2i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



tier to the value of $32,600,000. The total annual mineral output of 

 Italy is about $20,000,000. 



When we remember that Italy imports much of her food as well as 

 iron, coal and other things, we are pressed with the question — where 

 does she get her exchange values? Five of her imports pass the hun- 

 dred million lire mark. These are wheat, raw cotton, coal and coke, 

 boilers and machinery and raw silk. But one export passes this mark, 

 viz., raw silk, rising, however, to nearly 600,000,000 lire. There are, 

 indeed, many exports of smaller value, but these are more than offset 

 by minor imports, so that, as a whole, her imports exceed her exports 

 by nearly 600,000,000 lire, or by about 33 per cent. It is not easy to 

 see how Italy maintains her people. Certain reliefs suggest themselves. 

 It is admitted that many Italians exist rather than live; but this must 

 not be said of Eome or Tuscany or the valley of the Po. "We allow 

 something for a genial climate which at once gives quick returns from 

 the soil and reduces the need of clothing and fuel. And we may not 

 forget the great sums brought into Italy by travelers and foreign resi- 

 dents, for the winning of whose money Italian arrangements some- 

 times seem peculiarly effective. However difficult it is for one not 

 trained in economic studies to see how this thing is done, it is done, 

 and conditions are improving. We are thus warranted in looking to 

 this middle kingdom of the Mediterranean for lessons concerning our- 

 selves. 



As has been already intimated, 70.6 per cent, of Italy is registered 

 as productive, the rest being barren or negligible. Let us consider the 

 territory of the United States east of the arid regions. We will (let 

 us hope to be forgiven) eliminate New England, the Appalachian 

 Mountain belt, the Appalachian Plateau, the interior timbered region 

 and the Ozark Hills. The lands thus thrown out as relatively poor 

 contain 28 per cent, of the area under consideration, which it will be 

 seen is not far from the 29.4 per cent, rejected in Italy. And they con- 

 tain 30,000,000 people, which is not far from the population of Italy. 

 We have left a vast expanse of prairie, alluvial and lacustrine lowland, 

 and of coastal plain. We may at least please our fancy by giving these 

 selected lands the density of Italy. The resulting population is about 

 334,000,000. Adding the present population of the rejected areas, we 

 have a total east of the arid belt, of 364,000,000. If we allow half the 

 density of Italy for this entire area, we have a total population east of 

 the arid belt, of 230,000,000. 



We have just referred to a classification of lands which is compara- 

 tively new. Por some years physiographers have seen that new cate- 

 gories were needed in the description of continental surfaces. The 

 forms of the land have been taken into account, in respect both to their 

 origin and to their present characteristics. A plain is more than a plain 

 for it may be of a variety of origins and types, with its peculiar phases 

 of structure, relief, soil, climate and vegetation. Similar statements 



