Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/470

450 ITALY [STATISTICS. 1878. 1879. Total. Male. Female. Total. Male. Female. Legitimate Illegitimate Exposed 283,648 15,259 18,34:j 14,5,905 8,070 9,122 137,738 7,189 9,221 296,450 15,803 10,100 152,198 8,330 9,519 144,292 7,473 9,581 Total 317,245 103,097 154,148 331,353 170,047 161,300 1878. 1879. Total. Male. Female. Total. Male. Female. Legitimate 656.379 338,838 317,541 690,439 356,855 333,584 Illegitimate 2!> 474 15,325 14,149 32,153 16,859 15,294 9,377 4,685 4,692 10,208 5,198 5,010 Total 695,230 336,848 336,382 732,800 378,912 353,888 It appears from these last figures (1879) that 10 57 per cent, of the children born in the towns, and 5 65 per cent, of those in the country, are either illegitimate or unacknowledged by their parents, and that, while the proportion of males to females is overhead 106 or 107 to 100, the proportion in the case of the illegitimate is 112 ia the towns. The province of Rome, the Marches, Umbria, Emilia, and Sardinia are the regions in which illegitimacy most pre vails, 17, 13, 12, 10, and 9 per cent, being their respective figures for 1878, while little more than 1 per cent, is shown for Campania and Apulia, It is a painful fact that in the space of ten years 305,105 children have been abandoned by their parents. The rate of infant mortality, also, speaks of ignorance and neglect: in 1877, for example, 214,093 children (i.e., nearly 21 per cent.) died in the first year of existence, and other 196,844 perished before they completed their tenth year. 1 In the matter of emigration proper, it is calculated that out of every 100,000 of its population 82 leave Italy annually. The corre sponding number for the United Kingdom is 350, for Belgium 230, for Denmark 110, Italy coming next. According to the Statistica della Emigrazionc Italiana all Estcro, the total number of emigrants in the twelve years 1869-1880 is 1,407,723. Taking the figures for 1876-80 it would appear that about 37,000 Italians go every year to France, 19,000 to Austria-Hungary, 14,000 to Switzerland, 7000 to Germany, about 3000 to the other states of Europe, 20,000 to America (about a third of them to the La Plata republics), and from 2000 to 3000 to the other parts of the world. A large proportion of this body of people, however, return to their native country after a longer or shorter period of absence ; and the actual loss of population by this means is reduced to about 25,000 or 30,000 per annum. The compartimenti which contribute most to the total of the permanent emigration are Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, and the Veneto; Emilia, Tuscany, Umbria, the Marches, Latium, Sicily, and Sardinia have only a very small share. The proportion of women and children to the total number of emigrants is thus indicated (Table X.) : Emigrants proper. Emigrants proper and temporary. Males. Females. Under Fourteen. Males. Females. Under Fourteen. 1878 1879 1880 12 398 28,632 26,285 6,137 12,192 11,649 4,281 7,896 7,286 82,510 100,172 100,726 13,758 19,659 19,175 9,761 13,329 11,989 The greater number 55 per cent. of the emigrants proper are connected with agricultural pursuits ; 16 per cent, are artisans and operatives. Genoa is by far the most important emigration port, and next, though at a great interval, comes Naples. According to the census of 1871 the population was grouped by occupation as follows: no fewer than 8,738,565 were engaged in the production of raw materials, 3,287,188 in industrial operation", 199,901 in commerce, and 271,003 in transport ; 765,099 were sup ported by their property ; 145,30i were engaged in the defence of the country, and 136,929 in public administration ; 148,883 were connected with religion, 25,986 with justice, 54,409 with health, 52,577 with education, 41,151 with the fine arts, and 14,145 with literature and science, while no fewer than 11,773,208 are registered as without profession or as dependent on others. Agriculture. In the wide sense of the word, Italy is emphati cally an agricultural country, and the products of its agriculture are of a very varied order. If the ratio of its grain production to the number of its population, however, be compared with the same ratio in other countries, it is surpassed by Ilonmania, Denmark, Russia, Prussia, France, Hungary, &e., and in fact is only a little better than Switzerland. 2 It is calculated that about 11,545,594 acres are devoted to the cultivation of wheat, and that the annual return is about 142,402,513 bushels. The average per acre is thus very low, only 12 bushels, while England obtains about 31 bushels i er aero. Next in importance to wheat comes maize (granturco, or Turkish corn), the most recently introduced of the cereals ; it occupies 4,192,083 acres, and yields 85,506,660 bushels. That the culti vation of rice is less widely distributed is the natural result of the fact that it requires about 107,000 gallons of water per annum for every acre, and that its cultivation is found in many places to be extremely prejudicial to the healthiness of the locality ; in certain favourable regions, however, it forms the predominant crop. The chief seat of this cereal is Novara, and more particularly the circondario of Vcrcelli, which alone yields about 6,875,000 bushels of rice in a year. The total acreage is 573,925 acres, with a total production of 26,998,915 bushels. Neither barley nor rye is of great importance, the 1,148,470 acres devoted to their cultivation giving 18,417,542 bushels as an average crop. More than a fourth of the acreage, and nearly a third of the produce, belong to Sicily. Oats occupy about 984,917 acres, and the return is 19,369,000 bushels. The best crops are obtained in the provinces of Casertn, Pisa, Benevento, Milan, and Foggia. Millet (Panicum miliaccum), panico (Panicum italicum], and sorghum (Holcus saccharuhis) are mainly employed as forage, the first of the three, which was for merly of importance as an article of human food, having been in that regard displaced by maize. Buckwheat (the grano Saraccno of the popular language) is hardly grown outside of the provinces of Cuneo, Como, Belluno, and Treviso. The manufacture of maccaroni and similar foodstuff is well known as a characteristic Italian in dustry. It is pretty extensively distributed, and is often carried on in very primitive fashion. The extent of the industry may be judged from the fact that, while the Italians themselves consume enormous quantities, they are at the same time able to export from 50,000 to 70,000 quintals of "pastes." Beans are a very common crop those belonging to the genera Fhascolics and Dolichos being known asfagioli, and those of the genus Fcibci asfave. Of the former no fewer than thirty-five varieties were exhibited by the board of agriculture at the Paris exhibition in 1878. Those most commonly cultivated are the white haricots. In many places a crop of beans is obtained from the field just cleared of the wheat. Lentils are grown in most parts of the country, a small sort being that most in favour. Pease hold a less important place than that assigned to them in more northern lands. The total area under beans (fagioli the fare are not included in this estimate), pease, and lentils is calculatedat 773,100 acres, and the pro duce at 6,664, 500 bushels. Lupines are extensively cultivated both for winter forage and to serve as a manure. Liqiinus albus is the variety most usual in Central and Northern Italy. Lupinus rarius which does not do so well for green fodder is most usual in the south. Lathyrus sativus, a congener of the sweet J)ea of English gardens, is sown as food for pigs, its use as an article of human consumption gradually diminishing as it has been recently proved that, as Hippocrates long ago asserted, it has a tendency to bring on paralysis of the limbs. The potato is now found as a common object of cultivation in nearly every region of Italy except the provinces of Mantua, Gir- genti, and Trapani. For field cultivation the variety still almost universally in vogue is that introduced by the grand-dukes of Tuscany at the beginning of the 17th century. It is calculated that the total crop of potatoes may average 19,387,000 bushels. Turnips are pretty largely grown, more especially in the central districts of the peninsula, for use as winter fodder for the cattle. Many attempts have been made to introduce the cultivation of beet, but the plant does not succeed to much satisfaction. Gardening is seldom carried on in Italy on a large or expensive scale, except in the neighbourhood of such places as Milan, Genoa, Florence, Palermo, Catania, and Naples. Some of the market- gardens in the outskirts of this last city, however, are said to bring in about 32 per acre, and to be let for 14 or 15. Forcing is seldom resorted to. Among the plants most largely cultivated in the ordinary gardens are various kinds of cabbage, lettuces, fennel, aspara gus, spinach, beet, garlic and onions, gourds, melons and cucumbers, and tomatoes. The fennel is eaten both raw and cooked, often in stead of fruit after dinner. The asparagus is seldom bleached. With the exception of rape, colza, and linseed, few of the oil seeds are grown to any considerable extent. The sun-flower is cultivated on a small scale in the Veneto, and the ground nut (Arachis hypogsea) in a few places in Lombardy. The annual crop of the castor -oil plant (which has become wild in Sicily and in Verona) is estimated at 6,000,000 lt> of seed. Sesamum, formerly common in the Bologna and Lucca districts, is now almost confined to Sicily. Madder used to be largely cultivated in the provinces of Naples and Caserta (in the former 27,000 acres were devoted to it as late as 1863), but in Italy as elsewhere the dye plants are becoming of less importance. The collecting of saffron is also less common than it used to be. In