On the Agriculture of Spain. 
349 
whom drink anything but water, and there is no demand or means 
of transport to any distance. There are parts of Old and New 
Castile, of Aragon, and of Estremadura, of which the names are 
unknown out of their own immediate locality, where the most 
wholesome and delicious wines are made, and could be improved 
so as to excel probably those of any other country. The most ex- 
traordinary sight I ever witnessed of this kind was the vineyards 
between Olmedo and Valladolid, this year; such was the abundance 
that they had the only resource left them in such a season, of 
throwing away all the old wine to fill their vessels with the new.* 
The prunings of the vines are almost the only fuel they have in 
some places, and are consequently of some value — often more so 
than the wine itself. 
The most extended cultivation of the olive is now in Upper 
Andalusia and the valley of the Guadalquivir, where it is in- 
creasing most rapidly, owing to the demand for their fat rich oil 
in France and England as well as a great increase of internal 
consumption. It is becoming a vast source of wealth both to in- 
dividuals and to the nation, the returns being certain and the lands 
by no means injured, but the contrary, by the plantations which 
are in open order. 
In the third or humid region, the system, both natural and arti- 
ficial, is quite different from that of the others, the staple food of 
man being maize ; the cultivation of it is the principal object; it 
is generally raised by manual labour. In the higher parts of the 
country, especially away from the coast, rye-bread is substituted 
for it, and is almost exclusively used for the purpose. The do- 
mestic animals are fed with hay, other forage being scarce, and in 
some places to be had with great difficulty. Here only in Spain 
is anything like a dairy system to be found, and at Oviedo they 
have improved so much that the butter is as good as the generality 
in England. 
Little wheat is grown, and in consequence of the want of com- 
munication, this grain, which is often unsaleable in Old Castile, 
bears a very high price in Asturias, only a few leagues distant, 
exactly as it appeared in the reports on Ireland a few years since. 
The animals principally used in this region also differ from 
those of the others. The bullock, both for ploughing and drawing 
their antique cars with revolving axletrees, causing the valleys to 
ring with their creaking noise, is substituted for the mule. Not- 
withstanding this rude and primitive mode of conveyance, there is 
no doubt that in point of economy the inhabitants of this division 
* Some of the finest red wine in Europe, the Val de Perns, is grown in 
La Mancha. It partakes of the flavour and quality of both claret, port, and 
Burgundy ; but, being in the heart of Spain, the expense of carriage is too 
great to bring it here. — F. B. 
