Il mondo agricolo della provincia di Lecce attraverso gli studi di Cosimo De Giorgi (1842-1922)

While studyng medicine at the University of Pisa and at the Istituto Superiore di Perfezionamento in Florence, Cosimo De Giorgi carefully observed the Tuscan countryside, one of the most dynamic areas of post-unification Italy. Back to Salento, the scholar began to travel in all directions of the Salento peninsula, discussing with the farmers and noting down every aspect of agriculture. According to De Giorgi, the agriculture of Terra d'Otranto needed agricultural education, better roads, institutions of agricultural banks, perfected agricultural machines and tools. Orography, hydrology, lithology, geology and climatology were the basis of agriculture. In contact with the major agronomists De Giorgi made known, thanks to his writings, also the agricultural world, of lights and shadows of the peripheral land of Otranto.