FARMING IN THE SIERRA. 



75 



enclosed with mud walls, and in beautiful order. The general — a good- 

 looking, farmer-like old gentleman — met us with great cordiality, and 

 showed us over the premises. He has a very large house, with all the 

 necessary offices attached, which he built himself. Indeed, he said he 

 had made the farm ; for when he purchased it, it was a stony and 

 desolate place, and he had expended much time, labor, and money on 

 it. There were two gardens : one for vegetables and fruit, and one for 

 flowers. They were both in fine order. The fruits were peaches of 

 various kinds, apples, strawberries, almonds, and some few grapes. The 

 flowers were principally roses, pinks, pansies, jessamines, and geraniums. 

 There were a few exotics, under bell-glasses. Both fruit and flowers 

 were of rather indifferent quality, but much better than one would 

 expect to see in so elevated and cold a situation. The nights here, 

 particularly in the early morning, are quite cold. 



This is the harvest season, and the General was gathering his crop of 

 maize. About twenty peons or laborers were bringing it in from the 

 fields, and throwing it down in piles in a large court-yard, while boys 

 and women were engaged in "shucking" it. In one corner of the 

 square, under a snug little shed attached to one of the barns, with stone 

 seats around it, sat the General's three daughters, sewing, and probably 

 superintending the "shucking." They were fair, sweet-looking girls. 

 The General had a tray of glasses, with some Italia (a cordial made of 

 a Muscatel grape that grows in the province of lea, and hence called 

 lea brandy) and paper cigars, brought out for us; and the whole 

 concern had a home look that was quite pleasing. 



I cannot give a good idea of farming in this country, for want of 

 information of the value of land; this depending so entirely on its 

 situation and condition. The mountain sides are so steep, and the 

 valleys so rocky, that I imagine there is no great deal of cultivable 

 land in all this district, and therefore it is probably high. According 

 to Gen. Otero, land here is measured by "tongos," which is a square 

 of thirty- three varas. (A vara is thirty-three English inches.) Three 

 tongos make a "yuntada," or as much as it is calculated that a yoke of 

 oxen can plough in a day. About half an arroba, or twelve and a half 

 pounds of seed, is planted to the tongo. In maize, the yield is between 

 forty-five and fifty for one. Wheat yields about forty for one, but is 

 so subject to the rust as to be an uncertain crop, and is therefore little 

 cultivated. The price of maize is five dollars the carga or mule-load, 

 of two hundred and sixty pounds. From these data it appears, then, 

 that an acre will yield about fortv-three bushels, which is worth one 

 dollar and twenty-five cents the bushel Quantities of barley are 



