ON THE CULTIVATION OF COTTON IN ITALY. 433 



Two varieties are cultivated ; one, yielding a very fine, glossy, white 

 wool (lana albo-nivea, Ten.), is that known as Castellamare cotton. The 

 other produces tawny-coloured wool (lana rufa, Ten.) This species, as far 

 as regards Italy, is an annual, although some have asserted that they have 

 seen it sub-arboreous in Calabria.* 



It is not easy to say which of these species of cotton was first cultivated 

 in Italy, but we know that the white Siamese, the most valuable, has been 

 known there from very ancient times, and is evidently that referred to by 

 the writer whom we have already quoted ; Nullum lini genus huic candore 

 et mollitice prcefertur'''' (G. B. Portaa, Vil. lxi., c. 54). 



Repeated experiments have been tried to introduce Pernambuco cotton 

 (G. Vitlfolium, Wild.) at Naples, but .the winters are too severe. Another 

 attempt has been made at Lecce to introduce the G. arboreum, Lin., culti- 

 vated in Spain, but although it has produced every year it suffers in the 

 winter. 



The cotton region embraces a great extent of country, that is to say, 

 from the extreme south to the neighbourhood of the Valley of the Tronto, 

 lat. 43° N., on the Adriatic side ; on the western shore it extends rather 

 further north. The slopes facing the south and east, and not more than 

 500 feet above the level of the sea, are those best suited for its cultivation 

 in Italy. 



Cotton is grown with or without irrigation, and has been cultivated 

 with advantage, whenever the price was very high, even on the arid flanks 

 of Vesuvius. It is quite necessary, however, before thinking of an exten- 

 sive cultivation in Italy, to introduce an efficient system of drainage and 

 irrigation in those provinces. By the former a large extent of country, now 

 the seat of malaria and malignant fevers, would be recovered, while irriga- 

 tion would render cotton one of the most valuable crops to be grown in the 

 country. 



In general it may be assumed that a hectare of land in Italy yields 

 from 250 to 600 kilogrammes of cotton > or from 2 to 4| cwt. per acre, 

 although progress in agriculture would considerably increase that quantity. 

 The net profit depends on the relative value of land and the price of 

 labour. 



The quantity of cotton now grown in Italy is quite insignificant, even 

 where most cultivated. In the province of Terra cli Otranto only 700 to 

 800 tons are produced annually, and 140 in that of Terra di Bari. Both in 

 Southern and Central Italy, as before mentioned, large tracts of country 

 would be suited to the growth of cotton, were they only drained ; indeed, 

 it might easily be made one of the staple products of Italy, without in the 

 least degree interfering with the present agriculture. All that district along 

 the Ionian Sea, once Magna Grecia, is now depopulated, and the neighbour- 

 ing inhabitants cannot settle there from want of drainage, which has never 

 been attended to from that very ancient period of Italian civilization. To 



* Giorn. Eucicl. An. 4, Vol. 4, p. 194. 



K K 



