Oil the Agriculture of Spain. 
351 
ling, of which 12,000,000 remained in June, and were calculated 
to produce 24,000,000. or double the estimated value, as the sales 
on the average do. The property of the secular clergy, most of 
which is now on hand, is supposed to exceed that of the monks. 
The portion sold has been divided into 150,000 lots; but this 
includes the fincas or town properties. The next is that of the 
great landed proprietors, which, although a few of them have a 
very large extent of lands, the produce of intermarriages amongst 
the families, with a view to aggrandise themselves — one of tlie 
many fatal errors in the Spanish system — yet they bear an insig- 
nificant proportion to the aggregate value of the territory of the 
whole country. Next come the lands of the lesser nobles and 
other possessors of land, down to the small freeholder. There 
are no data for ascertaining the quantity of land held by these, 
but it is enormous, and in general is much better managed than 
that of the preceding classes. 
The fourth and last class, which, as far as I know, has been 
wholly overlooked by the writers on Spain, is the common lands 
belonging to the towns and villages. These are of most enor- 
mous extent, and affect the whole agricultural polity of Spain. 
They form the basis of the maintenance of the labouring classes 
and those a little above them, the produce of their hired labour 
being in addition to the help obtained from this source. They 
are a principal cause why the system of permanent service hardly 
exists in the country : almost in every part the agricultural la- 
bourers are nomade — returning home after a period of engage- 
ment for particular work, according to the season. In some parts 
they move at seed-time — in others for the vintage — in some for 
the winter's ploughing, &c. — and vast numbers make long pe- 
riodical vovages with cars at the time the bullocks can feed by 
the road-side, carrying salt or other commodities to exchange for 
corn. The larger private estates are managed almost entirely 
by factors, who with the peasantry draw the greatest value from 
the land — the owner having to pay its vast accumulated charges, 
the only certain taxation in Spain being that drawn from the 
land, which is literally groaning under the weight of successive 
wars and wretched financial manao'ement. Notwithstanding: the 
causes I have enumeiated, and others, there is a slow but steady 
improvement visible in almost every part of the country. In 
despite of the civil war so lately ended, land is of more value 
than at the commencement ; and in very many parts, especially in 
the newly-purchased properties, great improvements are making. 
In some pans farming is carried on upon a scale as extraordi- 
nary as many other things in this singular country. There are 
many men in Lower Andalusia who have 100 pairs of bullocks; 
some have 200 and 300 ; and one, I was assured, had 800 yoke 
VOL. IV. 2 A 
