122 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pari I. 



754. The almond tree is very productive. The orange tribe abounds ; and the pomegra- 

 nates, peaches, apricots, grapes, &c., are of the finest flavour. The banana is cultivated in 

 the gardens, as are melons, dates, and inany other fruits. Carobs (Ceratonia), quinces, 

 medlars, cherries, &c. are wild in abundance. Bees are found in the hollows of trees ; 

 and their excellent white honey is exported. 



755. The oxen of the Morea are low, and have long.white hair. The most fleshy do not 

 weigh more than from 300 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 are said to suck 

 the milk. The sheep are small, and have large horns ; their 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 mountains without ever stumbling. The asses are 

 miserable. 



756. The forests of the Morea produce the cork-tree ; the kermes oak ; the Qu^rcus ^'sculus, or Velonia 

 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 (/Zhamnus infectbrius 

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

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

 date trees, silk tree (Mimbsa Julibrissin) 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 : on Mount Pholoe, where the 

 peasants are half savages, they form the 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 and game in the woods, and 

 fishes in the 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 will produce abundantly every thing necessary to supply the wants of man." {Travels^ 

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



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



Holland. The plain of Thes- ^ _ 102 



saly (Jig. 102. ) is an immense 

 tract of level country, with a fine 

 alluvial soil, which tradition 

 and external appearance concur 

 in testifying, was once covered 

 with water. *< The capabili- 

 ties," 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 amount of regular 

 export from the provinces." The cultivation 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. 103.) ; both are drawn by oxen or buffaloes. The 

 103 p U a 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, and the women well 

 I made, and not unlike the antique. " The circumstances 



by which the amount of produce might be increased, are 

 ' chiefly, perhaps, of a more general nature, a better form 



of government ; greater security to private property ; a 

 more uniform distribution of the inhabitants ; and the prevention of those monopolies 

 in the export of grain, which have hitherto been exercised by the Turkish rulers of the 

 country. {Travels, 2d. edit. p. 281.) 



758. The agriculture of Albania differs in no essential particular from that of Thessaly. 

 The common tenure on which land is let, is that of paying to the landlord half the 

 produce. The vale of Deropuli is the most fertile and populous in Albania. The 

 tillage, generally speaking, is remarkable for its neatness. The products are chiefly 

 wheat, maize, tobacco, and rice. The returns afford a considerable surplus for export- 

 ation J and the tobacco is esteemed the best in Albania. Large flocks of sheep feed on 

 the declivity of the mountains, and afford much coarse wool for the manufactures of the 

 country. 



759. The agriculture of Moldavia and Wallachia, two the most northerly provinces 

 of European Turkey, has been given by various authors, as Carra, Bauer, and Thornton. 

 The climate of those provinces is very severe in winter. Spring begins in April ; sum- 

 mer in June ; and in July and August the days are excessively hot, and the nights cold. 

 Heavy rains begin in September, and snows in November. The surface is generally 

 mountainous : but the valleys are dry and rich. The usual grains are cultivated, and also 



