THE VINE IN VENETIA. 831) 



VENETIA. 



REPORT BY CONSUL NOTES. 



[Repnblislied from Consular Reports No. 41$.] 



CLIMATE AND FRUIT-GROWING IN ITALY. 



While it is true that the soil and climate of Venice seem specially 

 favorable to the. fruit of southern regions, and while in fact almost every 

 species of such fruit may be produced in some specially favored spot of 

 its territory, even the palm tree flourishing unsheltered at certain well- 

 known points of the Riviera, yet this is far from being a tropical country; 

 and when it is remembered that Naples has almost exactly the latitude 

 of New York, that Venice lies farther north than Halifax and nearly on 

 a line with Mackinaw, regions where fruit-culture of any kind is rather 

 precarious than otherwise, it will be evident that with all allowance for 

 the isothermic variations of the two continents, the success of such semi- 

 tropical fruits as oranges, lemons, and olives must always be partial, 

 and dependent rather on exceptional advantages of situation than on 

 the normal conditions of the country and climate. 



That vegetation so foreign to the latitude should find a congenial 

 home in Italy is mainly due to the topographical peculiarities of the 

 region, as is proved by the abrupt transition in crossing the Adriatic to 

 the inhospitable climate of the Balkans. The semicircle of the Alps, 

 shutting out the vicissitudes of temperature caused by the action of 

 frost and thaw on the plains of Northern Europe, leaves these narrow 

 shores only open to the genial rays of the southern sun, and to winds 

 charged with the heat of Africa and the moisture of the intervening 

 sea. The influence of these exceptionally favorable conditions is strik- 

 ingly illustrated by the fact that while the orange and lemon are in 

 their natural element only in Sicily, the point where, after Gibraltar, 

 Europe approaches nearest the coast of Africa, yet, strangely enough, 

 the only other locality where their production becomes a profitable in- 

 dustry is found at the northern extremity of the kingdom and almost 

 in the heart of the Alps. All travelers are familiar with the olive plan- 

 tations of Northern Tuscany and the Eiviera of Genoa. The oil of 

 Lucca is proverbial for its excellence, due evidently, with the prosperity 

 of all this favored region, to the redoubled barrier of the Apennines, a 

 protection not only from the rude climate of Northern Europe, but from 

 the chilly influence of the Alpine snows as well, maintaining here per- 

 petual spring even when winter reigns on their sheltering heights 



VINE-GROWING IN VENETIA. 



The vine, on the contrary, thrives anywhere with the luxuriance of a 

 native product, finding all its requirements satisfied by the relative 

 warmth which barely suffices for more sensitive plants, and finding, be- 

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