The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-11-16
SPAGHETTI USED
 BY ITALIANS IS
 . AMERICAN GROWN
With Men Back At Work Land Will Soon Be Flow ing" With Silk Worms
 and Oil

Siena, Italy, October 25.-Reciprocal News Service by Mail.)-It will soon be soon be time for the autumn planting of wheat, and every sort of appeal is be- ing made to the Italian people to grow as much as possible. Italy, in prop6rtion to it's surface extent is the country which produces the most wheat in the world, III quintals the square kilometre, but taking into consideration the many high mountainous regions of the country, where very little can grow, the amount is not sufficient for the needs of the population. So she has always imported certain amount of wheat, especially the harder kind, which formerly came from Russia, Hungary and Roumania. This was used for making macaroni- A similar variety was imported from the United States, and another sort from the Ar genuine republic. As now the first three sources of supply are out of the ques- ton, the imported grain must all come from the Americans The amount raised in Italy during these years of warfare has been smaller than usual, so naturally the price of bread. at the present time, is very high, and it has been necessary to raise it slightly just now, because at the present rate of exchange the government has been selling wheat at price which is a dead loss and heavy burden to carry. It therefore behooves Italy to IDdhe every 6IIOfI III Ter power to raise as much grain as she possibly can, and at once
 Rather a curious state of things pre- vailed in Sardinia and Sicily at one time during the war. These islands were able to produce better grade of hard wheat than any other. and so they exchanged their grain with the continent" as they call the mainland Gas the people of Nan tucket do) for the kind of wheat which pr+ waters around the islands were full of mines, and submarines were always lurk- ing near, so there were times when peace able cargo boats dared not venture out. All the hard wheat had been sent over to the mainland. and the Sardinians and Scilians were waiting for the other grain. But as it could not come with safety, but was lying in the docks of Naples, the upeopie of the Islands were entirely without bread for 10 days After this they stopped making the exchange of grain and at each end of the line got along the best they could on whatever kind-of wheat they had on hand.
 These islands suffered also from the impossi bility of exporting their oil and wine, although the other parts of Italy needed these articles In fact. there was so much accumulated that the people had to beg the government to requisi- ton large supplies, for they had not  enough receptacles to contain their new crops. They had something the same trouble wi&h their citrous fruits, which form such a large proportion among the exports from these islands. Owing to the dangers above mentioned and the great difficulties of land traffic. and the small amount of space on trains, quantities of fruit went to waste, and except for the lemons, which were included in the army rations, very little was sent away. In Tuscany we had to pay enormous prices for oranges and mmons, simply because it was not possible to get them from this comparatively short distance.
 Corn, one of the most important ar ticles of food in this country, has also languished during the war. It has not been sufficiently cultivated, and yet so much has been needed. I have heard many of the refugees say that they did not care at all if they never saw white bread, if only they could have their po- lenta. So in the towns where they were given hospitality the authorities have tried as far as was in their power to