The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-16

Copyright, 1911, by Frank G. Carpen-
 ter.) Patras. HHE Greeks of today are nation os
 farmers and sailors. The cities A are few and there are only 12 towns which have more than 10000 in- habitants. The most of the people live in farm villages, from which they go out daily to their work in the fields. The holdings are small. The farms on the plains are from 10 10 50 acres in size and there are very few in the coun- try which have more than 200 acres have spent the last week in riding through the chief agricultural districts and pen these notes at Patras. the chief port of the west. It took me day to reach 1t from Athens. and there were vineyards and farms all the way. l first crossed the plains of Attica. They are now spotted with orchards and vineyards. The trees and vines are bare, but the buds are swelling and they will soon be covered with emerald leaves. The soil is rich, reddish brown. which shines like velvet under the rays of the sun. The mountains are blank eted with robes of silver gray plush, the dusty grass, upon which f1ocks of sheep and goats are feeding
 AS l crossed lneSe pldlnS stopped at Eleusis to attend the spring festivi- ties of the Greeks preparatory to planting, and thence came on to Corinth, which in the days of Christ was as large as Boston is now. It has shrunk- en to less than 1000. and is mainly made up of farmers. The town has not been hettered by the Corinth canal, which there cuts it's way through the isthmus The traffic is small and most of the ships still go around to the Piraeus by sea. There was a ship In the canal as I crossed il.
 From Corinth on westward the rail- road passes for miles through great vineyards. The vines have been cut back, and they are now nothing but stumps as thick as my legs and as high as my knee. They are budding, and will soon put out the new sprouts for the year
 Millions in Currants
 As l looked at the stumps a Creek official with whom I was travelling said;
 Tt Is these vineyards that give us our living. They produce the chief crop of the country. bringing in from S5 5,OO0,- GOO to s10,000,000 a year"
 Indeed said I. T did not know that Greece was great exporter of wine ''
 Tt is not" replied the Greek, but these vineyards are not grown for wine. The grapes they produce are known as entrants, and they are shipped all over the world for making plum buildings. fruit cake, buns and mince pies We send thousands of tons of them to Flu rope and from 15,000, 900 to 10000. 900 pounds to the United States every year."
 But the bushes are not like our currant bushes?"
 They are not entrants in that sense offthe word They are a seedless grape as big as @ marrowfat pea and as sweet as sugar. They are dried and sold as raisins. They get their name, cur rant, from the fact that they were originally grown near Corinth. We have all told, about 50,O0O acres de- voted to them, and we regulate the crop so as not to cheapen the prices This matter comes up in parliament and it is one of our political issues. We have a currant bank, organized to aid the Greek farmer, and other banks help them in handling the crop. At one time the currant bank bought up the poor currants on the market and sold them to local distillers for brandy. This was because it was feared they might injure the reputation of the Greek cur rant in the markets of the world"
 Prom where are the entrants shipped2"
 The most of them are sent to Patras and thence to the different countries