FOOTNOTES:
[1] The author of a long letter to the "Edinburgh Reviewers," published in the National Intelligencer.
[2] The climate of Italy is now warmer than it was in the Augustan age, which Buffon ascribes to the draining of great tracts of swampy lands in Germany.
[3] "Un Romain meme le plus indigent rougiroit de cultiver la terre." Bosc.
[4] "Two thirds of Tuscany consist of mountains." Vol. viii. p. 232. Geographic, Mathematique et Phisique: See also Forsyth's remarks, p. 80, where are detailed the principal causes of her prosperity. "Leopold," says he, "in selling the crown lands, studiously divided large tracts of rich but neglected land, into small properties. His favourite plan of encouraging agriculture consisted, not in boards, societies, and premiums, but in giving the labourer a security and interest in the soil—in multiplying small freeholders—in extending the livelli, or life leases, &c. &c.
[5] It is among the most important covenants of a Tuscan lease, that one third of the ground be annually worked with a spade.
[6] Geographic, Mathematique, &c. Article Italie.
[7] Idem. Article Helvetia.
[8] It appears from Varro Dere rustica and the letters of Cassiodorus, that the Goths introduced into Spain the subterranean granaries, called Siilos, and the art of irrigation. The former are now exclusively used in Tuscany, and Cato's precept, 'Prata irrigua,' &c. shews whence their knowledge of the latter was derived.
[9] Burgoing's modern Spain, vol. i.
[10] Borde's Hineraira de l'Espagne, vol. iv. p. 30.
[11] Burgoing. Spain has been long renowned for its horses. The Romans, in settling their pedigree and illustrating their swiftness, called them 'the children of the winds.'
[12] Swinburne's Travels, Vol. I. A Spanish peasant, who has earned or begged enough for the wants of the day, will refuse to earn more, even by running an errand. Striking as this fact is, it does not so well illustrate Spanish indolence as the following anecdote from the same pen. In the great sedition at Madrid, which ended in the defeat of the king and the disgrace of his minister, (the Marquis des Squillas) and in its most fervid moments, both parties retired about dinner time to take their nap or meridiana, after which they returned to the combat with new vigour and enraged fury. If habits can thus control the passions, to what important uses might not a wise legislation turn them?
[13] Le Borde's Heneraire D'Espagne, Vol. 1.
[14] See Geographique, &c. Vol. VI. Art. France, p. 13, and Young's tour through France.
[15] The products of agricultural labour, were, in these tables, stated at 114,552,000 L. T. Those of manufacturing labour at 128,015,000.
[16] The effects of the revolution of 1789 on agriculture are no longer doubtful. The suppression of tythes—of the exclusive privilege—of the chase—of every species of corvee (labour performed by tenants for landlords)—of taxes or rents, and of rights of commonage—was among these effects; and if to these we add the division of the great landed estates of the nobility and clergy, there can no longer be any scepticism on this point. No truth is better established than the advantage of small farms over great, as far as the public is concerned. The Roman latifundia (military grants) destroyed Roman agriculture.
[17] Herbin's statistique Gen. de la France Vol. I. introduc.
[18] See Doctor Tissot's advice to the people of Lusanne.
[19] Vevay, on the Ohio, is in 38° 30' N.
[20] Glasgow is in 37°.
[21] Chaptal, whose writings on the subject should be in every planter's hands, and in every agricultural and public library. The title of Mr. Chaptal's work is "A Theoretical and Practical Treatise on the culture of the Vine, with the art of preparing wine, brandy, &c. By Chaptal, Parmentier, and Dasseux. 2 vols. octavo, Paris, A. D. 1801." In French, Chaptal, P. and D. sur la culture de la Vigne, &c. Paris, 1801, 2 tom. oct.
[22] Sailors, we believe, call them dog suns.