Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1106

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ITALY

II. Forestry.

The forestry department is under the direction of the Ministry of Agricnltuve, Industry, and Commerce, with a council (consiglio forestale) consisting of the Director of Agriculture, the higher forestry inspectors, and a legal adviser. The executive of the department consists ofinspectors of various classes and 190 guards with 25 officers (brigadieri).

The forest area (exclusive of chestnut plantations) is about 4,093,000 hectares. The yield from the forests, including both those free from and those under the forest regulations (vincolo), is valued at about 88,000,000 lire, as follows : —

Cubic metres Lire

Useful timber. . 1,374,547 17,062,006

Firewood. . . 6,289,341 20,632,380

Charcoal. . . 3,019,148 18,133,294

Secondary produce, "j Quintals

excluding chest- V. 15,527,404 32,174,111

nuts. . J

Total. . 88,001,791

The values of produce, agricultural, animal, and forest, are in round num- bers— Cereals, fibres, wine, fruit, &c., 2,639,000,000 lire (average 1891-95); animals, wool, milk, cocoons, &c., 1,424,000,000 lire (1890); forest yield, 88,000,000 lire (1886), total, 4, 151, 000. 000 lire. The value of accessory agricul- tural produce, such as vegetables, fungi, poultry, eggs, &c., is not known, but the exports alone of such produce amount to about 80,000,000 lire annually.

III. Mines and Minerals.

The following table gives the production of the mines in 1896 : —

Mineral

Mines

Tons

Lire

Employes

Iron ore ....

Copper and manganese ore. Zinc ore ... ) Lead ore . . . \ Silver ore.

Gold ore .... Antimony ore Mercury ore. Tin ore and iron pyrites Mineral fuel (anthracite, &c. ). Sulphur ore .... Salt, graphite, boric acid, petroleum, &c. .

Totals ....

15 21

77

8

15

45

3

6

28

509

76

203,966

102,298

118,171

33,705

640

7,659

5,086

14,305

45,728

276,197

2,738,057

2,539,863

2,325,844

7,490,645

4,477,523

536,254

853,008

302,950

737,850

544,124

1,981,861

23,876,393

3,302,790

1,271 1,691

I 10,344

646 457 314 446 705 2,205 24,775

1,956

803

—

48,969,105

44,810

The value of the mineral products was: — in 1878, 55,078,461 lire; 1888, 52,377,908; 1894, 52.042,605; 1895, 39,103,279 ; 1896, 48,969,105. The quarries of Italy employ about 30,000 men, of whom about 7,000 are employed in quarrying marble, the annual output of marble being valued at £600,000 sterling.

TV. Fisheries.

On December 31, 1896, the number of vessels and boats employed in fishing was 23,096, with an aggregate tonnage of 64,677. These numbers