FARMING IN ITALY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 316, 13 July 1945, Page 23

FARMING IN ITALY

Sir,--Much as I enjoyed the article by Private Edwards on Italian farming, I feel that it might be of even greater value if a couple of points, which appear to have been overlooked, were made clear. First, Private Edwards’ article deals in the main with one particular farm, which would appear, to those who know

the country, to be in the southern part of Italy. It should not, therefore, . be assumed by your readers to be a representation of conditions throughout the whole country, For example, near Arezzo and Florence, the majority of the threshing is done by wooden threshing mills similar to, though usually smaller than, those common in Canterbury before the header harvester became popular. I saw some that were made in England. They were driven by oil engine, stationary engine, and in one case by a "traction engine," also of English origin. As far as I could ascertain, the farther north one goes, the more modern the farming methods, though as far_as Florence and Rimini, I saw nothing to compare with our extensive mechanisation. In a_ year around and about the Italian countryside I saw only two tractors. On the Foggia plains I once saw six men, with six horses, and six single furrow ploughs all working in one field! _ My other point is this, The Italian word for pound (£) is lira! At par, the exchange rate was 120 lire to the £ sterling. In June, 1940, it was 72.50 to the £& sterling. To-day it is 400 to the £& sterling! This was fixed, I believe, by AMGOT ‘when they took control in Tripolitania. As a result "an ordinary labourer earns 45-50 lire a day," i.e.,, about 13/- in 1940, and the other price quoted, 14,000-15,000 lire was about £200 in 1940. As the lira, in the country, will still buy nearly as much as it did in 1940, the case is perhaps not quite as it appears in the article. In. Veroli, about 60 miles south-east of Rome, we bought radio parts and even complete sets at prices which seemed amazingly low until we realised the facts. Wine, too (vin ordinaire, "purple plonk" or what you will), was about 14 lire a litre, ie, we paid the Italian 84d, but he received 4/-! As tradesmen and shopkeepers in Naples, Rome, etc., had adjusted their prices to the 400-to-the-£ level, someone stood a loss somewhere, but it wasn’t the wilv Kiwi!

R

WOODFIELD

(Horrelville).