Hop-growing is hardly known in the south, but forms an important industry in England, Austria, Germany and Belgium. Among the exotics exclusively cultivated in the south are the sugar-cane, the cotton plant, and rice. The first, which is found in Spain and Sicily, is of little practical moment; the second holds a secondary position in Turkey and Greece; and the third is pretty extensively grown in special districts of Italy, more particularly in the valley of the Po. Even pepper is cultivated to a small extent in the extreme south of Spain. Of the vast number of fruit trees which flourish in different parts of the continent only a few can be mentioned. Their produce furnishes articles of export to Austria-Hungary, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy and Spain. In Sardinia the acorn of the Quercus Ballota is still used as a food, and in Italy, France and Austria the chestnut is of very common consumption. In the Mediterranean region the prevailing forms—which the Germans conveniently sum together in the expression Südfrüchte, or southern fruits—are the orange, the citron, the almond, the pomegranate, the fig and the carob tree. The palm trees have a very limited range: the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) ripens only in southern Spain with careful culture; the dwarf palm (Chamaerops humilis) forms thickets along the Spanish coast and in Sicily, and appears less frequently in southern Italy and Greece.

Special interest Wheat and rye. attaches to the two main bread crops of Europe, wheat and rye, the average annual production of which in the different countries of the continent at three periods is shown in the following tables.

Average Production of Wheat in Millions of Bushels.

1872-1876.[42]1881-1890.[43]1894-1903.[44]
Austria-Hungary[45]137 161 191
Belgium22 18 15
Bulgaria[46 ]..4036
Denmark4.75 3.6
France277 309 335
Germany101 93 127
Greece..7 4
Italy140 122 131
Netherlands6 6 6
Norway0.30.30.4
Portugal9 8 8
Rumania[46]..50 57
Russia[47]275 242 325
Servia[46]..8 11
Spain[48]168 73 101
Sweden3 3.74.5
Switzerland2 2.65
Turkey in Europe[46]..38 18
United Kingdom91 78 57

Average Production of Rye in Millions of Bushels in the chief Rye-producing Countries of Europe.[49]

1872-1876.1881-1890.1894-1903.
Austria-Hungary129122124
Belgium161720
Denmark151722
France696973
Germany209228368
Netherlands101116
Russia[50]715713971
Spain322123
Sweden182027

Perhaps the most striking facts revealed by these two tables are these; first, that the United Kingdom is the only great wheat-growing country which has shown a great decline in the amount of production in two successive periods; and, second, that both Germany and Russia show a great advance under both wheat and rye between the last two periods. This gives interest to statistics of acreage under these two crops, and some data under that head are given in the adjoining tables.

Acreage under Rye.

Period.Germany.Russia
(ex-Poland).
1881-189014.50..
1883-1887..64.6
1899-190314.7465.5

These figures show that the increased production is only in part, in some cases in small part, attributable to increase in area, and the following figures giving the average annual yield of wheat per acre (a) in the period preceding 1885, and (b) generally in the period of five years preceding 1905, shows that an improvement in yield in recent years has been very general.