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XXV. — On the Agriculture of Spain. By Capt. Widdrington, 
R.N., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
Although, from the great extent of the territory of Spain, and 
the vast variety of soil it contains, it would be impossible within 
moderate limits to give an adequate description of the agriculture 
of it, I have great pleasure in complying with the request made 
through Dr. Daubeny, of furnishing some data on this interesting 
and little known subject. 
In my work on Spain, published in 1834, I proposed, after 
looking a good deal into the natural history, a division of the 
country into three great zones or divisions, as marked out by the 
hand of nature. On more mature reflection and observation, I 
am more and more inclined to adhere to this arrangement, and I 
now advert to it because it assists most materially in judging not 
only of the natural but the artificial productions of the earth. 
The first division is that of the territory lying along the Mediter- 
ranean at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, and the great secondary 
ranges of mountains which extend with hardly any interruption 
from the western extremity of the Peninsula to the Pyrenees. 
In the whole of this comparatively narrow district, to which I 
have applied the name of " tierra caliente " (warm land), little 
wheat or even barley is cultivated. The soil in most of the finest 
and most highly cultivated parts, as the Huerlas or gardens of 
Valencia and Murcia, is naturally poor and arid, and owes its ex- 
uberant fertility to the hand of man, by irrigation, of which, 
amongst the finest, if not the very finest, works in the world are 
those of the Moors, which still remain unaltered in the hands of 
their descendants.* In some spots, principally at the mouths of 
the rivers, better soil is found; and in some places, especially in 
the sugar grounds of Motril and Almunecar, it consists of vege- 
table mould and detritus constantly brought down by the melt- 
ing of the eternal snows above them. The Vega of Malaga 
is fine loamy soil, and in it wheat is chiefly grown. In general, 
in this district the productions are extremely varied. Besides 
oil, wine, and silk, pulse of various sorts, lucerne (cut in some 
places twelve times in the year), rice, sugar, piminta or red 
peppers, batatas ( Convolvulus batata), cotton, even coffee has 
been tried with partial success. The cochineal insect is easily 
raised at Malaga and other places, and the chirimoya, a tropical 
fruit, perfects its fruit in the open gardens at Motril. The 
* They consist of large aitificial reservoirs of water, which are public 
property, under the control of persons specially appointed for their care 
and management. At certain appointed times the ducts of these tanks 
are opened, and the water allowed to pass over the ground of those land- 
holders who have a right to the immunity. — F. Burke. 
