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ALP

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 721 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALP . To the Swiss dwellers in the plains the See also:

term "the See also:Alps " (q.v.) signifies the high snowy mountains which they see on the See also:horizon, but to the dwellers in the valleys which nature has carved in the sides of those high mountains, the word alp means exclusively the summer pastures situated on the slopes above the valley, though below the See also:snow-See also:line. In fact such pastures are essential to the inhabitants of See also:pastoral alpine districts, for the See also:fodder to be obtained in the valley itself would not suffice to support the number of See also:cattle which are required to afford sustenance to the inhabitants. Such See also:mountain pastures, made use of only during the summer months, are of almost immemorial antiquity, cases occurring in 739, 868 and 999, while they are found in all parts of the Alpine See also:chain. In See also:France and See also:Italy the See also:system is badly managed, as also in See also:Tirol (where the See also:local name is Almen), where, too, these pastures have in the course of years been largely alienated by the valley in-habitants, and belong to large villages or small towns almost in the plains. But in See also:Switzerland, and especially in the See also:German-speaking mountain districts, the alps are the centre See also:round which the entire pastoral See also:life of the inhabitants turns. It is reckoned that in that See also:country there are now about 4778 alps in all, the See also:capital value of which is put at rather over f3,000,000. Of these alps about 45% are owned by the communes (exclusively or jointly) and 54% by individuals, the remaining 1% being the See also:property of the See also:state or a few See also:great monasteries. In the See also:case of the alps belonging'to the Swiss communes, it must be See also:borne in mind that " See also:commune " here does not signify either Einwohnergemeinden or Burgergemeinden, but a See also:special class called Alpgemeinden (for instance in the well-known valley of See also:Grindelwald there is one Einwohnergemeinde, but seven Alpgemeinden). These Alpgemeinden are composed of the persons who have a right to send cattle up to any particular alp in summer, this right being attached (in different places) either to certain plots of ground in the valley or certain houses in the See also:village, or to certain persons. In any case the owners of an alp See also:fix the greatest number of cows which it can support during the summer without being permanently damaged. The See also:plot of ground which can support a single cow (or 2 heifers, 3 calves or See also:sheep, 4 pigs or 8 goats) is called a Kuhstoss (of which there are 270,389 in Switzerland), and it is in these terms that the productiveness of the alp is reckoned.

Sometimes a particular alp, or a portion of it, is reserved exclusively to heifers and calves or to goats (in this case it is the loftier portion). On each alp there are several sets of huts wherein live the cow-herds and See also:

cheese-makers (the latter are called Sennen or Fruitiers), the cattle being generally See also:left in the open. The cattle, with their attendants, shift from one to the other of these sets of huts, between the end of See also:June and the end of See also:September, making but one sojourn at the highest huts, but two at the See also:lower. The proper name for these nuts is Sennhutten or chalets, but the latter term is incorrectly applied also to houses in the village below. The See also:milk given each See also:day by eachcow is entered in a See also:book, and then made into See also:butter and cheese, the cow-herds and cheese-makers having the right to a certain proportion of milk, butter and cheese for their own sustenance, and receiving a small sum per See also:head of cattle for looking after them. At the end of the See also:season the See also:net amount of cheese produced by milk from each cow is handed over to the owner of that particular cow, and is carried down by him to his See also:home in the valley from the hut (a small See also:building on four See also:stone legs to secure the contents from mice) wherein the cheeses have been stored since they were made—this but is called a Speicher. As the owners of Kuhstossen may See also:exchange them provisionally for others on another alp, or may hire them out (they can only sell them with the plot or See also:house to which they are attached), the persons who in any given summer actually send cows up to an alp (these See also:form the Besetzerschafl) need not necessarily be absolutely identical with the true owners of these rights or Besitzerschaft. See also:Hay is never mown on the true alps See also:save in spots which are not easily accessible to cattle (in very high spots it belongs to the mower, and is then called Wildheu), but hay-crops are made on the Mayens or Voralpen, the lowest pastures, situated between the homesteads and the true alps; these Voralpen are individual (not communal) property, though probably in olden days cut out of the true Alpen. In the See also:winter the cattle consume the hay mown on these Voralpen (which, to a certain extent, are grazed in See also:late See also:spring and See also:early autumn, that is, before and after the summer sojourn on the alps), either living in the huts on the Voralpen while they consume it, or in the See also:stable attached to the dwelling-houses in the village; in the See also:barn is stored the hay mown on the See also:homestead and on the meadows near the village, which may belong to the owner of the cattle. The whole system is well organized and is well understood by the natives, though not always by strangers who visit the Alps in summer. See See also:John See also:Ball, Hints and Notes for Travellers in the Alps (See also:article x., especially pp. lvii.-lxv.); new edition, See also:London, 1899; See also:Felix Anderegg, Illustriertes Lehrbuch See also:fur See also:die gesamte schweiz. Alpwirtschaft (See also:Bern, 1897–1898) ; the Schweiz-Alpstatistik (each See also:volume devoted to the alps of a single Swiss See also:canton) ; and A. v.

Miaskowski's two books, Die schweiz. Allmend (See also:

Leipzig, 1879), and Die Verfassung der See also:Land-, Alpgn- and Forstwirtschaft der Schweiz (See also:Basel, 1878). (W. A. B.

End of Article: ALP

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