FARMERS' REGISTER. 



429 



gate the grounds. We saw them planting garlic 

 in small square divisions. The plants were placed 

 on a banU which formed (he square, about three 

 inches above the eurliicc. Tiie squares were se- 

 parated by channels for conveying the water, an 

 interval being lelt at one of tiie corners of each 

 square to admit the water to the interior, which 

 was five or six feet in diameter. Some of the 

 Fqiiares had also rows of plants on similar situa- 

 tions wiiliin them. In this, or a similar manner, 

 all their vegetables are irrigated ; and no one would 

 think of laying out a garden unless on a spot where 

 it could he continually irrigated. About a mile 

 from the town we struck off into a phmtation of 

 olives; few of the trees, however, contained any 

 considerable quantity, and some were altogether 

 \v'ithout fruit. Such olives as we pulled were uni- 

 versally rotten. I was afterwards told, by Mr. 

 Gordon, that all olives are rotten this year, and 

 ihat this is invariably (he case every second year. 

 A little further, we saw a new plantation on the 

 opposite side of the road, and luckily found a pea- 

 pant under a miserable shed of leaves and straw. 

 To our questions respecting 'he olives, he informed 

 us that the plams bear a litile fruit even the first 

 year; but in the second and third j'ears they bear 

 a considerable crop, in proportion to their eize. 

 Some of what we saw had been eighteen months 

 planted, some only six months. The Ibrmer ap- 

 peared healthy young frees, covered with a con- 

 siderable quantity of foliage ; the latter had only a 

 lew slender shoots, and some of them indeed stood 

 in their original nakedness. These olive plants 

 were nothing else than large limbs of old trees, 

 from eight to ten feet in lencih, and fiom two to 

 three inches in diameter. They are sunk about 

 four or five leet into the ground ; and the part of 

 the plant above ground is covered, during the first 

 summer, with a cone of earth or clay, to the height 

 of from two to three leet. After leaving this 

 young plantation, we struck off to the left, and 

 made lor the nearest vineyard across the fields. 

 In consequence of the very heavy rains during the 

 two preceding days, most of the vineyards were 

 deserted ; the people in this part of the country 

 almost universally living in the towns. We found 

 no person in the cellar of the first vineyard we en- 

 tered ; but in the next there were two idle pea- 

 sants lounging about thedoor of the cellar. Giving 

 our horses to the younger, we entered into conver- 

 sation with the elder vinador. The extent of ihe 

 vineyard, he said, was 40 aranzadas, about 38^ 

 English acres. He said they usually made from 

 66 to 68 butts of wine ; but this year they had on- 

 ly made 55, when the rains commenced, and he 

 doubted now whether they could make any more. 

 Sixty-seven butts from 38i acres, is equal to 223 

 gallons, old measure, per English acre. The soil 

 was of the description called jllbarlza, which pro- 

 duces the finest wines. 



The iH'nrt(/f)r stated, that in replanting a part of 

 the vineyard, they had dug it to the depth of a 

 vara, or Spanish yard — about 33^ English inches ; 

 but on proceeding to the spot where they had been 

 trenched, and stepping into the trench. I found the 

 surface only came to my knee. From twelve 

 inches below thesurface the soil was quite compact, 

 but appeared to differ from the surface soil only in 

 not having been exposed to the atmosphere. Ac- 

 cording to Roxaft Clempnti. a Spanish writer upon 

 ihe vines of Andalusia, the albariza soils contain 



generally about 70 per cent, of carbonate of lime, 

 the remainder of the compound being chiefly 

 alumina, with a very small portion of silica, and 

 occasionally a little magnesia ; but in some places 

 it is almost pure carbonate of lime. This soil ab- 

 sorbs every drop of moisture which falls upon it, 

 and never cracks or opens in the greatest heats 

 of summer. I paced over the piece of ground 

 which had been trenched, and f()und it 45 by 16 

 paces, about 24 perches. This, he said, had oc- 

 cupied ten men lor (bur days. 



The distance of the plants in this vineyard was 

 about five fe-et each way. Some of the vines were 

 very old and appeared to be in very had condition. 

 The vinador enld they were renewing them gra- 

 dually, and thus the vuieyard was not all in lull 

 bearing. Some plants, which were only six years 

 old, appeared extremely vigorous ; and as the 

 grapes had not been gathered Irorn a part of them, 

 we counted the bunches on a considerable number, 

 and found them to average eight or nine; and 

 from our own estimate, and that of the vinador, 

 the whole weight of the fruit might be from 14 to 

 16 lbs. on each. All the new varieties, he said, 

 were of the variety called Uva de Hey. There 

 was a dunghill of fresh horse dung collected out- 

 side the vineyard ; and though we were uncertain 

 whether we understood each other's meaning, we 

 supposed him to say, that they manured each plant 

 annually. The plants had each from two to lour 

 mother branches, according to their strength, and 

 had almost invariably been pruned down to one or 

 two spurs on each. 



In the cellar there were four presses, which con- 

 sisted of nothing else than lar<je wooden troughs, 

 about eight feet square, and Jrom twelve to four- 

 teen inches deep. This is the general size ; and 

 each will contain at one time, as many grapes as 

 will yield a butt of wine. A coarse wooden screw 

 stands in the centre of the trough, which is work- 

 ed by a lever not more than five leet long in all, so 

 that each arm is only two and a half feet. In some 

 of the casks which contained the juice that had 

 been last pressed, we observed a vessel, like a 

 very wide funnel, fixed into the bung hole. The 

 object of this is to return into the cask all the froth 

 and wine which is thrown up in the lermentation ; 

 for, in this part of Spain, all the wine is fermented 

 in butts, with only the bung hole open. By ihis 

 means all the yeast, which the French are so 

 anxious to get rid of, is returned upon the wine, to 

 feed it, as they say. The consequence, of course, 

 is a renewal of the feirmentation whenever there 

 is a change of weather, or the cask is put in mo- 

 tion. The wine continues in the butt in which it 

 is li'rmented till March, when it is racked off the 

 the lees. This is the almost universal practice of 

 the country. 



[n the course of our ride we passed a flock of 

 sheep, about 250 in number; the majority were 

 black and short woolled. The wool is worked up 

 into common cloth of its original color. It is worth 

 3 reals vellon (15 cents) per lb. The white sheep 

 were of a totally different breed, with long white 

 fleeces, more resembling hair than wool. We also 

 saw two men on horseback, and several on fool, 

 with a herd of cattle. The horsemen were the 

 proprietors, who had been mustering. There 

 were about three hundred in the herd, chiefly 

 young, and all dry. The cows had little appearance 

 of milk, and the breed was altogether bad. This, 



