CONTINENT OF AFRICA.

MADEIRA.

Report by Consul Du Pont Syle on the commerce, trade, and industries of Madeira for the year 1882.

AGRICULTURE.

The area of the island of Madeira is about 330 square miles, of which only about one-sixth, or 55 square miles, is under cultivation. The very latest information concerning the agricultural products of the island has been so admirably collected by Miss Ellen M. Taylor in her recently published "Madeira; Its Scenery, and How to See It," that I cannot do better, having obtained the author's kind permission, than state it in her own words, with a few necessary corrections in the phraseology.*

Agriculture in Madeira is carried on in such a different way to what it is in England or elsewhere that it has the appearance of being rather a haphazard proceeding; nevertheless, though in many points it might be much improved and better crops obtained, it is wonderful what is done, and what great patience and industry are shown in building the innumerable little terraces on the mountain sides, in apparently inaccessible places, giving a most fertile look to ravines which otherwise would present a rocky appearance with a scanty vegetation. These terraces, built with exceeding neatness, are irrigated by rivulets and levadas, and amply reward the labor bestowed on them, yielding good and constantly succeeding crops of grain, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Little grain is grown in the lowlands, which are given up almost entirely to vines and sugar-cane; but even so, here and there amongst these, in any little square patch or border, broad beans, cabbages, lupins, and pumpkins are crowded together and yield plentifully.

In the country a simple plow is drawn by oxen, where the land is not too steep, but much of it is dug with the enchada, a very useful garden implement. Weeds and roots are burnt on the ground and the ashes dug in; the ground is but slightly manured unless for sugar-canes or vines, and the crops of wheat and barley are poor in consequence; maize (milho) is much grown, and is very productive, especially on the north coast. There are water-mills for grain in all parts of the island, which work well and are in most cases eminently picturesque. At different times the potato disease has been severely felt in Madeira, but of late years the crops have been excellent, and, with slight exceptions, quite healthy. Madeira potatoes are remarkably good. The batata, or sweet potato, has become a very important article in the Madeira market, as it produces all the year round; near the sea the Demerara batata will give three crops in the year, but up in the mountains yields but one.

The batatas are eaten as a vegetable, the natives making their meals sometimes entirely of them, and they are much used in the native sopas, or pottage of stewed vegetables.

Every cottage has its plot of cabbages and pumpkins, which are the chief ingredients of the sopas.

Onions are extensively grown, and exported in considerable quantities. They are more delicate in flavor than the English onion.

Spanish chestnuts, which ripen and produce abundantly in the autumn, are much eaten by the peasantry (either raw, boiled, or baked), as are also yams.

These yams are a beautiful feature in the vegetation, being the Caladium esculentum, and their large handsome leaves of varied green are much used in fattening pigs.

As I shall have frequent occasion in this report to quote from Miss Taylor's book, for the sake of convenience I shall simply indicate these quotations by the letter (T). 14708 C R, PT 2———1

Almost every household possesses a pig; its flesh, which is fattened for Christmas fare, is the chief and almost the only luxury the poorer classes indulge in.

The pumpkin is an important item in Madeira cooking, and is grown almost everywhere, even at a greater altitude than 2,000 feet above the sea, climbing over trellises made from bank to bank of the almost dry river beds, hanging over the terrace walls, and furnishing food in the innumerable gourds it produces for the benefit of rich and poor, to whom it is almost indispensable.

The chow-chow, or pepinella, is a delicious vegetable, like a very delicate vegetable marrow; it is a climber, having a very handsome leaf.

Cauliflowers and peas may be grown almost all the year round; French and haricot beans, carrots, and turnips are never out of season.

The culture of fruit is but little understood in Madeira, where, with proper care and attention, the very best might be produced; the trees are but slightly pruned, and the crowded young fruit never thinned.

In a few cases, where good care and attention is given by people with gardens, the very best eating grapes, of various sorts, notably black and white muscatel, and the cape honey-pot grape, reward the extra trouble given; the splendid pines, too, produced for the London market, are a proof of what may be done with some energy and perservance.

The mango, custard apple, loquat, and Avogado pear are of quick growth and require but little attention. Captain Cook, when he touched at Madeira on his first voyage, in 1768, found the mango, bananas, pineapples, and guavas flourishing, as he says, almost without culture."

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The fruit of the granadilla is very delicious, but not often met with, although a climber of very quick growth and covering many a cottage-trellised garden seat.

Strawberries have been much cultivated for sale for the last twenty years, and come in about March, producing till August; the mountain strawberry, once so plentiful under the chestnut trees, has become very scare; mulberries and figs in great abundance ripen so as to become very luscious; stone fruit is plentiful, but very inferior to English and French, and only wanting proper treatment; the same may be said of pears and apples. Raspberries, gooseberries, and currants will not repay the culture. Walnuts and Spanish chestnuts are very good and plentiful; lemons may be had all the year round.

Ma

Tomatoes and cucumbers grow in great abundance all through the summer. deira arrowroot is very superior, and great care is taken in its preparation; the best is from Magdalena and from a few private gardens near Funchal.

Capsicum and other red peppers are much grown, and have an extensive sale; they are very pungent, and never adulterated.

Coffee, which used once to be so abundant, has been scarce for many years, owing to the disease at the root of the trees; what there is is very superior, but there is every probability of the Liberian coffee flourishing and taking its place.

The woods of Pinus maritima are a great feature of the country at the present day in Madeira. Being of a rapid growth they are soon cut down for firewood. The stumps and roots are burnt on the ground, when a crop of rye is immediately sown, and after the harvest fresh pine seed is put in. The rye straw is the best for thatching and, used is in large quantities for the covering of their cottages amongst the poorer classes.

The use of the pine for firewood, garden, and vine trellis, or corridors, &c., has entirely superseded that of the valuable indigenous trees, which are thus saved for better purposes, while the forests in the interior, so important to the preservation of the water sources, are now less subject to devastation, though the charcoal-burners still make sad havoc in defiance of the law. The cones of the Pinus maritima attain a large size here, and are most useful for fuel, burning brightly and emitting a cheerful light.

The cane, Arundo donax, is planted extensively in the river beds for making latadas or corridors for the vines, and for gardening purposes. A large quantity of the finest and narrowest of these canes must be yearly used for the innumerable rockets which are in constant demand.

Willows for baskets and chairs, &c., are widely cultivated; there are large plantations in the valley of Machico and to the westward.

MANUFACTURES.

These in Madeira are literally manufactures, for, beyond sugar and flour mills, there is nothing else made by other than hand work.

Cabinet-makers ought to rank first, but they are far distanced by the chair and basket makers in the amount of work required. There are several good inlaid-wood workers in Funchal.

The work in the handsome black wood of the til, with silver mountings and mon