ANCONA, a province of the kingdom of Italy, bounded on the N. by the Adriatic Sea and the province of Pesaro-Urbino, on the W. by Pesaro-Urbino and Umbria, on the S. by Macerata, and on the E. by the Adriatic. It forms part of the old district of the Marches, which passed from the dominion of the Pope to that of Victor Emmanuel in 1860. The Marches comprise the March of Ancona on the north and the March of Fermo on the south, although the whole tenitory is sometimes called the March of Ancona_ The name, however, has long ceased to be the official designation of any part of Italy, and the present province of Ancona, which has an area of 740 square miles, and a population of 262,369, corresponds in extent neither to the March of Ancona, nor to the Papal delegation of the same name. There is little that is peculiar in the physical features of the province; the rivers are small and unimportant, and the hills are of no great height. Agriculture is the chief industry, and the soil, although naturally poor, yields large and profitable crops through the energy of its inhabitants. Considerable attention is also paid to the rearing of cattle and sheep, and the vine and the mulberry are grown to some extent. The cultivation of the silkworm has not of late years been very successful, owing to the prevalence of disease in the worm. Chalk, sulphur, and raw petroleum are found. in different parts of the province, but as yet little has been done to utilise those discoveries. The principal towns are Ancona, Jesi, and Osimo.