Agricultural History Review, Volume 55 Part 2 (2007), p. 330

Itinerant instructors (literally ‘itinerant chairs’) of agriculture began their activities in 1895 in Lombardy and provided practical and theoretical instruction to farmers directly in their farmyards. This turned out to be the most effective approach to the modernization of north Italian agriculture during the period from the late nineteenth-century agrarian crisis up to and beyond the First World War. This volume collects papers on the subject given at two conferences held in November 2003 at the Museo Lombardo di Storia dell’agricoltura at San Angelo Lodigiano and at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Milan. Although agricultural institutes were established in the 1830s and 1840s in Tuscany, Lombardy and Piedmont (see G.Biagioli and R.Pazzagli (eds), Agricoltura come manifattura. Istruzione agraria, profes sionalizzazione e sviluppo agricolo nell’ottocento (2 vols, Florence: Olschki, 2004), the vast majority of farmers did not receive formal instruction, nor had the farming community access to up-to-date technical information. Modern innovations, such as chemicals and implements, were not available to most. The Comizi agrari, agricultural meetings established in 1866 to provide provincial centres of innovation throughout Italy, proved to lack direct communication with farmers. But the itinerant chairs in agriculture were more successful.

Between 1895 and 1927 thirteen teaching posts were established in the Lombard provinces. At first they were privately sponsored and locally funded, but in 1901 and 1902 a number of public institutions – the Ministry of Agriculture, the Chambers of Commerce of the major cities, the Farmers’ Association of Lombardy and others – came together to organize a communication network with local farmers and provide the chairs with regular funds.

Agriculture in Lombardy was varied. In the Alps, cattle prevailed, partly fed on locally-grown maize, while in the hill region maize fed the labouring classes, and wheat, vines and silk were cash crops. On the plain, wheat and water meadows were the major sources of income. The insects Phylloxera vastatrix and Diaspis pentagona had had devastating effects in the vineyards and mulberry groves respectively, and the teachings of the itinerant instructors pointed to alternative sources of income. Close personal contact between agricultural experts and farmers provided a direct channel of communication that enabled diffusion of technical improvements. In the Alpine valleys and the hills of Lombardy, areas under maize were reduced and substituted with such fodder crops as clover and lucerne, which supported cattle in larger numbers and those better fed. Although clover and lucerne cultivation had been practised in the same region since the 1550s, it had had a limited diffusion because of institutional barriers (see M.Ambrosoli, The wild and the sown. Botany and agri culture in western Europe, 1350–1850, 1997). Old ploughs were replaced by modern ones, while selected wheat, rice and maize seeds increased crop yields per hectare. Larger areas under forage crops and the use of silage, linseed and oilcakes raised the number of horses and cattle in the region. Improved stallions and bulls were imported from Belgium, England and Switzerland and breeding stations were established.

Then, experts turned their attention to milk production. Hygiene was poor in the dairies although cleanliness had been advocated since the early 1800s. Meadow acreages increased as the crisis of the silk industry proved irreversible and mulberry trees were uprooted. Milk production rose everywhere, with the provinces of Lodi, Cremona and Mantua increasingly favouring a Parmesan type of cheese as the main product of their dairies. It appears that the many authors have forgotten that the grana cheese known throughout the world as ‘Parmesan’ was once more justly called ‘Lodigiano’ (cheese from Lodi). The wholesalers of Lodi used to collect, store and market the cheeses produced from a large region of pastures and meadows along both sides of the Po. Particularly relevant is the contribution by Arrigo Caleffi on the province of Mantua (pp.169–240). Here, the itinerant chair operated between 1895 and 1935 before these duties were subsumed by the provincial agricultural authority. In 1896 the members of Mantua’s association organised a programme of rural conferences covering manuring of arable and meadows, mulberry cultivation and silkworms, viticulture, the conduct of field trials of crops, and co-operation. Although between 1886 and 1887 phosphates had been distributed to local farmers and in 1902 the local production of nitrates began, the major source of progress came from lucerne cultivation. Luzernières sustained agricultural growth in every sector, and along with beet provided fodder for cattle that more than doubled in number between 1881 and 1914. The growing national and international market for Parmesan cheese allowed local dairies to pay farmers a fair price for their milk, while US legislation on food purity in 1909 stimulated improvements in grana cheese processing. This upward trend was sustained between the two wars. A similar story is told by Gianpiero Fumi on the province of Cremona (pp.87–128).

It is impossible to do justice to the many contributions, all rich in data and local information about crops and individuals (e.g. pp.294–304 on Bergamo, and Gaetano Forni on the history of the agronomist as a professional). The contribution by Osvaldo Failla on fruit tree cultivation as contributor to the modernization of Lombard agriculture (pp.365–83) is also noteworthy.