540 



Agricultural Depression in Italy. 



special prices were given for improved breeds. Cattle farmers 

 in the district are turning their attention to improving their 

 animals by the introduction of good breeding stock, the Hereford 

 being the favourite breed, although the Shorthorn and the Devon 

 breeds are also being tried. 



The Foreign Office have recently published a report by Mr. 

 Stephen Leech, Second Secretary to H.M. Embassy at Rome, on 

 the foreign trade of Italy during the 



Agricultural De- yea r 1901. 

 pression in Italy. 



The report indicates that the progress 

 which has lately taken place in Italy in industrial enterprise and 

 foreign trade has not extended in the same degree to agricul- 

 ture. In spite of the increase of population during the past ten 

 years, the production of corn, maize, oil and other agricultural 

 produce has not advanced. Emigration, bad harvests, vine 

 disease, and the concentration of the people in towns may 

 be responsible for this depression, but Mr. Leech states that 

 taxation undoubtedly presses very severely upon the agricultural 

 portion of the population, and Italian legislation has hitherto 

 benefited the industrial section of the nation to a greater extent 

 than the agricultural. The Italian Government is considering 

 important proposals of economic reform with a view to improve 

 the condition of the agricultural classes, especially those of the 

 south, where there is most depression. The legislative pro- 

 gramme includes proposals for reduction of the price of salt 

 from 4d. to 2^d. per kilo. (2*2 lb.), the production of which is 

 a state monopoly ; the partial abolition of the land tax on 

 small holdings ; new agricultural buildings ; reafforestation of 

 land ; the exemption of grazing farms from income tax ; and the 

 provision of fresh water, roads, and railways to the less favoured 

 portions of the country. 



[Foreign Office Report Annual Series , No. 2,933. Price 3^.] 



