into raifins, neither the rotten nor the unripe fruit is removed ;
the confequence of which is, that the bad raifins foon fpoil thofe
that otherwife.would have been good.
The almonds are, in general, fmall, but of a good quality.
The trees thrive well in the very drieft and worfl: of foils; in no
fituation better than among the rocks on the fides of mountains,
where nothing elfe would grow ; and they will bear fruit the
fifth year from the feed. The quantity, therefore, of thefe nuts
might be produced to an indefinite amount. The confumption
in the Cape of both thefe articles is very confiderable, as fur-
nilhing part of the defert, without which, after fupper as well
a s dinner, few houfeholders would be contented; the omiflion
might be confidered as a criterion'of poverty, a condition which
the weaknefs of human nature leads men generally to diflemble
rather than avow. Ships alfo take confiderable quantities of
almonds and raifins as fea-ftock; but few have hitherto been
fent to India or to Europe as articles of trade. Before the capture
the prices might have admitted of it, almonds being then not
more than from a ihilling to eighteenpence fterling the thou-
fand, and raifins from twopence to threepence a pound; but
the increafed demand, in confequence of the increafed number
of ihipping, as well as of' inhabitants, raifed the price of the
former from two fhillings to two {hillings and fixpence the thou-
fand, and of the latter from fourpence to fixpence a pound.
Walnuts and Chefnuts are neither plentiful nor good; and
the latter will barely keep a month without decaying, fo that
- thefe
thefe are never likely to become articles of general confumption
or of exportation.
But dried peaches, apricots, pears, and apples, are not only
plentiful, but good of their kind. The peaches and pears are
ufed in the defert, but apricots and apples are intended for tarts;
the latter, indeed, are nearly as good as when freih from the tree.
All the others are fqueezed together and dried whole, but the
apples are iliced thin and dried in the fun, till they take the con-:
fiftence and appearance of flips of leather, of that kind and
colour ufually called the York tan. . Thefe, when foaked in-
water, fwell out and make very excellent tarts; and are -fold
chiefly as an article of fea ftock. The whole value of dried
fruit, ihipped in the year 1802, amounted only to 2542 rix
dollars, as appears by the Cuftom-houfe books, on which every
pound is entered, being fubjeCt to a duty on exportation of
5 per cent.
S a l t P r o v i s i o n s .
This is an article, as I have already taken occafion to obferve,
that is fufceptible of great improvement; not, however, to be
prepared in Cape Town, after the cattle have been harafled and
famifhed for -two months in travelling over a barren defert, but
cured at Algoa Bay, and brought down in fmall coafting veflels
to the Cape. Salted mutton, and mutton hams, might, however,
be, and are, indeed, to a certain degree, prepared at the
Cape, but not to that extent of which they are capable.
Q_Q_2 It