Experimental fields
Original title: Campos Experimentais
Experimental agricultural fields set up by the Junta Agrícola in four Madeiran localities; the one at Ribeira Brava was the most successful, distributing selected fruit trees to farmers.
The Agricultural Council (Junta Agrícola) set up an experimental field in each of the following localities: Louros (Funchal), Ribeira Brava, the Paul da Serra and Porto da Cruz. The experimental field at the last of these did not last long. Of the others, the one that gave the best results was at Ribeira Brava (‘wild river’), which distributed a very large number of selected specimens of fruit trees to farmers. On the Paul da Serra (‘upland marsh’) good crops were obtained of potatoes (semilhas, the Madeiran word), cabbages, turnips, carrots, cucumbers, lettuces, beans, peas, beetroot, etc.