438 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



light. During the wiiole of this time the mules 

 had no food, and only one hour's rest, which was 

 afibrded them by the overturning ol'a wagon, and 

 yet they came into Malaga without any symptoms 

 olTatigue. 



Alter enjoying a confortable night's rest, I pro- 

 ceeded to deliver my letters of introduction. One 

 of these was to Mr. Kirkpatrick, the Hanoverian 

 consul, a Scotchman by birth, who had resided 40 

 years in Spain, and whose kindness to travellers is 

 proverbial. I found that the season lor preserving 

 raisins had been over (or sometime; Mr. Kirk- 

 patrick, hovvever, lost no time in ascertaining what 

 information could yet be procured. 



Friday, 2\st October. — At day-break this morn- 

 ing, a gentleman, whom Mr. Kirkpatrick request- 

 ed to show me his vineyard and explain the pro- 

 cess of preserving the grapes wailed upon me, and 

 we set out immediately. Our road, lay along the 

 shore, to the eastward, the vineyard of Don Sal- 

 vador Solier lying m that direction, at the distance 

 of about 14 miles. In the immediate vicinity of 

 Malaga the country is e.xtremely rugged, but 

 evei-y patch where it was possible to thrust in a 

 plant was under cultivation. The rocks consisted 

 of rugged masses of limestone, allernatins with 

 the same kind of slaty schist 1 had prpvjousiy ob- 

 served on the road from Antequera. For the first 

 two leagues there were ihw vineyards, chiefly 

 owing to the ruguedness of the country, which 

 would not admit of cultivation. Beyond that dis- 

 lance almost every hill was covered with vines, 

 the produce of which is all converted into raisins. 

 The crapes are all of the large white Muscatel — 

 the Muscatel Gordon of Roxas Clemente. This 

 grape, my companion informed me, does not suc- 

 ceed in the interior, and therefore all the Muscatel 

 raisins are made within two leagues of the coast. 

 The Lexia raisins, which are used for puddinurs, 

 &c., are made in the interior. We arrived at the 

 country house oi' Don Salvador at nine o'clock, 

 and, after a substantial breakliist, sallied out to ex- 

 amine the vines. Six or seven workmen were em- 

 ployed in preparing the ground for planting, with- 

 in a short distance of the house. They did not 

 trench the whole of the ground, but dug out square 

 holes about two i'ect in diameter, and not more 

 than 20 inches in depth. The distance of the cen- 

 tres of these holes from each other is seven feet, 

 and this is the distance ai which the vines on the 

 hills round JMalaga seem invariably to be planted. 

 The vineyard I was examining, as well as all 

 (hose in its vicinity, consisled of a series of steep 

 hills. The soil every where was a decomposed 

 slate, mixed with abundance of gravel of the same 

 substance. On the higher part of the ground this 

 soil appeared rather hard, and required great la- 

 bor to break it up, but once broken up it is loose 

 for ever ; so much so, that it slides away from 

 under the feet even where there is only a slight 

 slope. There is no difference made in the distance 

 at which the vines are planted, between the hills 

 and the valleys : although in many places, on the 

 former, the shoots scarcely extended more than 

 10 or 12 inches, while in the valleys they extend 

 to the lengih ofas many feet. They never, under 

 any circumstances, manure these vineyards ; they 

 eay it would give more wood, but would not add 

 to the quantity of the fruit. The branches are 

 pruned closer to the stock than those of any vines 

 I ever saw ; nothing but the half-lbrrned buds, at 



the junction of the old and new wood, being left 

 to produce the wood of the succeeding year. I 

 could not find an instance where the spur had been 

 left long enough to include the first fuil-lbrmed 

 bud, which is generally from h;>If an inch to an 

 inch from the jiuiciioii. The number of shoots 

 seemed almost unlimited ; I counted froin 10 to 

 22 ; there was scarcely any vine had fewer than 

 10, and they generally had from 12 to 15. The 

 stock was close to the ground, and not the slight- 

 est eflbrt ninde to raise the shoots, or support them 

 from the ground. Almost every bunch would 

 therefore lie on the ground ; and, were the soil of 

 a less gravelly description, the greater part would 

 without doubt be lost. After the priminir, they 

 dig over the ground and lay bare the stocks, in 

 order to scrape off the barbe, or small thread-like 

 roots which are near the surface. As scarcely 

 any grass or lierb vegetates aaiong these vines, 

 an<l the soil is always sufficiently loose, it is evident 

 that they require little digging or cleaninij. We 

 went out to visit a peasant, a neighbor of Don 

 Salvador's. He said (bur or five very fine vines 

 might yield raisins enough to fill a box which con- 

 tains an arroba of 25 lbs. ; but throughout the 

 country it would require, on an average, nine or 

 ten. The grapes lose about two thirds of their 

 weight in drying: this would, therefore, give 

 a produce of 7 or 8 lbs. of grapes to each vine — a 

 calculation which ( should think must include a 

 much greater proportion of stinted vines than of 

 luxuriant ones ; Ibr the majority of those in Don 

 Salvador's vineyard would, I have no doubt, yield 

 double that quantity. Including, fiowever, those 

 vines which are visible at the tops even oft he highest 

 hills, the calculation is likely enough to be correct. 

 The peasant whom we visited was making wine, 

 from some of fiis grapes, which, after having been 

 nearly dried, were spoiletl by the rain. In a small 

 skilling, behind the cottage, a portion of the floor, 

 about ten feel square, was elevated above the rest. 

 It was paved with tiles, and a man was busy 

 trampling the raisins, which he had almost re- 

 duced to a paste. He helped them into a corner as 

 he successively passed them under his feet (or the 

 press, which was merely a large beam passing 

 along the skilling, without any screw, or any oiher 

 means of giving it additional power as a lever. 

 A little water was added to the grapes to bring 

 out the juice, and a part of the must was on the 

 fire boiling, to add to lis strength. We tasted 

 some wine made two months befbre from the 

 Pedro Almenes grape, and also some from that 

 grape mixed with the Muscatel ; both were as 

 sweet and luscious as possible. The grapes, when 

 dried, are worth double what they would yield 

 made into wine, and therefbre they are never made 

 into wine unless spoiled by the raiti. 



They usually commence gathering the grapes 

 about the middle of August, choosing only such 

 bunches as are ripe. They return, after a week 

 or two, to make another selection, and so on for a 

 third and fourth time. A place is always reserved 

 in the vineyard, free from plants, on which to 

 spread the grapes when gathered ; and they 

 choose a spot where the soil is of the darkest co- 

 lor, in order to its keeping the full fbrce of the sun'a 

 rays during the day, and retaining the heat during 

 the night. The bunches are spread out separate- 

 ly on The ground, and never allowed to press upon 

 each other :— according to Don Salvador they are 



