m 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



come the superiors in knowledge and attainments to 

 their class who are free to labour beyond the walls of 

 these much-dreaded houses. I cannot too strongly 

 commend the adoption of this class of prizes to all so- 

 cieties who have the encouragement and elevation of the 

 labouring classes as their aim and object. It is, in fact, 

 to begin at the beginning: "Train up a child in the 

 way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart 

 from it." 



The mode of management of this department is to 



make it sectional— i. e., to have separate oflScers and a 

 committee who conduct the whole. The clergymen of 

 the district are the men to take the lead in this depart- 

 ment, and invariably show great readiness to do so, and as 

 there is noihing denominational in it, no one can gainsay 

 them. The publication of the prizes in one sheet saves 

 expense. It gives great interest to the society's annual 

 meetings. It creates a laudable emulation amongst 

 the juvenile candidates, and stirs up their teachers to 

 renewed effort. 



THE COMMERCE IN CURRANTS. 



Few of those who eat their currant dumplings, and 

 plum puddings, or plum buns, perhaps give a thought 

 to the produce, the country, or the extent and value of 

 the crop which yields the bulk of this fruit. Although 

 the trade has hitherto been kept down by exorbitant 

 duties, insomuch that the consumption is scarcely an 

 ounce a week per head of the population, yet the ex- 

 tension of the consumption is of great importance even 

 to ourselves in many points of view. It leads to large 

 shipments of British goods, and a considerable employ- 

 ment of British sliipping — many fast screw steamers 

 being now laid on from Liverpool and London to the 

 Mediterranean, and rivalling each other as to which 

 shall bring the lirst fruit of the new crop to the London 

 market. 



The small kind of grape which produces the currants 

 of commerce is grown almost exclusively, and on an 

 extensive scale, in Greece and the Ionian Islands. The 

 crop is a precarious one, from the delicate nature of the 

 plant, and the chances of rain when the fruit is ripening 

 and drying, blight, &c. Six or seven years must elapse 

 after a plantation has been formed before it begins to 

 produce, hence its cultivation requires a considerable 

 outlay of capital. As the reduction of duty is likely 

 to lead to an enlarged consumption, we have been at 

 some pains to wade through tlie official returns for the 

 last forty years, and the various consular and colonial 

 reports, so as to frame an abstract of the details of the 

 trade in this article, leaving out raisins, ligs, and other 

 dried fruits. 



Great Britain is the currant market of the world : 

 its consumption exceeding that of all the other nations, 

 and three-fourths or more of the entire produce being 

 imported into this country. Formerly the Ionian 

 Islands furnished the largest supply, but now the 

 Morea sends the principal quantity. In the ten 

 years ending with 1840, the average annual im- 

 ports were 130,S30 cwts. from the Ionian Islands 

 to 52,939 from Greece ; in the next ten years the 

 average supplies from each country were nearly 

 equal, 165,328 cwts. annually from the Ionian Isles, and 

 168,639 cwts. from Greece. In the eight years ending 

 with 1858, however, Greece took the lead very largely, 

 the annual exports being on the average 81,367 cwts. 

 from the Ionian Islands, and 227,839 cwts. from 

 Greece. The far greater proportion of the value of the 

 currants we import is paid for by our exports of British 

 manufactures. During the five years ending 1855 our 

 exports to the Ionian Islands exceeded our imports 

 there by £^77,129, and in the last four years they 

 about balanced. And even to Greece about one-half 

 of the imports are paid for wi h British manufactures. 

 The carrying trade between the United Kingdom and 

 the producing countries is principally conducted in 

 British bottoms, to the extent in ships of 72 per cent., 

 and in tonnage of 62 per cent, of the whole commercial 

 marine employed. The annual consumption of cur- 



rants in the ten years ending 1830 was 108,063 cwts. ; 

 in the ten years ending 1840, 164,200 cwts. ; in the 

 ten years ending 1850, 314,300 cwts. ; and in the nine 

 years ending 1859, 294,395 cwts. 



The article has been looked to as a source of revenue 

 by the government, yielding on the average per- 

 haps a quarter of a million a year; although being 

 consumped chiefly by the poorer and middle 

 classes, the duties levied here and in the producing 

 countries have added materially to the price of the 

 fruit, and checked extended consumption. In 1834, 

 when the duty was reduced from £2 4s. 4d. to £1 2s. 

 2d. per cwt., the consumption increased from 7,000 

 tons, which it had been in the previous year, to 9,678 

 tons in the following year; and when in 1844, the 

 duty was further reduced to 15s. 9d. the cwt., the con- 

 sumption increased from 12,716 tons to 15,474 tons, 

 while last year it reached 24,121 tons. It will be seen 

 from the following rates of duty that France charges 

 the lowest duty upon currants- 

 Austria ^^11 per ton. 



United Kingdom .... 700.,, 



Russia 4 ,, 



United States ,. 3 5 ,, 



Holland 1 16 8 „ 



France 5 „ 



Having dealt with the fiscal part of the question, let 

 us now look at the cultivators' side. We have already 

 alluded to the immense strides made in production in 

 Greece. In the Ionian Islands currants have always 

 been the staple crop. From 1828 to 1836 the land 

 planted with currants there was on the average 13,000 

 acres, and the crop from 15,000,000 lbs. to 25,000,000 lbs. 

 In the three years ending with 1839 the land under 

 crop was 17,000 acres and the yield 1-5,000,000 lbs. to 

 16,000,000 lbs. per annum. Of late years, with a larger 

 extent of land tlie crop has been more precarious. It 

 will be seen from the following return that a very great 

 extent of land has within a year or two been put 

 under vine culture in the Ionian Islands. 



Acres ^'■''f'• 



^'^''^^- Millions of pounds. 



1850.. 20,276 „ 31,345 



1851.. 20,748 28,556 



1852.. 28,940 17,185 



1853.. 7,977 6,828 



1854.. 8,031 5,437 



1855.. 183,720 7,715 



1856.. 115,220 18,480 



1857,. 522,759 21,355 



Cephalor.ia and Zante are the islands where the culti- 

 vation is principally carried on. Ithaca raises a small 

 quantity; but in Santa JVIai'ui-a and Cerigo the culture 

 has been almost given up. 



Mr. Neal, the British Consul at the Piraeus, in his 

 report of the trade for the year 1857, stated that the 

 curraat crop, which it was expected would have 



