About Algeria: Algiers, Tlemçen, Constantine, Biskra, TimgadThomas-Stanford, Charles
History
About Algeria: Algiers, Tlemçen, Constantine, Biskra, Timgad
Thomas-Stanford, Charles
Algeria -- Description and travel
It may be that our host is exceptionally gifted, both in enterprise and
resources, but at any rate his example must be of great value. And the
vistas all around of similar properties with pleasant houses bowered in
trees and gardens suggest that it is followed. It is agreeable to learn
that this industry meets its due reward. In 1910 it has been
exceptionally profitable. The chief buyers of Algerian wines are the
wine-shippers of Bordeaux and Macon, from whose cellars they emerge as
claret and Burgundy. The complete failure of the vintage in Europe has
caused a rise of fully fifty per cent in the price of the produce of
Algeria. In this happy climate, sure of its winter rain and its summer
sun, a failure of the vintage is unknown and almost inconceivable.
Viticulture has become the most important of the industries in which
Europeans in Algeria are engaged, and its prosperity is of great
importance to the Colony. Before the French conquest, the use of wine
being forbidden by the Koran, the vine was only grown to a small extent
for its fruit; the _raisin sucré_ of Khabylia was especially esteemed as
a sweetmeat for dessert. The first colonists made experiments in the
production of wine, but with insufficient knowledge and inadequate
equipment. Wine-makers are an aristocracy among agriculturists; a high
intelligence and inherited traditions count for much. The ravages of the
phylloxera in France created the opportunity of Algeria. The
wine-growers of the South thrown out of work were ready to emigrate, and
the deficit in the mother country’s production offered a great market
for the Colony. Since that time the industry has made steady
progression. In 1850 2000 acres were under cultivation as vineyards; in
1905 about 450,000 acres. The production of wine, which amounted to
370,000 gallons in 1878, is now over 150,000,000 gallons. The price
obtained for wine exported is subject to very wide fluctuations. In 1903
the 100,000,000 gallons exported realized £4,000,000. In 1906
110,000,000 gallons realized only £1,600,000.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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