About the Book
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. 1896 Excerpt: ...more than doubled in twenty years, viz.: --Oallona. Talue. 1872.... 9,500,000 2,100,000 1892.... 22,100,000 8,100,000 The quantity exported is only one-fourth of the vintage, the home consumption averaging 12 gallons per inhabitant, Agricultural products are equal to 16 per cent, on capital: the capital and products may be summed up thus: --CapitaJ. Products. Land... 138,400,000 Wine... 6,700,000 Cattle.. 10,500,000 Grain, &c... 11,200,000 Sundries.. 14,900,000 Animal products. 8,100,000 Total.. 163,800,000 Total.. 26,000,000 The latest official valuation of farm products was 18,000,000 for grain, wine, &c., and 5,200,000 for animal products, in all 23,200,000. The productive area being 11,600,000 acres, the product is equal to 45 shillings per acre, against 51 in Spain and 77 in Italy. It is stated by Portuguese writers that the kingdom consists of 5 million acres cultivated, 10 million idle but suitable for tillage, and 5 million of mountain waste. There is, however, no prospect of the available land being cultivated so long as the present system of land tenure exists. More than half the kingdom, in fact 13 million acres, or 60 per cent, of the whole area, is in the hands of noblemen who have neither the capital nor the energy to develop their estates. If it were possible for the Government to do as was clone in Austria and Prussia, namely to purchase from the nobles one-half of their estates, say 6,300,000 acres, and distribute the same in thirtyacre lots among the peasantry, the cultivated area would be doubled in a few years. According to an official report there are 870,000 adults engaged in agriculture, among whom a division of the products would give an average of 30, as compared with 30 in Ital...
