The numerous open and walled water conduits (levadas), which are of considerable height, and lead to all parts of the cultivated land, are of particular importance. Each levada is placed under the superintendence of a committee, selected mostly from the landowners, who have a direct interest in them. Sometimes one person only, generally the most considerable landowner of the district, under the title of juiz da levada, is entrusted with the control of the water, and receives for his services the use of the water during twenty-four hours. The right of using these levadas is very strictly guarded, and often leads to law proceedings. Every piece of ground within a district through which such a conduit runs, is entitled to the use of the water by turns, during a certain number of hours (generally not more than twenty-four). These turns are different, according to the extent of the district, from fifteen to forty days. The distribution of the water is entrusted to a so-called levadeiro, who places himself at the upper end of the land through which the water is to flow, and with an hour-glass in his hand measures—a modern Saturn—the time during which the owner is entitled to the use of the beneficent element. After the expiration of the fixed period, the water is made to pass on to the ground of another proprietor. These conduits, so extremely important to the farmer, were constructed partly at the expense of the Government, and partly by the contributions of the landed proprietors. Those who have no other title may obtain the right to this privilege either by purchase or by government grant. For every twenty-four hours' use of the levadas 400 reis[16] are paid, which tax is employed to keep them in good order.
[16] 1000 reis or milreis=to one Spanish piastre, or about 4s. 4d.
The high roads of Madeira are, with but few exceptions, in a deplorable condition. They are generally laid with small pointed stones, and at numerous places they have an inclination of from 23 to 27 degrees. Every adult male native is obliged to pay annually one Spanish piastre, or to give five days' labour for their repair. On account of the bad condition of the roads in the interior of the island, most of the natural produce is conveyed from one place to another in boats, or, as is the case with wine, is carried to the harbour in skins and casks, on the backs of the inhabitants.
BRIDGE OVER THE RIBEIRO SECO.
The first attempt at cultivation in Madeira was the planting of sugar-canes, introduced soon after the discovery of the island, through the instrumentality of Prince Henry of Portugal (son of John I.), which grew so abundantly, that for a considerable period the produce of the island sufficed for the supply of the whole kingdom of Portugal. In commemoration of this flourishing epoch, as regards the cultivation of the sugar-cane, two sugar-loaves were introduced into the arms of the island. In the year 1452 was erected the first sugar factory, near Machica, and at the end of the fifteenth century there existed as many as 120, in which slaves chiefly were employed. The Jesuit, Antonio Cordeyro, who wrote his Historia Insulana Lusitana at the beginning of last century, makes mention of a considerable number of sugar factories, which had been erected in almost every part of the south coast. On the estate of the Genoese, Juan Esmeralda, half a league from Ribeiro do Taboa, there were annually manufactured 20,000 arrobas[17] of sugar. By degrees, however, the culture of the cane fell, into decay, whether through disease of the plant or its cheaper production in the Brazils and West Indies is not known, so that in the year 1840, only two sugar factories were at work in the whole island; and even these only produce molasses and rum, of which the latter, in the year 1856, amounted to 1500 pipes. The cultivation of the sugar-cane, however, has increased since the vine disease has fallen so heavily on the landowner. In the summer of 1857, there were eighteen factories again in activity on the island, though so late as 1855, the importation of sugar, for the consumption of the island, amounted to but 31,176 arrobas.[18]
[17] One arroba = 32 arrateles or pounds. One pipe = 108 gallons.
[18] From 64 lbs. of sugar-cane are obtained 4 galls. of juice, and from 4 galls. of juice are made 8 galls. of rum. The average price was 2200 reis per gal. of sugar-juice. The rum of commerce (from 22 to 23 degrees) is sold at one Spanish piastre the gallon.
The greatest elevation at which, in the south of the island, the sugar-cane can be grown, is, like that of the banana tree, about 1000 feet above the level of the sea. In the north, the cultivation of the cane would be remunerative only at those points where, as, for instance, at Fayal and San Jorge, ground and temperature are most favourable for it. To judge by the soil and climate, the cultivation of the cane in Madeira might, with care, even at the present time, prove advantageous. In the south-west part of Lousiana, where, in 1796, this plant was introduced exclusively for the manufacture of Taffia,[19] there exist at present as many as 1500 sugar factories, producing annually, on an average, 200,000 hogsheads of sugar. The planter of Madeira is not, as in Lousiana, obliged by the frost to cut the cane before it is ripe; there it ripens thoroughly, blooms in January, and is harvested in March.