every two or three years if the soil is poor. No crops are grown under the trees in properly cultivated orchards, and only the peach tree is in some orchards planted, as it does not last many years, and the soil is not weakened by it. A first-class orchard yields about $400 per acre annually, expenses being about $35, including manure. OLIVES. There are two varieties here, the indigenous and a variety introduced from Corone, in Messenia; the latter is the most prolific. Both bear a small, greenish-black fruit. Process of cultivation much the same as the orange tree. The ground is plowed regularly twice a year, in March and December, and every fourth year during the summer manure is sown, resulting in a crop of hay in the following spring. The Queen Olive is not produced here. The trees come into full bearing after the twentieth year. There are fruitful trees several centuries old. The average annual yield per acre of mature trees is 33 gallons of liquid oil; 325 pounds weight of olives yield 4 gallons of oil; much depends upon the quality of the soil and the season. The trees are planted about 20 to 24 feet apart. Olives intended for pickling are picked when they are barely ripe, but these are few and only for local wants. The olives for oil-making are picked, or rather knocked off the trees, when ripe. The process of preparing them for table use is simply salting them, putting them in oil or vinegar; in the latter case they are generally slit on the sides. The process for extracting oil is very primitive. The olives are generally crushed between millstones, the upper stone being turned by a horse. Another process is to put the olives between goat-hair sacks, throw boiling water over them, and then press them as one would grapes. Such oil is never good. The peasantry frequently keep a portion of their crops of olives for a couple of years without crushing them. To do this they are thoroughly sprinkled with salt, and simply left in a corner of their room. It is said that they do not lose either in weight or liquid, but such oil when extracted is liable to be rancid. The process of knocking off the fruit with sticks is much to be deprecated, since many fine shoots are thus destroyed. Valley, hillside, or table-land are all adapted to olive trees. Much depends on the nature of the soil. A hard clay is bad. The best oli is from trees grown on a stony hillside, but the yield is small. There is no system of artificial irrigation, but copious rainfalls in winter are indispensable to insure a good crop; even then the olive seldom bears a full one except every second year. Orchards come right down to the sea coast. The olive requires plenty of air, and a high wind is indispensable to insure the proper setting of the fruit. Close, sultry weather during the flowering prevents the flower from falling, and a worm is then generated. Of late years many orchards have been attacked by blight, which causes much of the fruit to drop off when approaching maturity. The cause is unknown, and no remedy found so far to combat it. The cost of cultivation is not over $12 to $14 per acre, and $6 to $8 more for collecting the fruit, cost of manure not included. As a rule the proprietor of an orchard is satisfied with the benefit derived from the manure, and the person who provides it has the hay in return. Place of growth. No meteorological observations are taken here. I am indebted to Mr. W. G. Foster, superintendent of the Eastern Telegraph Company, for the inclosed table showing the temperature during the summers of 1882 and 1883. FIGS. No figs of commerce are grown here. Four or five varieties are produced in abundance, both green and black, but they are eaten fresh, the large orchards bearing fruit after the middle of May and all June. A smaller and sweeter fig ripens in August and September, but these are not grown in orchards, only a tree here and there in gardens. The cultivation resembles that of the orange and lemon, only, that less attention is bestowed on the orchards, and crops of beans and such like are frequently grown under the trees. If figs are grown on a rich soil they are liable to suffer from worm disease. No figs are dried in this island; an attempt was once made, but it did not succeed. The only part of Greece where figs are cured is at Calamata, in Messenia, but they are very inferior to the Smyrna fig; they are principally exported to Southern Russia or to Trieste, and thence forwarded to the interior of Germany, where the refuse lots are baked or burnt and then ground and used as a substitute for coffee. UNITED STATES CONSULAR AGENCY, A. L. CROWE, Zante, March 15, 1884. Statement showing the annual product of currants and the exports thereof during the years 1820 to 1882. |