274 
MODE OF REARING CATTLE IN SPAIN. 
BY DON JOSE DE PRADO Y GUILLEN. 
(Translated by Mr. Consul Graham-Dunlop.) 
UR system of cattle-rearing may be reduced to two 
. fundamental principles :—first, the open air system at 
all hours and seasons, and secondly, the double system, 
viz., half the year housed, the other half in the open pas- 
tures. Constant stabling of cattle is never practised, not 
even in Gallicia, where they stall much more than here in 
Andalusia. The large herds of cows destined for breeding 
are kept (in the south of Spain) on the first system, open 
air pasturing at all times. These animals never enter sta- 
-bles or places of shelter, they live continually in the pas- 
ture grounds, which are uncultivated meadows and hill 
sides, covering a vast extent of country. They feed onthe 
herbage and plants which are the natural produce of the 
earth, and their food thus depends on the seasons, on the 
scarcity or abundance of the pasture, and on the fertility or 
barrenness of the soil they are on. Nothing is provided 
for them by man, either in winter or summer. If there be 
enough for them to graze on, they live, if not, they die. 
These cattle have no dwellings or artificial places of shelter, 
they endure the rigour and the variations of the seasons 
entirely in the open air. They are exposed to cold, frost, 
and snow, and (in summer) to a burning sun, with no other 
protection than what a bush, tree, or rock can afford them. 
During the autumn, winter. and spring months, they are 
generally keptin the pasture grounds of the Sierras, on brows 
and spurs of the mountains, because these pasture grounds 
are more sheltered than those on the coast or table land. 
In the summer they go to the wide unfenced stubble lands 
of the plains and Végus, near the coast, and wherever there | 
is table land, if good watering places, especially running | 
streams and rivers, are also found near. During the heats . 
of summer they are most liable to common cattle ailments, 
and the cowherds require to be doubly careful in this season 
of the year. They make the cattle feed during the night, 
and early in the morning turn them into a species of fold or 
rough pen, where the animals lie down and chew the cud, 
and rest till about nine or ten A.M., at which hour they are 
allowed again to pasture. During the greatest heat of the 
day (twelve to four) they are never driven or allowed to go 
for food, to a great distance ; in July, August,and Septem- 
