AGRICULTUEAL TOPOGRAPHY. 



THE ISLAND OF MALTA— ITS POSITION AND PRODUCl-S. 



BY W. WINTHROP ANDREWS, U. S. CONSUL. 



Sir — I have the honor to inform you that your letter of April 25th, 

 asking for some agricultural information, respecting the island of 

 Malta, reached me on the 20th August, nearly four months after its 

 date. Requesting, as you have, that my answer should be sent before 

 the close of October, I have hastened to give you a reply.* 



Famed as Malta may be in its religious history, renowned as it may 

 be for the long residence of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and 

 important as it may be for its political position, still in an agricultural 

 point of view it is truly insignificant. Had you honored me with a let- 

 ter asking for information on any other subject than the one you have 

 named, I should have been most happy to serve you — and should I 

 now strictly confine myself to the present agricultural state of this 

 tufa rock, I fear my remarks would not be found of sufficient inte- 

 rest to repay you for their perusal. 



Malta is situated in 35° 53' 36" north latitude, and in 14° 31' 46" 

 east longitude. 



When a stranger approaches the island in clear weather, it may be 

 seen at a distance of eighteen or twenty miles. It then appears like 

 a long, low range of light colored hills, without verdure, and on 

 which from their sterility, it would be difficult for human beings to live. 

 On a nearer approach the appearance is the same, and even as a person 

 enters the harbor of Valletta, and lands, still the opinion which he 

 has formed at first sight of its barrenness, from any thing which he 

 will see, is not to be changed. This wretched appearance is caused 

 by the small terraced fields being enclosed within high walls of yellow 

 stone even to the very summits of the hills which have been brought 

 under cultivation. Therefore, whether a person looks at the island 

 from a distance, or is riding on the roads in the country, still nothing 

 is visible but these small blocks of yellow stone, piled one above an- 



* Some six or eight weeks before your letter came to hand, I had sent a paper to B. B. 

 Minor, Esq., Editor of the " Southern Literary Messenger,'' published at Richmond, Va., 

 touching on the present state of Malta, its revenue, and productions. Several extracts 

 from that article will be embodied in this notice. 



