ORANGE GROVES. 



35 



in a day. But olive trees are said not to require pruning 

 at all, till they are 25 or 30 years old. 200 aranzadas 

 are equal to 191 English acres, and 3,000 arrobas of oil, 

 the average annual produce, are equal to 12,735 English 

 gallons, old measure — about 661 gallons per Englisli 

 acre. 



I do not know, however, whether there was not 

 included in this estimate 40 aranzadas that are entirely 

 planted with the La Reyna, which are never pressed for 

 oil. Even with this deduction the produce would fall 

 very far short of what the trees of the Hieronomites 

 were said to produce ; namely, from three to four fane- 

 gas of olives each tree, each fanega yielding an arroba 

 of oil. An English acre will contain 60 trees, 27 feet 

 apart, which is about the distance they were placed from 

 each other on the Marquis's plantations ; and, indeed, 60 

 was said b}^ the peasant to be the number on each aran- 

 zada. 153 acres, bearing 60 trees each, will contain 

 9,180 trees, and the produce being 3,000 arrobas, it is 

 scarcely one-third of an arroba for each tree. 



This comes nearer to Don Jacobo Gordon's state- 

 ment, that from 1^ to If arroba is reckoned a good 

 return from each tree. The trees of the Hieronomites, 

 as well indeed as the most of those I saw in the neiffh- 

 bourhood of Xeres, were planted on a richer soil, and 

 were of much larger dimensions ; but this could never 

 cause such a difference as to reconcile the different state- 

 ments. 



The principal exports from Seville are bitter and 

 sweet oranges, and lemons. The sweet oranges are more 

 cultivated than the bitter. I visited several plantations; 

 one belonging to Mr. Wetherall, the merchant to whom 

 I had brought an introduction. The plants are all 



