While one woman works the palm leaves, the other makes a basket.

These articles under the tag rural describes the traditional agricultural cultivation to be found on Mallorca´s landscape and shows the changes that it has undergone due to mass tourism. The onset of tourism brought about a radical transformation of Mallorcan society; the economy, which had previously been based on an agricultural system which operated at an almost subsistence level, was transformed to a service based economic model.

The images on these pages show the primitive agricultural methods that were used until the beginning of the 1960s.

A woman measures out wine before pouring it into a recipient inside a bodega. The "cellers" where wine used to be sold became meeting places, and were eventually turned into the traditional Mallorcan restaurants.

Vine cultivation probably came to Mallorca with the Roman conquest of 123 ad. The activity is documented during the Moorish occupation (903-1229), however, it was unlikely to have been important, as the grapes were not used for wine production, although raisins were an important part of the Muslim diet.

With the Catalan conquest of 1229, vine cultivation increased extraordinarily and vineyards for the production of wine started appearing. The new agricultural orientation that the conquerors instigated was probably based largely around vineyards and olive cultivation. Vine cultivation became a type of colonial monoculture, or at least that was the intention, and vineyards consequently spread throughout practically the whole island. In the majority of homes there was a bodega, even in small houses. In the fifteenth century a plague came down on Mallorcan vineyards and led to a decline in this cultivation, with it ultimately disappearing in many places.

Vine cultivation spread during the eighteenth century and the first third of the nineteenth. This expansion was helped along by the fact that in 1802 a tax exemption of twenty years was granted to those who cultivated vines. Production suffered mixed fortunes due to plagues until the end of the nineteenth century, at the same time there was also an enormous increase in demand from France. Phylloxera had destroyed French vine plantations, and in 1882 a contract was signed between France and Spain which favoured the export of Spanish wines. In Mallorca, vineyards grew up on land that had either been previously used for subsistence crops such as cereals and vegetables, or was uncultivated. This expansion was speculative, and more importance was given to quantity than quality. In 1891, there were more vineyards than ever, with 30,000 hectares of land given over to this activity; it is thought that the rise of the vineyard was one of the causes in the rise of small-scale land ownership as well. However, in the same year, 1891, the appearance of the phylloxera plague brought about the demise of all the vineyards on the island, and caused a serious economic crisis. Many peasants, day labourers and small land owners had to emigrate, the majority going to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Argentina and Algeria. The solution to the phylloxera was to replant the vineyards with American vines, however, different cultivations, especially cereals and almonds, were planted in many areas. Phylloxera highlighted the lack of prevision of a sector that wasn´t prepared for competition on the world market, and on top of this, France imposed tariffs that restricted Mallorcan exports in 1892.

Vine cultivation recovered in the twentieth century, especially in Felanitx, and the creation of the Oenology Station has spread more scientific cultivation techniques. Production was more or less stable over the course of the twentieth century until the 1980s, when this sector found itself in a crisis that had been brought on at a general level the decadence of Mallorcan agriculture, or to be more specific, by the low profitability of the sector and the competitiveness of the market. Other handicaps were the excessive parcelling of land and the high number of vines per hectare, which made mechanisation difficult, and subsidies from the EU in return for abandoning this cultivation, which led to the destruction of 1000 hectares of vineyards between 1985 and 1996.

Wine is currently going through a revival. This has come about due to the development of quality wines that fetch good prices owing to their limited production runs and a strong internal demand from the tourist sector. There are two regulatory boards for wines in Mallorca, with two appellations d´origine: Denominación de origen de Binissalem and Denominación del Pla i Llevant de Mallorca.

A barefoot peasant sweeps the threshing floor while the other throws wheat into the air to separate the grain from the straw.

Vine cultivation probably came to Mallorca with the Roman conquest of 123 ad. The activity is documented during the Moorish occupation (903-1229), however, it was unlikely to have been important, as the grapes were not used for wine production, although raisins were an important part of the Muslim diet.

With the Catalan conquest of 1229, vine cultivation increased extraordinarily and vineyards for the production of wine started appearing. The new agricultural orientation that the conquerors instigated was probably based largely around vineyards and olive cultivation. Vine cultivation became a type of colonial monoculture, or at least that was the intention, and vineyards consequently spread throughout practically the whole island. In the majority of homes there was a bodega, even in small houses. In the fifteenth century a plague came down on Mallorcan vineyards and led to a decline in this cultivation, with it ultimately disappearing in many places.

Vine cultivation spread during the eighteenth century and the first third of the nineteenth. This expansion was helped along by the fact that in 1802 a tax exemption of twenty years was granted to those who cultivated vines. Production suffered mixed fortunes due to plagues until the end of the nineteenth century, at the same time there was also an enormous increase in demand from France. Phylloxera had destroyed French vine plantations, and in 1882 a contract was signed between France and Spain which favoured the export of Spanish wines. In Mallorca, vineyards grew up on land that had either been previously used for subsistence crops such as cereals and vegetables, or was uncultivated. This expansion was speculative, and more importance was given to quantity than quality. In 1891, there were more vineyards than ever, with 30,000 hectares of land given over to this activity; it is thought that the rise of the vineyard was one of the causes in the rise of small-scale land ownership as well. However, in the same year, 1891, the appearance of the phylloxera plague brought about the demise of all the vineyards on the island, and caused a serious economic crisis. Many peasants, day labourers and small land owners had to emigrate, the majority going to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Argentina and Algeria. The solution to the phylloxera was to replant the vineyards with American vines, however, different cultivations, especially cereals and almonds, were planted in many areas. Phylloxera highlighted the lack of prevision of a sector that wasn´t prepared for competition on the world market, and on top of this, France imposed tariffs that restricted Mallorcan exports in 1892.

Vine cultivation recovered in the twentieth century, especially in Felanitx, and the creation of the Oenology Station has spread more scientific cultivation techniques. Production was more or less stable over the course of the twentieth century until the 1980s, when this sector found itself in a crisis that had been brought on at a general level the decadence of Mallorcan agriculture, or to be more specific, by the low profitability of the sector and the competitiveness of the market. Other handicaps were the excessive parcelling of land and the high number of vines per hectare, which made mechanisation difficult, and subsidies from the EU in return for abandoning this cultivation, which led to the destruction of 1000 hectares of vineyards between 1985 and 1996.

Wine is currently going through a revival. This has come about due to the development of quality wines that fetch good prices owing to their limited production runs and a strong internal demand from the tourist sector. There are two regulatory boards for wines in Mallorca, with two appellations d´origine: Denominación de origen de Binissalem and Denominación del Pla i Llevant de Mallorca.

A barefoot peasant sweeps the threshing floor while the other throws wheat into the air to separate the grain from the straw.

Ever since Neolithic times, wheat has been a staple food on Mallorca. During the Talaiotic period, which was prior to the Roman conquest, wheat and livestock formed the base of both the diet and the economy.

Wheat from the Balearic Islands has been praised in sources from the Roman period, and was cultivated in a classic Mediterranean combination together with vines and olives. During the period of Moorish rule (from 903 to 1229), in which the island had a good water network that supplied water to the city and nearly all the cultivated areas, wheat wasn’t very important. In fact, the irrigated lands were mainly used for fresh vegetables and animal feed, as well as for some production of rice and cotton. Following the feudal Christian conquest that was carried out by the Crown of Catalonia and Aragon in 1229, the Moorish cultivations were substituted and cereals became the alimentary base for the population. Wheat then became the most important cereal, followed by other cereals such as barley, which were used as animal feed and also for human consumption during times of hunger.

Until modern times, the irregularity of the crops was always a problem, this being due to the Mediterranean climate and the inefficient cultivation techniques of the times; there was thus a dependency on wheat imports from other parts of the Mediterranean. Problems with maritime transport in this period meant that the imports were often delayed, and the fixing of prices, storage and distribution of wheat became a monopoly of the governing institutions. A bad year brought with it hunger to a section of the people, who, once malnourished, became easy prey to the pestilence which flourished under the sanitary conditions of the time. Another consequence was the chronic debt of the public purse of Mallorca, which had to provide money to pay for the imports of the wheat.
From the eighteenth century onwards, Mallorca achieved a greater degree of integration into the international trading circuit, and this together with improvements in maritime transport, meant that wheat could be regularly supplied from abroad. This brought about a decrease in the proportion of land dedicated to wheat cultivation, which was substituted by commercial crops such as vines in accordance with international demand. This trend continued until the second half of the twentieth century, since which time traditional cultivation has been progressively abandoned for the lure of the tourist economy, and wheat production has consequently been reduced; in fact, wheat cultivation only manages to keep going thanks to public subsidies.

A print taken from the book Die Balearen showing the stone used to press the olives and thus extract the oil, in the Massanella oil mill, which is part of an estate on the Serra de Tramuntana mountains.

The cultivation of olives and the consumption of olive oil have a long tradition in Mallorca. Olive oil is fundamental in Mallorcan cooking, and in the past it was also used for lighting in houses. The olive tree is typically Mediterranean and is well suited to the unique climate of Mallorca, especially in the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range, where olive trees, some of which are over a thousand years old, form a part of the landscape.

It was in the sixteenth century that great advances were made in olive cultivation and the production of olive oil, especially in the villages of the Sierra de Tramuntana mountain range, with Sóller being the main production centre. Olives were the main source of wealth for the estates in these villages for a long period of time, and nearly all the estates had their own oil mill. Oil produced in excess of local demand was exported to economic centres such as London, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Marseilles, and we thus see the dominant social classes involved in controlling production and commerce. Rather than being for human consumption, the exported oil was used as a raw material in industrial processes. In England and Holland, low-grade oils were needed in textile mills, and Marseilles, with its powerful chemical industry, imported oil from Mallorca for use in the fabrication of soap.

Between the second half of the seventeenth century and the first decades of the eighteenth, oil represented between 65% and 85% of all exports from Mallorca. But from 1850 onwards, oil became secondary in the export rankings, as exports such as wine and almonds became stronger; and on top of this, at the end of the nineteenth century the international market lost interest in Mallorcan oil, which was largely of a low quality and shunned in favour of oil from Italy by both American and European consumers. However, despite the continued decline of oil exports right up until the beginning of the twentieth century, it continued to be the main source of income for the estates with their own oil mill on the Sierra de Tramuntana.

Nowadays the geography of the area and the subsequent difficulty in gaining access with machinery, as well as insect plagues and the general state of abandonment of the olive groves, mean that cultivating olives is difficult, and the production of oil has greatly declined. Oli verge de la Serra de Tramuntana (virgin olive oil of the Sierra de Tramuntana) is obtained from Mallorcan olives that are grown at an altitude of between 300m and 600m. This oil has a QC (quality control) denomination from the Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry of the Regional Government of the Balearic Islands.

The carob tree is typical of the dry regions on Mallorca island, it grows on land that isn’t particularly fertile and doesn’t need much looking after. Its wood has traditionally been used as firewood, and its fruit, the carob, was used as feed for draught animals. There was a significant increase in the consumption of carobs between the last third of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, and this was linked to the consumption by animals. Large quantities of carobs were exported both abroad and to Spain, but the progressive decline in the use of draught animals reduced demand. However, other uses were found for the carob, such as in the industrial production of chocolate with carob substituting cocoa and in the extraction of sugars, alcohol and laxatives. The carob seed is used in the production of plastics, although synthetic materials have detracted from its importance in this field. During the period of the Spanish Civil War and the post-war years, in which Spain was internationally isolatad, the carob took on a special significance in the production of foodstuffs that could not be easily imported, such as coffee.

The large increase in demand for carob seeds that occurred in the mid-seventies, which was due to demand from the food, paper and textile industries, created false hopes with respect to the cultivation of this product. As with the majority of traditional cultivations, the carob tree is currently in recession.