POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES 217 



one worker to each 91.4 acres, counting the entire territory. In Italy 

 there was one to each 5.07 acres, counting only the productive lands. 

 But as these are there reckoned at more than two thirds of the whole, 

 the comparison stands almost at full force. Including all of Italy, we 

 should find one worker for each plot of eight acres or a little less. 



Making all due allowance for primitive methods and smaller indi- 

 vidual efficiency, we still see how much more intensive is the care of the 

 lands. And we must not forget that in Lombardy and some other 

 parts of the Mediterranean kingdom, modern methods are gaining 

 ground. Indeed that nearly two thirds of the country is worked as 

 productive soil is in itself significant to one who knows the ruggedness 

 of much of the realm. The stretches of bare Apenine slope seem to 

 be endless, and one is sometimes inclined to say that Italy is fertile 

 only in spots. It has been called a " gray rather than a green country," 

 a designation which must stand true except for idealizing imaginations 

 which require Italy to unroll fields of endless verdure. One must 

 traverse the Val d'Arno, or cross and recross the plains of the Po, find 

 the fertile corners of south Italy and Sicily, and then explore the 

 terraced mountainsides and secluded Apenine valleys, to learn how 

 the little kingdom feeds so many people. If we are reminded that the 

 people are poor and the comforts of life small, we recognize the fact, 

 often sad and depressing, but even here, when considering capacity for 

 population, we remember that Italy has lost by long use of her soils, 

 and by much injury through deforestation, no small measure of her 

 ancient capacity for food production. We, on the other hand, have a 

 virgin country and on the whole our spirit of conservation has arisen 

 in time to save us from fatal losses. 



The value of Italian products, as reported, for tillage, animals and 

 forest, is annually about $1,000,000,000. This figure, however, does not 

 include the items of poultry, eggs or vegetables. These, and especially 

 the last, are no doubt far more important relatively than in our own 

 country. The above figure gives a little less than $30 in value for each 

 person in the kingdom. This indeed would seem a starvation figure, 

 but for the vegetables, whose rapid succession of crops and large con- 

 sumption, must be a large factor in maintaining so great a density. 



The comparison turns greatly in our favor when we consider under- 

 ground resources, and here her paucity makes Italy instructive for 

 population study. Gold and silver are so small as to be negligible, and 

 yet she must acquire her reasonable sum of these metals. Sulphur is 

 far in the lead, but amounts annually to but little more than $7,000,- 

 000. Zinc follows with $4,000,000, lead with a little more than one 

 and one half million and all the others fall below the last figure. Iron 

 gives an annual value of $1,371,155, and employs but 1,790 workers. 

 Mineral fuel stands at $838,375, a small fraction of the mineral fuel 

 output of the single state of Iowa. Coal and coke are imported to the 

 extent of about $40,000,000, and boilers and machinery cross the fron- 



