SPAIN : WINE, RAISINS, AND OLIVES. 133 



washed ourselves and breakfasted, wc were but too glad to lie 

 down and take a sleep of several hours. We needed it after the 

 six or seven days or nights that wc had passed in the diligence. 



When our dinner was taken wc went to the Alameda, or prom- 

 enade, where there was to be music. Ilere wc saw all the fashion- 

 able people promenading up and do^yn, among wh'6m were many 

 dark-eyed scnoritas. After listening for some time to the music, 

 which was very good, I returned to the hotel to write, and my 

 son Arpad went to the theatre. 



September 27. — In the morning w^e hired three horses, two for 

 ourselves and one for our guide. Our steeds proved to be fine 

 ones of the Andalusian race. Wc first proceeded to the dwell- 

 ing of a nurseryman, but, not finding him at home, we went to the 

 vine plantation of Don Luis Arra de Breka. This vineyard is 

 200 fanegas in extent. It makes 5000 boxes of raisins, 15,000 

 arohas of Malaga wine, and 300 arohas of vinegar. A box of 

 raisins weighs twenty-five American pounds, and a barrel one 

 hundred pounds. An aroba contains twenty-two bottles of wine, 

 and a fanega of land contains fifteen hundred vines. These sta- 

 tistics were furnished by the overseer, who readily gave us all the 

 information we desired. The establishment employs sixty men 

 in selecting, drying, and packing the raisins. 



The drying-grounds consist of an elevation whose surface makes 

 an inclination of forty-five degrees, whose length is sixty feet, and 

 width twelve. It is built out of brick when a natural elevation 

 can not be found. The drying-grounds are separated from each 

 other by bricks stuck into the ground. These bricks are about 

 eighteen inches long, one and a half inches thick, and six wide. 

 The floor is a clay soil, overspread naturally or artificially with 

 small loose pebbles. It resembles somewhat a threshing-floor, 

 only is not so hard. The grapes, when ripe, are brought and 

 placed on these drying-grounds, which are invariably built facing 

 the noon sun, that they may receive the greatest possible heat. 

 It is to obtain this effect that these grounds are inclined forty-five 

 degrees, for it is at this inclination that the heat is the greatest. 



The grapes, laid simply on the ground as above mentioned, will 

 naturally become dusty, or have some particles of dust ; therefore 

 I asked why they did not spread them on a canvas or on straw 

 mats. The answer I received was, that neither canvas nor straw 

 received as much heat as the ground, and, consequently, the latter 

 would dr}^ the grapes much quicker than the former. With all 



