The whey is put back into the kettle, the butter-milk poured into it, and of this, they make a poor cheese for the country people.  The whey of this is given to the hogs.  Eight men suffice to keep the cows, and to do all the business of this dairy. Mascarponi, a kind of curd, is made by pouring some butter-milk into cream, which is thereby curdled, and is then pressed in a linen cloth.

The ice-houses at Rozzano are dug about fifteen feet deep, and twenty feet diameter, and poles are driven down all round.  A conical thatched roof is then put over them, fifteen feet high, and pieces of wood are laid at bottom, to keep the ice out of the water which drips from it, and goes off by a sink.  Straw is laid on this wood, and then the house filled with ice, always putting straw between the ice and the walls, and covering ultimately with straw.  About a third is lost by melting.  Snow gives the most delicate flavor to creams; but ice is the most powerful congealer, and lasts longest.  A tuft of trees surrounds these ice-houses.

Round Milan, to the distance of five miles, are corn, pasture, gardens, mulberries, willows, and vines.  For, in this state, rice ponds are not permitted within five miles of the cities.

Binasco.  Pavia.  Near Casino the rice-ponds begin, and continue to within five miles of Pavia, the whole ground being in rice, pasture, and willows.  The pasture is in the rice grounds which are resting.  In the neighborhood of Pavia, again, are corn, pasture, &c. as round Milan.  They gave me green pease at Pavia.

April 24. Voghera.  Tortona.  Novi.  From Pavia to Novi corn, pasture, vines, mulberries, willows; but no rice.  The country continues plain, except that the Apennines are approaching on the left.  The soil, always good, is dark till we approach Novi, and then red.  We cross the Po where it is three hundred yards wide, in a pendulum boat.  The rope is fastened on one side of the river, three hundred yards above, and supported by eight intermediate canoes, with little masts in them to give a greater elevation to the rope.  We pass in eleven minutes.  Women, girls, and boys are working with the hoe, and breaking the clods with mauls.

April 25. Voltaggio.  Campo-Marone.  Genoa.  At Novi, the Apennines begin to rise.  Their growth of timber is oak, tall, small, and knotty, and chestnut.  We soon lose the walnut, ascending, and find it again, about one fourth of the way down, on the south side.  About halfway down, we find figs and vines, which continue fine and in great abundance.  The Apennines are mostly covered with soil, and are in corn, pasture, mulberries and figs, in the parts before indicated.  About half way from their foot to Genoa, at Campo-Marone, we find again the olive tree.  Hence the produce becomes mixed, of all the kinds before mentioned.  The method of sowing the Indian corn at Campo-Marone, is as follows.  With a hoe shaped like the blade of a trowel, two feet long, and six inches broad at its upper end, pointed below, and a little curved, they make a trench.  In that, they drop the grains six inches apart.  Then two feet from that, they make another trench, throwing the earth they take out of that on the grain of the last one, with a singular slight and quickness; and so through the whole piece.  The last trench is filled with the earth adjoining.