Notes and Gleanings. 357 



are very large plantations about Cordova, Grenada, and Seville, where the tree 

 seems to grow luxuriantly. It seemed to me that such as I noticed were there 

 more vigorous and finer than any that 1 had before seen. A good many of the 

 olives, as they grow very large, are pickled ; and a good many are pressed for oil : 

 unfortunately, for the want of sufficient care, or other cause, the oil is apt to be- 

 come rancid, and is inferior to the French. Rice and cotton are grown, but, I 

 think, not to any great extent. The culture of rice is exceedingly unhealthy, 

 although profitable ; and it is on that account hardly desirable that it should be 

 extended. This, perhaps, will be sufficient, without attempting to enumerate all 

 the articles that receive attention, to give you some general idea of the agricul- 

 ture of Spain, whose products might, as it seems to me, with her warm climate, 

 light, fertile, easily-worked soil, be almost indefinitely extended if science and 

 skill could be applied to their full and perfect development ; and that in this, and 

 the working of the mines, and quarries of the finest marbles, she would find 

 sources of greater wealth than she possessed when she had under her control 

 the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru. 



The Spanish appear to be an exceedingly temperate people ; and the vice of 

 drunkenness can hardly be said to exist, — certainly not to prevail to any extent. 

 The climate is very warm : in tlie south, frost and snow are almost unknown ; 

 and there can hardly be said to be any winter. The central part of the king- 

 dom is a high plateau, the city of Madrid being some twenty-five hundred feet 

 above the sea : yet even there, although the cutting, icy winds from the moun- 

 tains are severe in winter, the frosts are comparatively slight and of short 

 duration ; green pease planted in November or December being gathered througli 

 the winter. 



To the traveller passing through Spain, two things are very noticeable. One 

 is the want of population. The country does not appear half peopled. One trav- 

 els for miles on miles over the broad plains, often without seeing scarcely a 

 habitation or a human being. As the people live generally in towns or villages, 

 which railroads rather avoid than pass through, this, perhaps, explains in part, 

 although I think not fully, the apparent paucity of inhabitants. The other 

 noticeable fact is the extreme cleanliness of the towns ; both houses and streets 

 appearing in this respect in strong and favorable contrast with some other parts 

 of Europe. There is, however, one unpleasant side to the picture ; and that is, 

 there appears to be a good deal of poverty and misery. 



Spain is very destitute of trees. On the mountains are some forests of cork, 

 oak, and other trees that I did not know, and of the stone-pine, with also, especially 

 at the north, groves of fine chestnuts ; but the high table-lands and plains are 

 almost entirely denuded of them. In nearly all the large towns, walks and drives 

 are provided for the enjoyment and recreation of the public ; and these grounds, 

 often of considerable extent, planted with rows of fine trees, elms, a variety re- 

 sembling the English plane or sycamores that flourish luxuriantly, and acacias 

 of different varieties, become, with their shade and verdure under the fierce 

 sun, oases in a desert. 



The Spaniards do not seem very enterprising in introducing new varieties of 

 fruits, or careful in selecting the best. Besides oranges and grapes, already 



