3/' 



Journal of Agriculture. 



[lo Oct., 1908. 



After leaving Almeria, it runs for miles along a fertile valley where 

 luxuriant parrnles of the Ohanez vine are the most striking feature of the 

 landscape. Here and there the barren hills close in on either side, leaving 

 no available flat land. Esparto grass grows wild on these hills and this 

 hardy plant then tecomes the only vegetation ; but as soon as the valley 

 widens at all, once more the parrales appear on the scene. This occurs 

 right up to near Granada; though after Gergal, some 20 miles from 

 Almeria, they cease to be the only form of crop. 



GATHERING OLIVES IN .SOUTHERN SPAIN. 



I was informed that some of the best shipping grapes come from Berja, 

 some 40 miles from Almeria. This part of the country is highly mineral- 

 ized ; in fact, it was the shipment of ore from Almeria which led to the 

 construction of the railway line. Mining is in evidence everywhere, and it 

 is chiefly under British control. A huge sign-board on which the words 

 '■ The Gergal Railway and Mines Coy. Ltd." are painted in large letters 

 appears strange amid such very foreign surroundings. From the Dona 

 Maria railway station, an endless CcJole line for the conveyance of ore 

 winds its way upwards until it is lost to sight in the snows of the Sierra 

 Nevada range, the high hills of which form a most impressive picture on 

 the left side of the line right on to Granada. 



Olive Culture. 



Beyond Dona ^laria the country opens out a good deal and other 

 forms of agriculture, especially olives and wheat, occupy the cultivated 

 land. The olive is cultivated to an enormous extent in Spain, in many 

 parts of which it is the only tree to be seen. Oil is a necessary of life to 

 the Latin races ; it occupies with them quite as important a place as butter 

 does with us. Within the last twelve years its value in Spain has increased 

 by fully 25 per cent., a fact which no doubt accounts for the large number 



