On the Agriculture of Spain. 
347 
As the distinction of the two first divisions was pointed out at 
Granada, so may this by the effects of difference of chmate in the 
seasons. Whilst the spring and early summer in Estremadura 
this year were the finest known for the last ten years, and every 
description of crop was teeming in abundance ; in Galicia, up to 
the middle of July, they had had only the most cold and incle- 
ment weather, and were under the most serious apprehensions for 
the maize crop, on which, as on the potato in Ireland, the mass 
of the people depend for subsistence. 
In the first region a great portion of the work is done by manual 
labour, the comparative smallness of the ground in occupation, 
the nature of the productions, and the dearness of fodder, causing 
that mode to be the most generally resorted to. As the intense 
heat only requires a supply of water to cause an exuberant vege- 
tation, the quality of the soil is of less consequence ; in this it 
resembles some of the finest parts of Italy, which owe their seem- 
ing natural fertility to the same cause. The waste consequent on 
their constant and exhausting crops is readily supplied by the 
manures, of which all the descendants of the Moors, the inhabit- 
ants of the greater part of this division, are perfectly aware of the 
value, and take pains in collecting and applying. In this division 
few animals are kept, and still fewer bred. Small and inferior 
horses and mules, and asses of very superior size and make, form 
the principal part of the labourer's live stock. 
In the second region, wheat, which is always of the finest 
quality, forms the staple food of man of every rank ; barley that of 
the horses and mules ; rye is much cultivated, principally for the 
use of the bullock. Besides the cerealia, wine, oil, pulse of various 
kinds, are produced in unlimited quantities; whilst in the scanty 
remains of the magnificent forests which have been swept away by 
the ruthless management of a barbarous government, we yet find 
vast herds of swine, producing meat of a quality unknown else- 
where.* In this district also are the pasturages, both summer and 
winter, of the merinos, and other breeds of sheep, which even now 
would produce ample revenues were they properly managed. In 
this, as in every other division, are enormous tracts of land known 
under the emphatic term of ' despoblado ' (unpeopled). Much of 
the finest land in Spain is in this situation, the towns and villages 
having disappeared within the last two and three centuries. In 
the province of Toledo alone forty towns are said to have disap- 
peared since the time of Philip II., the greater part of which were 
places called " of labradores " (farmers or agriculturists) from their 
* They are fed upon the sweet chesnut and fruit which fall from the 
trees, and afterwards fattened, when upwards of a twelvemonth old, upon 
Indian corn ; for porkers are never killed ; but sucking pigs are a favourite 
dish. Thebacon, or TocHio, is detestable, but the hams are very fine. — F. B. 
