Variation in the Price and Su])ply of Wheat. 
who, in tlie exercise of oppressive feudal privileges, liave reduced 
the peasantry to a condition little better than that of absolute 
slavery. 
Italy. 
The southern provinces are fertile, and yield silk, oil, madder, 
liquorice, cotton, tScc, besides wine and grain of all kinds. 
Maize is eaten by the jiopulation generally. The principal corn- 
producing countries are those bordering on the Adriatic, commonly 
called the Puglia, and these compete with the Russian pro- 
vinces for the supply of other parts of Italy. Corn is transported 
across the Apennines to the towns on the opposite coast on the 
backs of mules. The hard wheat used in the manufacture of 
maccaroni at Naples comes from the Puglia. Extensive dis- 
tricts, supposed to be well adapted to the cultivation of cotton, 
are lying unreclaimed, especially in the province of Basilicata. 
The capital for agricultural enterprise and for roads and rail- 
ways is not yet forthcoming. Corn is sometimes exported to 
Marseilles and England, but not in large quantities. Imports 
from the Black sea are the rule. 
The plains of Piedmont and Lombardy, sloping from the 
Alps to the Adriatic, and watered by the Po and its affluents, 
though famous for agriculture, are not self-supporting as regards 
corn, and there are usually extensive importations of wheat and 
maize at Venice, from the Black Sea and the Danube. 
Corn is also imported for the supply of the towns on the oppo- 
site sea-board. 
Turkey in Asia. 
Among the existing remains of ancient empires that once 
flourished in Turkey are the canals for irrigation. The only 
conditions for raising every description of grain are the supply 
of water and the means of irrigation. At present, cultivation, 
like the fixed population, is restricted to the neighbourhood 
of towns and villages, situated on the great trunk roads, and 
to canal-irrigated districts, which are very limited in extent. 
The intermediate country is occupied by the great nomad 
tribes, Avho never engage in agriculture, and by the half- 
settled Arab communities Avho shift their place of abode con- 
tinually within certain limits, and only raise sufficient grain for 
their own consumption. But sun and sand, and the need of 
water, are not everywhere excessive : the finest pastoral countries 
in the world are those rich alluvial plains in the eastern por- 
tions of Turkey, watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris and 
the numerous rivers of Mesopotamia. The climate is genial, 
