Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1904-03-04
RIVIERA vs4E1Ar--.4
The Interesting Notes of a Nature
Loving Tourist

Il seemed TO me that tie lOct
of the south have cxa seratcd the
beauty of the olive tree. saws
writer for the Conservation. IL
deed, J saw no beauty i'm ii at ali
The leaves look as if they hue
been blapched by sulphur, and IL.
trunks of the stumbling oldc,
Lftrees rs if they had been hacked M
with an AK. The Younger trees
are more graceful, but don't ap
peal 10 the sympathies of onr
from the land Of shapely spruce
and pines, the ash, the maple and
the elm. The splayed and yaw
ing fragments Of an old olive
trunk have an uncanny look, as of
some nightmarish DOrc illustra
tion in Dantp's "lnfernO.' The
only lemon groves could set my
eyes on north of Naples were one
or two at Cap d'Antibes, and two
or three near Mentone. At Fic
sole there was a garden full Of
lemons grown in big terra Gotta
tubs. The oranges Of the Riviera |
are wretched, all the best fruit,
heavy and sweet juice, coming
from Spain. Sicily and Jaffa. TIL"
fragments at Monte Carlo are full |
of the fragrant pittOsOrums.
They srent the air around with the
very perfume Of the orange bios
som, only it is not at all overp0w-
ering or Extensively sweet, but
delicate and Sense.quickening,
like watts of fresh frosty air.
We are so used to thinking of
She hawthorne hedge as a feature
of English landscape that | dare
say il will surprise many to be
told that the biancaspina is al
most us common i'm the Pisan plain
and inparts Of southern Italy-cs-
peciallE along railway hankS-as ,
it's IN England.
Everywhere in Italy and France
che 1recS are pitifully mutilated.
Where they are allowed To grow
no ohcir natural hcight-aS they {
sometimes are ON the Italian coast !
u observed they lean from the
southwest, as they do all over :
America. OF course. where silk. +
worm culture is carried on. as be-
+rweTr Milan and Como, it is nee
pssart that the mulberry trees be
trained low for convenience in the {
picking of larvacs. Where grapes s
are grown it is hard 10 tell why
living saplingS are universally
planted and trimmed down as sup
port for the vines. unless il is that
grWund could not be- spared for
v0ppices or that the fruit ripens
best in partial shade, In France
and Germany the vines are simply
tied to upright sticks. DcScrip-
lions of the vim" i'm Italy by tour.
lists are always vogue and Scnti-
mcntal. and / had wondered how
iii che world grapes could riprn in
the shade Of large frees. \ glance
explained all the trees turned out
10 be no taller than the hop poles,
and so trimmed to a few horizon
tai branches trained cngthwiSc Of
the row that the shading was re-
ducrd To a minimum. The vines
hung i'm loops or frStOOnS from
,sapling 10 Sapling. as if taking
hold Of hands. ON the foothills
SCath of the Campagna travellers
may see grape vines groWnaround
bunch of dead poles tied together
-WlgWam fashion AT the top. The
sapliHg trees are rarely more than
II feet high, generally not so
mHch. In one region only, and
Glat near Naples, did see the
Vines trained on tolerably large |
trees. swinging from boIe to bOlc,
like spider webs. That the hotter
sun does not ncceSsitate this dis
covered by the vineyards on the
fiery southern slope of Nesuvius,
which are trained low and have |
scarcely any shade.