THE ANCIENT FOREST OF CAMALDOLI IN ITALY 



627 



sand tons of chestnuts are annually harvested and they 

 have been an important contribution to the critical food 

 supply of the country about two-thirds of the whole 

 amount being used for chestnut flour, while the remain- 

 der was used for roasting and general cooking purposes. 

 Before the war, about 70 lire per year per hectare was 

 paid, equivalent to about $5.60 per acre, by the contrac- 

 tors for the privilege of gathering the chestnuts or "Mar- 

 roni," as they are called, whereas during 1918 about 210 

 lire was received per hectare for the right. The latter 

 means an annual income of about $16.80 for the privi- 

 lege of gathering the chestnuts alone from each acre. 

 The lessor does all the work of harvesting and agrees 

 to leave the trees in good condition. It is said that about 

 330 pounds of chestnuts were obtained per tree in the 

 average orchard. In 1914, the large, sweet nuts brought 



^v-v,'x^;^^^ 



MONKS MANAGE THE FOREST 



Three of the Romualdensian Order of Monks outside one of 

 their cells, where an original Delia Robbia forms the altar 

 piece. The monks still retain most of their manners, customs 

 and dress which were in vogue when the Hermitage was es- 

 tablished in the year 1012. 



6 lire per quintal, or about $1.20 per 220 pounds. In the 

 city markets; in 1918, they commanded the high price 

 of about $8.00 for the same amount. This means an 

 average income of about $12.00 per tree. In many Ital 

 ian forests, the privilege of harvesting the annual chest- 

 nut crop is leased for a period of nine years. The nuts 

 are transported to market on donkey back, each animal 

 carrying an average load of about 200 to 250 pounds in 

 one large sack, a distance of 12 miles to the nearest 

 village which was used as a distributing center. 



The lumber from the busy sawmill was sent down a 

 "telliferrice" or cable way, in the same manner in which 

 food supplies and munitions are carried up the steep 

 Alpine summits to the men along the high mountain bat- 

 tle front. The mill was equipped with two, gang .saws, 

 the logs being run straight through, and the plant was 

 kept busy night and day to meet the urgent call for more 



THE OLD MONASTERY 



The original Hermitage building constructed in the year 1012, 

 when the Forest of Camaldoli was first placed under sys- 

 tematic management. The Prior Don Basilio Casadei in the 

 foreground. 



and more lumber. In two ten-hour shifts, the mill had 

 a capacity of about 50,000 board feet per day. Nothing, 

 literally, was allowed to go to waste, the sawdust being 

 used for fuel while the slabs and edgings were made into 

 charcoal or consumed locally as fuel. 



The fine old forest of Camaldoli furnishes one of the 

 best examples of the successful results of forestry prac- 

 tice. Although old historically, Italy is still young as a 

 nation, being scarcely 50 years old, and even before the 

 war extensive plans had been made by the Director Gen- 

 eral of Forestry, Professor .Antonio Sansone, and the 



THE OLDEST SAWMILL IN EUROPE 



The old water-wheel driven sawmill built in the sixteenth 

 century, which is still in operation, cutting lumber from the old 

 and mature trees and which has recently been busy turning 

 out material for the armies at the front. This is no doubt one 

 of the oldest, if not the very oldest, sawmill still in operation 

 in Europe^certainly it is the oldest in Italy. 



