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Palermo, the only commercial town in the island which was able 

 to conduct an export business in essential oils in the first three weeks 

 following the disaster, was besieged with orders from all parts, and in 

 order to keep pace with the extraordinary pressure it was compelled 

 to buy up, at ever increasing prices, whatever oil could be found 

 outside the district affected by the earthquake. 



Such an unnatural condition of things of course could not continue 

 very long. Lemons are cultivated almost over the entire island of 

 Sicily, and throughout Calabria, whereas the district visited and damaged 

 by the earthquake was comparatively very small. The manufacture of 

 oil of lemon is carried on in almost all places and villages throughout 

 the island where lemons grow. The principal collecting centre for 

 this produce up to the present time was Messina, but the greater part 

 of the oils have always been pressed outside the Messina district 

 A strong and continued advance in the prices of oil of lemon was 

 therefore almost impossible of realisation, as it was to be expected 

 that the high prices themselves would result in an increased production. 



The conditions in respect of orange oil were somewhat more serious. 

 The season for the manufacture of this oil was almost past, the bulk 

 of the manufactured oil was warehoused in Messina and Reggio, and 

 it was therefore to be expected that with the destruction of these 

 cities, considerable quantities of this oil had been lost. Such has in 

 fact been the case. A not unimportant part of the orange oil of the 

 current season is lost, and the quantity of this oil which is still for 

 disposal is perhaps smaller than has generally been the case in previous 

 years at the corresponding time. 



But the situation in oil of bergamot especially appeared to be 

 extremely serious and hazardous. The manufacture of this oil had 

 scarcely commenced — in some districts it had not yet been begun 

 at all — when the catastrophe occurred, and the only district in the 

 whole world in which oil of bergamot is produced was in the very 

 centre of the earthquake district, with the exception of a small portion, 

 that is to say the districts of Melito, Bova, and Palizzi, which however 

 have also been severely visited. 



Scarcely a house is left standing from Palmi to Melito along the 

 Western coast of Calabria, and in the gorges and valleys of the 

 mountains and the uplands where formerly stood the flourishing little 

 towns of Bagnara, Villa San Giovanni, Acciarello, Catona, Santa Catterina, 

 Sbarre, Pellaro, Lazzaro, and Salino. 



The preparation of bergamot oil was carried on in all these places; 

 where but a short time previously diligent workers had pursued their 

 occupations, death and destruction now reigned instead. Almost half 

 the population has perished or received injuries; part of the survivors, 

 panic-stricken, have sought refuge on board of the men-of-war of 



