The Mediterranean: Its Storied Cities and Venerable RuinsAllen, Grant
History
The Mediterranean: Its Storied Cities and Venerable Ruins
Allen, Grant
Europe, Southern -- Description and travel; Mediterranean Region -- Description and travel
Under this admirable system the land gives forth perpetual increases. It
knows no repose. Nothing lies fallow. "Man is never weary of sowing, nor
the sun of calling into life." Crop succeeds crop with astonishing
rapidity; three or four harvests of corn are reaped in the year, twelve or
fifteen of clover and lucerne. All kinds of fruit abound; the margins of
the watercourses blossom with flowers that would be prized in a hothouse,
and the most marvelous fecundity prevails. By these means the Moors of
Malaga, the most scientific and successful of gardeners, developed to the
utmost the marvelously prolific soil. Moorish writers described the
pomegranates of Malaga as red as rubies, and unequaled in the whole world.
The _brevas_, or small green figs, were of exquisitely delicious flavor,
and still merit that encomium. Grapes were a drug in the markets, cheap as
dirt; while the raisins into which they were converted, by a process that
dates back to the Phoenicians, found their way into the far East and were
famous in Palestine, Arabia, and beyond. The vineyards of the Malaga
district, a wide tract embracing all the southern slopes towards the
Mediterranean, were, and still are, the chief source of its wealth. The
wine of Malaga could tempt even Mohammedan Moors to forget their prophet's
prohibition; it was so delicious that a dying Moor when commending his
soul to God asked for only two blessings in Paradise, enough to drink of
the wines of Malaga and Seville. As the "Mountains," this same wine was
much drunk and appreciated by our forefathers. To this day "Malaga" is
largely consumed, both dry and sweet, especially that known as the
Lagrimas, or Tears, a cognate term to the famous Lachrymæ Christi of
Naples, and which are the very essence of the rich ripe grapes, which are
hung up in the sun till the juice flows from them in luscious drops.
Orange groves and lemon groves abound in the Vega, and the fruit is
largely exported. The collection and packing are done at points along the
line of railway to which Malaga is the maritime terminus, as at La
Pizarra, a small but important station which is the starting point for the
Baths of Caratraca, and the mountain ride to Ronda through the
magnificent pass of El Burgo. Of late years Malaga has become a species
of market garden, in which large quantities of early vegetables are
raised, the _primeurs_ of French gourmets, the young peas, potatoes,
asparagus, and lettuce, which are sent north to Paris during the winter
months by express trains. This is probably a more profitable business than
the raising of the sugar-cane, an industry introduced (or more exactly,
revived, for it was known to and cultivated by the Moors) in and around
Malaga by the well-known General Concha, Marques del Duero. He spent the
bulk of a large fortune in developing the cane cultivation, and almost
ruined himself in this patriotic endeavor. Others benefited largely by his
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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