Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN EUROPEAN TURKEY. 



121 



quinces, medlars, cherries, &c. are wild in abundance. Bees are found in the 

 hollows of trees ; and their excellent white honey is exported. 



734. Tlie oxen of the Morea are low, and have long white hair. The most fleshy 



do not weigh more than from 3 to 

 400 pounds. The cows give little 

 milk, and are much injured by the 

 jackals, who tear away their teats ; 

 and by large serpents, which suck 

 away all tlie milk. The sheep 

 are small, and have large horns ; 

 wool is considered of the second 

 quality of the wool of the East, 

 Cheese is made from their milk, 

 and that of goats. The horses of 

 the Morea are of a breed between 

 the Moravian and Thracian : their 

 form is not admired ; but they 

 are full of fire and courage ; and 

 so vigorous, that they run with a 

 firm and rapid step over the moun- 

 tains without ever stumbling. The 

 asses are miserable. 



735. The forests of the Morea produce the cork-tree ; the Kermes oak, the quercus esculus or Vallony 

 oak, the acorns of which are eaten, and their cups used as oak-galls, in preparing black dye.- The 

 azarole, plane, larch, wild olive, sweet chestnut, manna ash, grains d' Avignon, (rhamnus infectorius, 

 L ). from the grains or seeds of which a fine yellow dye is prepared. Lawsonia inermis, which furnishes 

 a fine aurora color, and with which the women of the East dye their nails, the turpentine tree, barren 

 date trees, silk-tree, (mimosa julibrisia), with its beautiful tufts, pine,?fir, and a variety of others. Chest- 

 nuts were at one period the temporary food of nearly the whole country. In mount Pholoe, where the 

 peasants are half savages, they form their principal food for the whole year. A variety of plants used in 

 the arts, and in pharmacy, grow wild in the wastes, and there are venison, game, and fishes, in the 

 woods, rivers, lakes, and the surrounding ocean. The Morea, Dr. Pouqueville concludes, is " a fine 

 country:" and though one does not find the golden age here renewed, yet, "under a better order of 

 things it would produce abundantly every thing necessary to supply the wants of man." {Travels, S[c. 

 Transl. by A. Plumtree, p. 206.) 



736. Some notices of the agriculture of Thessaly and Albania have been given by Dr. 

 Holland. The plain of Thessaly 

 {Jig. 106.) is an immense tract 

 of level country, with a fine allu- 

 vial soil; which tradition and ex- 

 ternal appearance concur in tes- 

 tifying, was once covered with 

 water. " The capabilities," Dr. 

 Holland observes, " are great' 

 throughout the whole of this fine 

 province ; and it would not be 

 easy to fix a limit to the amount and variety of produce which might be raised from its 

 surface. In their present state, the plains of Thessaly form one of the most productive 

 districts of the Grecian peninsula, and their annual produce, in grain of different kinds, 

 cotton, silk, wool, rice, and tobacco, allows a very large iq-j 



amount of regular export from the province. The culti- 

 vation is not deficient in skill or neatness. Their plough is 

 of a primitive form ; and their carts are small cars, some of, 

 them, as Dr. Clarke observes, simple enough {fg. 107.); 

 both are drawn by oxen, or buffaloes. The wool of the 

 sheep is moderately fine ; the mulberry is grown in dwarf 

 pollards ; and the cotton in drills, well hoed. The men are a stern looking race 



[fg. 108.), and the women 

 (fg. 109.) well made, and 

 not unlike the antique. " The 

 circumstances by which the 

 amount of produce might be 

 increased, are chiefly, per- 

 haps, of a more general na- 

 ture a better form of go- 

 vernment ; greater security 

 to private property ; a more 

 uniform distribution of the 

 inhabitants; and the pre- 

 vention t)f those monopolies 

 in the export of grain, which 



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