6 4 8 



Farming in Spain. 



[NOV., 



of treading with mules or oxen. Practically no manuring is 

 done, and in many cases the system of cropping is "every 

 alternate year," i.e., the soil lies fallow for one season and 

 produces a crop the next. The form of plough in common 

 use is simple in the extreme. It consists of an elm tree, 

 stripped of all its branches save a lower one, which is 

 sharpened and covered with a piece of thin iron ; the trunk of 

 the tree is the pole, to which the oxen are attached. Its cost 

 varies from ios. to 155., and it weighs about 22 to 24 lb. 



The Southern and Eastern districts of Spain are probably 

 the most fertile in the world, and this is indeed the farmer's 

 Eden. For the most part the farms are fairly extensive, 

 and are generally worked by the proprietor, though there 

 are a few places where the land is divided up into innumer- 

 able small holdings. Olive groves, vineyards, orange and 

 lemon orchards, abound everywhere ; the sugar cane flourishes 

 in the neighbourhood of Malaga; rice and raisins thrive well 

 and prove profitable crops, while large areas of land are 

 suitable for cotton growing. In the eighteenth century there 

 were produced in the province of Granada in one season 

 upwards of 300,000 lb. of cotton, while earlier still the Arabs 

 successfully cultivated the plant on the Andalusian shores. 

 Its cultivation has for some reason been abandoned, but there 

 is a movement on foot for its re-introduction. 



Government Action for the Promotion of Agriculture. — 

 The following information as to the action of the Spanish 

 Government with regard to agriculture during the year 1910 

 is given in a recent Foreign Office Report (Annual Series, 

 No. 4,749) : — 



The past year has witnessed great activity on the part of 

 the Ministry of Fomento on behalf of agriculture. Two Bills 

 of importance were presented to the Cortes during the year. 

 The first provides for the creation of a "National Institute of 

 Agricultural Credit." The institute is to exercise functions 

 of inspection and control over agricultural credit and insur- 

 ance companies, co-operative societies, irrigation syndicates, 

 &c, established by private enterprise. It is also to establish 

 banks authorised to advance money to farmers for purely 

 agricultural purposes on mortgage at a rate of interest, not 

 exceeding 4 per cent. The second Bill prescribes measures 



