by the sea on one side, and mountains of rock on the other. The
soil is reddish, gravelly, tolerably good, and well watered. It is in
olives, mulberries, vines, figs, corn, and some flax. There are also
some cherry trees. From Hieres to the sea, which is two or three miles,
is a grove of orange trees, olives, and mulberries. The largest orange
tree is of two feet diameter one way, and one foot the other (for the
section of all the larger ones would be an oval, not a round), and about
twenty feet high. Such a tree will yield about six thousand oranges a
year. The garden of M. Fille has fifteen thousand six hundred orange,
trees. Some years they yield forty thousand livres, some only ten
thousand; but generally about twenty-five thousand. The trees are from
eight to ten feet apart. They are blossoming and bearing, all the year,
flowers and fruit in every stage at the same time. But the best fruit
is that which is gathered in April and May. Hieres is a village of about
five thousand inhabitants, at the foot of a mountain, which covers it
from the north, and from which extends a plain of two or three miles to
the sea-shore. It has no port. Here are palm trees twenty or thirty feet
high, but they bear no fruit. There is also a botanical garden kept by
the King. Considerable salt-ponds here. Hieres is six miles from the
public road. It is built on a narrow spur of the mountain. The streets
in every direction are steep, in steps of stairs, and about eight feet
wide. No carriage of any kind can enter it. The wealthier inhabitants
use _chaises à porteurs_. But there are few wealthy, the bulk of the
inhabitants being laborers of the earth. At a league’s distance in the
sea is an island, on which is the Chateau de Géans, belonging to the
Marquis de Pontoives: there is a causeway leading to it. The cold of the
last November killed the leaves of a great number of the orange-trees,
and some of the trees themselves.
From Hieres to _Cuers, Pignans, Luc_, is mostly a plain, with mountains
on each hand at a mile or two distance. The soil is generally reddish,
and the latter part very red and good. The growth is olives, figs,
vines, mulberries, corn, clover, and lucerne. The olive trees are
from three to four feet in diameter. There are hedges of pomegranates,
sweet-briar, and broom. A great deal of thyme growing wild. There are
some enclosures of stone; some sheep and goats.
April 9. From Luc to _Vidavban, Muy, Frejus_, the road leads through
vallies, and crosses occasionally the mountains which separate them. The
vallies are tolerably good, always red and stony, gravelly or gritty.
Their produce as before. The mountains are barren.
_Lesterelle, Napoule_. Eighteen miles of ascent and descent of a very
high mountain. Its growth, where capable of any, two-leaved pine, very
small, and some chêne vert.
_Antibes, Nice_. From Napoule the road is generally near the sea,
passing over little hills or strings of vallies, the soil stony, and
much below mediocrity in its quality. Here and there is a good plain.
There is snow on the high mountains. The first frogs I have heard are
of this day (the 9th). At Antibes are oranges in the open ground, but
in small enclosures; palm trees also. From thence to the Var are
the largest fig trees and olive trees I have seen. The fig trees are
eighteen inches in diameter, and six feet stem; the olives sometimes
six feet in diameter, and as large heads as the largest low-ground apple
trees. This tree was but a shrub where I first fell in with it, and
has become larger and larger to this place. The people are mostly in
villages. The several provinces, and even cantons, are distinguished
by the form of the women’s hats, so that one may know of what canton a
woman is by her hat.
_Nice_. The pine-bur is used here for kindling fires. The people are in
separate establishments. With respect to the orange, there seems to
be no climate on this side of the Alps sufficiently mild in itself
to preserve it without shelter. At Olioules they are between two high
mountains; at Hieres covered on the north by a very high mountain;
at Antibes and Nice covered by mountains, and also within small, high
enclosures. _Quære_. To trace the true line from east to west, which
forms the northern and natural limit of that fruit? Saw an elder tree
(sambucus) near Nice, fifteen inches in diameter, and eight feet stem.
The wine made in this neighborhood is good, though not of the first
quality. There are one thousand mules, loaded with merchandise, which
pass every week between Nice and Turin, counting those coming as well as
going.
April 13. _Scarena. Sospello_. There are no orange trees after we leave
the environs of Nice. We lose the olive after rising a little above the
village of Scarena, on Mount Braus, and find it again on the other side,
a little before we get down to Sospello. But wherever there is soil
enough it is terraced, and in corn. The waste parts are either in
two-leaved pine and thyme, or of absolutely naked rock. Sospello is on
a little torrent, called Bevera, which runs into the river Roia, at the
mouth of which is Ventimiglia. The olive trees on the mountain are now
loaded with fruit; while some at Sospello are in blossom. Fire-wood here
and at Scarena costs fifteen sous the quintal.
April 14. _Ciandola. Tende_. In crossing Mount Brois we lose the olive
tree after getting to a certain height, and find it again on the other
side at the village of Breglio. Here we come to the river Roia, which,
after receiving the branch on which is Sospello, leads to the sea at
Ventimiglia. The Roia is about twelve yards wide, and abounds with
speckled trout. Were a road made from Breglio, along the side of the
Roia to Ventimiglia, it might turn the commerce of Turin to this last
place instead of Nice; because it would avoid the mountains of Braus and
Brois, leaving only that of Tende; that is to say, it would avoid more
than half the difficulties of the passage. Further on, we come to the
Chateau di Saorgio, where a scene is presented the most singular and
picturesque I ever saw. The castle and village seem hanging to a cloud
in front. On the right is a mountain cloven through, to let pass
a gurgling stream; on the left, a river, over which is thrown a
magnificent bridge. The whole forms a basin, the sides of which are
shagged with rocks, olive trees, vines, herds, &c. Near here I saw
a tub-wheel without a ream; the trunk descended from the top of
the water-fall to the wheel in a direct line, but with the usual
inclination. The produce along this passage is most generally olives,
except on the heights as before observed; also corn, vines, mulberries,
figs, cherries, and walnuts. They have cows, goats, and sheep. In
passing on towards Tende, olives fail us ultimately at the village of
Fontan, and there the chestnut trees begin in good quantity.
Ciandola consists of only two houses, both taverns. Tende is a very
inconsiderable village, in which they have not yet the luxury of glass
windows: nor in any of the villages on this passage have they yet
the fashion of powdering the hair. Common stone and limestone are so
abundant, that the apartments of every story are vaulted with stone to
save wood.
April 15. _Limone. Coni_. I see abundance of lime-stone as far as the
earth is uncovered with snow; i.e. within half or three quarters of an
hour’s walk of the top. The snows descend much lower on the eastern
than western side. Wherever there is soil, there is corn quite to the
commencement of the snows, and I suppose under them also. The waste
parts are in two-leaved pine, lavender, and thyme. From the foot of
the mountain to Coni the road follows a branch of the Po, the plains of
which begin narrow, and widen at length into a general plain country,
bounded on one side by the Alps. They are good, dark-colored, sometimes
tinged with red, and in pasture, corn, mulberries, and some almonds. The
hill-sides bordering these plains are reddish, and where they admit of
it are in corn; but this is seldom. They are mostly in chestnut, and
often absolutely barren. The whole of the plains are plentifully watered
from the river, as is much of the hill-side. A great deal of golden
willow all along the rivers on the whole of this passage through the
Alps. The southern parts of France, but still more the passage through
the Alps, enable one to form a scale of the tenderer plants, arranging
them according to their several powers of resisting cold. Ascending
three different mountains, Braus, Brois, and Tende, they disappear one
after another: and descending on the other side, they show themselves
again one after another. This is their order, from the tenderest to the
hardiest. Caper, orange, palm, aloe, olive, pomegranate, walnut, fig,
almond. But this must be understood of the plant; for as to the
fruit, the order is somewhat different. The caper, for example, is the
tenderest plant, yet being so easily protected, it is the most certain
in its fruit. The almond, the hardiest plant, loses its fruit the
oftenest on account of its forwardness. The palm, hardier than the caper
and the orange, never produces perfect fruit in these parts. Coni is a
considerable town, and pretty well built. It is walled.
April 16. _Centale. Savigliano. Racconigi. Poirino. Turin_. The Alps,
as far as they are in view from north to south, show the gradation of
climate by the line which terminates the snows lying on them. This
line begins at their foot northwardly, and rises as they pass on to
the south, so as to be half way up their sides on the most southern
undulations of the mountain now in view. From the mountains to Turin we
see no tree tenderer than the walnut. Of these, as well as of almonds
and mulberries, there are a few: somewhat more of vines, but most
generally willows and poplars. Corn is sowed with all these. They mix
with them also clover and small grass. The country is a general plain;
the soil dark, and sometimes, though rarely, reddish. It is rich, and
much infested with wild onions. At Racconigi I see the tops and shocks
of maize, which prove it is cultivated here: but it can be in small
quantities only, because I observe very little ground but what has
already something else in it. Here and there are small patches prepared,
I suppose, for maize. They have a method of planting the vine, which I
have not seen before. At intervals of about eight feet they plant from
two to six plants of vine in a cluster At each cluster they fix a forked
staff, the plane of the prongs of the fork at a right angle with the
row of vines. Athwart these prongs they lash another staff, like a
handspike, about eight feet long, horizontally, seven or eight feet from
the ground. Of course, it crosses the rows at right angles. The vines
are brought from the foot of the fork up to this cross-piece, turned
over it, and conducted along over the next, the next, and so on, as far
as they will extend, the whole forming an arbor eight feet wide and high
and of the whole length of the row, little interrupted by the stems of
the vines, which being close around the fork, pass up through hoops, so
as to occupy a space only of small diameter. All the buildings in this
country are of brick, sometimes covered with plaister, sometimes not.
There is a very large and handsome bridge, of seven arches, over the
torrent of Sangone. We cross the Po in swinging batteaux. Two are placed
side by side, and kept together by a plank-floor, common to both, and
lying on the gunwales. The carriage drives on this, without taking out
any of the horses. About one hundred and fifty yards up the river is a
fixed stake, and a rope tied to it, the other end of which is made fast
to one side of the batteaux, so as to throw them oblique to the current.
The stream then acting on them, as on an inclined plane, forces them
across the current in the portion of a circle, of which the rope is
the radius. To support the rope in its whole length, there are two
intermediate canoes, about fifty yards apart, in the heads of which are
short masts. To the top of these the rope is lashed, the canoes being
free otherwise to concur with the general vibration in their smaller
arcs of circles. The Po is there about fifty yards wide, and about one
hundred in the neighborhood of Turin.
April 17, 18. _Turin_. The first nightingale I have heard this year is
to-day (18th). There is a red wine of Nebiule made in this neighborhood,
which is very singular. It is about as sweet as the silky Madeira, as
astringent on the palate as Bordeaux, and as brisk as Champagne. It is a
pleasing wine. At Moncaglieri, about six miles from Turin, on the right
side of the Po, begins a ridge of mountains, which, following the Po
by Turin, after some distance, spreads wide, and forms the duchy of
Montferrat. The soil is mostly red, and in vines, affording a wine
called Montferrat, which is thick and strong.
April 19. _Settimo. Chivasso. Ciliano. S. Germano. Vercelli_. The
country continues plain and rich, the soil black. The culture, corn,
pasture, maize, vines, mulberries, walnuts, some willow, and poplar.
The maize bears a very small proportion to the small grain. The earth is
formed into ridges from three to four feet wide, and the maize sowed in
the broad-cast, on the higher parts of the ridge, so as to cover a third
or half of the whole surface. It is sowed late in May. This country
is plentifully and beautifully watered at present. Much of it is by
torrents, which are dry in summer. These torrents make a great deal
of waste ground, covering it with sand and stones. These wastes are
sometimes planted in trees, sometimes quite unemployed. They make hedges
of willows, by setting the plants from one to three feet apart. When
they are grown to the height of eight or ten feet, they bend them down,
and interlace them one with another. I do not see any of these, however,
which are become old. Probably, therefore, they soon die. The women here
smite on the anvil, and work with the maul and spade. The people of this
country are ill dressed in comparison with those of France, and there
are more spots of uncultivated ground. The plough here is made with a
single handle, which is a beam twelve feet long, six inches in diameter
below, and tapered to about two inches at the upper end. They use goads
for the oxen, not whips. The first swallows I have seen are to-day.
There is a wine called Gatina, made in the neighborhood of Vercelli,
both red and white. The latter resembles Calcavallo. There is also a
red wine of Salusola, which is esteemed. It is very light. In the
neighborhood of Vercelli begin the rice-fields. The water with which
they are watered is very dear. They do not permit rice to be sown within
two miles of the cities, on account of the insalubrity. Notwithstanding
this, when the water is drawn off the fields, in August, the whole
country is subject to agues and fevers. They estimate, that the same
measure of ground yields three times as much rice as wheat, and with
half the labor. They are now sowing. As soon as sowed, they let on the
water two or three inches deep. After six weeks, or two months, they
draw it off to weed; then let it on again, and it remains till August,
when it is drawn off, about three or four weeks before the grain is
ripe. In September they cut it. It is first threshed; then beaten in
the mortar to separate the husk; then, by different siftings, it is
separated into three qualities. Twelve rupes, equal to three hundred
pounds of twelve ounces each, sell for sixteen livres, money of
Piedmont, where the livre is exactly the shilling of England. Twelve
rupes of maize sell for nine livres. The machine for separating the
husk is thus made. In the axis of a water-wheel are a number of arms
inserted, which, as they revolve, catches each the cog of a pestle,
lifts it to a certain height, and lets it fall again. These pestles are
five and a quarter inches square, ten feet long, and at their lower end
formed into a truncated cone of three inches diameter, where cut off.
The conical part is covered with iron. The pestles are ten and a half
inches apart in the clear. They pass through two horizontal beams, which
string them, as it were, together, and while the mortises in the beams
are so loose, as to let the pestles work vertically, it restrains them
to that motion. There is a mortar of wood, twelve or fifteen inches
deep, under each pestle, covered with a board, the hole of which is only
large enough to let the pestle pass freely. There are two arms in the
axis for every pestle, so that the pestle gives two strokes for every
revolution of the wheel. Poggio, a muleteer, who passes every week
between Vercelli and Genoa, will smuggle a sack of rough rice for me to,
Genoa; it being death to export it in that form. They have good cattle,
and in good number, mostly cream-colored; and some middle-sized sheep.
The streams furnish speckled trout.