SOUTHERN AFRICA. 327 
vines. In no part of the world are better grapes produced 
than at tlie Cape of Good Hope ; and it is unnecessary to 
observe that good grapes, under proper management, cannot 
fail to make good raisins ; but with respect to this, as well as 
most other articles, little care and less labor are bestowed in 
the preparation. As in the making of wine the whole bunch 
is thrown under the press, so, in the process for converting 
grapes into raisins, neither the rotten nor the unripe fruit is 
removed ; the consequence of v/hich is, that the bad raisins 
soon spoil those that otherwise would have been good. 
The almonds are, in general, small, but of a good quality^ 
The trees thrive well in the very driest and worst of soils ; 
in no situation better than amons: the rocks on the sides of 
mountains, where nothing else would grow ; and they will 
bear fruit the fifth year from the seed. The quantity, there- 
fore, of these nuts might be produced to an indefinite amount. 
The consumption in the Cape of both these articles is very- 
considerable, as furnishing part of the desert, without which,, 
after supper as well as dinner, few householders would be 
contented ; the omission might be considered as a criterion 
of poverty, a condition which the weakness of human nature 
leads men generally to dissemble rather than avow. Ships 
also take considerable quantities of almonds and raisins as 
sea-stock ; but few have hitherto been sent to India or to 
Europe as articles of trade. Before the capture the prices 
might have admitted of it, almonds being then not more than 
from a shilling to eighteenpence sterling the thousand, and 
raisins from twopence to threepence a pound ; but the in- 
creased demand, in consequence of the increased number of 
