is not j e t very general. In the neighbourhood
oi Aix, Rumilly, and Annecy, wheat
is succeeded by rye. The rye harvest being
over in June, they immediately sow
the land with buck wheat (sari'asinj, which
is cut in September ; the following year the
land is sown with spring corn.
J h e grass lands are always mown twice,
and the latter mowing is sufficiently early
to allow a good pasturage in the autumn.
I found it difficult to obtain a correct
account of the amount of direct taxes.
They are two kinds, the king’s taxes, and
the taxes for the communes for the roads,
clergy, and local charges. The tax on land
of the first quality is 44 sous*; for land
of the second and third quality, much less.
There is also a capitation tax, a tax on
stock and furniture, stated to be proportioned
to the supposed ability of the individual,
and of course subject to much
inequality or injustice, under a despotic government.
Phe cattle and mules are subject
to a further tax, when they leave the territory.
The government levies a duty on
every article that is imported, and on alPer
Journal.
most every article that is sent out of the
country. The farmers are also subject to
corvées, that are sometimes very oppressive.
But though the amount of taxes now paid
in Savoy is three times more than before
the revolution, they are collected with
greater facility, and are less felt than formerly
; for during the time that Savoy was
united to France, the inhabitants increased
in wealth, and the abolition of tythes and
seignioral rights relieved them from burdens,
far more intolerable than those of an
increased taxation. These rights, or rather
wrongs, the government has not attempted
to restore. Indeed, before the revolution,
a system had been organised for their redemption
at a stipulated price, and some
of the landed proprietors had already purchased
their freedom, when the French
took possession of the country, and swept
away at once the whole of their accumulated
oppressions.
Notwithstanding the imperfect state of
agriculture, a considerable quantity of wheat
is exported from Savoy to Geneva, and the
Pays de Vaud. I have seen one statement
which made the exports before the revolution
amount to 130,000 sacks of wheat, and