THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
701
tions this small sum has not only provided for the villagers admirable lectures on agricultural and economic topics and competitive prizes for the best crop of grain, etc., to the acre; it has also established an agricultural intelligence office for the peasants, to which is due a great improvement in the productiveness of the neighborhood. To this influence of Tagagna by means of discreetly placedloans forimporting foreignstock is due a much finer race of cattle and pigs.
It has also donated to the village a model vineyard, tended by the peasants, in which experiments are made with every kind of grape vine to discover the one best adapted to the exigencies of the climate. Many co-operative establishments flourish under its guiding influence. All of these were founded by emitting small bonds worth two dollars each, mostly subscribed for by the peasantry.
One of these supplies the province with the seed or eggs for the silk-worm culture, prepared according to the system introduced by the great Pasteur when he lived in the province and studied the disease which was destroying the silk industry of Southern Europe. This establishment, with the exception of the director, is run entirely by about sixty peasant women, who perform the minute microscopic work, as well as all the other delicate branches of the culture, with such exactitude that the eggs from this co-operative establishment have reached the highest standard. The Pecile fund has also assisted the peasants to build the co-operative ice-houses which are filled by the people gratuitously every winter, and from which each has a right to free ice in time of necessity. It instituted the co-operative dairy, to which the villagers bring the surplus milk from their cattle, which is churned by dairy women into butter and cheese according to the most approved Swiss systems, or retailed to other members of the society. By its judicious initiative it rendered possible the opening of a splendidly appointed co-operative slaughter house. It provides lessons in mechanical drawing, and it has founded a school of ‘basket-making frequented by fifty or sixty peasants and children, which is now self-supporting.
See what a colossal work can be accomplished in twenty-five years by a paltry five hundred dollars well administered.
The gentlemen in the province have followed its example, and award prizes to their tenants for the greatest percentage of grapes or grain produced per acre under their cultivation, and for the greatest number of pounds of silk returned for the eggs distributed. But we all found that a greater stimulent and more extended competition was needed.
Many, yes too many, exhibitions for mechanics had been held in the cities of Italy. We knew all that could be known about their work but we were ignorant of our neighbors’ in the country. They lived apart, and were reticent, modest, and clung to old worn out customs. They were doing little that was practical in their leisure hours—in the winter evenings—and while listening to legend and story, or joining in tender or merry part songs called “ Vilotti,” of which they were themselves the authors.
We decided to copy the English Cottage Garden shows in a broad sense. Instead of one village and a few cottages, seven great communes with a score of villages clubbed together. Each poor village can have a cottage garden show each year. Every inhabitant can bring a knit stocking, a neatly made frock, a pumpkin, a basket of peaches, a sheaf of wheat, a boot, a shoe, or a basket. The point is the emulation, the showing to each what others have done with no better opportunities than his own.
We had our machinery hall full of spades, plows, thrashers and simple agricultural implements and furniture made by the peasants. We had our manufactures building full of coarse stuffs and garments woven and fashioned by the peasant women; full of spoons and utensils and ornaments made by the men. We had our horticultural and agricultural display, and going out into the fields we judged the houses and the farms themselves as well as their productions which were brought to the Fair. We had our stock pavilion full of small animals. Besides this we had a