The most considerable proprietors, both Turks and Greeks, live generally in towns, and'the land is let to the peasants on a system resembling that of the metayers in France. The lands are let from year to year ; the landlord furnishes cottages, cattle, and seed ; the tenant labours the ground; and after a tenth of the produce is set aside for the public tax, the remainder is divided into three parts, of which the tenant gets one and the proprietor two. When the tenant has cattle and a house of his own, he gets one-half. In the chifficks or farms belong-, ing to Ali, who is a rigorous landlord, two-thirds are taken when the peasant finds stock and seed, and five-sixths, it is said, when he furnishes nothing but labour. Enclosures are extremely uncommon, and scattered hamlets or cottages are scarcely any where seen, the peasants living in villages for the sake of security. Both the husbandman and shep herd, when employed in the fields, has always a musket slung over his back, besides a pistol and sword at his side. Their cottages are hovels built of mud, straw, and boards, generally without an opening to let the smoke escape., Sometimes they are without walls, and consist merely of woolen poles laid together in the form of a tent, and cover ed with turf, like the huts of savages. Women are employed in the labours of. the field in Albania and • Mains, but rarely in other parts. The cultivation of corn land is generally rude and slovenly ; but in some districts, where, from local circumstances, the people are well protected, it is net and clean, though not skilful. Cotton and olive grounds and vineyards, which are laboured chiefly with the hands, are managed with more care ; and in general, that part of the' cultivation which depends on manual labour, and requires neither capital nor good imple ments, is best executed. The management of sheep and goats is also better conducted than that of arable land, doubtless because store farms are generally in situations, more capable of defence, and their stock is easily removed. In gardening, the Greeks•turn up the soil with a mattock', being unacquainted with so common an instrument as a spade. The hopte, meats of agriculture are few and simple. In light lands like those of Messenia, the, plough consists merely of a share pointed with iron, without any other parts attached to, it. It dragged by one horse or two asses.• In stronger soils the share is fixed into a plough with one handle and two mould boards, and in some cases with block wheels. In Albania the plough consists of a pole, a share, and one handle, all of wood, except the share, which is pointed with iron. In Bceotia, Thessaly, and Alba rues and in Greece generally, the plough is drawn by two oxen, sometimes by asses or buffaloes, very seldom by horses. A hundred stremata of land re quire four . oxen if the soil is light, or eight oxen if heavy. The strernii is stated to be forty square paces; if yards -are meant, it will be very nearly one-third of an acre. The corn, cut with a sickle; is separated from the straw in the ancient mode, by treading it under the feet of oxen or horses. Fal lowing is practised, and manures are used, though the small quantity of ground in, tillage will, of course, render it unnecessary to cultivate poor soils, require much artificial nourishment. In some few parts of Macedonia and Thessaly, a sort of clumsy car with solid wooden wheels is used, but every where else wheel-carriages seem to be un known, produce and goods of all kinds being car ried on the backs of horses, mules, or camels.
-The most common crops are wheat,barley, maize, and rye ; besides these, oats in very small quantity, ' rice in marshy spots, millet, pease, beans, tares, segamam, and anise, with cotton and tobacco. Tur nips, if raised at all, are confined to gardens, and potatoes seem to be entirely unknown. The corn, sown in November or Feb, is high in the beginning., f March, arid h is sometimes sown as late as April, and reaped in two months. After a crop of barley, cotton is sometimes sown and reaped the same season. The soil of Attica is too light for wheat ; and hence barley, as in ancient times, is still the prevailing crop. In the Ionian isles, and probably in the. moister parts of Greece, wheat is protected from the effects of heavy dews, by two persons dragging a long rope over the field, so as to shake the husks. In the rich soils of Macedon, to save the wheat from injured by superabundant nourishment, it is usual to let it be eaten by sheep early in the season, a practice familiar to the ancient Greeks. Notwithstanding the wretched system of culture„, the produce is large. The most fertile
parts are the plains of Thessaly, Boeotia, Sicyon, Argos, Messenia, Arcadia, and Macedonia. The soil of the latter, in the opinion of Beaujour, is su perior even to that of Sicily. An arpeht • of this soil usually produces from 25-to 30 quintals (hurt-, dred weighfs) of wheat. In the Arcadian plains wheat of several kinds yields'12 for 1 ; in those of Argos 10 for 1 ; in Eletrais, the primitive seat of agriculture, and in Thessaly, 12 for 1. The pro duce of good soils, generally ,in favourable seasons, is estimated by Mr Hawkins at 10 or le for 1 ; and of the best soils, in very favourable seasons, at from 15 to 18 for 1.. If these cstimates'are well found-. ed, considering the rude system of cultivation, they are , prop& of a very great degree of fertility. In England, the average return from the seed, not withstanding its highly improved agriculture, is be lieved not to exceed 9 for 1. The very best 'soils yield from 6 to 7 quarters of wheat per ac;re, weigh ing from 24 to 28 hundred weight ; but from ordi nary soda, the average produce per acre is only about 20 or 21 bushels, weighing from 10 to 11 hundred weight. Greece exports corn largely, both to Constantinople and the western parts of Europe. t Greece, abounding in mountains covered with herbage, is eminently a pastoral country ; and the management of sheep is better understood than the other, branches of rural economy. The modern breeds, however, have declined much from the ancient in beauty and value. The flesh is but indiffer ent, the wool of inferior quality, and the weight of the sheep is onlyfrorn 30 to 50 pounds. The flocks of Arcadia and Livadia, especially those• which feed upon' Parnassus, are considered 'superior to the others. A black-woolled breed is very common. In Greece, as in Spain, the flocks migrate from the inland mountains to the low valleys, near the sea,•at the approach of winter. Attended by the owners, with their servants, they come driven, in October, in 'vast numbers to the low country, where they enjoy the right of pasture under the laws or customs of the empire, and they return to the hills in April. The goats, which are also numerous, are shorn along with the sheep, and their hair is made into lacks; bags, and carpets. The flocks are guarded from the wolves by very large and strong dogs, supposed to be de scended from the ancient Molossian breed. Attica, which forms only the Oftleth part of Greece, has been stated to possess 100,000 goats, and 60,000 sheep, about one-tenth part of which are killed year ly. And yet it is not so much a pastoral country as Albania, Phocis, or Arcadia: The oxen, which are chiefly used for labouring, amount to about 3000 in Attica : the cows, principally kept for breeding, are rather less numerous. The oxen ,of the Mores are low in stature, have long white hair, and weigh from 300 to 400 pounds. The cow. there pave little *silk, and are gxposed to jackallr wkich tear away the teats, and td serpents,- which are said to suck the milk. About 6000 head of cattle are con sumed annually in the Mores ; bfit as both Turks and Greeks prefer mutton, the number of sheep killed is incomparably greater. A very fine breed of oxen is found in that district of Albania which corresponds to the ancient ChaOnia, and which has probably derived its beauty from the 'ancient breed of the country, celebrated by Aristotle, /Ellen, and others. In all parts of the Mores, buffaloes, which are handsome animals, with fine skins, are used in husbandry, and when unfit for labour, are killed and eaten. The horses of the Morey are little to be admired for their beauty, but are active, vigorous, and sure footed. The asses, which are numerous, but small and mean, are used as beasts of burden ; mules and camels are employed in the same capa city, but the latter are brought from Asia, and are not numerous. The annual produce of Macedonia, • in wool, is estimated by Beaujour at 700,000 okes (2,000,000 pounds), of the Mores, by Pouqueville, at 19,800 quintals (1,500,000 pounds): and it sells about 15, piastres • (18s. 9d.) the quintal. The Morea produces annually about 66,500 quintals of cheese (chiefly from the milk of sheep and goats), which sells at' 7 piastres the quintal, or about one penny per pound. In Attica,'a good cow is worth 12 piastres ; a good ox, fit for the plough, 50 or 60 piastres ; a horse for . carrying burdens, 50 to 65 ; a mule for riding, 150 to 200. A sheep sells at 3 piastres ; a lamb at 1. ; a goat at 21, or 100 pares. Wheat fluctuates much in price, but has been stated to be on an average 5i piastres (6s. 10d.) the kilo t dr bushel. t.