ALPINE HUSBANDRY. The characteristic feature of. A. farming is, that the prepa ration of fodder is the chief object, and the cultivation of grain only secondary. In the less elevated regions bprdering on the flat country, it is the practice to break up the grass from time to time, and take a succession of grain crops. In more elevated districts, the moisture of the climate and the shortness of the season of vegetation, prevent crops requiring tillage from coining to perfection, and there the whole attention is devoted to pasturage and the preparation of meadow-bay. The top-dressing of the plots devoted to hay-growing, with the solid'and liquid manure of the cattle, the cutting and making of the hay, and transporting it to the farm-offices, occupy a great part of the labor of the population of the Alps. They turn to account for hay-making those shelves and crevices among the mountains which are inaccessible to cattle, and even goats ; the herbage, which often grows luxuriantly in such.situations, is cut, bound up in cloths or nets, and carried down difficult paths on the head, or is flung over the precipices.
The grass-lands in the lower regions near the dwellings being mostly reserved for hay, the cattle are pastured in summer in those regions that lie too high or too remote to be inhabited in winter. These pastures consist of plateaus and slopes, which imme
diately on the disappearance of the snow, become clothed with a rich carpet of herbage and flowers. Each separate locality or pasture is called an alp. Some of these " alps" belong to individuals; others to the commune or parish. The more rocky and steep places are pastured by sheep and goats. There are three zones or stages in the A. pastures. The cattle are driven to the first and lowest stage about the end of May; about a month later, they ascend to the "middle Alps;" and by the end of July, they reach the upper Alps. As the days shorten, they descend in the same gradual way, so that the whole "Alp-time" lasts about 20 weeks. The pastures are provided with huts for those who have charge of the cattle, who also convert the milk into cheese. Little butter is made. The departure for the " Alps " in spring, and the return in autumn, are made the occasion of popular festivals.