320 
[Nov.  (,  1895. 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
Iliervo  are  about  300  miles  distant.  In  former 
times  tliey  were  known  as  tlr' Fortunate  Islamls. 
Vliny  knew  of  tlieir  existeuco.  Juba,  Kin};'  of 
Mauritania,  desi)atclied  a lleet  to  visit  tlieui, 
afterwards  reijortiny  tliem  to  Augustus  Ca'sar 
as  clotlied  witii  lire.  He  also  sent  to  Koine  two 
large  dogs  from  the  islands,  and  to  this  fact  is 
attributed  the  jiroliable  origin  of  tlie  name  Canary. 
The  l‘ortuguese  rediscovered  the  islands  in  the 
14th  century,  tlie  inhabitants  being  the  brave 
Cuanehes.  Early  in  the  next  century  Fuerte- 
ventura  and  Lanzarote  were  taken  possession  of 
by  the  King  of  Castile,  biu  it  took  until  nearly 
the  close  of  the  centurw  before  the  Spaniards 
succeodeil  in  subjecting  t^  gallant  Guanches  in 
all  the  islands.  After  cruel  persecution  at  the 
bands  of  the  conquerors  tlie  last  of  the 
original  inhabitants  bad  di.sappeared  before  the 
end  of  the  16th  century.  Tlie  islands  have 
ever  since  been  not  a colony,  but  a Spanish 
province,  and  their  fortune  has  been  a very 
varied  and  capricious  one.  “Under  the  [iro- 
scriptive  policy  of  Spain,”  said  one  writer, 
“ nothing  depending  on  human  exertion  pros- 
pers, and  though  the  Canary  Islands  are  less 
exposed  to  its  despotism  than  any  other  [lart  of 
the  Spanish  Dominions,  everything  languishes.  ’ 
This,  however,  is  only  partially  true,  for,  like 
our  own  West  Indian  Islands,  the  Caiaries 
have  suffered  reverses  through  the  changes 
which  from  time  to  time  take  place  in  the 
demands  for  various  jiroducts,  and  the  keen 
competition  with  which  they  have  to  contend. 
In  the  early  days  of  the  Spanish  occuiiation  the 
cultivation  of  the  sugar-cane  was  the  great  in- 
dustry of  the  islands,  tlie  African  negro  being 
the  labourer.  Vines  were  introduced  long  ago, 
Canary  wine  or  sack  being  a famous  be\erage 
in  England  in  the  time  of  Shakesjie.are.  Kut 
mildew,  and  not  Spanish  despotism,  afterwards 
wrouglit  sad  havoc  among  the  vineyards,  and 
the  imblic  taste  changed.  Cochineal  culture 
was  introduced  in  1826,  and  soon  became  an 
important  indu.stry,  but  science  has  discovered 
how  to  extract  all  the  colours  of  the  rain- 
bow out  of  eofil  tar,  and  amongst  the  many 
sufferers  were  the  Canary  Islands,  whose 
cochineal  trade  dwindled  to  a mere  nothing. 
They  have,  however,  entered  u])on  another  pros- 
perous jieriod,  thanks  to  the  indefatigable  exer- 
tions of  Mr.  Alfred  .lones,  of  Liverpool,  who 
has  induced  the  inhabitants  to  try  other  indus- 
tries. 
So  far  as  invalids  and  holiday-makers  are  con- 
cerned the  geographical  situation  of  the  Archi- 
pehifo  is  all  that  could  be  desired,  d'hey  are 
not  tn  the  Tropics,  and  they  can  hardly  be  des- 
cribed as  being  of  the  Temperate  zone.  But 
while  the  islands  are  all  in  about  the  .same 
latitmle,  they  present  differences  in  asjiect,  cli- 
mate, crops,  llora,  customs  of  the  people,  and 
so  on  the  eastern  islands  being  more  African 
and  the  western  ones  more  Atlantic  in  character, 
and  as  Dr.  Morris  points  out,  the  amount  of 
've<*etation  in  the  several  islands  increases  with 
their  distance  from  the  African  mainland.  At 
Las  Palmas,  in  Grand  Canary,  the  coldest  month 
is  .lanuary,  but  the  mean  temreratuie  foi  this 
month  exceeds  62deg.,  against  less  than  .Gideg. 
on  the  Uiviera,  and  about  89deg.,  in  London. 
.July  is  the  warmest  month  at  the  Koyal 
Observatory,  tJreenwich,  its  ineiin  temperature 
being  62ideg.,  so  that  mid-winter  in  Gnind  ( unary 
is  as  warm  as  midsummer  in  Loudmi,  the  lowe-t 
ni'dit  temper.ature  registered  at  Las  Palmas  in 
live  years  being  til .bleg.  Passenger  steamers  tre- 
quently  call  at  the  islands,  the  voyage  Irom  1 ly- 
inouth  occupying  live  days,  from  London  six, 
and  from  Liverpool  seven.  The  islands  are  almost 
entirely  of  volcanic  formation— reallj’  the  jieaks 
of  submerged  mountains  a continuation  of  the  Atlas 
chain  running  westward  from  Morocco  into  the 
Atlantic.  Since  the  clo.'C  of  last  century  there 
have  been  no  volcanic  outbreaks,  but  formerly 
they  were  rather  severe,  ilie  eruption  of  1701  des- 
troying thousands  of  lives  and  a number  of  towns 
on  the  island  of  Teneriffe.  To  get  at  the  volcanic 
mud,  wliiidi  is  a rich  fruitful  soil,  it  is  often 
necessary  to  blast  I lie  solid  overlying  la\  a,  ami 
this  has  to  be  piled  ii])  in  lieajKs  so  that  the 
country  iiresents  locally  the  ajipearance  of  an 
extensive  stone  (luarry.  Both  soil  and  climate  are 
favourable  to  widely  dissimilar  classes  of  vege- 
tation, strictly  tropical  plants  such  as  the  •‘-ug.ir 
cane,  banana,  the  oil  palm  of  Africix,  and  the 
coconut  palm  growing  alongside  the  common  oak, 
ash,  bramble,  white  poplar,  and  other  trees  of 
our  more  northern  latitude.  'I'lie  most  remark- 
able tree  in  the  Canaries  seems  to  b(>  the  ilragon's- 
blooii  tree,  one  “of  the  most  celebrated  in  the 
annals  of  natural  history.,’'  .Strange  to  say, 
similar  ilr.agon’s-bhtod  trees  are  known  to  grow 
in  various  parts  of  Africa,  aero.ss  to  Abyssinia, 
.Somaliland,  and  .still  further  east  on  the  island 
of  Socotra.  Profo.ssor  Bayley  Balfour  states  that 
they  are  remains  of  an  old  African  flora  which 
covered  the  greater  part  of  the  continent  when  the 
climatic  w.as  very  miicli  colder  than  it  is  now. 
Clinutic  cli.anges  load  gr.adually  driven  it  out  and 
rejilaced  it  by  inore  tropical  plants. 
The  islands  now’  depend  for  their  living 
mainly  on  garden  cultivation,  there  being 
no  large  estiucs  or  farms.  All  the  fields  are 
small,  land  being  exceedingly  valuable  every- 
where. Its  letting  value  is  from  ±To  to  T25 
]jer  acre,  and  to  tliis  has  to  be  added  the  cost 
of  water,  which  runs  to  from  iilU  to  .TL')  an 
acre.  An  acre  of  good  land  therefore  means  an 
initial  exiienditure  of  £40  and  the  cost  of  labour 
before  any  profit  can  be  made.  An  excellent 
system  of  irrigation  is,  however,  in  operation, 
large  tanks  having  been  constructed  to  store  up 
the  winter  rains  for  use  during  the  dry  season. 
'I'lie  secret  of  the  present  luosperity  of  the 
Canaries  is  this  provision  to  secure  an  abun- 
dance of  moisture  all  the  year  round.  M’ith- 
out  it  the  land  would  be  of  very  little  value. 
As  it  is,  the  tenants  are  able  to  raise  three, 
and  even  four  croiis  ,a  year — a fact  which  1ms 
been  received  wiili  some  incredulity  by  not  a 
few  English  agriculturists.  This  prolilic  quality 
of  the  soil  explains  why  the  rents  are  .so  high, 
but  with  so  many  harvests  it  is  not  unusual 
for  the  thrifty  and  hard-working  inhabitants  to 
clear  £30  an  acre  per  annum— a very  good  pro- 
lit  on  the  large  out  hay.  The  w hide  of  the  work 
is  ilone  in  the  most  primitive  fashion,  wooden 
ploughs  drawn  by  oxen  doing  all  the  ploughing 
nece.ssary.  With  what  rapidity  crops  reach  ma- 
turity may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  a 
steamer  leaving  England  with  seed  potatoes  in 
the  middle  of  Movember  returns  home  with  a 
eirgo  of  new  potatoes  in  the  following  February, 
the  plants  appearing  above  ground  in  about  a 
w’eek,  and  in  another  fixe  or  six  weeks  the 
t ibers  are  dug  up  and  shi])ped.  England  is  the 
principal  customer  for  the  fruit  and  vegetables 
grown  in  the  ( anaries.  In  1892  we  received 
59,.")08  tons  out  of  the  03,601  tons  of  ban.anas 
exported  from  the  islands ; and  of  the  96,842 
tons  of  vegetables  .T.),  124  tons  came  to  Enghand, 
anil  27.970  tons  we.it  to  the  West  Indies.  Most 
of  the  bananas  come  to  us  from  Gi.and  Canary 
and  most  of  the  tomatoes  and  jiotatoes  from 
Teneriffe.  We  received  in  one  year  no  less  than 
118,6.32  tons  of  fresh  fruit  from  the.se  fortunate 
