I know farmers who receive over three pounds a month from their
sons in America - all under military age.
"We work, yes," they will then tell you, "but we also smoke our pipe."
Previous to this wholesale emigration, things had come to such a pass
that the landed proprietor could procure a labourer at a franc a day,
out of which he had to feed and clothe himself; it was little short of
slavery. The roles are now reversed, and while landlords are
impoverished, the rich emigrant buys up the farms or makes his own terms
for work to be done, wages being trebled. A new type of peasant is being
evolved, independent of family, fatherland or traditions - with a sure
haven of refuge across the water when life at home becomes intolerable.
Yes; a change is at hand.
And another of those things which emigration and the new order of
affairs are surely destroying is that ancient anthropomorphic way of
looking at nature, with its expressive turns of speech. A small boy,
whom I watched gathering figs last year, informed me that the fig-tree
was innamorato delle pietre e cisterne - enamoured of stones and
cisterns; meaning, that its roots are searchingly destructive to masonry
and display a fabulous intuition for the proximity of water. He also
told me, what was news to me, that there are more than two or three
varieties of figs. Will you have his list of them? Here it is:
There is the fico arnese, the smallest of all, and the fico
santillo, both of which are best when dried; the fico vollombola,
which is never dried, because it only makes the spring fruit; the fico
molegnano, which ripens as late as the end of October and must be eaten
fresh; the fico coretorto (" wry-heart " - from its shape), which has
the most leathery skin of all and is often destroyed by grubs after
rain; the fico troiano; the fico arzano; and the fico vescovo,
which appears when all the others are over, and is eaten in February
(this may be the kind referred to in Stamer's "Dolce Napoli" as deriving
from Sorrento, where the first tree of its kind was discovered growing
out of the garden wall of the bishop's palace, whence the name). All
these are neri - black.
Now for the white kinds. The fico paradiso has a tender skin, but is
easily spoilt by rain and requires a ridiculous amount of sun to dry it;
ihe fico vottato is also better fresh; the fico pezzottolo is often
attacked by grubs, but grows to a large size every two or three years;
the fico pascarello is good up till Christmas; the fico natalino;
lastly, the fico - - , whose name I will not record, though it would
be an admirable illustration of that same anthropomorphic turn of mind.
The santillo and arnese, he added, are the varieties which are cut
into two and laid lengthwise upon each other and so dried (Query:
