Mode of Rearing Cattle in Spain. 275 
ber, this would be attended with risk of spleen-congestion, 
sometimes very fatal in summer. During the other season 
there is no danger of this kind, and the only care taken is 
that they go from one district of pasturage to another, as 
plenty or scarcity dictate. This is a rude system, and al- 
though, at first sight it appears economical, is not so, but is 
expensive, and sometimes prejudicial, to the cattle. Its 
only advantage is, that no outlay of money is involved, ex- 
cept the cowherd’s wages, and the rent (or value) of the 
pasture grounds. Its difficulties and disadvantages are :— 
first, this system can only answer in the least inhabited 
parts of Andalusia, where, from want of labourers. there is 
of necessity a wide extent ofuncultivated land, and secondly, 
by it the cattle are often obliged to endure great priva- 
tions and want of food during drought and scanty seasons ; 
they fall away in health, become weak and consumptive, 
2... easily overpowered with any trifling malady (or acci- 
dent), and sometimes die in great numbers, the owner thus 
suffering loss from want of precaution in procuring other 
food besides natural pasture. During the winter, also, the 
storms of wind and snow kill many valuable cattle; besides 
this, by this system the cows are not prolific, and they 
breed irregularly. The increase therefore is small (in com- 
parison with that obtained by other systems), and it is 
calculated that only one-third part of the cows in a herd 
calve during the year. Thus, the total number of heads of 
cattle produced under this (open air) system, is far from 
what could be expected. These cows are not employed in 
any other way, and never work. nor are they milked for 
yield of milk or butter, &c.; but it is also to be acknow- 
ledged, that, unless in the height of summer, and very 
depth of winter, these herds seem to suffer little from occa- 
sional disease, or ordinary sickness. The system gives them 
a sort of hardihood and power of resisting privations. (I 
may almost call it abstemiousness, or ‘Spanish sobriedad), 
which frequently stands them in good stead. It is a neces- 
sary consequence of the want or the sparseness of popula- 
tion in Spain, a fact too little considered by all Spaniards. 
To a certain extent this open air system is followed in 
the Castiles, La Mancha, Aragon, Navarre, &c., whilst in 
the Asturias, Gallicia, and part of Catalonia, where land 
and landed property is much divided and sub-divided, and 
where the climate is sometimes very cold, this system would 
not do at all, and is not practised. Were it modified and 
improved in the south of Spain it might retain some of its 
