— 65 — 



and the time when, damaged by its fall, it begins to rot, it was impossible 

 to work up the enormous mass of windfalls into oil; the more so because 

 owing to emigration to America there is a constant want of labour in 

 Southern Italy, and there are no means of increasing the available number 

 of hands during the manufacturing season. Hence the oil of many thou- 

 sands of bergamots has gone to waste, and even the fruit which it was 

 found possible to work up yielded scarcely one-half of an average oil- 

 output, owing to the peel having been injured by the fall. The storms 

 described above have therefore proved a terrible scourge for the fertile 

 districts of Calabria, inflicting serious damage upon most of the manu- 

 facturers and causing great financial losses. Another result of the climatic 

 disturbance was that the fruit which had previously been on the trees, 

 almost all in an immature condition, was prevented from ripening and 

 that such oil as was prepared from the windfalls was therefore without 

 exception of a low grade. It may be taken for granted that at least one- 

 half of the crop has had to be worked up in this summary manner and 

 under these unfavourable conditions in the month of January, and that 

 the shortage of oil as compared with the previous estimates may be put 

 as at least 30 to 40%. 



It goes without saying that these events brought the manufacturing 

 season to a sudden, premature close, and the consequences of the 

 unfavourable conditions which have prevailed may be summarised in the 

 statement that the crop has yielded barely more than 40 to 45°/o of a 

 fair average output, and that almost without exception the oil produced 

 is of a very low ester-content. Oils of 37 to 38% ester-content are scarce 

 and only to be found in very small quantities. 



It is quite natural that under such disastrous circumstances the 

 market has been subject to unusual fluctuations. On the one hand 

 the manufacturers, without exception, have produced at most one-half of 

 the quantity of oil they had expected to make, on the other the oil pro- 

 duced is of a lower grade than that which they themselves had made con- 

 tracts to deliver. They have therefore suffered damage in two different 

 ways, and many of them have been unable to observe their obligations 

 towards the exporters. The latter, again, finding that they could not de- 

 pend upon receiving all the oil they had contracted for, and which they 

 needed to cover their own sales, found themselves compelled to buy else- 

 where to cover their requirements, and this state of things led to a wild 

 pushing up of prices, in the course of which the article was forced up 

 within a few weeks from c4t 45. — to &ft 46. — to a parity of c4t 65. — t 

 heavy sacrifices being exacted from the exporters. 



Is it surprising, in the circumstances described above, that the sorely- 

 tried manufacturers should now stubbornly insist upon these high prices, 

 in order that the profit upon the small lots of oil still in their possession 

 may help somewhat to alleviate the wounds that have been inflicted upon 



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