Crops
“Agricultural conditions are very favourable around Bizerte; vegetation is extraordinarily strong. Crops such as cereals, grapes, almonds and olives stand out.
Foraging plants have to be grown, especially oats which, when recently harvested, can produce from 30 to 100 hundred-pound weights per hectare. A hectare of prickly pears has to produce 200 hundred-pound weights of fruit per year, their fruit as nourishing as potatoes. Trunks cut in small pieces and mixed with forage or hay are one of the most refreshing foods for cows, especially in summer.
Broad beans offer good results and, thanks to their long roots, withstand droughts well. Harvesting grapes can also be very advantageous, earning between 600 to 1000 francs per hectare.
Olives are another of the main factor’s behind Tunisia’s prosperity… Anyone who dedicates a few hectares to this crop in this country will get a good return on their investment.
The region between Tabarka and Bizerte is rich in terms of cork oaks, forming immense forests in Kroumirie.”
Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria, Bizerte, J. Rothschild, Paris, 1900 (Prague, 1897)
