"the proprietor of _that_ tree refused
sixty _scudi_ for it last week, _e ha ragione_, for it is a nonpareil.
A good tree like those in my garden yields me eight _sacks of shelled
fruit_ on an average every year; and a sack of walnuts fetches from a
scudo to ten pauls (four shillings and sixpence) in the market. So
that my trees, between them, bring me in one hundred and sixty pauls
(_i.e._ L4 English) every year." Indeed! and the chestnut-trees
opposite? Oh! in this land of chestnut-trees we don't pay _prezzi
d'affezione_ for them--a good tree standing in the _plain_ may cost
about eight or ten scudi, and may yield about four sacks of shelled
fruit in a good year; but it is a capricious tree even in the _plain_;
while those on the _mountain_, the roots of which derive a precarious
subsistence from the uncertain soil, are liable to be blown down, and
are made pollards of at an early age to prevent this mishap; also,
they are frequently burned down by bonfires kindled under them to
destroy the furze. The chestnut shoot is only four years old before it
begins to bear. Three pounds of fresh chestnuts fetch about one
penny--_dried_, or in flour, about double that price. The peasants
bake a little cake of the chestnut flour called "_netche_," about the
thickness of a crimpet, and having much the flavour and appearance of
potato scones. This paste they bake between two hot stones, with a
couple of the leaves of the chestnut (dried for the purpose by the
peasants) interposed. The baking takes scarcely a minute, and the
cakes are then piled and packed, and sent far and wide. The arms and
the tops of the chestnuts are made into charcoal, so that no part of
this important tree is lost. We are here in the very midst of forests
of chestnut only--far as the eye can reach in every direction, and as
far as vegetation will go up every mountain side, its grateful green
forms a pleasing contrast to those gloomy frequenters and favourites
of the mountain, the sombre pine and dusky olive.

Several fine-sized olive-trees were shown to us for sale, and said to
be good fruit-bearers, (no olive bears fruit under ten years,) for
twenty-five scudi per tree. These trees were computed to yield about
two and a quarter to three sacks of berries; whereof every sack
yielded a profit of three scudi for one hundred to one hundred and ten
pounds of oil, which represents about the quantity generally
expressed. In retail, Lucca oil, at the present moment,