Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-04-29
EXPORTS OF NAPLES
Macaroni, the Chief Article,
Goes to All the World.
NEW YORK A HEAVY BUYER
Wheat Shipped From United States
for Its Manufacture.
WHERE BOSTON GETS BEANS
Buys More Than Quarter of Mil
lion Dollars Worth From
italian Growers.
NEW YORK A HEAVY BUYER
WHERE BOSTON GETS BEANS
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS
Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.

The largest article of export from
Naples excepting human beings. is mac
aronf. which is the principal product Of
parts of the earth. wherever there is an
italian to consume it. and other races are
using more and more Of 1t. London is
the largest consumer Of macaroni of any
city in the world. It buys more than
Naples. Rome or Genoa, and New York
is the second customer. The United
States imports about $5.OOO.OOO worth Of
macaroni every year-four-ffths of
which is shipped from Naples. The rest
goes from Genoa, Trieste and Marseille.
The Argentine Republic is also a very
large consumer, on account Of the Italian
population of that country, which is sec
ond in number to the natives.
Looking from the deck of the Berlin
upon the basin filled with shipping around
Us We could see barges loaded with
bright-colored boxes lying alongside the
big black hu!ls, and could watch the
packages Of macaroni being hoisted into
the holds to be sent to the United States.
to England, to South America, to India
end Australia and every other corner of
the universe. 1t is claimed that mac
aroni can be made in Nebraska as we'll
as in Naples. but as long as people will
so long this will be the center of its
manufacture. The reasons for its su-
periorfty are said to be the water from
the springs of Vesuvius, the atmosphere
In which the macaroni is dried and the
skill of the men who make it,
Made Of Imported Wheat.
More than half the macaroni manu-
featured In Naples is made Of imported
wheat. and during the last few years
more than a million dollars worth has
been imported annually from the United
States. This is the Durum variety, which
was introduced into our country by Sec
rotary Wilson about ten years ago from
Egypt and other dry countries, because
he thought 1t was especially adapted to
the climate and the soil of the dry plains
of Dakota, western Nebraska, western
Kansas and Wyoming. And those states
are now raising about fifty million bushels
a year. OF which one million are shipped
italy TO make macaroni. 1t Is very
hard wheat with f1inty husk which
gives macaroni it's merit. The rest Of
the macaroni wheat comes from Sicily,
Egypt. Algiers and the Black sea, and
II is also of the same sort as the Durum.
Perhaps the strangest export from Ma
pies Is beans. and most of them are sent
to Boston, an average OF more than a
quarter Of a million dollars worth a
year. They are the ordinary white bean
such as the arstocracy of the Hub bake
In crooks and set out on the Lodges of
their windows to cool in the breezes from
the Back bay and to eat for breakfast
SUNDAY morning. There are many kinds
or beans raised in Italy, but the ordinary
white bean reaches degree Of succulence
mere and has other points Of superiority
that cause 1t to be coveted at the center
or American intellectual culture!
Immense quantities Of tomatoes are
shipped to the United States annually
from the truck farms in the neighbor-
mood or Naples, where the climate al
lows them to ripen the year around, and
most OF them are shipped In the winter
Housewives in Chicago and Washington
VINO go to market to buy tomatoes In the
winter season generally assume that they
come from the West Indies or perhaps
from Florida, but Naples is the chief
source OF supply and nearly 500. 600
last year. The frequent lines of steam
ers passing through the Straits Of Gibral-
tar from Mediterranean ports to New
York have worked up large trade in
winter fruits and vegetables. Most of
the peaches. cherries, grapes and other
fruits that will stand twelve-day voy-
age. that are offered in American mar
kets In January. february and March,
are shipped from Sicily and Algiers.
- Hurt by California Lemons.
The lemon business. however, is being
very badly disturbed by the California
growers. who are now protected by high
duties SO that they can compete in
prices with the fruit men of Sicily For
merly we imported several millions OF
dollars worth Of Sicilian lemons annual
~. Today the imports have been cut
down more than half, much to the dis
tress Of the Sicilian people, although
they can afford to ship lemons to New
York for half the price that the Cali.
pake a profit The freight rates on the
steamers are merely nominal, often as
low as % cents a box for a voyage of
more than $500 miles, but they are car
ried as ballast. The steamship companies
get their money chiefly from the immi-
grant fares and can afford to take fruit
and any other kind Of cargo for nracti-
cally nothing.
Sicily was formerly the chief source OF
our supply Of sulphur, but that business
has been practically destroyed by the
competition Of the Union Sulphur Com
pany. which has an enormous deposit in
Calcasfeu parish, La. This deposit was
discovered In 1868, while drilling for pe-
was improbable, and. in fact. impossible,
because large beds Of Quicksands overlie
the birthstone, and the water with which
they were saturated contains quantities
that even If a shaft could have been
sunk through 1t underground work would
have been impossible.
Sulphur Melted by Steam.
After hundreds of thousands of dollars
had been expended In vain attempts to
overcome these difficulties Herman
Erasch. chemist OF Cleveland. invented
a method Of melting sulphur in the
round by forcing steam through it and
bringing it to the surface in a liquid
form. This method has been proven to
be SO successful and economical, and
the deposit is SO large, that the Louisiana
mine can supply the entire earth without
the slightest difficulty.
Until the application of steam in mining
rhis sulphur the United States imported
80 per cent Of the quantity that is con-
sumed in that country and nearly all of
it came from Sicily. which up to 1906
had practically a monopoly OF the sui
phur business of the world. But as the
Louisiana operations developed the i'm
portations Of Sicilian sulphur into the
United States diminished gradually. drop
ping from a million and a half dollars
worth in 1902 to $4,000 in 1906 and
$780, 900 worth in 1909. and even that