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.
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