Wheat
Original title: Trigo
Entry on wheat cultivation in the Madeira archipelago, covering the main growing parishes, harvesting and threshing methods, area, yields, imports and the sub-species and varieties grown.
Wheat growing, yields and varieties
Wheat is grown in every parish of the archipelago, but its cultivation appears most important in the parishes of Santa Cruz, Calheta, Arco da Calheta, Ponta do Pargo, São Vicente, Porto Moniz and Porto da Cruz. It is almost always sown by hand, and it is harvested either by pulling it up or by cutting it with a sickle, the latter method being more common than the former. Threshing is done in one of three ways. It may take place on threshing floors, where the ears are trodden by oxen harnessed to a board with stones and pieces of iron fixed to its underside; or with hand-driven machines; or, finally, with flails, this last method being used only when the quantities of wheat harvested from a given plot are small.
The area under wheat in the whole archipelago is about 2,000 hectares, and production amounts to some 25,000 hectolitres a year. The yield per hectare varies considerably: on some land it may reach 30 hectolitres, while on other land it does not exceed 4 in years of little rain. The average yield on the island of Madeira must be 8 hectolitres per hectare, and in the municipality (concelho) of Funchal some 12 hectolitres.
Before the war Madeira imported about 7 million kilograms of wheat a year, and in 1919 it imported 4,511 tonnes of this cereal and 690 tonnes of flour (1921).
The richness of the soil in phosphoric acid and the island’s terrain, which lets the rain carry every year from higher ground to lower ground a certain quantity of the elements needed for plant nutrition, must be the reason why land remains productive even when the routine-bound, ignorant farmer devotes it to the uninterrupted cultivation of wheat and other cereals. Fertilising the land is of very little concern to the great majority of Madeira’s cereal growers. Some, however, do manure the ground destined for sowing with farmyard dung, and so obtain better harvests than those who do not. Wheat straw is used for thatching huts, for feeding livestock and sometimes also as bedding for stalled animals.
In wheat (Triticum aestivum) three types or sub-species are distinguished: soft wheat, turgid wheat and hard wheat. The first is characterised by a medium-sized caryopsis with a floury fracture and a completely hollow stem; the second by a large, thick, semi-soft caryopsis and a stem only partly hollow; and the third by a hard caryopsis with a hard fracture and a stem completely filled with pith.
In the following list we mention some of the varieties or sub-races grown in the archipelago. They are usually sown from December to March and harvested in June and July:
SOFT WHEATS
In this article
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Years mentioned · 01Place
Places mentioned · 08
- Arco da Calheta
Calheta. One of the parishes where wheat growing is most important.
Arco da Calheta is a parish in the municipality of Calheta, created in 1572 around the chapel of São Brás, whose church holds sixteenth-century paintings. The Elucidário covers its early settlers such as the Andrades, sugar estates, chapels, entails, unrest in 1834 and 1887, and irrigation by the Rabaçal and Pico da Urze levadas.
- Calheta
One of the parishes where wheat growing is most important.
Calheta is a town, parish and municipality on Madeira's south-west coast and one of the island's oldest settlements. The Elucidário covers its name, early settlers such as Pedro Berenguer, its church and many chapels, including one of a former Franciscan convent, and the 1834 riot.
- Funchal
Municipality with an average wheat yield of about 12 hectolitres per hectare.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Ponta do Pargo
Calheta. One of the parishes where wheat growing is most important.
Ponta do Pargo is a parish at Madeira's western extremity, transferred from Porto do Moniz to Calheta municipality in 1871, where a lighthouse long demanded was first lit in 1922. It is watered by the old Rabaçal levada, grows Sercial vines, gives its name to a white cattle sub-breed, and was the birthplace of Manuel da Costa Dias and João Pestana Júnior.
- Porto da Cruz
Machico. One of the parishes where wheat growing is most important.
North-coast parish created in 1577 and noted for good-quality wines. It was transferred from Santana to Machico municipality in 1852 and was the seat of a capitania-mor. It was also a fishing port where some sperm whales were landed.
- Porto Moniz
One of the parishes where wheat growing is most important.
North-western parish and municipality with a quay and a tolerable port that serves as a good landing when southerly winds close the south coast. It has one of the oldest Magdalene chapels in northern Madeira, whose feast falls on 22 July. It was the birthplace of Dr Manuel Gomes Jardim.
- Santa Cruz
One of the parishes where wheat growing is most important.
Santa Cruz is a parish and one of Madeira's oldest settlements, named after a cross Zarco had raised there at the discovery. The Elucidário covers its early ecclesiastical history, collegiate church, chapels, noble settlers and localities.
- São Vicente
One of the parishes where wheat growing is most important.
São Vicente is described as the largest and most populous parish of northern Madeira and the seat of the only town on the north coast. The Elucidário covers its settlement, church history, localities and landscape, and the deadly landslide of 1929.