214 NOTES ON INDIAN COR N. 



ancient reputation for this business Las now passed to Naples and Turin, 

 where the manufacture of late years has largely increased. 



The greater part of the goat and sheep skins are tanned with sumach 

 brought from Sicily. In the Romagna they use fustic, which they 

 enclose in sewed skins, like a bag, according to the Danish method of 

 tanning. This method is also practised in Sicily. 



In Piedmont the skins which are to be dyed colours are prepared 

 with sumach, and those which are to be dyed black with oak and fir 

 bark. Sardinia, the valleys of Piedmont, the Brescianese, the Abruzzis 

 and the Calabrias furnish the greater portion of raw skins ; th e Marche, 

 and Umbria export their skins half raw. Turin imports a certain 

 quantity with the outside skin on, and some in leather, from France 

 especially from Gap, Nice, and Marseilles. 



The manufacture of white sheep-skins for lining is confined to the 

 localities in which they are consumed, or to those parts in which vege- 

 table substances for tanning are not to be found. Savoy was a province 

 which supplied a certain quantity for exportation. Naples furnished 

 sheep-skins for gloves, and Milan, Bologna, and Turin were the chief 

 centres of these manufactures. The greater part of the skins destined, - 

 for glove leather, only partly made up are exported to Paris and Grenoble 

 because if they were sent in a completely finished state they would be 

 subject to very high duties on passing the frontier. 



The manufacture of chamois leather, formerly so flourishing in 

 Italy, has disappeared in a great degree from this part of the country, 

 particularly from Piedmont, so that sheep-skins take the place of chamois 

 leather for gloves ; calf leather has been substituted . for military buff 

 leather and cloth in dress. At present, the greater part of the sheep- 

 skins made up chamois fashion come from England, and they are manu- 

 factured upon a small scale at Lando, in Piedmont, and Florence. Turin 

 has two manufactories of curried skins in imitation of buff leather ; 

 there are others at Florence, Naples, and Leghorn. 



NOTES ON INDIAN CORN. 



Indian corn or maize may be said to be the staple and peculiar crop 

 of North America. The export of this grain is fast becoming the hydra 

 of famine throughout the world. "Whenever Europe is short of 

 food, America stands ready to supply the deficiency with the excess of 

 her corn crop. No plant is more beautiful, and none so well suited 

 to the varieties of the climate ; for [anywhere between the 43rd 

 degree of north latitude and a corresponding parallel south, it may be 

 grown in the greatest perfection. Its ease of hybridation has produced 

 innumerable varieties, suited to every kind of soil and every degree of 



