SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



where rain does not sometimes fall for months in the Bummer* the grass 

 becomes entirely dried up, so that flocks, to be made stationary there, 

 "vould require hay or other prepared food for several of the e- mmer months 



The Transkumantes or migratory flocks must still continue, then, to 

 travel from the northern mountains to the warm basins of the Guadiana 

 and the Guadalqui^er for their winter quarters, and return to the moun- 

 tains* in the summer, or this branch of the husbandry would undoubtedly 

 become extinct. The effect on the health and condition of the sheep, and 

 the important item which it would form on the debit side of the account 

 in Sheep Husbandry, to thus drive flocks a six weeks' journey twice a year, 

 (consuming nearly a quarter of the year on the road,) can be estimated by 

 any one acquainted with such matters.! The losses and expenses thus in- 

 curred would absorb all the profits of the husbandry, were it not for the 

 extraordinary privileges conferred on the flockmasters (mainly consisting 

 of the King, nobles and clergy) by the absurd and tyrannical regulations 

 of the Consejo de la Mesta.\ The abolition of-the " Council of tjie Royal 

 Troop," there cannot be a reasonable doubt, would be immediately fol- 

 lowed by the downfall of the migratory Sheep Husbandry in Spain. That 

 the day has gone by when this unfortunate and distracted country catf 

 ever again enjoy the blessings of permanent peace and settled institutions, 

 under which this or any other branch of husbandry can increase or steadily 

 flourish, until she reaches a point of political civilization^tentirely incom 

 patible with the continuance of a relic of tyranny and barbarism so mon 

 strous as the Mesta, I consider equally certain. I see, therefore, no possible, 

 or at least probable contingency under which the migratory Sheep Hus- 

 bandry of Spain is likely to be extended, or even to permanently main- 

 tain its present footing. Nor is there any probability of her again rising 

 into importance as a wool-producing country, from her stationary flocks. 



Italy, though too accessible to the dry, hot wind of Africa, (the Solano, .' 

 to exhibit the uniformity of deep-green verdure seen north of the Alps, ;$ 

 nevertheless much of it a country of fine pasturage. The great plai^ 

 between the Alps and Appenines, the basin of the Po including Lom- 

 bardy, Sardinia, Parma, Modena, etc. is one of the most productive in 

 Europe, and its extraordinary facilities for irrigation allow five or six 

 crops of hay to be mown in a single season. In Tuscany, the orange and 

 lemon begin to make their appearance the soil is alluvial and rich, and 

 the mountainous districts are finely adapted to pasturage. The States of 

 the Church are also highly fertile, and abound in good herbage ; and on 

 the deadly Campagna di Roma, and even the Pontine Marshes, flocks and 

 herds find an abundant subsistence in winter, and are driven to the Appe- 

 rines in summer. The same remarks apply to the northern portions of 

 the Kingdom of Naples. The southern extremity of Italy is exposed to 

 a burning climate, and exhibits the vegetation of Africa. 



The whole superficial area of Italy does not exceed 122,000 squar*? 

 miles, and her population is 172 to the square mile. Scarcely raising 

 bread-stuffs enough for her own consumption, taking one year with an- 

 other, || there is not the most remote prospect of her ever becoming an im- 

 portant wool-exporting country. 



* %e Hon. Wm. Jarvis's Letter to me on the subject of Merino Sheep, when I acted as Corr. Sec'y of 

 ihe N. Y. State Agricultural Society Transactions, 1841, p. 3:32. 



t Since giving this as the distance from " the middle of Estremadura to the Cantabrinn Mountains" (Let 

 ter V.), I gee it stated in the Encyclopedia Americana that "the whole journey from the mountains to the 

 interior of Estremadura is reckoned at about 690 miles." Measurement on the map will show that it does 

 not exceed 4 degrees or 277 miles, but the difference may be made by the circuitousness of the route, or 

 the writer may refer to more eastern portions of the great Appenine Chain. I find it stated by several wr> 

 ters that each journey consumes six weeks. 



t For a description of this odious tribunal see Livingston on Sheep, p. 35. 



D tee McCulloch's Com. Die. ; art. Odessa, 



P 



