El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-04-15

~ ATRAS, Greece, April 2.-The
~ Greeks of today are a nation OF
= farmers and sailors. The cities
are few and there are only II towns
which have more than 10000 inhabi-
tants 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 to so acres in size
and there are very few in the country
which have more than 200 acres. l
have spent the last week in riding
through the chief agricultural dictricts
and pen these notes at Patras. the chief
port of the west 1t took me a day to
reach it from Athens, and there were
vineyards and farms all the way. I
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 a rich, reddish
brown, which shines like velvet under
the rays of the sun. The mountains are
blanketed with robes of silver gray
plush. the dusty grass, upon which
flocks of sheep and goats are feeding.
AS 1 crossed these plains L stopped at
Eleusis to attend the spring festivities
of the Greeks preparatory to planting,
in the days of Christ was as large as
Boston is now. It has shrunken to
lesss than 4000 and is mainly made
I'D Of farmers. The town has not been
bettered by the Corinth canal which
there cuts its way through the 18TH
mus 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 it.
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 leg and as high
as my knee. They are budding, and
will soon put out the new sprouts Tor
the year.
Millions In Currants.
AS looked at the stumps a Greek
official with whom I was travelling
said:
ct is these vineyards that give us
our living. They produce the chief
crop of the country. bringing in from
$1,000. 600 to 100000 a year
Indeed" said l. 'I did not know
that Greece was a great exporter of
wine"
ct is not" replied the Greek. but
these vineyards are not grown for
wine. The grapes they produce are
known as currants, and they are ship
ped all over the world for making
plum buildings, fruit cake, buns and
mince pies We send from 100000
to 20000 600 pounds to the United
States every year"
but the bushes are not like our
currant bushes?"
They are not currants in that sense
of the word. They are a seedless
grape as big as a marrowfat pea and
as sweet as sugar They are dried
and sold as raisins They get their
name, currant from the fact that they
were originally grown near Corinth.
We have, all told, about 10000 acres
devoted to them, and we regulate the
crop so as not to cheaper the price.
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 currant in the markets of the
world"
From where are the currants
shipped?"
THE most Of them are sent to Pa
tras, and thence to the different coun-