ITALY 



3080 



ITALY 



Rivers and Lakes. The only large river of 

 the kingdom is the Po, into which the melting 

 snows of the Alps and the rains of the Apen- 

 nines pour their floods. This does not mean 

 that Italy is not well watered, for it has many 

 smaller streams, including the Adige, the Arno, 

 the historic Tiber, the Brenta and the Taglia- 

 mento. Some of these are but mountain 

 streams, rushing torrents in the season of rains, 

 but dry gullies during the heat of summer. 



Italy has to-day but one active volcano, 

 Vesuvius, the only one, indeed, in Europe; 

 but that it once had many more is proved by 

 the abundance of craters, a number of which 

 now contain lakes. The most famous of Italy's 

 many lakes, however, are the Alpine lakes of 

 Garda, Maggiore and Como. The first is the 

 largest, the second the best known, the third 

 the loveliest; indeed, it is doubtful whether in 

 all the world there is a more beautiful body 

 of water. 



Climate; This is one of the great assets of 

 Italy, and also one of its drawbacks. The 

 air is remarkably clear, the sky dazzlingly blue, 

 and there is a large propprtion of sunny days. 

 There are, on the other hand, sections in which 

 every breath is laden with pestilential vapors 

 from the marshes. In general, the climate is 

 temperate, and extremes of heat and cold are 

 not great. The northern part, where the in- 

 fluence of the sea is least felt, has the largest 

 temperature range, whether annual or daily, 

 the southern part of the peninsula and Sicily 

 varying but 25 between summer and winter. 

 Indeed, this southern portion with its hot, dry 

 winds (see SIROCCO) is more like Africa than 

 like Europe. 



Some districts have a heavy snowfall and 

 almost everywhere there is a rainfall that 

 would be sufficient for agriculture did it not 

 occur chiefly in the fall and winter months. As 

 it is, irrigation must be practiced almost every- 

 where. 



Mining. So mountainous a country might 

 be supposed to have large mineral wealth, but 

 this is not the case. Such resources as there 

 are, moreover, are hampered in their develop- 

 ment by an almost total absence of coal. But 

 Italy is rich in one mineral product, for it 

 furnishes the great proportion of the world's 

 supply of sulphur. Most of this comes from 

 Sicily, while most of the zinc and lead is 

 mined in Sardinia and most of the iron in 

 Elba. Copper, quicksilver, and a little gold, 

 silver and antimony complete the list of metals, 

 but there is one nonmetallic mineral product 



for which Italy is famous the world over its 

 beautiful Carrara marble (which see). 



Manufactures. Only in comparatively recent 

 years has Italy had any standing as a manu- 

 facturing country, and even to-day it does not 

 rank high industrially. In the northern part 

 of the country there is one thriving and char- 

 acteristic industry, the production of silk; hun- 

 dreds of thousands of people are engaged in 

 growing the silkworms, and many more in the 

 spinning and weaving. Browning is quite ac- 

 curate when in his Pippa Passes he makes his 

 little silk weaver live in Asola, for Lombardy 

 is one of the chief homes of the silk industries. 

 Other textiles, cotton, woolen and linen, are 

 manufactured also, and a great quantity of 

 straw goods, such braids as Leghorn and Milan 

 being used the world over for hats. 



But perhaps the most characteristic manu- 

 factured products are such artistic articles as 

 ivory carvings, marble and alabaster pieces, 

 mosaics, enamels, jewelry and fine pottery, for 

 the making of which the Italians, with their 

 highly developed art sense, have a special apti- 

 tude. 



Agriculture. This is by all means the fore- 

 most industry, and the range of latitude in the 

 long peninsula makes it possible to grow many 

 different crops. Even though the country is 

 mountainous, over seventy per cent of the 

 land is productive, and at least sixty per cent 

 of the people are engaged in agriculture. 

 Marshes have been drained, semidesert lands 

 irrigated, and the growing area has thus been 

 materially increased in recent years. The great 

 plain of the Po, in Lombardy, is the most 

 important agricultural region; it is now one of 

 the most fertile sections in the world. 



Of all the products, fruits of various kinds 

 are most important. Almost one-sixth of the 

 entire area of the country is under vines, and 

 although Italian vine growers, like the French, 

 have had to fight against the troublesome dis- 

 ease known as phylloxera (which see), vine- 

 culture is increasing. Billions of gallons of 

 wine are made each year, but much of it is of 

 an inferior quality. Scarcely less important 

 than the vine is the olive tree, in the growing 

 of which Italy is the chief country in the world. 

 Oranges and lemons of most excellent quality 

 thrive in the warm, sheltered regions; Sicily 

 and Sardinia have great groves of almonds, and 

 figs, dates, melons, almost all subtropical fruits, 

 in fact, are grown in large quantities. Corn on 

 the northern plain, and wheat in the more 

 southerly regions, are the chief grains, though 



