Dans cet éssai, l'auteur examine surtout l'origine et la formation historique du paysage rural et la récente transformation scciale et économique de la vallée du Metauro. Comme en d'autres régions de l'Italie Centrale, le paysage rural de cette vallée est caractérisé par la prédominance de l'habitat dispersé et par la culture mixte, dont la formation avait, en général, des rapport étroits aver le développement historique du métayage. Mais, d'aprés lex examens des documents et des cadastes historiques et d'aprés l'observation des éléments anciens du paysage actuel (comme, par exemple, la forme des maisons rurales et des champs) on peut constater que les conditions historiques du dévéloppement du métayage et de systemation depuis la fin du Moyen Age, sont asset différentes entre les Marche, qui pendent des siècles avaient été sons la domination de l'Etat Pontifical, et la Toscana qui était l'avant-garde de l'agriculture italienne, depuis la formation des communes prospères.
Meme dans la vallée du Metauro, la formation du paysage est différente Bans chacune des zones, surtout entre la plaine de la basse vallés, la région des collines et la région montueuse de la haute vallée.
Dans la basse plaine, apree la decadence de l'habitat rural pendant le Moyen Age, qui s'effectua peutetre, meme daps la zone centuriée de l'Agro Romano de Fano, la systemation du terrain avait été reprise vers le XVIème et le XVIIème siècle, beaucoup plus tard qu'en Toscana, par la diffusion du métayage et de l'habitat dispersé. Mais la formation du paysage á culture mixte commenca après le XVIIIème siècle par le renf orcement des propriétés de la part de la bourgeoisie de Fano.
En effet, meme au commencement du XIX siècle, dans le faubourg Bellocchi, où l'auteur a poursuit son enquete en particulier, la simple semaison s'étendait encore sur le patrimoine ecclésiastique tandis que sur le patrimoine civil les deux tiers étaient plantés d'arbres.
Meme dans la vaste région des collines, où, á présent, prédominent les champs en puzzle sans morsellment foncier (Gemengelage), la formation du paysage actuel est strictement liée au développement du métayage, auquel suit la systemation des versants des collines, organisé par l'initiative des propriétaires.
On peut trouver, pourtant, daps l'habitat perché sur les sommets des collines, beaucoup d'éléments anciens (une vieille église, de vieilles maisons, une tour, des parcelle morcelées adjacents au hameau, etc.) et biers que selon la statistique ils contituent un groupe habité, l'exode de la population a été plus considérable que dans la zone de l'habitat dispersé.
Dans la partie montueuse de la haute vallée, on peut observer très souvent, la disparition des grands propriétaires de l'aristocratie pendant les XVIIIème et le XIXème siècles dans la période où, dans la basse vallée et dans la zone des collines, le métayage se renforca à la suite de l'introduction de la culture fourragère, de la nouvelle rotation sans jachères, qui marqua la pénétration du capitalisme.

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1) The land utilization on the western slopes of Mt. Yatsugatake has greatly changed since the economic panic in 1930 and World War IL Most of the wide grasslands has grown into forests, and part of it has been cultivated. In the southern region, which is a horse-breeding center, dairy farming has developed and taken the place of the old serf-culture. But, as for the northern and the middle region, “Kokuso-shiki farming” defined by K. Misawa in 1929 as the farming based on rice production and sericulture is carried on without suffering a structural change, though hortculture of flowers and European vegetables has developed in some parts.
2) In prewar days, at Nobeyama Plateau situated on the eastern slopes was carried an extensive utilization of land then Nobeyama Plateau was classified underdeveloped areas. But the Koumi line was fully opened1936 and intensive truck farming began. Besides, reclamation on. a large scale has here is made a progress since the War and the landscape has undergone a complete change. Now the agriculture growing into a commercially mixed farming consisting of the organic combination of dairy farming and truck farming of free type. Here rice production is not so dominant and it is a point of difference, compared with a general state of Japanese agriculture.
3) The regional pattern of land utilization on the eastern slopes of Mt. Yatsugatake is contrary to the pattern on the western slopes, but both slopes have the highest productive power as an agricultural area of cold uplands.

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This paper deals with the effects of agency of soil erosion working on the texture of volcanic ash beds. The surveyed area is the northeastern foot of Asama Volcano. In this area, heavy rainfalls during the rainy season wash down large quantities of soils from the ground surface and deposit them in lower parts of the land. Minor external agencies such as corrasion and deposition due to rain wash accelerate erosion of soils, and degradation, though on a samall scale, is fairly active. As a result, perpetual cultivation becomes impossible where the topography is such that illustrated in Fig. 2 and 5. The writers selected some localities where the effects of such minor agencies are distinctly observed, and carried out topographic measurementand investigation of sedimentational conditions and texture of volcanic ash beds, and contem-pl.ated on the land degradation. The localities are indicated in Fig. 1 and 4.
Samples of the black ash right below point A in Fig. 2 and Fig. 5 were collected in a vertical cylindrical form. After solidified, the samples were made into thin sections, which were prepared in the horizontal and the vertical (to the bedding plane) directions at 3 to 5cm intervals. Therefore, the number of thin sections merely for the samples below point D in Fig. 2 amounted to about 90. The study of the texture of these numerous thin sections has revealed the following facts.
The black ash comprises several beds of a common texture. Apparently these beds constitute one stratum, but actually they are made of several thin layers differing in texture. The difference in texture has probably resulted from differing degrees of agency, i, e., extent of rain wash which takes place in every rainfall. The micrographic photo shows a thin section cut vertical to the bedding plane. The section represents the texture of the thin layer in the thick black ash. The layesrs are thicker at the base of the slopes and their texture is granular in most cases. Under the microscope, the layers are found to contain minute grain of brown volcanic ash.
Thus, from the thickness of volcanic ash beds in outcrops, the status of cultivation on the ground surface (the number of years of cultivation), and from the environment of the black ash sedimentation as revealed by the texture, it has become known that the action of degradation is unexpectedly strong and quick in the areas composed of soft sedimentary beds.

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