230 WILD SPAIN. 



ments " await another age! Ma}^ some few outlandish 

 nooks and corners of Europe be left as God made them, 

 where primseval conditions may yet survive, and wild nature 

 reign in uncontaminated glory — at least during our time. 



Much could easily be done to bring Spanish farming 

 nearer to European standards. Improvements will come, 

 one day or another : already the dawn of a more active 

 industrial life is beginning to glimmer. But as yet the 

 flutter extends onl}^ to manufactures, not to agriculture. 

 Capitalists are beginning to furnish their factories with the 

 apj)liances of modern machinerj^, and Spanish workmen 

 are found capable of adapting themselves, by their intelli- 

 gence and attention, to the new conditions, and to bear 

 a fair comparison with the workmen of other countries. 



The wave of progress is at present confined to the 

 foundry, the mine, and the workshop, but will some day, 

 perhaps, extend to the campo — substitute the steam-plough 

 and reaper for the sluggish ox-team and sickle, the steam- 

 thrasher for the trotting brood-mares, and metamorphose 

 into an active industry the present drowsy, old-world 

 routine of Spanish agriculture. 



Progress in Spain moves with halting step, and it were 

 folly to cherish sanguine expectations. Such a change can 

 only come with altered conditions in the people. Why, for 

 example, try to improve dairy arrangements when there is 

 no demand for fresh butter ? Why trouble with the cattle 

 when the fighting bull is the prize animal of the pasture ? 

 What encouragement is there to improve the grazing of 

 stock when an enthusiast who had stall-fed his beasts is 

 told by the butcher, " if you wish me to sell any more of 

 your animals, you must send them without fat'' ! Hitherto 

 this gentleman's efforts to reform the national taste have 

 resulted in utter collapse. Fattened joints are, in Spain, 

 in advance of the age, amongst a people wedded to the 

 flesh-i^ots of i\ie imchero, wherein the beef is required to be, 

 above all things, lean. The fat of the pig only is appre- 

 ciated in Spanish cuisine. 



