The _salon_ of the Casa-Belgioiosa is
superior to any thing 1 have ever seen. The mixture called _scagliuola_,
of which they make their walls and floors, is so like the finest marble,
as to be scarcely distinguishable from it. The nights of the 20th and
21st instant, the rice ponds froze half an inch thick. Droughts of two
or three months are not uncommon here, in summer. About five years ago,
there was such a hail as to kill cats. The Count del Verme tells me of
a pendulum odometer for the wheel of a carriage. Leases here are mostly
for nine years. Wheat costs a louis d'or the one hundred and forty
pounds. A laboring man receives sixty livres, and is fed and lodged. The
trade of this country is principally rice, raw silk, and cheese.
April 23. _Casino_, five miles from Milan. I examined another
rice-beater of six pestles. They are eight feet nine inches long. Their
ends, instead of being a truncated cone, have nine teeth of iron, bound
closely together. Each tooth is a double pyramid, joined at the base.
When put together, they stand with the upper ends placed in contact, so
as to form them into one great cone, and the lower ends diverging.
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