1831.] Spanish High-ways and By-ways. 605 



culture ; their mode of husbandry is much the same as that received from 

 their forefathers. The culture of turnips is unknown, neither are the 

 sheep folded, except in rare instances, when they are enclosed in nets 

 suspended from poles. The merinos usually pasture in Estremadura, 

 and those sheep retained by the farmer are secured at night in outhouses, 

 both to secure them from the wolves, and to prevent their licking the 

 dew from the herbage before the sun has exhaled the malignant qualities, 

 which they confidently believe it has imbibed during the night. The 

 land is fallowed every third year, after a crop of wheat and another of 

 barley, the latter being the food of horses and mules ; oats are seldom 

 grown. Their mode of thrashing is perfectly primitive. Several pieces 

 of ground in the neighbourhood of the town, are allotted for this pur- 

 pose, to which all the produce of the adjacent country is brought. A 

 thick board, six feet in length, and four in width, is perforated with 

 holes, in which are placed sharp flint stones, projecting about half an 

 inch. On the front of this board a man takes his place, on a seat provided 

 for that purpose, and a number of oxen or mules are fastened to it with 

 cords. The corn in the straw is then strewn on the ground, in a circle 

 formed with stones, and this extraordinary implement of husbandry is 

 then dragged over it, a man standing in the centre of the circle assisting 

 the driver to flog the beasts to their utmost speed. A drove of loose cattle 

 are likewise driven over it, so that the sharp flint, and the hoofs of mules 

 and oxen, do the work of thrashing very completely. The straw is, by 

 these means, torn into small particles, which is packed in nets and sent 

 to Madrid as provender for horses and mules. Their method of win- 

 nowing is by throwing the undressed corn against the wind, which sepa- 

 rates it from the chaff. I was told of an American, -who, taking com- 

 passion on the unenlightened natives, and seeing the prospect of a good 

 profit, introduced one of our thrashing machines, and undertook to 

 thrash the farmer's corn at a trifling expense per bushel. On the first 

 day he succeeded admirably, but on the next, when the speculator went 

 to resume his labours, to his utter consternation he found the engine 

 which was to work him wealth, broken into atoms, and dispersed in every 

 possible direction. On inquiry, he found the country people had con- 

 sulted on its efficiency, and came to a resolution, in which they were 

 assisted by the parish priest, that the devil was inside the engine, and 

 they were determined, as good Christians, to have nothing to do with him, 

 but in the fair way of trade ! The wheat thus thrashed is taken to the 

 water before it is ground, and washed well from the impurities it has 

 contracted. It is then exposed on sheets of linen to the sun and air to 

 dry and harden. Wheat is never stacked, but thrashed immediately it 

 is reaped; but I have remarked they allow the corn to remain standing 

 a month or more after it is ripe, by which means it becomes sufficiently 

 hard to supersede the necessity of stacking. The plough is drawn by 

 uxen or mules, and is as rude an instrument as their thrashing machine. 

 It appears to me more like the fluke of an anchor than anything else, 

 and though it certainly moves the earth, I think it would puzzle one of 

 our Gloucestershire farmers to turn a furrow with it. 



Guadalaxara is perceived in the distance immediately after leaving 

 Alcala. The road continues good all the way, the river Henares flowing 

 on the right hand the whole distance. Beyond the river is a ragged 

 chain of mountains, rent into deep chasms and ravines, through which 

 torrents of water are continually pouring into the river during the winter 



