Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1072

 1020

ITALY

Silk culture, though flourishing most extensively in Lombardy, Piedmont and Venetia, is carried on all over Italy. In 1918 the silk cocoon crop was 29,560,000 kilos. On June 30, 1917, there were 2,081 establishments con- nected with the silk industry, 200 of which were devoted to the cultivation of the silkworm eggs, 1,703 to spinning and 169 to weaving.

In the year 1898-99 there were only 4 sugar factories, with an output of 5,972 metric tons ; in 1919-20 there were 35, their output being 170,466 tons.

The value of the output of industrial chemical products in 1915 was 215,093,928 lire (in 1893, 26,134,000 lire).

II. FORESTRY.

The forest area (exclusive of chestnut plantations) is about 4,000,000 hectares. The yield from the forests was valued as follows in 1915 : — Timber, 1,120,000 cubic metres at 39,280,000 lire ; firewood, 4,500,000 cubic metres at 63,000,000 lire; charcoal, 4,528,500 quintals valued at 68,927,500 lire ; total value, 171,207,500 lire (6.848,3002.).

This total is exclusive of secondary produce valued at about 55 millions of lire annually. The forest produce thus amounts to 225 millions of lire. From 1867 to June 30, 1915, 33,555 hectares were replanted by or with assistance from the Government.

III. Mines and Minerals.

The Italian mining industry is most developed in Sicily (Caltanissetta), in Tuscany (Arezzo, Florence, and Grosseto), in Sardinia (Cagliari, Sassari, and Iglesias), in Lombardy (particularly near Bergamo and Brescia), and in Piedmont.

Production in metric tons (1 metric ton = 2,204 lbs., or 1,016 metric tons = 1,000 English tons) of metallic ores and other minerals in 1919 : —

Ores, &c.

Produc- tive mines

Metric tons

Lire

Workers

Iron .....

64

456,587 30,841

24,727,621 2,727,596

2,967 820

Manganese ....

330

Copper.

12

16,653

853,327

576

Zinc. . . . }

111

f 65,629

16,907,345


 * 8,790

Lead /

\ 36,045

13,443,912

Gold 1

—

—

—

—

Antimony, argentiferous

3

25

10,000

32

Mercury ....

8

548

9,864,000

1,395

Iron and cuprous pyrites

11

372,474

26,627,183

2,750

Mineral fuel ....

219

1,158,541

82,638,720

16,192

Sulphur ore ....

459

255,316

104,495,436

18,119

Asphaltic and bituminous

substances ....

10

78,000

3,044,370

805

Boric acid

8

2,063

2,681,900

827

Totals (including "ranhite,

petroleum and other

minerals).

1,023

308,719,749

55,263

i No mine was productive in 1918.