I thought I perceived in him a
sincere wish to study the welfare of his people; but was disappointed to
find among his chosen associates not one practical farmer or economist,
but only the usual closet-theorists that are too busy planning Utopias
to think of planting turnips.
The 7th.
Visited his Highness's estate at Valsecca. Here he has converted a
handsome seat into a school of agriculture, tearing down an immense
orangery to plant mulberries, and replacing costly gardens and statuary
by well-tilled fields: a good example to his wealthy subjects.
Unfortunately his bailiff is not what we should call a practical farmer;
and many acres of valuable ground are given up to a botanic garden,
where exotic plants are grown at great expense, and rather for curiosity
than use: a common error of noble agriculturists.
In the afternoon with the abate de Crucis to the Benedictine monastery,
a league beyond the city. Here I saw the best farming in the duchy. The
Prior received us politely and conversed with intelligence on drainage,
crops and irrigation. I urged on him the cultivation of turnips and he
appeared struck by my arguments. The tenants on this great estate
appeared better housed and fed than any I have seen in Pianura. The
monks have a school of agriculture, less pretentious but better-managed
than the Duke's. Some of them study physics and chemistry, and there are
good chirurgeons among them, who care for the poor without pay. The aged
and infirm peasants are housed in a neat almshouse, and the sick nursed
in a clean well-built lazaret.
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