S16 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 4 



the most arid deserts, it gives at once the utmo?l 

 luxuriance of vegetation. Vines and olives, how- 

 ever, stand in no need of if, but thrive admirably 

 on the driest soils without it: not one acre, 

 however, in twenty, is planted with them that 

 niijrht be. 



Come to more watered grounds ; gardening and 

 husbandry mixed ; peaches ; apples ; ripe pears; 

 pomegranates in the hedges, as large now as wal- 

 nuts HI the shell ; onions and lettuces in great 

 plenty. Some watered lands have been sold at 

 1300 liv. the journal. 



Near Martorelle is a fine irrigate.) valley; 

 French beans, seven leet high. Good lucerne, 

 cut three or (bur times a year; onions, cabbages, 

 and lettuces; but the hemp, every vviiere a prin- 

 cipal crop, not great. The land all Ibrmed into 

 beds for watering, which I have already de- 

 scribed. 



Exceeding fine hemp, watered. Maize thick, 

 and in ear. Many fine and tall poplars by the 

 river. 



They are now CJuly) ploughing their stubbles 

 for French beans. Their course is, 



1. Hemp. 



2. Wheat ; and after wheat, French beans. 

 Three crops are therefore gained in two years. 

 The products good. Very fine mulberries. A 

 journal, which is here also about an English acre, 

 of rich land in the vale, not watered, sells lor 500 

 liv. : watered, for 1000 liv. 



Leaving Barcelona, enter immediately an ex- 

 traordinary scene of watered cultivation, and which 

 must have given the general reputation to the 

 province. Nothing can well be finer. The crops 

 in perpetual succession — and the attention given 

 to their culture great. Not the idea of a fallow ; 

 but the moment one crop is off, some other im- 

 mediately sown. A great deal of lucerne, which 

 is cut four, five, six, and even seven times in a 

 year ; all broadcast, and exceedingly thick and 

 line, from two and a half to three feel high, when 

 cut. It is all watered every eight days. NVe 

 meet many mule-loaus of it going into the town, 

 each 450 lb. or 4| quintals, which sells lor 4 pcfet- 

 tos, or near 4s. English ; suppose it 4s. for 500 lb. 

 it will not be difficult to calculate the produce of 

 an acre. All I saw would yield 10 tons, green, 

 per acre, at each cutting, and much of it a great 

 deal more ; let us suppose five cuttings, or 50 tons 

 per acre, at 16s. a ton, this is 401. sterling per acre. 

 It is to be remembered, that the growth we saw, 

 was the third, perhaps the fourth, and that the 

 first and second are in all probability more consi- 

 derable, it will not. therefore, be thought any ex- 

 aggeration to calculate on five such. I by no 

 means assert that lucerne yields always, or gene- 

 rally so, as I speak only of what I see. 1 have 

 very little doubt, however, but this is the amount 

 of that portion, which is thus cut and sold to 

 Barcelona; possibly one-third, certainly one-fourth, 

 is to be deducted for the expense of carriage ; this 

 is the most difficult part of the calculation, lor it 

 depends on how many times the mule goes in a 

 day, which must also depend on the readiness of 

 sale, and other circumstances. The profit is, 

 however, amazinglj' great. All the other lucerne 

 1 have any where seen sinks, in my idea, to no- 

 thing, on comparison with the vast and luxuriant 

 burthens given by these watered grounds. The 

 finest crops I have known in England, are drilledj 



but there is a fallacy to the eye in the drilled crops, 

 in proportion to the distance of the rows ; they 

 appear thick while they are really thin, but in 

 broadcast ones, which satisfy the eye, there is no 

 deception; and these immense burthens, through 

 which the scythe is with difficulty moved, produce 

 more at one culling, than two-tiiel drills would at 

 three, with the advantage of the herbage being 

 finer and softer. But weeds in England ami Ca- 

 talonia are two very difierent things; it well de- 

 serves, however, with us, a better trial than it has 

 yet generally received ; I liave viewed broad- 

 cast crops ; particularly Rocque's, on a very rich 

 garden soil ; and Dr. Tanner's, on a common tur- 

 ni|) loam, which, though not to be named with the 

 Spanish, were certainly encouraging. 



Hemp, through all these watered lands, is the 

 predominant crop ; it is seven leet high, and per- 

 fectly fine ; some of it is already harvested. 1 am 

 sorry to see that the watered part of the vale is 

 not more than a mile broad. Indian fig, cal'ed 

 here, figua de maura, grows six or seven leet 

 high, very branching and crooked, the arms at 

 boTtom as thick as the thigh of a common man ; 

 those and many aloes in the hedges. Every gar- 

 den or farm has a small house, with a reservoir ibr 

 water, which is filled in most by a water wheel, 

 with jars around ihe circumference. The gardens 

 between Barcelona and the fort, and also within 

 the walls, are watered in the same manner; the 

 water is let into every little bed, in the same way 

 as I have already described. They are crowded 

 with crops, and kept in most beautitui order; those 

 in and close to the town, scattered with mulberry 

 trees. But in the district of which I am speaking 

 at present, among the hemp and lucerne, neiiher 

 vine, olive, nor mulberry. These watered lands 

 belong generally to proprietors who live in Barce- 

 lona, and are let at 30 to 40 Sjianish livres the 

 journal. 



The valley, in its widest par!,, is three miles 

 broad. Here it lets at 34 Spanish livres a year 

 the journal, and sells from 600 //t'. to 1000 //u. ; 

 each of these livres being about 54s.: (1000 

 Spanish livres makes 2700 French ones). Taking 

 the medium, or 800 liv. and the French livre at 

 \Q\d., this makes the price of a journal 90/. 2s. Qd.; 

 and the rent of it 4/. The gross rent of the land, 

 therefore, pays nearly 4| per cent. ; but whether 

 this is clear rent, the tenant paying all v.\y.(ie, and 

 doing the small repairs of his house, &c., or whe- 

 ther 'there are deductions on these accounts, are 

 questions which were neither forgotten nor re- 

 solved. To show the quick succession of their 

 crops, they have corn in stooks on the borders of 

 some of the fields, and the land ploughed and 

 sown with millet, which is already nine inches 

 high. 31any bleaching grounds. 



A(lvani;ing — the irrigated land lets fron; 24 to 

 40 Spanish livres: that not irrigated, at 15 liv. 

 Water, therefore, here more than doubles the rent 

 of the land ; and in other places, we have found 

 the difierence yet gr-eater. The soil all the way 

 a red and brown deep friable loam, with a suffi- 

 cient adhesion Ibr any crops. They sow French 

 beans after hemp, and then sow wheat. 



AtBallalo. two hours from Barcelona, we meet 

 with the first vineyards, but the hills here come 

 down to the sea ; and where they do not, the vale 

 is not more than half a mile wide. Lycium in 

 the hedges J some lew mulbsrry trees. Oranges 



