nder such conditions as these is a
terribly hazardous pursuit. A single year of drought will
suffice to ruin a breeder completely. In the years 1854-5 we
lost from twenty to forty per cent. of our cattle; in 1856-7
from seventeen to twenty per cent: and bear in mind that
every beast, before it died, had been taxed."

A champion of the Pontifical system offered to prove to me _by
figures_ that all is for the best even in the ecclesiastical estates.

"We have our reasons," he said,

"for preferring pasture to arable land. Here is a property
consisting of a hundred _rubbia_[16] (not quite three
hundred acres). If it were farmed on the proprietor's own
account, the cultivation, harvesting, threshing, and storing
would amount to the value of 13,550 days' labour. The wages,
seed, keep of horses and cattle, the interest of capital
invested in stock, cost of superintendence, wear and tear of
tools, etc., would stand him in 8,000 scudi, or 80 scudi per
rubbio. The earth returns sevenfold on the seed sown. If 100
measures of seed are sown, the return will be 700. The
average price of the measure of corn may be taken at 10
scudi. Thus the value of the crop will be 7,000 scudi,
whereas the same crop cost to raise 8,000 scudi. Here are
1,000 scudi (about L215) flung clean into the gutter; and
all for the pleasure of cultivating 100 rubbia of land. Is
it not much better to let the 100 rubbia to a
cattle-breeder, who will pay a rent of thirty or forty
shillings per rubbio? On one side we have a clear loss of
L215, and on the other a clear income of L160 or L184."

This reasoning is founded upon the calculations of Monsignore Nicolai,
a prelate of considerable ability[17]: but it proves nothing, because
it attempts to prove too much. If the cultivation of corn be really so
ruinous an operation, it is strange that farmers should continue to
grow it merely to spite the government.

But although it is quite true that the cultivation of a rubbio of land
costs 80 scudi, it is false that the earth only yields sevenfold on
the seed sown. According to the admission of the farmers
themselves--and they are notoriously not in the habit of exaggerating
their profits--it yields thirteen-fold on the seed sown. Thirteen
measures of corn are worth thirteen times ten scudi, or 130 scudi.
Deduct 80, the cost of cultivation, and