646 



Farming in Spain. 



[NOV., 



enormous tracts of lands which are almost uninhabited, which 

 could support ten times their present population. This 

 intensive farming is again largely due to the fact that 

 Spaniards have always been a fighting nation, and "even 

 when permanent conquests fixed them anywhere their farm- 

 houses became castles, their meadows fields of battle, and 

 their ploughmen and drovers fighting men. Thus a 

 peasantry, all guerillos to the bone, living amid perpetual 

 border warfare, exposed to the raids of the Christians, and 

 the talas of the Moors, was not likely to possess artificial 

 pasture and forests." 



During the last few years there have been several indica- 

 tions of improved methods of farming in Spain, and the 

 Government is helping to some extent. Spain has no 

 Ministry devoted exclusively to agricultural affairs, which 

 are managed by the "Direction general de Agricultura, Minas 

 y Montes," a department of the "Ministerio de Fomento." 

 Several Government Schools have been started, while 

 model farms have been established, among other places, at 

 Vittoria, Barcelona, and Aranjuez. Agricultural shows are 

 now held annually in many of the principal cities of Spain, 

 while a few farmers' clubs have been inaugurated. So far 

 little has been done in the direction of co-operation, though 

 probably this would do more for the Spanish farmer and 

 small-holder than anything else. In many districts the land is 

 mostly occupied by small farmers, the average size of whose 

 holdings is about seven acres. There are, it is true, many 

 extensive farms, but these are generally worked by the owner, 

 large tenant farmers being extremely uncommon. The Duke 

 of Wellington owns an enormous estate near the town of 

 Granada, and this is in every way a model establishment. 



In Northern Spain, where there is comparatively little sun, 

 and where the soil is not particularly fertile, the chief work 

 of the farmer is the cultivation of maize and fruit, and the 

 raising of cattle. Very little corn is grown, and although 

 there is a considerable area devoted to the vine, the grapes 

 are of poor value, producing an inferior and rather bitter 

 wine. There are, of course, some exceptions to this rule, 

 notably in parts of Aragon and Catalonia, where some 

 excellent wine is produced. In the Basque Provinces and 



