Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1024

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GREECE

Production and Industry.

Greece is mainly an agricultural country, and the economic life is directly dependent on the products of the soil. Of the total area only one- fifth is cultivable. The total area (old Greece) is 6,429,610 hectares (16,074,025 acres), made up as follows : 1,286,583 hectares (3,216,457 acres) is cultivated land; 5,055,122 hectares (12,137,805 acres) is covered by mountains ; and 87,905 hectares (219,762 acres) occupied by lakes and marshes.

The deforestation of Greece progresses steadily and in every part of the country. The pine woods in Attica steadily decrease by cutting and by fires, but great efforts for re-afforestation and proper forest administration are being made.

By the draining of Lake Copais, an area of about 53,000 acres has been acquired for agricultural purposes. Irrigation and drainage canals, farm roads and buildings are being constructed, tree planting is undertaken, and the breed of cattle is being improved.

While there are a fsw large proprietors in Greece, the land is to a large extent in the hands of peasant proprietors and metayer farmers, among whom the large estates, on which they live and work, are being divided. On the whole, agriculture is in a backward state, chiefly because of the dryness of the climate, the scarcity of rivers which may be utilised for irrigation, the system of payment of rent in kind, and by the lack of co-operative societies and agricultural banks. The most favoured and best cultivated crop is the currant, which covers vast districts. Patras is the great currant centre. The yield for 1920 was 95,000 tons. Thirty-three thousand stremmata (stremma = 0'2471 acre) of currant plantations have been uprooted in accordance with a law to limit the production of currants.

The acreage and production of the chief crops for two years were as follows : —

Area in Acres

Production in Metric Tons

l'.HT

1918

1,104,60S 418,435 423,!-07 183.24:' 117,732 19,602 411,180 214,635

1918

Wheat.

Tobacco

New wine Currants

•

1,057,656 394,290 438,087 160,935 99,940 12,320 429,107 202,617

37,340. 7TO 15,808,860 16,428,500

0,569,330

3,035,120

.730

31,788,500

12,061,010

Olives are abundant, about 717,500 acres are under cultivation ; olive oil production in 1918, 31,702,800 gallons. The nut crop was estimated at 4,486,185 lbs. forl919. The lig industry is centred in the port ofCalamata. In 1918 the number of oranges grown was 49,000,000, of mandarins, 53,000,000, and of lemons, 35,500,000. Rice is cultivated in Greek Macedonia — Vodena, near Salonika, being the principal centre. Two kinds of cheese are produced in Greece — sliced cheese in brine (commercially known as Fetta cheese) and head cheese.

There were in Greece (1918) 131,436 horses, 111,979 mules, 242,700 asses, 527,173 cattle, 5,467,828 sheep, and 365,074 pigs.

Greece has a great variety of miueral deposits, and there are now in force