Introductory II 
The subjoined statistics give the state of Spanish agriculture 
at the present day, the total acreage being taken as 50,451,688 
hectares (24 acres each) :— 
Hectares. 
Cultivated 21,702,880 
Uncultivated :— 
Pasture, scrub, and wood 24,055,547 
Unproductive 4,693,261 
Total 28,748,808 
Grand Total 50,451,688 
These figures demonstrate precisely the extent of the authors’ 
condominium in Spain—well over one-half the country! With 
the area under cultivation (say 43 per cent), we have but one 
concern—the Great Bustard. The remaining 57 per cent pertain 
absolutely to our province—Wilder Spain. The term scrub or 
brushwood (in Spanish monte), though by a sort of courtesy it 
may be ranked as “ pasture ”—and parts of it do support herds of 
sheep and goats—implies as a rule the wildest of rough covert 
and jungle, rougher far than a Scottish deer-forest; and this 
monte clothes well-nigh one-half of Spain. 
Such figures may appear to infer considerable apathy and 
lack of effort as regards agriculture. ’Twere, nevertheless, a false 
assumption to conclude that Spanish mountaineers are an idle 
race—quite the reverse, as is repeatedly demonstrated in this 
book. In the hills every acre of available soil is utilised, often 
at what appears excessive labour—maybe it is a patch so tiny as 
hardly to seem worth the tilling, or so terribly steep that none 
save a serrano could keep a foothold, much less plough, sow, and 
reap. 
The main explanation of the immense percentage of waste lies 
in the fact first set forth—the high general elevation of Spain ; 
and, secondly, in her mountainous character. 
Whether these or any other extenuating circumstances apply 
to the corn-lands, we are not sufficiently expert in such subjects 
as to express a confident opinion. But we think not. So 
antiquated, wasteful, and utterly ineflicient have been Spanish 
methods of agriculture, that a land which might be one of the 
granaries of Europe is actually to some extent dependent on 
foreign grain, and that despite an import-duty! A distinct 
movement is, nevertheless, perceptible in the direction of 
