FARMERS' REGISTER 



431 



to be the limb ofa tree of the thickneps ot'a man's 

 arm. Being asked how long it would take belbre 

 a slip, such as we plant in New South Wales, 

 would bear a crop, he appeared to consider the 

 proposal as ridiculous, and said he thought twenty 

 years. He did not consider the oil of young 

 olives inlerior to that ot the old: the only differ- 

 ence in their value arises from their quantity. 

 The olive is now cultivated in this district to the 

 same extent as lormerly, the superior attention be- 

 stowed upon it in the neighborhood of Seville 

 having made the slovenly cultivation pursued here 

 unprofitable. The trees are planted with consi- 

 derable regularity, at the distance of 36 or 40 leet. 

 An average crop, Don Jacobo says, " is from 1^ 

 to 1^ arrobas,"" that is, from 5 to 6 English gallons 

 each tree. 



In passing through this vineyard I observed a 

 very considerable variety of grapes, differing not 

 only in appearance but taste; but many of those 

 which were evidently distinct were said by the 

 vinador to be the same. He would not admit 

 that there were more than four or five kinds. 1 

 should have judged the number t© be not lewer 

 than twenty; and Mr. Cormack, a member of 

 Mr. Wilson's house, afterwards informed me that 

 there was at least that number of varieties in all 

 the vineyards round Xeres, and he thought this 

 was one cause of the excellence of the wine. On 

 our way back to town I examined one of the no- 

 rias which supplies Xercs with water. The well 

 was about 40 feet in depth, and 7 in diameter. 

 The machinery by which the water is raised is of 

 the rudest construction. A horizontal wheel with 

 large teeth turns a vertical one of about five leet^ 

 in diameter; over this wheel passes a ffat band, 

 made of a kind of grass, to which earthen pots 

 are attached over its whole extent. The pots go 

 down empty at one side and come up (Lill at the 

 other. The water is thus raised to a cistern of 

 sufficient elevation to send the wat£r to the town, 

 about a mile off". It struck me that any settler of 

 New South Wales could construct such a piece of 

 machinery with his own men, and even without 

 the aid of a mechanic. 



Tuesday, 4th of October . — Aboi/t 10 this morn- 

 inar, in company with my indefatigable (riend Dr. 

 Wilson, I started to visit the vineyard of Don 

 Pedro Domecq celebrated, under the name of 

 Machar Nudo, lor producing first-rate sherry wines. 

 Alter quitting the immediate vicinity of tlie town, 

 we passed over open downs, which bore the ap- 

 pearance of having been under crop, but without 

 a single en.dosure or landmark so far as we could 

 observe. The downs were skirted on the left by 

 the chalky hills (alburizas,) covered with the vine, 

 and carefully enclosed by hedges of the prickly 

 pear and aloe, planted as usual on the tops, of 

 high banks. We passed three ploughs at work, 

 Ibllowing on the same furrow. The plough is 

 of the rudest construction, exactly similar to what 

 are represented in those plates whjch exhibit the 

 first invented implements of agriculture. There is 

 no mouldboard, and the plough consequently 

 makes only a series of drills, without turning a 

 single furrow. It has only one handle, and is 

 sometimes held ie the right and sometimes in the 

 left hand, the mules with which they generally 

 plough being guided and driven with the other 

 hand. As usual, when riding among vineyards, 

 we entered the albarizae through a road between 



steep banks and hedges — the bottom of the road 

 being in general the compact stratum of chalk. 

 Don Pedro's vineyard lies in a north-easterly di- 

 rection from Xeres, and consists entirely of chalky 

 hills. It was evident, on entering the enclosure, 

 that the vines were treated with much greater 

 care than any we had examined. The mother 

 branches were better balanced and supported from 

 the ground, and were regularly pruned ; and not 

 a weed or a blade of grass was to be seen among 

 them. The immediate vicinity of the house was 

 tastefully planted with a profusion of ornamental 

 trees, within which was an extensive paved court, 

 surrounded by a wall and railing ; the cellars were 

 on a much larger scale than in any of the vine- 

 yards we had before seen or passed ; the house 

 neither large nor convenient, and in great de- 

 gree spoiled by some of the rooms being made the 

 passages to a high tower which he has built to 

 have a view of all parts of the vineyard, and 

 which has been carried to a great height, in order 

 to command a prospect oi'Cadiz, on the south-west 

 and Seville to the north. " A certain man planted 

 a vineyard, and hedged it round, and having dig- 

 ged a wine press, and built a tower, he let it out to 

 husbandmen." Every vineyard, of any consider- 

 able extent here, has also its lower, but, in general, 

 they are less than half the heiaht of that of 

 Machar Nudo. Mr. Domecq is a gentleman of 

 French extraction, and speaks English fluently. 

 We found him under the verandah of his wine 

 cellar, and having mentioned the object of our 

 visit, he undertook, with great readiness, to give 

 us all the information we should ask: he answer- 

 ed my questions and explained liis proceedings in 

 the manner of a man who was thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with his subject, and had not been accus- 

 tomed to follow blindly the practices he had Ibund 

 established. He said he was gradually renewing 

 his vineyards, the vines having been destroyed in 

 many places by a very destructive insect — a small 

 white worm, with a blac'k head, which eats into 

 the heart of the old stock, and destroys it ; vines 

 he said, which would have been good ibr 150 years 

 were thus rendered useless — they were now 40 

 ■years old ; he attributed it to injudicious pruning. 

 it was customary to cut off' the bearing branch 

 close to the eld wood ; by this means the worm 

 either obtained an entrance to the heart of the 

 stock full groivn, or was deposited in the egg, on 

 the decayed part, and worked its way in when 

 formed. A looting once obtained, there was no 

 mode of getting rid of it, and the consequence was 

 that the vines became every year more injured in 

 health, til! they were at length incapable of yield- 

 ing a crop. The system which Don Pedro adop- 

 ted in pnming was to leave one knot of the branch 

 cut off, which prevented the entrance of the insect 

 into (he stock. 



His mode of pruning differed from what we had 

 previously observed : instead of leaving only one, 

 or at most two knots on each of three or four 

 branches as was the casein the other vinej^ards 

 we had examined, he left one branch with seven 

 or eight knots, and two others with one knot each, 

 pruning them down alternately ; he did not consi- 

 der that this was burthening a young and healthy 

 vine too much. He was in the habit of manuring 

 his vineyards, but not each year in the same place. 

 He considered it a disadvantage lo have many 

 varieties, and was confining his new plantations 



