Page 44 - Changing Living Spaces

Luca Mocarelli and Paolo Tedeschi

was changed and the number of landowners increased, especially those
who worked in manufactures such as forges or cattle breeding. They gen-
erally used their new property as a guarantee for loans they needed and
made few investments to improve yields. Moreover, in 1877 a new law al-
lowed unlimited exploitation of the forests, and the damage to the en-
vironment obviously increased. The new landowners were cutting more
trees than before because they were supplying wood to the sawmills (and
also to some tanneries) in the valleys to increase their market due to the
new demand from the cities in the plains. Where the number of trees de-
creased sharply or coppice replaced all the larger trees, the roots were no
longer able to hold the soil, resulting in new landslides and floods. The
same disasters occurred in the mountains, where forests were replaced by
cultivated land and pastures (with equally low yields). Thus, the environ-
mental costs were higher than the loss of income due to inefficient collec-
tive use of the common forests. It was not until the late 1880s that the
Italian government changed the legislation and avoided excessive log-
ging; however, the existing damage took a long time to repair.8
At the same time, the overexploited pastures provided less forage
for the cattle-breeders, who demanded a reduction in rent. This meant
that the local administration received less money and, in general, a fur-
ther reduction in the work necessary to improve (or at least maintain)
the yields in the meadows and/or hay. It often became more profitable to
have meadows without cattle and sheep because this allowed for three
rich cuts (June, August, and September) and the sale of hay in the market
on the plains. This, of course, reduced livestock and associated fertilizer,
because leases usually stipulated that animal manure had to remain in
the meadow; this ultimately reduced yields and the revenue generated by
the use and/or sale of this manure. At the end of the nineteenth century,
new agricultural institutions, the Cattedre ambulanti, financed new stud-
ies and projects to change the trend. The new goal was to increase the size
and quality of the meadows and in this way improve cattle-breeding and
related dairy products, whose economic importance continued to grow.9

8 About the excessive deforestation in the Lombard Alpine valleys and its effects
during the nineteenth century, see Fusina (1856) and Rosa (1878; 1882).
9 The Cattedre ambulanti coordinated the activity of farmers and breeders and fa-
voured the diffusion of more productive cultivation practices and more efficient
productive systems, see: Failla and Fumi (2006). About the evolution of the Lom-
bard dairy sector during the nineteenth century, see: Rosa (1888), Tedeschi and
Stranieri (2011), and Besana (2012).

42