the Alps possess meadows, and even habitations*
at different heights. In winter
they live in the bottom of the valley, but
they quit it in the spring, and ascend gradually,
as the heat pushes out vegetation.
In autumn they descend by the same gradations.
Those who are less rich have a
resource in the common pastures, to which
they send a number of cows, proportionate
to their resources, and their means of keeping
them during the winter. The poor,
who have no meadows to supply fodder for
the winter, cannot avail themselves of this
advantage. Eight days after the cows have
been driven up into the common pasture,
all the owners assemble, and the quantity
of milk from each cow is weighed. The
same operation is repeated one day in the
middle of the summer, and at the end of
the season, the quantity of cheese and
butter is divided, according to the quantity
of milk each cow yielded on the days of
trial.”
* There are chalets, or public dairies near the mountain
pastures in Savoy, as well as in Switzerland ; persons
reside in these chalets during the summer months, to
make cheese and butter. In many situations it is the
labour of a day to ascend to these chalets, and return
to the valleys immediately below them.
There are also public dairies in some of
the villages, where the poorer peasants
may bring all the milk they can spare, from
the daily consumption of their families.
The milk is measured, and an account kept
of it, and at the end of the season the due
portion of cheese is allotted to each, after
a small deduction for the expence of
making.
No large flocks of sheep are kept in Savoy,
as it is necessary to house them during
the winter, at which time they are principally
fed with dried leaves of trees, collected
during the autumn. Many poor families
keep a few sheep to supply them
with wool for their domestic use. These
little flocks are driven home every evening,
and are almost always accompanied
by a goat, a cow, a pig, or an ass, and
followed by a young girl spinning with a
distaff. As they wind down the lower
slopes of the mountains, they form the
most picturesque groups for the pencil o f
the painter, and carry back the imagination
to the ages of pastoral simplicity sung by
Theocritus and Virgil.
The vineyards in Savoy are cultivated
for half the produce of the wine. The
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