rise to various tedious but ingenious processes for making hay and drying corn.

92

The

latter often remains in the fields in shocks or in small ricks, after the ground is covered with snow, till the clear frosts set in, when it becomes dry, and may be taken home. Besides the common mode of placing the sheaves astride with the ears downwards on horizontal fir poles (fig. 92.), there are various others. In some places young fir trees, with the stumps of the branches left on, are fixed in the ground, and the sheaves hung on them, like flowers on a maypole, the topmost sheaf serving as a cap or finish to all the rest. Sometimes covered rails or racks are resorted to (fig. 79.): at other times skeleton roofs or racks are formed, and the sheaves distributed over them. (fig 93.) Often in Norway the corn is obliged to be cut green, from the sudden arrival of winter. Dr. Clarke found it in this state in October; and near Christiana it was suspended on poles and racks to dry, above fields covered with ice and snow. Corn is threshed in the north of Sweden by passing over it a threshingcarriage, which is sometimes made of cast-iron, and has twenty 93 wheels, and sometimes more. The sheaves are spread on a floor of boards, and a week's labour of one carriage, horse, and man will not thresh more than a ton of corn, because the crop being always cut before it is fully ripened, its texture is exceedingly tough. The hay is sometimes dried in the same

manner.

After all, they are in some seasons obliged to dry both, especially the corn, in sheds or barns heated by stoves, as in Russia. (683.) In mowing hay in Lapland the scythe, the blade of which is not larger than a sickle, is swung by the mower to the right and left, turning it in his hands with great dexterity.

705. The forests of Sweden are chiefly of the wild pine and spruce fir; the latter supplies the spars, and the former the masts and building timber so extensively exported. The roads in Norway, as in some parts of Russia, are formed of young trees laid across and covered with earth, or left bare. Turpentine is extracted from the pine: the outer bark of the beech is used for covering houses, and the inner for tanning. The birch is tapped for wine; and the spray of this tree, and of the elm, alder, and willow is dried with the leaves on in summer, and fagoted and stacked for winter fodder. The young wood and inner bark of the pine, fir, and elm, are powdered and mixed with meal for feeding swine. 706. The chase is pursued as a profitable occupation in the northern parts of Sweden, and for the same animals as in Russia.

707. If any one, says Dr. Clarke, wishes to see what English farmers once were, and how they fared, he should visit Norway. Immense families, all sitting down together at one table, from the highest to the lowest. If but a bit of butter be called for in one of these houses, a mass is brought forth weighing six or eight pounds; and so highly ornamented, being turned out of moulds, with the shape of cathedrals, set off with Gothic spires and various other devices, that, according to the language of our English farmers' wives, we should deem it "almost a pity to cut." (Scandinavia, ch. xvi.) They do not live in villages, as in most other countries, but every one on his farm, They have in consequence little intercourse with strangers, except during winter, when they attend fairs at immense distances, for the purpose of disposing of produce, and purchasing articles of dress. "What would be thought in England," Dr. Clarke asks, " of a labouring peasant, or the occupier of a small farm, making a journey of nearly 700 miles to a fair, for the articles of their home consumption? Yet he found Finns at the fair at Abo, who had come from Torneo, a distance of 679 miles, for this purpose.

however small.

"9

708. With respect to improvement the agriculture of Sweden is, perhaps, susceptible of less than that of any of the countries we have hitherto examined; but what it wants will be duly and steadily applied, by the intelligence and industry of all ranks in that country. It must not be forgotten, however, that it is a country of forests and mines, and not of

agriculture.

SECT. IX. Of the present State of Agriculture in Spain and Portugal.

709. Spain, when a Roman province, was undoubtedly as far advanced in agriculture as any part of the empire. It was overrun by the Vandals and Visigoths in the beginning of the fifth century, under whom it continued till conquered by the Moors in the beginning of the eighth century. The Moors continued the chief possessors of Spain

I

until the middle of the thirteenth century. They are said to have materially improved agriculture during this period; to have introduced various new plants from Africa, and also bucket-wheels for irrigation. Professor Thouin mentions an ancient work by Ebn-al-Awam of Seville, of which a translation into Spanish was made by Banquieri of Madrid, in 1802, which contains some curious particulars of the culture of the Moors in Spain. The Moors and Arabs were always celebrated for their knowledge of plants; and, according to Harte, one fourth of the names of the useful plants of Spain are of Arabian extraction.

710. Agriculture formed the principal and most honourable occupation among the Moors, and more especially in Granada. So great was their attention to manure, that it was preserved in pits, walled round with rammed earth to retain moisture: irrigation was employed in every practicable situation. The Moorish or Mohammedan religion forbade them to sell their superflous corn to the surrounding nations; but in years of plenty it was deposited in the caverns of rocks and in other excavations, some of which, as Jacob informs us (Travels, let. xiii.), are still to be seen on the hills of Granada. These excavations were lined with straw, and are said (erroneously, we believe) to have preserved the corn for such a length of time, that, when a child was born, a cavern was filled with corn which was destined to be his portion when arrived at maturity. The Moors were particularly attentive to the culture of fruits, of which they introduced all the best kinds now found in Spain, besides the sugar and cotton. Though wine was forbidden, vines were cultivated to a great extent; for forbidden pleasures form a main source of enjoyment in every country. An Arabian author, who wrote on agriculture about the year 1140, and who quotes another author of his nation, who wrote in 1073, gives the following directions for the cultivation of the sugar-cane: —

711. The canes "should be planted in the month of March, in a plain, sheltered from the east wind, and near to water; they should be well manured with cow-dung, and watered every fourth day, till the shoots are one palm in height, when they should be dug round, manured with the dung of sheep, and watered every night and day till the month of October. In January, when the canes are ripe, they should be cut into short pieces and crushed in the mill. The juice should be boiled in iron caldrons, and left to cool till it becomes clarified; it should then be boiled again, till the fourth part only remains, when it should be put into vases of clay, of a conical form, and placed in the shade to thicken; afterwards the sugar must be drawn from the canes and left to cool. The canes, after the juice is expressed, are preserved for the horses, who eat them greedily, and become fat by feeding on them. (Ebn-al-Awam, by Banquieri. Madrid, 1801, fol) From the above extract it is evident sugar has been cultivated in Spain upwards of 700 years, and probably two or three centuries before.

712. About the end of the fifteenth century the Moors were driven out of Spain, and the kingdom united under one monarchy. Under Charles V., in the first half of the sixteenth century, South America was discovered; and the prospect of making fortunes, by working the mines of that country, is said to have depressed the agriculture of Spain to a degree that it has never been able to surmount. (Heylin's Cosmographia. Lond. 1657.) Albyterio, a Spanish author of the seventeenth century, observes, "that the people who sailed to America, in order to return laden with wealth, would have done their country much better service to have staid at home and guided the plough; for more persons were employed in opening mines and bringing home money, than the money in effect proved worth: " this author thinking with Montesquieu, that those riches were of a bad kind which depend on accidental circumstances, and not on industry and application.

713. The earliest Spanish work on agriculture generally appeared in 1569, by Herrera: it is a treatise in many books, and, like other works of its age, is made up of extracts from the Roman authors. Herrera, however, had not only studied the ancients, but visited Germany, Italy, and part of France: his work has been translated into several languages; and the later editions contain some essays and memoirs by Augustin, author of Secrets de l'Agriculture, Gonzalo de las Cazas on the silkworm, and Mendez and others on bees.

714. The agriculture of Spain in the middle of the eighteenth century was in a very neglected state. According to Harte, "the inhabitants of Spain were then too lazy and proud to work. Such pride and indolence are death to agriculture in every country. Want of good roads and navigable rivers (or, to speak more properly, the want of making rivers navigable) has helped to ruin the Spanish husbandry. To which we may add another discouraging circumstance, namely, that the sale of an estate vacates the lease: Venta deschaze renta.' Nor can corn be transported from one province to another. The Spaniards plant no timber, and make few or no enclosures. With abundance of excellent cows, they are strangers to butter, and deal so little in cows' milk, that, at Madrid, those who drink milk with their chocolate, can only purchase goats' milk. What would Columella say (having written so largely on the Andalusian dairies), if it were possible for him to revisit this country? For certain it is that every branch of rural economics, in the time of him and his uncle, was carried to as high perfection in Spain as in any part of the Roman empire. Though they have no idea of destroying weeds, and scratch the ground instead of ploughing it, yet nature has been so bounti

ful to them, that they raise the brightest and firmest wheat of any in Christendom.” (Essays, i.)

715. A general spirit for improvement seems to have sprung up in Spain with the nine. teenth century, though checked for a while by the wars against Bonaparte; subsequently retarded by internal discords; and again by the cruel interference of the French in 1823. In the midst of these troubles, economical societies have been established at Madrid, Valencia, and Saragossa. That of the latter place is connected with a charitable bank in favour of distressed farmers. Money is advanced to defray the expenses of harvest, and two years allowed for returning it. It commenced its operations in June 1801, and then distributed 4584 2s. to one hundred and ten husbandmen. In the August following it had furnished sixty-two horses to as many indigent farmers. The Patriotic Society of Madrid distinguished itself by a memoir on the advancement of agriculture, and on agrarian laws, addressed to the supreme council of Castile, in 1812. It was drawn up by a distinguished member, Don G. M. Jovellanos, who recommends the enclosure of lands, the enactment of laws favourable to agriculturists, the prevention of the accumulation of landed property in mortmain tenure; exposes the noxious state of the estates of the clergy, of various taxes on agricultural productions, and of restrictions on trade and the export of corn. His whole work breathes the most liberal, enlightened, and benevolent spirit, and was in consequence so offensive to the clergy, that they procured his condemnation by the inquisition. (Ed. Rev.; Jacob's Travels.)

716. The climate of Spain is considered by many as superior to that of any country in Europe. It is every where dry, and though the heat in some provinces is very great in the day, it is tempered during the night by breezes from the sea, or from the ridges of high mountains which intersect the country in various directions. In some provinces the heat has been considered insalubrious, but this is owing to the undrained marshes, from which malignant effluvia are exhaled. The mean temperature of the elevated plains Spain is 59°; that of the coasts, from 41° to 36° of latitude, is between 6310 and 68°, and is therefore suitable for the sugar-cane, coffee, banana, and all plants of the West India agriculture, not even excepting the pine-apple. The latter is cultivated in the open air in some gardens in Valencia and at Malaga.

717. The surface of Spain is more irregular and varied by mountains, than that either France or Germany. These intersect the country at various distances from east to west, and are separated by valleys or plains. The strata of the mountains are chiefly granitic or calcareous; but many are argillaceous, some silicious, and Montserrat, near Cordova, is a mass of rock salt. A remarkable feature in the surface of Spain is the height of some of its plains above the level of the sea. According to Humboldt, the plain of Madrid is the highest plain in Europe that occupies any extent of country. It is 3093 fathoms above the level of the ocean, which is fifteen times higher than Paris. This circumstance both affects the climate of that part of the country, and its susceptibility of being improved by canal or river navigation. The rivers and streams of Spain are numerous, and the marshes not very common. Forests, or rather forest-wastes, downs, and Merino sheep-walks are numerous, and, with other uncultivated tracts and heaths, are said to amount to two-thirds of the surface of the country. Some tracts are well cultivated in the vine districts, as about Malaga; and others in the corn countries, as about Oviedo. The resemblance between the Asturias and many parts of England is very striking. The same is the aspect of the country, as to verdure, enclosures, live hedges, hedge-rows, and woods; the same mixture of woodlands, arable, and rich pasture; the same kind of trees and crops, and fruit, and cattle. Both suffer by humidity in winter, yet, from the same source, find an ample recompense in summer; and both enjoy a temperate climate, yet, with this difference, that as to humidity and heat, the scale preponderates on the side of the Asturias. In sheltered spots, and not far distant from the sea, they have olives, vines, and oranges. (Townsend's Spain, i. 318.)

718. The soil of Spain is in general light, and either sandy or calcareous, reposing on beds of gypsum or granite. The poorest soil is a ferrugineous sand on sandstone rock, only to be rendered of any value by irrigation. The marshes, and also the best meadow soils, are along the rivers.

719. The landed property of Spain till the late revolution was similarly circumstanced to that of France and Germany; that is, in the possession of the crown, great nobles, and religious and civil corporations. Tithes were more rigidly exacted by the clergy of Spain, than by those of any other country of Europe (Jacob's Travels, 99.), and a composition in lieu of tithes was unknown in most provinces. Great part of the lands of the religious corporations are now sold, and a new class of proprietors are originating, as in France. Some of these estates are of immense extent. The monks of Saint Hieronymo told Jacob that they could travel twenty-four miles from Seville on their own property, which is rich in corn, oil, and wine. Such was the corruption of this convent, that, notwithstanding all their riches, they were deeply in debt.

Lands

were and are cultivated in great part by their proprietors; and even the monasteries held large tracts in hand before their dissolution. What is farmed, is let out in small portions of arable land, with large tracts of pasture or waste, and a fixed rent is generally paid, chiefly in kind. The lands are open every where, except immediately round towns and villages. Many persons in Granada are so remote from the farmeries, that during harvest the farmers and their labourers live in tents on the spot, both when they are sowing the corn, and when cutting and threshing it. The hedges about Cadiz are formed of the soccotrine aloe and prickly pear; the latter producing at the same time an agreeable fruit, and supporting the cochineal insect. Farm-houses and cottages are generally built of stone or brick, and often of rammed earth, and are covered with tiles or thatch. 720. A bad feature in the policy of the old government, considered highly injurious to agriculture and the improvement of landed property, deserves to be mentioned. This is, the right which the corporation of the mesta or merino proprietors possess, to drive their sheep over all the estates which lie in their route, from their summer pasture in the north, to their winter pasture in the south, of the kingdom. This practice, which we shall afterwards describe at length, must of course prevent or retard enclosing and aration. The emfiteutic contract is another bad feature. It prevails in Catalonia, and is found in various other parts of the kingdom. By the emfiteutic contract the great proprietor, inheriting more land than he can cultivate to profit, has power to grant any given quantity for a term of years; either absolute or conditional; either for lives or in perpetuity; always reserving a quit rent, like our copyhold, with a relief on every succession, a fine on the alienation of the land, and other seignorial rights dependent on the custom of the district; such as tithes, mills, public-houses, the obligation to plough his land, to furnish him with teams, and to pay hearth-money, with other contributions, by way of commutation for ancient stipulated services. One species of grant for uncultivated land, to be planted with vines, admitted formerly of much dispute. The tenant, holding his land as long as the first planted vines should continue to bear fruit, in order to prolong this term, was accustomed to train layers from the original stocks, and, by metaphysical distinctions between identity and diversity, to plead that the first planted vines were not exhausted, claiming thus the inheritance in perpetuity. After various litigations and inconsistent decisions of the judges, it was finally determined, that this species of grant should convey a right to the possession for fifty years, unless the plantation itself should previously fail.

721. The agricultural products of Spain include all those of the rest of Europe, and most of those of the West Indies; besides all the grains, for the production of which some provinces are more celebrated than others, and most of them are known to produce the best wheat in Europe. Boswell of Balmuto, a Scottish landholder, when at Xeres de la Fronteira, in the winter of 1809, was shown, on the estate of Mr. Gordon, a very beautiful crop of turnips, with drills drawn in the most masterly style. The drills were by a ploughman of East Lothian, and therefore their accuracy was not to be wondered at; but the turnips showed what the soil and climate were capable of producing under judicious management. Other products are flax, hemp, esparto, palmetto (Chamaerops humilis), madder, saffron, aloe, cork tree (Quercus Sùber); the kermes grana, a species of coccus, whose body in the grub state yields a beautiful scarlet colour, and which forms its nidus on the shrub Quércus coccifera; soda from the Salicórnia and other plants of the salt marshes; honey from the forests; dates (Phoenix dactylifera), coffee, almonds, filberts, figs, olives, grapes, peaches, prickly pears, carob beans (the locust trees of scripture, Ceratònia síliqua), oranges, lemons, pomegranates, and other fruits.

722. The esparto rush (Stipa tenacissima L.) grows wild on the plains, and is made into a variety of articles for common use. It is em

ployed for making ropes and cables, and is particularly calculated for the latter purpose, as it swims on the water, and the cables formed of it are, consequently, not so liable to rub against the rocks as those which are made of hemp. It is also woven into floorcloths and carpets, and made into baskets or panniers, for carrying produce to market, or manure to the fields. In Pliny's time this plant was used by the poor for beds, by the shepherds for garments, and by the fishermen for nets; but it is now superseded for these and various other ends by the hemp and flax.

bandry of Spain. It grows by the leaf, which it is only necessary to slip off, and lay on the ground with the broad end inserted a little way in the soil: it makes excellent fences; and the fibres, separated from the mucilage, have been twisted into ropes, and woven into cloth. Bowles, the best Spanish writer on natural history, says, the mucilage might easily be made into brandy. The same plant is used as the boundary fence for villages in the East Indies, and is found a powerful obstacle to cavalry.

724. The hina, or Indian fig (Cáctus Opuntia, fig. 94. b), is cultivated in the plains of Seville for its fruit, and also for raising the cochineal insect. It is either grown on rocky places or as hedges.

725. The palmetto, or fan palm (Chamaerops humilis), is grown near Seville. From the foot-stalks of the leaves, brushes and brooms of various kinds are formed both for home use and exportation.

726. The potato is grown, but not in large quantities; nor so good as in England. The Irish merchants of the sea-ports import them for themselves and friends. The batatas, or sweet potato (Convólvulus Batatas), turnips, carrots, cabbages, broccoli, celery, onions, garlic, melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, &c., are grown in large quantities.

95

727. Though the olive is grown to greater perfection in Spain than in Italy, yet the oil is the worst in Europe; because the growers are thirled, that is obliged to grind their fruit at certain mills. To such mills (fig. 95.) all the olives of a district are obliged to be carried; and, as they cannot all be ground alone, they are put into heaps to wait their turn: these heaps heat and spoil, and when crushed, produce only an acrid rancid oil.

728. The vine is cultivated in every province of Spain, and chiefly in those of the

east and south. The old sherry wine, Xeres seco, the sherry sack of Shakspeare, is produced in Valencia and Granada, and especially near Malaga. On the hills surrounding this city are upwards of seven thousand vineyards, cultivated by the proprietors, or by petty tenants who pay their rent monthly when in money, or during harvest when in kind. The first gathering of grapes commences in the month of June, and these are dried in the sun, and form what are known in Europe as Malaga raisins. A second crop is gathered in September, and a wine made from it resembling sherry; and a third in October and November, which furnishes the wine known on the Continent as Malaga, and in England as mountain. In Valencia the grapes for raisins are steeped in boiling water, sharpened with a ley made from vine stems, and then exposed in the air, and suspended in the sun till they are sufficiently dry.

729. The sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum) is cultivated to a considerable extent in Malaga and other places, and the ground is irrigated with the greatest care. The sugar produced resembles that of Cuba, and comes somewhat cheaper than it can be procured from the West India Islands. Sugar has been cultivated in Spain upwards of seven hundred years; and Jacob is of opinion that capital only is wanted to push this branch of culture to a considerable extent.

730. The white mulberry is extensively grown for rearing the silkworm, especially in Murcia, Valencia, and Granada. The silk is manufactured

into stuffs and ribands in Malaga.

731. Of other fruits cultivated may be mentioned the fig, which is grown in most parts of Spain, and the fruit used as food, and dried for exportation. The gum cistus (Cistus ladaniferus, fig. 96.) grows wild, and the gum which exudes. from it is eaten by the common people. The caper shrub grows wild, and is cultivated in some places. The orange and lemon are abundant, and also the pomegranate.

732. Other productions, such as coffee, cotton, cocoa, indigo, pimento, pepper, banana, plantain, &c., were cultivated in Granada for many ages before the West Indies or America was discovered, and might be carried to such an extent as to supply the whole or greater part of Europe.

733. The rotations of common crops vary according to the soil and climate. In some parts of the fertile plains of Malaga, wheat and barley are grown alternately without either fallow or manure. The common course of crops about Barcelona, according to Townsend, is, 1. wheat, which, being ripe in June, is immediately succeeded by 2. Indian corn,