I9ii.] 



Farming in Spain. 



645 



FARMING IN SPAIN. 

 E. T. Brown. 



The traveller who is familiar with Northern or Central 

 Spain regards the country as comparatively poor from an 

 agricultural point of view, chiefly consisting of mountains 

 and large tracts of almost valueless soil ; whereas he who 

 knows the South, the fertile and luxuriant Andalusia, par- 

 ticularly the district in the neighbourhood of Malaga, where 

 olives, lemons, oranges, and the sugar cane abound, 

 naturally looks upon Spain as perhaps the most favoured 

 agricultural spot in all the world, a country that is, in truth, 

 flowing with milk and honey. In a few respects the Spanish 

 farmer takes advantages of his opportunities ; in a great 

 many respects, however, he fails to do so. In the Basque 

 and Asturian Provinces the methods employed are the same 

 as those introduced by the Celts and Cantabrians ; in Cata- 

 lonia and the Provinces bordering on the Mediterranean 

 there is little or no improvement upon the methods practised 

 by the Greeks and Carthaginians, the latter of whom domi- 

 nated Spain during the years 238 to 200 B.C. The cultivation 

 of the olive and vine is identically similar to that described 

 in the Old Testament, while the plough and the other rude 

 agricultural implements in use are the same as those to be 

 seen on the monuments of Egypt and Asia Minor. 



Before all else Spain is an agricultural country. Possess- 

 ing as it does in many districts a light and easily cultivated 

 soil, a favourable combination of intense heat and a sufficient 

 supply of moisture, and an entire absence of late frosts, 

 agriculture naturally flourishes, besides which the Spaniard 

 has always preferred farming to trade. Until within com- , 

 paratively recent years Spain has been constantly at war, 

 and this, coupled with the fact that roads are few and at 

 rimes well-nigh impassable, has prevented the steady develop- 

 ment of trade. Trade, moreover, has always been regarded 

 by the Spaniard as unworthy his attention, w T hile farming, 

 on the other hand, has ever been considered a gentleman's 

 pursuit. Intensive rather than extensive farming is the rule, 

 and since Spain is a thinly populated country there are 



