12 



Unexplored Spain 



cniploying inodcrn ugricultuiai machinery, chemical manures, and 

 such-like. Irrigation in a hmd whose head-waters can be tapped 

 at 2000 feet and upwards could be carried out on a larger scale 

 and at cheaper rates than in any other European country — yet it 

 is practically neglected ; no considerable extension has been made 

 to the two milHon acres of irrigated lands that existed when we 

 last wrote, twenty years ago, although the ruined acjueducts of 

 Koman, Goth, and Moor are ever present to suggest the silent 

 lesson of former foresight and prosperity. 



One incidental circumstance of rural Spain, the fatal effects of 

 which are all-penetrating (though it will never be altered), is 



WOODEN PLOUGH-SHARE 



(As still commonly used. ) 



absenteeism on the part of landowners. Not even a tenant- 

 farmer will live on his holding. No, he must have his town- 

 house, and employ an administrator or agent to superintend the 

 farm, only visiting it himself at rare intervals. Oh ! that 

 hideous nightmare, the hireling, how his dead-weight of apathy 

 and dishonesty at secondhand crushes out every spark of interest 

 and enterprise, and breeds in their stead a rampant crop of all 

 the petty vices and frauds that prey on industry. But that evil 

 can hardly be eradicated. 



What we British understand by the expression " country life " 

 totally fails to commend itself to the more gregarious peoples of 

 the south. Rich and poor alike, from grandee to day-labourer, 

 the Spanish ignore and disdain the joys of the country. They 

 call it the campo and the campo they detest. Each nightfall 



