342 EXTRACTS FROM DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR [Marcli 1895. 



REPORTS. 



There seems to be no question of fixity of tenure, the peasant 

 renting from year to year in any part nearest his village which 

 suits his fancy. 



The great scarcity of labourers experienced in 1893 was 

 intensified during harvest operations of 1894, so that parties of 

 short-term prisoners were drafted from Kieff prison to diflferent 

 estates in this district. The farmers in these southern Govern- 

 ments have been compelled by the bad harvests of late years to 

 adopt the method of paying " in kind " ; they give the peasants 

 a certain per-centage of sheaves, the average this year ranging 

 from every fifth to every seventh. These sheaves are then 

 thrashed, and the grain sold at market price, a manner of pay- 

 ment v/hich is far from profitable as prices now rule. 



[Foreign Office Report, Annual Series, No. 1487. Price Id] 



The Cultivation of Wheat in Portugal. 



The xinnual Report on the Trade of Portugal for the year 

 1893, drawn up by Mr. Conway Thornton, Secretary of Her 

 Majesty's Legation at Lisbon, has recently been issued by the 

 Foreign Ofiice. 



In a statement of the imports into Portugal during 1893, it 

 is shown that the following quantities of cereals were received 

 from abroad : — 



Cereals. 



Kilos. 



Equivalent 

 in Gwts. 



Barlej, in grain _ „ „ - 

 Cereals, in grain, not specifically mentioned - 

 Wheaten flour 



Elour of other cereals - - - 

 Maize, in grain - - - 

 Wheat, in grain _ _ 



1,962,248 

 37,825 

 1,442,468 

 2,399 

 7,353,465 

 144,400,471 



38,544 

 743 

 28,334 

 47 



144,443 

 2,836,438 



Mr. Thornton states that the most important item in the 

 list of imports was " articles of food," and the chief of these was 

 wheat. It was hoped, but in vain, that the transformation 

 going on in many parts of the country of vineyards into corn 

 land would result in the disappearance of this particular import, 

 but the substitution of cereals for vines proved a more tedious 

 and costly affair than had been anticipated. The old system 

 required no animal labour or manure ; the new one demanded 

 both of these to a very large extent. The implements used in 

 the first case had become useless and valueless ; articles of a 

 widely diflferent character had now to be purchased and their 

 manipulation learnt. The cereals sown in the exhausted vine- 

 yards gave at first but sorry returns, and the necessity for 

 supplies of foreign wheat continued to exist and to increase, 



