No. 85.J 335 



vated, was in the same state until the different grand masters em- 

 ployed some laborers to break up the stone on the surface, and make 

 the soil in the manner which we have already described. Why does 

 not the government give, let, or sell these rocky fields to its starving 

 subjects, who so often apply to receive them ? Are they to be kept 

 in their present state that no more wheat may be raised on the island 

 to diminish its annual income i We have heard as much, and we 

 think it true! Where on Malta could finer grapes or olives be grown, 

 than on the Bengenna Hills 1 Still they are left in a barren state, and 

 none, save an eager sportsman when in search of game, or an anti- 

 quarian in search of tombs, ever think of ascending them. Where 

 could finer vegetables be raised than in the fields which might be made 

 at their base ? Still they are left in a sterile state, and are likely thus 

 to remain.* An agricultural society has been recently formed in Val- 

 letta, and was it not that we have seen some officials of government 

 enrolled among its members, we certainly should have entertained 

 some sanguine hopes for the agricultural improvement of that portion 

 of this tufa rock, which is now left as a barren waste. An experience 

 of ten years has taught us that no body of men can succeed in an En- 

 glish colony when office holders are permitted to take a part in their 

 deliberations. Such persons are generally of a doubtful character, and 

 present at meetings only to thwart the very interests which they out- 

 wardly appear so anxious to promote. Under corrupt governments, 

 (shall we say Mahommedan ?) the cleverest intriguers obtain the high- 

 est rewards. Saying nothing of the "secret service" money which 

 is at this island so lavishly expended, we return again to our subject. 

 Wretched as is the condition of the Maltese peasantry at all times, 

 yet how much more dreadful must be their situation when the island 

 is suffering from a drouth, and all its inhabitants are thrown out of 

 employment, as nothing would grow in the fields, which in other 

 years their proprietors had been accustomed to till. But this picture 

 of the general misery of the people with whom we are surrounded, 

 as drawn by the commissioners, is not yet finished. We must go on 

 with our quotation, only the more fully to show the present system of 

 English colonial rule. " The class (say Messrs. Austen and Lewis,) 

 who principally employ agricultural laborers, viz. the farmers, are 



* Were the forty-eight thousand acres of uncultivated land to be brought under im- 

 provement by the hardy and industrious natives, who, with the least encouragement from 

 the government, are ready to undertake it, the following vegetables, greens and fruits, 

 might be raised in great abundance. We shall say nothing of wheat, barley, and corn, of 

 the increase of which products there is so much dread. 



Artichokes, red and white, asparagus, beans, broccoli, cabbage, colevvorts, carrots, 

 chillies, cauliflowers, white and blue, chickpeas, cucumbers, endive, fennel, French 

 beans, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, Maryjeans, ocris, onions, peas, pumpkins, ra- 

 dishes, succory, shalots, spinach and turnips. 



Celery, cresses, garlic, onions, lettuce, parsley, red-gourd purcelain, potatoes, toma- 

 toes, with a variety of soup and salad herbs, are perennial. 



Fruits — Agriot, apricots, almonds, apples, summer and winter, citron, cherries, crab- 

 apples, figs, grapes, jujube, lemons, melons— water — summer and winter, medlars, mulle- 

 ries, nectarines, oranges, sweet, Portugal mandarins, and blood — pears, pomegranates, 

 prickly pears, plums, peaches, quince apples, strawberries and walnuts. 



Currants, gooseberries, pine apples, and raspberries have been introduced, and failed. 



The famed red or blood orange, of Malta, (of which so much has been written,) we 

 have been told is produced by ingrafting the " common orange bud on a pomegranate 

 stock." We cannot vouch for its correctness. Oranges come into market about the end 

 of November, and last until May. They are peculiarly a delicious fruit. 



