242 AVOYAGETO BookVIII. 



mon for each ftalk to produce five or fix ears. 

 This information raifed my curiofity ; and I met 

 with fo many inftances afterwards, that my furprize 

 at feeing the ftalk juft mentioned was greatly a- 

 bated ; as from the moifture, advantageous expofure, 

 and richnefs of the foil, a much greater produce 

 might naturally be expeded than in the ground eor>- 

 ftantly fown. 



The great plenty of wheat here is fufficiently in- 

 dicated by its price ; a meafure weighing fix arobas 

 and fix pounds, being ufually fold for eight or ten 

 rials. Yet for want of a market, though at fo low a 

 price, no more is fown than is necelTary for home 

 confumption j and thence a great part of the country 

 lies fallow. 



Hers are vines of feveral kinds, and which vye 

 with the wheat in exuberance. They are alfo, both 

 with regard to the richnels and flavour of their 

 grapes, efteemed beyond any produced in Peru. 

 Moft of them are red. A fort of Mufcadel is alfo 

 made here, whofe flavour far exceeds any of the kind 

 made in Spain. The grapes grow mofl:ly in efpaliers, 

 and not on detached vines. In this refpedt alfo, as 

 in the wheat, large trads of ground are totally neg- 

 lefted. For though its produce is fo confiderable, 

 the buyers are fo few, that the vineyards do not 

 anfwer even the expence of cultivation. 



The chief ufe made of thefe rich lands by the 

 owners is, the fattening of oxen, goats and fiieep. And 

 this is the principal employment of greateft part of 

 the inhabitants of the country of all ranks, and uni- 

 verfaliy of the lower clafs. As foon as the horned 

 cattle are fattened in thefe luxuriant paftures, and 

 the proper feafon arrived, four or five hundred, and 

 even more, according to the largenefs of the farm, 

 are flau(?htered. They take out the fat, melt it into 

 a kind of lard, there called Grafia and bucca- 

 neer or dry the flefh in fmoke ; but the greateft pro- 



