Volume 3

Italy / by K. Mason.

  • Great Britain. Naval Intelligence Division.
Date:
1944-1945
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Italy / by K. Mason. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    64/722 (page 36)
    to year. Farther north Lombardy, Tuscany, and Latium grow smaller quantities, but harvests are more dependable. In Sardinia oats are grown mainly in the north where yields are high for Italy. Fruits (Tables 4, 7, and 8) An outstanding feature of Italian agriculture is the large propor- tion (amounting approximately to half) of arable land on which trees grow among the crops (coltura promiscua). Specialized tree cultivation (coltura specializzata; Fig. 8) occupies only about 7 per cent. of the total productive surface and does not give a true measure of the importance of tree crops either in general or in parti- cular. The most notable areas of specialized tree cultivation (‘Table 3) are Apulia (c. 25% of the productive surface), the vineyards of Pied- mont (c. 18%), the citrus gardens of Sicily (c. 14%) and Calabria (c. 11%), and the olive groves of Liguria (c. 85%). Coltura promiscua is, accordingly, more common in the north of the country. The variety of tree crops produced is indicated by the following list in which their relative importance is broadly shown by the bracketed figures, representing quantities in thousands of tons produced in 1938: wine grapes (6,502), table grapes (128), raisin grapes (0-7), olives (1,042), lemons (391), oranges (348), tangerines (63), berga- mots, chinotts, and limes (27), citrons (7), fresh figs (324: year 1937), dried figs (109), peaches (221), apricots (23), pomegranates (3), apples (226), pears (164), quinces (6), cherries (68), plums (52), — prunes (0-2), almonds (287), walnuts (43), hazel nuts (15), carobs (60), and chestnuts (342: year 1936). The vine (I, p. 453) flourishes throughout Italy (Fig. 9). The total acreage (specialized and mixed cultivation), which surpasses that of either France or Spain, from 1936 to 1938 averaged each year 9:7 millions, about 15 per cent. of the productive surface. ‘The acreage of specialized vineyards in 1936 was not more than 2-4 millions or 3'4 per cent. of the productive surface. Specialized vineyards were relatively most important in southern Italy and Sicily, in Piedmont, and in north Sardinia. In northern and central Italy and in Campania vines are generally found in association with other crops. In 1936— 1938 the average yearly output of grapes amounted to 64 million tons, of which 94 per cent. was used in wine production and only 6 per cent. was consumed fresh; about 40 per cent. was from specialized vineyards and 60 per cent. from other vines. Northern Italy (mainly Piedmont, Emilia, and Venezia Euganea) accounted for about 40 per