Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume I: (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the; Austrian Navy.Scherzer, Karl, Ritter von
History
Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume I: (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the; Austrian Navy.
Scherzer, Karl, Ritter von
Novara Expedition (1857-1859); Voyages around the world -- History -- 19th century
landlord removed from the town into the country, the caseiro carried his
litter and luggage; in conversation the caseiro addressed the landlord as
_meu amo_ (my lord). The revolution of 1821 did away with many of these
usages, and in various ways altered the relation between the caseiro and
the landlord.
Another impediment to the improvement of agriculture, is the system of
parcelling ground into small allotments, which has been continued up to
the present time. The farms are in general extremely small. In the richer
and more fertile parts of the island they rarely exceed an acre in extent,
very often they are not half so large, and sometimes not even the tenth
part of an acre. The late Conde de Carvalho, the proprietor of nearly
one-third of the whole island, had upwards of eight thousand tenants.
Supposing that this mode of farming existed in the remaining two-thirds,
there would be in Madeira 24,000 farmers, caseiros or tenants; or, taking
the population at 100,000 souls, nearly every fourth inhabitant would be a
tenant farmer. This state of things is not to be wondered at, considering
that almost every day-labourer farms a small patch of ground, the extent
of which is not greater than the ordinary size of a large garden bed, on
which he grows vegetables, potatoes, figs, peaches, sugar-cane, and
sometimes even grain.
In the north and west of the island, where agriculture has made more
progress than in the south, rent is paid in money; generally, however, the
system of paying in kind is still in existence, in which the harvest,
(after deducting the _tithe_, which, at Madeira, belongs to the State and
not to the church,) is divided between the landlord and the tenants.
According to this principle the landlord receives half of the produce of
the ground, be it grain, sugar-cane, wine, fruit or vegetables, which are
brought for sale, and not consumed on the farm itself. It sometimes
happens, however, that the harvest is sold in a lump, while yet on the
ground. Oxen are the only animals employed in agriculture. They are
diminutive and singularly unsightly, but of a very powerful breed, and
furnish very good meat for the table. They are generally fed in stalls,
but in the mountainous districts they graze in open pastures. There are
only a few badly-fed sheep on the island, so that the mutton is almost
unfit for consumption. Pigs and fowls are in abundance, and the rearing of
poultry is generally the principal means of living possessed by the
peasantry. What is asserted by some authors regarding wild rabbits and
boars to be met with on the island, wants confirmation. The few rabbits we
saw were perfectly identical with the European species (_Lepus
cuniculus_), and lead to the supposition that rabbits as well as pigs, now
found in a wild state here and there on the island, are only the progeny
of those which have formerly been introduced from Europe.
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