The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-01-16
.zorean practice of fertilizing by sowing

| AzOrean practice OF 1ertlllZlng by sowing
and blowing the lupine, is also borrowed
| from the same period. You remember
| that Virgil in the first book of the Georg-
les. impresses upon the Italians the ne
cessity of rotation of crops, to preserve
the soil from exhaustion, and especially
urges the alienation of a light, legumin
Gus crop with the heavier grains. Horace
| Greeleys celebrated advice in 'What [
know about farming was not more prac-
teal, though a deal less sentimental than
Nirgils. Says the earlier authority:
Exchanging the season, You will SOW the
golden corn on that soil from which YOU
shall have first gathered the merry pulse
with rafting pods or the tiny seed of the
vetch, and the brittle stalk and rlstling
forest of the bitter lupne.' SO we'll was
this excellent counsel followed by the
Romans that they carried the lupine with
them into their conquered provinces; and
TO this day the ''leguminous crop alter
mates with the grain in these remote CO.
lonial tf-shoots. When about 3 feet high
the lupine is cut with a Short two edged
sword, and the stubble is powed under
The narrow streets of many villages are
SO hard trodden that the peasants use
them for threshing floors. Riding through
them, your donkey picks his way care
fully through heaps of lupine which men
are threshing with fails before their
DOORS So bitter are the beans that the
''boneset' tea we used to imbibe for the
ague is sweet in comparison. The peas
ants carry them down to the sea in bags;
and after they have been pickeled a few
| days in salt water, the effect is much the
same as that of brine on an olive, and
they are sold at the street corners as one
of the delicacies of the Lenten season.
One may learn some useful lessons from
the contented lives of these poor peasants.
are content to work from sunrise to sun
set for a shilling, and to fare every day
alike on unleavened bread and spring wa
ter, with at rare intervals such luNuries
] DIS uIitu JlSH ana IL lew Ulttel DEANS.
Skilled labor seldom commands more
than 40 cents day, and a man with a
cart and a donkey considers himself in
wonderful luck if he can cam 80 cents by
"A hours of constant toll. On such mea-
gre sums they not only support them
selves and families, but actually contrive
I t., IL, fpJ 1ojnv ,jaNc Tho Ia
borer who is 50 fortunate as to have a
steady job at SLIT per week, is sure to
put 10y 30 cents of the weekly stipend I'M
Ill he owns his home, and maybe a bit OF
land OF course this could not be were
his wants more NUMEROUS OF less easily
supplied. The government has wisely
restricted by law the expectation of corn,
his staff OF life, which he prepares for
food by grinding, mixing into cakes with
water and baking on a fiat hearth
stone. If too poor to own the smallest
bit OF land he rents enough, generally
paid for in labor, to raise corn for the
family consumption. In the harvest sea-
son the whole landscape is aglow with the
golden hue of the grain, which, stripped
of the husks, is strung on poles or on the
branches of trees, or piled up in enormous
stacks, while wains heavily loaded with it,
come creaking down the hill side. Fish
of all kinds is abundant in the neighboring
seas, and absurdly cheap. Sardines appear
to be most common and are brought in
by the fishermen every morning, in boat
loads and sold at the rate of = cents pei
hundred. People come down to the
shore and buy them in large quantities,
which they carry away in panniers upon
the backs of donkeys, to salt and dry fol
winter use. The Azorean peasant utili-
yes everything that grows He feeds his
porca, (pig,) on wild lettuce, ferns and
yam leaves. He brads the reed into
ropes, plaits it into mating and uses il
and the palm leaves to single his roo
and carpet his floor OF the palm pitt
he makes artificial flowers, with which tC
adorn the saints or to sell to strangers.
OF the bramble and willow he makes bas-
holo, pdHuItlS, elo uOultS VI SdI 10 duI
wheelbarrows, and the wings of his fan
ming mill. The bamboo supplies his house
with rafters, and partitions, walls his hen
merry and pig-stye, and forms the stat
he always carries. Both himself anc
his house are topped with straw, il
thatch and hat; his clothing is of flax
dyed with mountain weeds. The volcano
furnishes lava stone for his building ma
terial, the brook, clay for his pottery,
the faya and the heather his fuel In short,
nature has done the best she can for him
and he utilities her benefits to the utmost.
AS rule he has no use for a barn OF
storehouse, for his small stock of grain
can be easily slowed away under the beds
and in the corners of the one room casa.
: Neither is there any need of hennery tc
tempt the neighbors, for the chickens anc
!, pigeons prefer to roost among the thatch
nor piggery, for the socially inclined
porca, ethered by string to the door
post, is more at home inside than out
, No neople ara more faith fu1lv in love with