Itinerant chairs of agriculture and bovine livestock husbandry in Northern Italy’s mountain regions (1901-1935). Preliminary findings

Abstract

The itinerant agricultural teaching chairs were voluntary consortial institutions sup­ported by public authorities, agricultural associations, and individual farmers, whose purpose was to promote agricultural development through the technical assistance and training of farmers provided by agronomists and other specialists. This article investigates their role in the transformation of Alpine cattle breeding in Italy during the early decades of the Twentieth century. Long interpreted as the expression of a marginal economy characterized by static and backward practices, mountain ag­ricultural society underwent a process of redefinition by restructuring its primary sector through the improvement of Alpine pastures, the introduction of chemical fertilizers and new machinery, and the selection of higher-quality forage crops, be­ginning in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries. Within this process of transformation, the interventions of the itinerant chairs proved to be of decisive importance. Through an analysis of their periodicals, this study aims to reconstruct the specific needs of Alpine rural society – distinct from those of lowland areas – and particularly those related to mountain livestock farming, while shedding light on the ways in which these institutions contributed to the initiation of processes of agricultural innovation.