The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1879-03-28
PERILS OF AGRICULTURE IN TYROI,.

The persistence with which humanity at
taches itself to fertile land without regard to
danger is illustrated elsewhere than here.
The peasants on the slopes of Vesuvius push
their cultivation and plant their homes in
the very track of possible lava stream, and
all the world over, facility for obtaining a
livelihood blinds the cultivator to all risks.
Grohmau says In the Wild-Schonau,
North Tyrol, not few of the houses are
built on such steep slopes that heavy chain
has to be laid round the houses and fasten-
ed to some firm object--a large tree or bowl
der of rock higher up......In one village of
the Puster Thai, and in two others of the
Obernn Thai, many of the villagers come
to church with crampoons on their feet, the
terrible steep slopes on which their huts are
built somewhat like a swallows nest on a
wall requiring this precautionary measure
In Moss village not very far from the
Brenner, having population of eight hun
dred inhabitants-moret than three hundred
| men and women have been killed since 1853
by falls from the incredibly steep slopes up
on which the pasturages of this village are
situated. So steep are they, in fact, that
only goats, and even they not everywhere,
can be trusted to Craze on them, and the
hay for the larger cattle has to be cut and
gathered by the hand of man.
have myself seen, in walking among the
hills, little stores of grass piled against the
upper side Of protecting trees, where it had
been brought in armtuls when cut by the
spiked mower, The haymakers gather
their little crop here and there on the steer
grass patches, almost at the limit of vegeta-
| tion, pack it in nets or in sheets, and bring
it on their shoulders down the steep and
dangerous paths. My earlier idea of an 'alp'
was that of a level plateau at the top of the
lower mountains. Alps which are even near.
| ly level are very rare, especially among the
higher elevations. Generally they ore -.
steep, so broken, and so inaccessible that one
wonders how cattle are got to them, anC
how they can be trusted to Craze over them
These alps are bounded by no fences, ant
it must be an anxious task for those who
have the herds in charge to get them to-
gether at milking time. Each animal wears
its bell-not the hollow sounding dull COW
bell with which we are familiar, but musica
in tone, and heard for much greater dis
tance. The alpine hut, and the Sennerin, o.
dairy maid, who spends the whole summe
in nearly solitary attention to her arduou
duties, are not altogether what ones imagi
nation might depict. She is not the dairy
maid of poetry, nor is her temporary hom
filled with the more ethereal pastoral associ
ations. Yet these people, too, have a roman.
tic and imaginative side to their lives, an,
are happy and wholesome and content.
The agriculture of North Tyrol, outside o
the valley of Inn, is mostly confined to YER
small operations A few cattle, few sheen
a little poultry, few small fields, and
mountain pasture constitute the stock il
trade on which tue industrious and fruga
pair bring up their family in comfort and de
cency, accumulate portions for their daught
ers and lay aside provision for their ow
cid age. Labor-saving hardly exists. Ey
erything is accomplished by unmitigate
and unremitted toll. In youth and in earl
life the people are stalwart, active and hear
ty but old age comes very early, and {
forty the vigor of manhood and womanhoo
is passed-the activity and vigor, but not tn
endurance up to really old age even sligt
little women carry enormous loads in I'll
baskets at their backs up and down stee
rough hill sides and mountain paths, whel
an unaccustomed tourist must puff and to
to move his own unencumbered person.
George E. Waring, Jun, in Harpers Mag
zine for april.