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handicraft or skill. It is mainly supported by the large drawback 
granted by the Italian Government upon the duty paid on the chief 
and dearest ingredient in the manufacture: sugar. The customs 
tariff in force imposes a duty of 76.75 lire (lire = 10d.) upon 106 
kilos (2 ewt.) of the sugar used; but grants a drawback of 69.50 
lire upon 100 kilos of the exported article. Without this large 
measure of support the industry would immediately and wholly 
collapse. 
“The citrons are shipped to the factories in casks, and, when 
the distance is not considerable, in sacks, but usually in hogsheads 
filled with brine. In preparation for shipment in brine, the citrons 
or lemons are cut in halves and salted—100lbs. of salt to the cask 
—and the cask is then filled up with salt water. They are left in 
soak for two or three weeks, when the casks are opened and the 
citrons weighed; 770lbs. of citrons are allowed to each cask; sea- 
water and a little salt are added, and the cask is ready for exporta- 
tion. A small auger-hole in the bung allows the gas produced 
in the cask to escape. Salted citrons and lemons sell for about 
$10 to $12 a eask; when arrived at the factory they are removed 
from their packing, and the pulp is separated from the rind. This 
is done by women, who, seated around a large vessel, take out the 
fruit, skilfully gouge out the inside with a few rapid motions of 
the forefinger and thumb, and, throwing this aside, place the rind 
unbroken in a vessel alongside them. 
“The next process consists in ridding the rind of the salt by 
maceration in fresh cold water for two or three days, the water 
being changed occasionally. Then the rinds are boiled for one to 
two hours to soften them and prepare them to absorb the syrup, 
and also to rid them completely of any trace of salt. At this stage 
they become of a green colour. 
“They are next put in a syrup for a slow absorption of sugar. 
This oceupies no less than eight days, as this absorption of sugar, 
to be complete, must be slow and gradual. The syrup is at first 
weak. To every kilogramme (2lbs.) of fruit a syrup is added made 
of 1lb. of sugar and one litre (quart) of water. 
“The fruit has now passed into the saturating room, where, 
on every side, are to be seen long rows of immense earthenware 
vessels of about 4ft. high and 214ft. in extreme diameter, in outline 
roughly resembling the famed Etruscan jar, but with a girth 
altogether out of proportion to their height, and with very short 
neck and large open mouth. All the vessels are filled to their 
brius with citron, lemon, or orange peel in every stage of absorp- 
tion, t.e., steeped in sugar syrup of, roughly speaking, eight diff- 
erent degrees of strength. I have said before this is a process 
which oceupies almost always eight days; and, as the syrup in each 
jar is changed every day, we may divide the mass of vessels before 
us into groups of eight. Take one group of this number and we 
