﻿tos 



NAPLES. 



NAPLES. 



requires a different treatment. Here the system of fallowing is 

 unknown : by tillage nnd manure the ground is kept in n high state of 

 production, and irrigation is very generally practised, especially in 

 raising garden stuffs. But the great characteristic of the Campantau 

 system is the growth of com under tlie shade of trees which protects 

 the crop from the sun's rays : thus arable husbandry ia combined 

 with the cultivation of the vine, the mulberry, the orange, and the 

 piue. The vine is trained to elms or poplars planted in rows ; the 

 other trees named are planted in rows from thirty to forty feet apart, 

 leaving ample room for a crop of com or green food between. The 

 rotation in these farms is generally carried out with great skill, and 

 the variety of the produce, comprising com, wine, silk, olives, flax, 

 pulse, and artificial grasses, is proof that no little industry is required 

 to carry out the system. The great pasturage system of Apulia ia 

 sufficiently noticed in the article Capitanata. 



The productions of the soil are various. The staple products are — 

 com, wine, fruite, oil, wool, and silk. The |ilains of Apulia produce vast 

 quantities of com for exportation. The average annual yield of the 

 kingdom in com is estimated at 10,000,000 qitarters. A quantity of 

 wool is exported from Apulia, where about 2,500,000 sheep are fed. 

 [Capitakata.] Olive-oil of the best quality is exported in lai^e 

 quantities. Gallipoli is the great oil-mart. The mulberry is exten- 

 sively planted for the growth of silk, the produce of which was 

 formerly checked by heavy duties. Cotton is produced in the pro- 

 vinces of Bari, Terra di Lavoro, Napoli, Otranto, Bosilicata, and 

 Calabria. Wine is made all over the kingdom, and in great abundance 

 and variety, but most of it is consumed in the country and within the 

 year ; and although some of the wine, especially that of Calabria, is 

 as full-bodied and generous as any Portuguese and Spanish wine, yet 

 little of it ia kept or sent to the northern parts of Europe. Naples 

 however exports wine to Rome, Genoa, and other parts of Italy. 

 8ome brandy is made and exported to America. Some of the wines 

 made in the neighbourhoo<l of Naples, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius 

 (the latter ia known by the name of 'Lachryma Cbristi'), and in 

 the ancient Faleraian district [Lavobo], are very fine and well flavoured. 

 The country produces most kinds of fmit, such as figs, chestnuts, 

 filberts, almonds, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, melons, peaches, and 

 apricots. The date-palm produces fruit, which however ripens only 

 in favourable situations. Kaisins are abundant. Currants aie grown 

 in Calabria and the Terra di Bari ; the best are produced in the little 

 islands of Dino and Circlla in the Gulf of Poheastro. The oarob is 

 extensively grown. Tobacco ia cultivated chiefly near Lecce, in the 

 Terra d'Utrauto ; saffron in Abnizzo ; and the sugar-cane in Calabria. 

 Saffron grows wild about Aquila, Taranto, and Cosenza. The capur 

 STOWS wild also in the stony parts of the Abruzzi, in Apulia, the 

 Tern d'Otraoto, and in the island of lachia. Manua is prodaced 

 abundantly in the Calabrias, and on a part of the Honta Gargano. 

 In the marshy districts of the Salerno, and in the Adriatic provinces, 

 rice ia grown. Liquorice is a general and profitable crop in Basihcata 

 and Calabria. Flax and hemp are also raised in considerable quantity. 

 Kaize ia also much cultivated. Cheen is made chiefly in Abruzzo 

 and Apulia. 



There is a rich iron-mino near Stilo in the farthest Calabria, which 

 is worked for the government. Coal ia found also in Calabria near 

 Briatico. Kock-salt ia also found in Calabria, but it ia not worked. 

 Among other known mineral treasures are alum, sulphur, saltpetre, 

 luarble, basalt (which is quarried for building and paving), and 

 pozzolan, or ground lava, used for subaqueous cement. 



The forests with which the Apennines ware once clothed have in 

 great part disappeared. This is a very serious evil, for not only fuel 

 and timber have become scarce, but the destruction of the forests has 

 caused the springs to be dried up and occasioned summer droughts 

 in the subjacent lands, whilst the winter rains have washed away the 

 ▼agetable earth from the mountain sides and exposed the bore rock, 

 and the torrents carrying down alluvial matter into the valleys and 

 plains have damaged whole tracts of country, choked up the beds of 

 riven, and occasioned the formation of pestilential marshes. An 

 attempt has been recently made to arrest the progress of the evil by 

 the enactment of forest laws. [Calabru.] 



The strip of maritime low land which skirts the sea-coast is in 

 many^plsces marshy and covered with underwood. Herds of black 

 cattle, buflaloes, and pigs live in that unwholesome region. Some- 

 thing has been done of late years towards draining the marshes, espe- 

 cially between the mouth of tho Voltumo and Cuma, and on the 

 opposite coast of Apulia. The number of live stock in the kingdom, 

 according to a recent report, is estimated as follows: — 4,000,000 

 sheep; 600,000 goats; 600,000 mules and asses; 800,000 oxen and 

 cows; 60,000 horses, and 40,000 buffaloes. Pigs are almost cntu^ly 

 of the black breed ; their number is not stated. The greater number 

 of tho sheep are fed on the Tavoliere of Apulia ; the system of pasture 

 is detailed under Caittanata (vol. ii., cols. 318, 319). The wool, 

 which is fine, is mostly exported raw. Buffaloes are used for draught 

 in Campania and Apulia. From a mixture of sheens' and goats' milk 

 a great quantity of cheese is made, which is much esteemed by the 

 peasantry. Cheese made of cows' milk is greasy ; that made from 

 baffiUoei^ milk is rank. Butter is made from cows' milk in the 

 neighbourhood of the capital only ; olive-oil is the general substitute 

 for butter, and the milk is used for making cheese, 



Roods. — At the beginning of the present century there was no good 

 carriage-road through the kingdom, with the exception of the high road 

 from Kome to Naples, and this was broken at the Garigliaao by a ferry, 

 for whicha tiae suspension-bridge was substituted in 1832. The French, 

 during their occupation of the country, made some roada for military 

 purposes. But since the accession of the preaeut king, Ferdinand II., 

 there is scarcely a town in the remotest proviucea which has not been 

 connected with the capital by a good highway. There are two classes 

 of roada, Cammini Consolari, Consular or main-roads, and Cammini 

 Traverai, aecondary, or cross-roads. Of the main-roads there are four — 1, 

 Naples to Kome (Roman road), through Capua, Mola, Fondi, and Terra- 

 ciua ; 2, Naples to Reggio (Calabriim road), through Salerno, Cosenza, 

 and Monteleoue ; 3, Naples to Otrauto (Apuliau ro.id), through Avelliuo, 

 Foggia, Bari, and Lecce ; and 4, Naples to Aquila (Abruzzi road), 

 through Capua, Venafro, Isernia, and Sulmona. The cross-roada aro 

 arranged in four groups — 9 connected with the Roman road ; 26 with 

 the Colabrian road ; 13 with the Apuliau road ; and H with the Abruzzi 

 road. There is besides a fifth class of secondary loada, called Cam- 

 uiiui de' Siti Iteali, from their connecting the capital with tho royal 

 residences. All these roada aro admirably constructed ; ditilculties 

 of the ground are overcome by high eug'meeriug skill, and the viaducts, 

 bridges, and substructions rank among the first works of their class 

 in Italy. They are kept in good repair, and there is not a turnpike 

 on any of them. The roada, canala, drainage worka, river-<, forests, 

 and fisheries of the kingdom are managed by a board, the members of 

 which are architects and civil engineers. 



There are two lines of railway open, one from Naples to Nocera, 

 through Portici, Torre dell' Annuuziata (whence there is a branch to 

 Costellamare), Angri, and Pagani ; the other from Naples to Capua, 

 through Casalnuovo, Caucello (branch to Nola), Ma<ldaloui, and Cascrta. 

 It is proposed to extend the former line through tho valleys of the Sarno 

 and the Sabato to Foggia and Manfredonia, and thence along the coast 

 to Bari, Brindioi, and Otrauto. Another extension southward has been 

 projected through Salerno, Castrovillari, Cosenza, and Mileto to Reggio. 

 The second line will be ultimately extended to the frontier of the 

 States of the Church, either by way of Mola, Itri, Fonda, and Terra- 

 cina, or by the valley of the Garigliano, through Pontecorvo, Aquino, to 

 Ceprana Other projected lines are the following : — From Naples to 

 Termoli through Kok, Benevento, and Voltui-ara, with a brauch to 

 Aquila through Popoli ; and from Popoli another branch to Pescara, 

 and thence along the Adriatic to Ascoli ; from the proposed line to 

 Reggio a branch to MelQ, Graviua, and Taranto, with a secondary 

 branch from Gravina to Potenza. 



(Jovemment. — The government of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies is an 

 absolute hereditary monarchy. The king is assisted in the administra- 

 tion by a council of state, a council of ministers, and two Consult©, one 

 for the continental dominions and one for Sicily. The council of state 

 consists of an indefinite number of members appointed by the king 

 from the nobility or the great oflicers of state. The superior judges 

 aud the beads of some of the principal departments of government 

 are extraordinary members aud have the right to vote ; aud a council- 

 lor ia ap{>ointed for each province who has the privilege of being 

 present at all discussions relating to his province. Tho king presides ; 

 in his absence the heir apparent, or a secretary of state, named for 

 the purpose by the king. Tho council of state gives au opinion on 

 projects of law, decrees, and acta of the government ; the opinions of 

 the members are entered in a minute book and submitted to tho king, 

 who odopU or rejects them at pleasure. The council of ministers is 

 composed of eight secretaries of state and a president, who in also a 

 member of the council of state. The decisions of this council have 

 no force unless sanctioned by the king. The two Consulte have, aa 

 the name implies, merely to give their opiuiona on matters laid before 

 them ; they can originate nothing. The Cousulta for tho coutiueutal 

 dominions numbers 16 members, for Sicily 8 members : each has its 

 own president Tlio king takes their opinion on financial matters, 

 treaties, tariffs, &c In matters that concern the whole kingdom of 

 the Two Sicilies the two Conaulte deliberate together under the 

 presidency of one of the ministers. 



The provinces ai'e arranged in three classes : — 1, Naples, Terra di 

 Lavoro, aud Principato Citi-a ; 2, Priucipato Ultra, Basilicata, Capita- 

 nata, Terra di Bari, Terra d'Otrauto, Calabria Citra, and Calabria 

 Ultra ii. ; 3, Calabria Ultra L, Moliae, and the Abruzzi. Each province 

 ia governed by an Intendente, or governor, appointed Ijy the king and 

 changed every three years. The powers of tho Intendente comprise 

 the civil, financial, and military administration of his province. He 

 is assisted by a aecrotai-y and a council, which in provinces of the first 

 class numbei's 5 members, in those of the second chisa 4 members, 

 and in those of the third class 3 members. In each province there is 

 also a provincial council, which in provinces of the first and second 

 classes numbers 20 members, in those of the third class 15 members. 

 The members are appointed in the following manner. The com- 

 munal councils in each province select among the land-owners, persons 

 whom they approve of for members; the lists are submitted to the 

 king who chooses as he thinks tit The provincial couuoU holda a 

 session, not exceeding 20 days, once a year, to examine the accounts 

 of the province, to recommend improvements, &c. ; aud at tho close of 

 its labours it names from the principal proprietors three persons from 

 whom the king appoints one to be couucillur of state for the province. 



