242 A VOYAGE TO Book VIÍI. 



rnon for each flalk to produce five or fix ears. 

 This information raifed my curiofity ; and I met 

 with fo many infiarces afiierwards, that my fijrprize 

 at feeing the ftalk juit mentioned was greatly a- 

 bated ; as fi-om the moifture, advantageous expofure, 

 and richnefs of the foil, a much greater produce 

 might naturally be expcfled than in the ground con- 

 ftantly fowii, 



Thü great plenty of wheat here is fufficiently in- 

 dicated by its price ; a meafure weighing fix arobas 

 and fix pounds, being ufually fold for eight or ten 

 rials. Yet for want of a m.arket,- though at fo low a 

 price, no more is fown than is necelTary for home 

 confjmptionj and thence a great part of the country 

 lies filiow. 



Here are vines of feveral kinds, and which vie 

 with the wheat in exuberance. They are alfo, both 

 with regard to the richnefs and flavour of their 

 grapes, cfteemed beyond any produced in Peru, 

 Moll of them are red. A fort of Mufcadel is alfo 

 made here, whofe flavour far exceeds any of the kind 

 made in Spain. The grapes grow mofdy in efpaliers, 

 and not on detached vines. In this refpecl alfo, as 

 in the wheat, large traits of ground are totally neg- 

 lefted. For though its produce is fo confiderabie, 

 the buyers are fo few, that th¿ vineyards do not 

 anfwer even the expence of cultivation. 



The chief ufe made of thefe rich lands by the 

 owners is, the furening of oxen, goats and llieep. And 

 this is the principal employment of greateil part of 

 the inhabitants of the country of all ranks, and uni- 

 verfally of the lower clafs. As foon as the horned 

 cattle are fattened in thefe luxuriant paftures, and 

 the proper feafon arrived, four or five hundred, and 

 even more, according to the largencfs of the farm, 

 are flaughtered. They take out the fat, melt it into 

 a kind of lard, there called Grafl^a ; and bucca- 

 neer or dry the fleih in fmokc; but the greateft 



profit 



