New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-07-27
Nkw4lork DAILY @xibn,te

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THE AGRICULTURE AND RESOURCES or
GREECE.

les Greece
Is7:h of Europe, and have but little .esure 70 'eno
YOU = parting message from the shsdos OF thu
he-,,els: ye. few words mus: be sad 10 regard
4. Greece az productive couu.ry, suble:t con-
,.ni,g which you have doubtless heard very con-
tr.yv opinions. The Greeks themselves are so
much in the habit of saying, owe have poor
county" that the flying tourist, who stops four
asy. q. Athens on his way 10 Egypt AID Palestine,
sd sto sees only the bald sldes of Hymsttus sud
p.p;sh.us and the dry plain of Attca magnes
TIE Stoie country to be barren, desolste, cured
uit is customary to represent Judea. With ths
execution of Acarnaoia, Etola. and parts OF Eub9i,
Il does indeed greatly lack water, but i.s soil is
pyobstlyas productive, in other respects, as any
eouatry of Europe. Tie valleys are fne mellow
le.n, which produces excellent crops Of wheat, rye
md barley, although the system Of agriculture is
Honeric in its simplicity and rudeness. The lower
,lepes Of the mountains, where they have been re-
GAINED, or have escaped the devastation of war,
produce vines IS in Missolonghi, forests as in Eu-
kes Or grsiu, as in Mama, while the siies Of Par
AAsfls Tsygetus and Erymanthus are covered up
to The elevation Of 5000 feet, with woods of oak,
hr and pine.
But one thing falls without which the Garden
Of Eden itself would be poor-the means Of trans
ttrtiug produce TO market. Al the roads in
the PeoponDesus, with the exception Of tina. from
Nau2.is to Tnpoli.zs, the toughest possible
bride 2atbs crossed in many places by mountain
torrents, which frequently interrupt the conmuui-
cation for days 10 fact one can hardly say tina.
there sre any roads at all, in Spring when the plow
xbl.terates all trace of the previous trail. In
Northern Greece there is but one, from Athens TO
Tbebes, which is nov impossible, owing to fifty
yards oft having been washed away 10 the pass OF
Enoe, about six mouths ago. From Iaeoes 70
Liyadis there is a bride track over the Boeotan
plain, which is a qusgmire when it rains. For.
merry much barley was raised about Livadia, but
the cost of transporting it to Athens upon asses was
found 10 be just three fourths of the value Of what
the ass carried, go that, unless the trader sue
oee6ed in doing little highway robbery on his
way back, he lost money BY the trip. The peas
altry around Athens now use carts, and with the
present high prices, succeed in driving very good
business This Winter the Government has made
an effort TO do something in the way Of remedyiDg
this evil We hear of roads to Chalcs, to Corinth,
and other placer. An engineer has been imported
from France at a salary of $4,000 francs year,
notwithstanding there is an abundance Of Greek
engineers idle. A large sum has been raised by
special taxation, but all that has yet been accom-
pli,hed 10 the grading Of few streets IN Athens.
Bu.-"Do not expect too much OF W, say the
Greeks
A German botanist, Fraas, think, has given
very decided opinion that the lost forests OF Greece
never be restored, and that the land must con-
sequently remain dry and barren. With this decls-
ION must wholly dissent. All Greece, 1t is true,
rests on a bed of blue limestone, which refnes into
marble here and there, and the hills which have
been dsiorested are as bare aud dry as the noun
taius Of Moab. IIymettus appears to be hopeless
" naked, and even Parnes hides his few remaining
pines in the depth of his savage gorges. Yet the
least encouragement would re.lothe even this
sterity An example Of what simply letting the
mountains alone will do, is seen at the pass OF
EuOe, between Cith@ron and Parnes. Here the
peasants have been prevented for few years past
from touching the young pines, and the nights are
covered green and thick up TO the very summit.
As for forest culture, such as is carried on with
much success in Germany it is unheard OF. 1t
lie true, Inspectors, Foresters &c, have been ap-
pointed, and some 200 900 drachmas of the revenue
goes in this way, but the only thiOg they do is to
make the peasants pay for tapping pine trees for
resip instead Of taking it for nothing. If Greek
mountaneer wants little wood for his fire, he
cuts down twenty thriving saplings rather than
fatigue himself by telling full grown tree. Eub9a,
which was once land of splendid forests, abound
ing with deer is rapidly becoming denuded, aud
the mountain valleys orce plentituly and regularly
matered are now subject to alternate freshets aud
drouths
Wood was sid last Winter in Athens at fae
rate Of . cent pound, while the grand oak woods
on norif and Els are lying full Of rottiDg trunks.
All oyef the country one sees noble trees wsntopy
girdled, even in the midst Of forests, where they
are never felled. It would seem thst ths people |
took peculiar pleasure in the acs of destruction.
A large landowner in Eubes informed me that
while experimenting the cutting OF pines in his
woods, be directed the workmen to be very careful
and fell the trees in such direction as to ipjure
The saplirgs under them as little as possible. The
people laughed outright, and almost told him to his
face that be was a fool. The sspliugs they said,
were little thirgs, worth nothing except TO burn,
ard il would be 10 harm to destroy them all.
Where thu forest. have only been partially spared,
Il ,re aie fountains and running ,tresms the whoie
year through The A'pheus AMI the Ecrotas' led
by the oak covered hs Of Arcadia, flow through
S,nmer bes,s. but 10 naked Attica the CePhlssus
ard the Ilissus peTlsh even before they reach the
I la in he m