13° Journal of Agriculture. [lo March, 1909. 



that in most villages of Eastern Spain the fact that a stable is attached to 

 a house is usually revealed by the penetrating smell of the bean pods, which, 

 roughly chaffed, almost always form part of a hors,e's ration. Considerable 

 quantities are also shipped to England and other countries. 



The Levante, as the East Coast of Spain is usually termed, appears to 

 be the natural home of this remarkable tree in the Peninsula. North of 

 Barcelona the climate is rather cold for it but south of that town right down 

 to Alicante, Algarrobals, as plantations of tfiis tree are termed, meet the 

 eye everywhere. It is rarely planted on good land. Its deep roots and 

 power of resisting drought render it capable of living where scarcely any- 

 thing else will, and these qualities are taken advantage of in order to utilize 

 land which would otherwise be almost valueless and which is too dry for 

 the vine and the olive. Right up among barren rocks, wherever one can 

 find a few feet of soil and sometimes even where this is practically absent 

 but where the rock is sufficiently fissured for its deep roots to penetrate, 

 can one see the handsome, dark green, ash-like foliage of the Algarrobo. 



Botanically known as Ceratonia Siliqua and popularly, in English, as 

 the Caxob ot Locust bean and sometimes, but it appears erroneously, as St. 

 John's Bread, it belongs to the order of leguminous plants and is a hand- 

 some tree, frequently attaining a height of 50 feet. Its longevity is 

 phenomenal ; most of the trees in the Levante are several hundred years 

 old. Like the olive it assumes, with age, most curious shapes; sometimes 

 the central portion of the trunk decays away, so that one tree is split up 

 into two or three. Frequently one sees a very old tree with the base of 

 its trunk built around to a height of 5 feet and even more, with big limestone 

 boulders from the hillsides ; propped up so to speak but continuing never- 

 theless to yield its crop of beans. 



The Algarrobo is dioecious, male and female flowers being borne by 

 separate trees. Seedling plants must therefore be grafted, only a few males 

 being retained for the supply of pollen. The female trees, of course, alone 

 produce beans. Several distinct varieties are known. Plants of two of 

 the most papular, known respectively as Rogeta and Negreta were recently 

 imported bv this Department so scions for grafting will ere long be avail- 

 able. 



Though capable of living and bearing its beans under the most un- 

 favorable circumstances this tree, like most others, responds to good treat- 

 ment and regular plantations are almost always cultivated whenever the 

 nature of the land permits the use of a plough. Even when this is not 

 possible the trees are usually dug round. Near Jaraco, on the railway 

 journey between Gandia and Carcagente, I was struck by one plantation 

 the soil of which consisted solely of fairly large stones — not gravel. The 

 regular lines in which they were arranged left no doubt as to ploughing 

 having been duly executed. 



A few figures as to expenses of cultivation and yields may prove of 

 interest. For these I am indebted to Don Rafael Janini y Janini who 

 quotes them from D. G. Lleo Comin, Engineer-in-Chief of the Spanish 

 Forestry Dej^artmcnt. 



The trees are planted very far apart; 24 trees per hectare or about 10 

 trees per acre is the usual number. At 10 or 12 years old they produce 

 84 lbs. of beans per tree and at 40 to 45 years they are in full bearing, 

 the usual crop of beans being about half a ton per acre. Cost of cultivation 



