AGRICULTURE. As cultivation depends largely upon irrigation, which is very unequally dis tributed, the tilled lands in most parts of the country resemble oases. Cereals occupy about half of the tilled lands, but wheat is among the imports, the home supply being inadequate. Rice is grown in the lowlands of Elis, and maize, bar ley, .and oats are raised to some extent. The Greek currant (a small seedless grape), grown extensively on some of the Ionian Islands and near the gulfs of Patras and Corinth, is a large crop and the staple of agricultural exports. The vine is of first importance in Greek agriculture, the area in vineyards having increased from 125, 000 acres in 1860 to 250,000 acres in 1900. While currants are the chief crop, the production of wine has increased and the quality has in later times improved. Being rich in alcohol and color, Greek wines are bought by many French merchants to mix with home vintages. As the Greeks live largely on vegetables and fruits, gardening is a great industry, well-tilled gardens being very numerous near the towns and on the plains. Flax, hemp, tobacco, cotton, and the mulberry tree supply the industries with raw material. The cultivation. of flax and hemp has decreased on account of Russian competition, but tobacco, yielding excellent leaf, is an increasing crop, par ticularly on the plains of Argolis and around the Gulf of Corinth. Mulberry plantations abound in the Peloponnesus and Eubcea, where raw silk is produced, both for home industry and export. Cotton is raised in the Peloponnesus, but finds the most congenial soil and climate in Thessaly and Bceotia. During the Turkish domination olive
growing steadily declined, as one method of pun ishing insurrection was to destroy the olive-trees. Since 1830, however, the planting has rapidly ad vanced, and olives are to-day one of the best re sources of the Greek peasantry. The trees have increased from 2,000,000 to 13,000,000 since Greece won independence. Fruit-trees are im portant, above all in the Ionian Islands and the )Egean Archipelago, oranges, lemons, figs, and pomegranates leading in production. The most important domestic animals are sheep (2,900,000 in 1892) and goats, from whose milk butter and cheese are made. Goats are raised everywhere. but the large flocks of sheep are found mostly on the plains of Thessaly. Bee-culture is important and the honey of Hymettus is famous. The coun try abounds with fragrant flowers that give to honey a particularly delightful savor. While agriculture is the chief resource of the people, the prevailing poverty of the soil prevents it from being so large an element of prosperity as in many other countries; and an undue propor tion of the peasants are attracted from labor in the fields to the life of the sailor. To a large extent the land is in the hands of the peasant proprietors, though there are some great estates, particularly in Thessaly. Of the total area there are 3,360,000 acres cultivated and fallow, ]280, 000 pasture, 1,900,000 forest, and 9,500,000 waste land.