REPORT ON THE CATTLE OF SPAIN, 183 
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, 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 kept in the pasture grounds of the Sierras, on the 
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 Vegas, 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 to chew the cud, and rest 
till about 9 or 10 a.m., at which hour they are again allowed 
to pasture. During the greatest heat of the day (12 to 4) 
they are never driven or allowed to go for food to a great dis¬ 
tance; in July, August, and September, this would be 
attended wdth 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 although at first sight it appears 
economical, it is not so, but is expensive, and sometimes 
prejudicial to the cattle. Its only advantage is that no outlay 
of money is involved, except the cowdierd’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 of uncultivated 
land; and, secondly, by it the cattle are often obliged to 
endure great privations and want of food during drought and 
scanty seasons; they fall away in health, become weak and 
consumptive, i.e.j easily overpowered with any trifling malady 
(or accident), 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 manv valuable cattle; besides 
