Notes and Observations on the Ionian Islands and Malta (Volume 1); With Some Remarks on Constantinople and Turkey, and on the System of Quarantine as at Present Conducted (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1842. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X. ON THE SOILS, AND ON THE STATE OF AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE IN THE IONIAN ISLANDS. Principal Varietie8 of Soils, and their Capacities. Present rude State of Agriculture. Circumstances which may have conduced to it. Tables of Produce. Implements of Husbandry. Culture of Wheat--Maize--the Common Vine. Wine-making, and Varieties of Wine. Currant-Vine, and its Fruit. Culture of the Olive and tb Making of Oil. Cotton. The Potato. Tobacco. Rice. Question of the Effect of Rice-Fields on the Salubrity of the Air. Culture of Vegetables and Fruit-Trees. Modes of Propagating the Latter. Caprification. Pasture Lands. Flocks. Pastoral Life. Musical Instruments. Field Labour. Wages of Labourers. Land Tenures. Remarks on the Neglect of Manuring and Planting. Proportion of Cultivated and Waste Land. Examples in Zante and Cerigo. The soils of the Ionian Islands may be conveniently, and with tolerable precision, divided into three kinds, according to their nature and composition; 1st, those consisting principally of calcareous marl; 2d, of red clay; and 3d, of sand. The marl-soil is very abundant; it occurs whereever the gray clay or marl formation exists, from which it is derived, partly by the action of atmospheric influences, and partly by the labour of man. The substratum and soil differ principally in consistence. The former is dense and compact in mass; the latter loose, soft, and very friable, more or less penetrated by air. There is a difference, too, in colour. The substratum is of a bluish or grayish hue; the soil is of a fawn colour, or light brown. The colour of both is owing to oxide of iron; of the substratum, to protoxide; of the soil, to the peroxide, --the one being converted into the other by absorption of oxygen on exposure to the atmosphere..