CHAPTER V. 



ON THE AGRICULTURE OF MADEIRA. 



" Nor ye who live 

 In luxury and ease, in pomp and pride, 

 Think these lost themes unworthy of your ear: 

 Such themes as these the rural Maro sung 

 To wide-imperial Rome, in the full height 

 Of elegance and taste, by Greece refined. 

 Ye generous Britons, venerate the plough." 



Thomson. 



Introduction of the vine and sugar-cane. — Clearing the forests. — Cultiva- 

 tion of the sugar-cane. — Cultivation of the vine. — Different soils. — Best 

 wine districts. — Kinds of wines. — Manufacture of wine. — Cultivation of 

 corn. — Manure. — Threshing. — Grinding corn. — Maize. — Flax. — Potatoes. 

 — Yams. — Weeds. — Pine trees. — Sheep.— Cows. — Instruments of hus- 

 bandry. — Le vadas. — Dearths. — Labouring classes — Wages. — Relation 

 between landlord and tenant. 



To the provident care of Prince Henry, Madeira was indebted 

 for its first supply of agricultural seeds, plants, and domestic 

 animals. 



Amongst the plants, the vine from Cyprus, and the sugar- 

 cane from Sicily*, throve so prosperously that they soon 

 became important articles in Portuguese commerce. 



CLEARING THE FORESTS. 



The new colony set to work immediately clearing the 

 ground. For this purpose they fired the great forests, which 

 are said to have burnt with such violence that several of the 

 people were forced to take refuge in their boats. According 



* The sugar-cane, we learn from Ungues Falcand, a writer of that 

 period, was known in Sicily as early as the twelfth century. 



