STATE OP AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE. 19 



of the plough are perceived on the border of pre- 

 cipices where the most savage animals do not pass 

 without danger ; in one word, the inhabitants appear 

 to have conquered all obstacles, whether arising 

 from soil, position, or climate, and to have drawn 

 abundance from a territory condemned by nature to 

 perpetual sterility."* 



V. The classical reader will remember that Spain 

 was the garden of the Hesperides of the Roman 

 writers ; by which was meant the combinations of 

 a fine climate, a rich soil, and an active, intelligent 

 agriculture. To this state of things even the em- 

 pire of the Goths was not fatal ;t and that of the 

 Moors rendered it still more distinguished. In their 

 hands the plains of Valentia were cultivated through- 

 out, with the utmost care and skill ; and where their 

 wheels, reservoirs, and drains of irrigation yet re- 

 main, the soil continues to yield the richest and 

 most abundant products. In Catalonia, Navarre, 

 Galitia, and the Asturias, many species of the an- 

 cient agriculture are yet in vigour, because "the 

 leases are long, and the landlord cannot capriciously 

 violate them" The same causes are followed by the 

 same effects in the three districts of Biscaya, Gui- 

 poscoa, and Alava. " In running over these, every- 

 thing one finds is animated by the presence of lib- 

 erty and industry ; nothing can be more charming 

 than the coasts, nothing more attractive than the 

 culture of the valleys. Throughout the 30 leagues 

 that separate Bedassos from Vittoria, every quarter 

 of an hour we discover some well-built village or 

 comfortable cottage. "{ 



* Geographique Mathematique, article Helvetia. 



f It appears from Varro, De re rustica, and the letters of Gas- 

 siodorus, that the Goths introduced into Spain the subterranean 

 granaries called sillos, and the art of irrigation. The former are 

 now exclusively used in Tuscany ; and Cato's precept, " Prata 

 irrigua," &c., shows whence their knowledge of the latter was 

 derived. 



Burgoing's Modem Spain, vol. i. 



