Page:Cesare Battisti and the Trentino.djvu/46

 population of 243,503 with an average of 33.7 inhabitants for each square kilometer.

In ancient times even the population of the Upper Adige had been Romanized. But with the passing of the centuries the Barbaric invasions succeeded in denting the compactness of the Latin population, and the successive actions of the Austrian Governments further favored this result. Nevertheless, the Italian element is still very important. Two valleys (Gardena and Badia) still speak a Latin dialect while, beside that, more than 30,000 Italians are scattered in the Adige and Isarco valleys, most of them between and.

In the Trentino there is a large and varied agriculture, from the vineyards to the silkworm, from fruit groves to forests, from grain to pasture lands and live stock; eighty-seven percent, of her surface is, productive area. More than two-thirds of this productive area is constituted of pasture lands in the high mountains, and woods. It is a country of small landed proprietors, but the pasture lands and the woods are generally the property of the municipalities who allow the use of them to the citizens.

In the Trentino there are very fine summer and winter resorts. In the Upper Adige the climate is somewhat more bitter, and the productive area is smaller than in Trentino. There the vineyards are only located in the Bolzano and Merano Districts. The principal products are pasture lands, live stock and wood.

Very important in Trentino, as well as in the Alto Adige, is the tourist industry, for tourists come here in summer as well as in winter, to enjoy the beauty of the landscape and to climb the celebrated mountains, especially the Dolomites. After its annexation to the Kingdom of Italy, the Trentino will have a wonderful industrial and commercial future, that had, so far, been unobtainable under the Austrian Government, on account of being too remote from the markets and on account of the competition that was offered to any Italian industry by the interests of Bohemia and Lower Austria, who possessed rich coal and iron mines.

It is calculated that in the Trentino there exists the possibility of obtaining more than 200,000 H.P. from its water courses; and Page forty-four