PARMERS' REGISTER. 



431 



were thoroughly closed to the air when the fermen- 

 tation should have ceased. 



Thursday, 6th October. — This morning T again 

 started in a calesa, and, after about lour hours' tra- 

 velling, accomplished the journey to the little town 

 o\' Bonanza, above San Lucar, the distance being 

 4 leagues. The road was not made in any place, 

 but there were bridges at spots which would be 

 otherwise impassable. After about three or four 

 miles' travelling, I quilted the vineyards, which 

 ihr that distance crowned the chalky hills on both 

 sides of the valley through which the road passed. 

 The country was now open, and without a single 

 tree or enclosure. I passed several Itirm steadings, 

 if indeed they are worthy of the name. The build- 

 ings were of the most wretched description, and in 

 the worst possible repair, conlrasiing, in this re- 

 spect, most stron<,r|y with the cellars and pressing- 

 houses in the vineyards, all of which were in good 

 order, and well whitewashed. Here, however, 

 no farmer lives upon his larm. At seed time he 

 comes with a sufficient number of people to plough 

 up and sow the land, and returns to the town till 

 the season of harvest again calls him forth. The 

 harvest is collecte<l tea convenient spot, where the 

 grain is trodden out by horses and catile, and the 

 straw is most generally burned ; and this closes 

 the labors of the year. At one place I saw seven 

 men [)lougliiiig, each with a pair of oxen, and fol- 

 lowing each other in the same furrow. The oxen 

 were yoked by the head, the yoke resting imme- 

 diately behind the horns, and bemg secured round 

 the forehead of the animals. Near Bonanza I 

 passed several steep hills of albariza, covered 

 with vines, and terraced on the most precipitous 

 side. 



The banks of the Gaudalquivcr, for ten miles 

 above Bonanza, are low alluvial fiats, apparently 

 ofgreat extent; and they appeared, perhaps in con- 

 sequence of the late heavy rains, too wet to bear 

 the pasturage of cattle. From that distance the 

 lands on both sides bore the marks of cultivaiion, 

 nnd were covered vviih cattle and horses. The 

 hills which bounded these alluvial flats were co- 

 vered with olives. In several places they were ga- 

 thering Indian corn and millet. On approaching 

 Seville there was here and there a plantation oi 

 oranges. The alluvial hanks had very much con- 

 tracted in extent, and, though higher than tiiose 

 lower down the river, were in no place more than 

 four feet above the water ; but the river was very 

 muddy, and was probably swelled in consequence 

 of the rains. 



Friday, 7th Oct., Seville. — I find that the ordi- 

 nario, or carrier, with whom 1 was recommended 

 to travel to Malaga, is not now here, and is not 

 expected for several days. I am told on all hands, 

 that it would be madness to attempt travelling 

 in any other way, as the roads are so much 

 infested with robbers, that every person who 

 attempts to travel, unless under the protection of 

 the ordinario, is sure to be stripped. The latter 

 personage purchases immunity lor him-^elf and 

 his passengers, by paying a sort ol blackmail 

 every journey. During the week whiich I re- 

 mained at Seville, wailing Ibr the carrier, I made 

 two short excursions to the country. I had under- 

 stood at Xeres, that the neighborhood of Seville 

 was famous for its plantations of olives, and I was 

 anxious, during my stay here, to learn as much 

 as possible on that subject. JMy first expedition 



was to the ruins of an ancient Roman city, named 

 Italica, which stood on the opposite side of the 

 river, about two leagues above where Seville now 

 stands, with the double object of visiting the ruins, 

 and a convent of Hieronomiie monks, who had 

 extensive olive plantations, and presses for extract- 

 ing the oil. I was accompanied by a gentleman 

 belonging to an English mercantile house, to the 

 head of which I had brought a letter of introduc- 

 tion. We passed one vineyard, the only one I 

 saw within many miles of Seville ; and the wine 

 of this, the calesera said, was not good. We 

 made our first visit to the convent, as it was now 

 11 o'clock, and the dmner hour of the monks was 

 12. A monk, whom we met in the outer yard, 

 desired one of^ their farming men to show us the 

 oil press — a very clumsy afifair. The press con- 

 sists of a beam of immense length, and not less 

 than five cubic feet in thickness at the thickest 

 part. The pivot or hinge, on which this lever 

 works, is placed at about one fourth of the length 

 of the beam from its thickest end. The long arm 

 of the lever is pressed upwards by a screw, and 

 the thick end is thus pressed down upon the olives 

 which are placed under it, enclosed in a kind of 

 mat made of grass, after having iieen broken in a 

 mill. There weretwoof these leversin the house. 

 The man who showed us the [iresses said, that a 

 good olive tree would yield Irom three to four fa- 

 negas of olives in a good year, and that generally 

 nfanega of olives would yield an arroba (aliout 4^ 

 gallons) of oil. — From the oil presses we went to 

 the garden, where there are a lew Iruit trees, and 

 where they cultivate vegetables. There was nei- 

 ther variety in the plants, nor taste in their distri- 

 bution ; but here, as elsewhere, there was a noria 

 at work, with one ox. The water was conveyed 

 throughout the garden by small canals. The 

 prncurador or steward of the convent, to whom 

 notice had been sent by the first monk of our wish 

 to see the premises, had returned an answer that 

 he was occupied and could not come. We now 

 went up to the granary, and found him employed 

 in taking an account of a quantity of wheat which 

 some n)eti were conveying from one part to ano- 

 ther. Don Peres, my companion, expressed to him 

 my wish to see every thing that was to be seen, 

 and particularly the oil presses. '' Ah," he replied, 

 " the English are a very ingenious people; but 

 they already know every thing sufficiently well, and 

 do not need to be instructed." He therefore saw 

 us walking about the granary without stirring 

 from his seat, or ofliering a single observation, and 

 he seemed very well pleased when we took our 

 leave. The granary contained a considerable 

 quantity of very fair wheat, also some Indian 

 corn and millet. I looked in vain, to discover a 

 single weevil, and found that this insect, which oc- 

 casions such ravages with us, was only known 

 here by name. As we proceeded to Italica we 

 found a large number of people shelling maize — 

 the greater part belonging to the monks, who are 

 the proprietors and farmers of most of the land sur- 

 rounding their convent. Their mode of sfielling 

 was to take a blunt iron instrument (most of them 

 used the back of a reaping hood, or the instrument 

 with which they clean their ploughs,) and holding 

 the cob in their left hand, with the thick end up, 

 continue striking it till all the corn is off. Each 

 stroke stripped the cob from top to bottom of' the 

 place where it was struck. I i)Ut the ^question to 



