REPORT ON THE CATTLE OF SPAIN. 
185 
they are regularly stabled whenever it is cold. In Andalusia 
the peasants obstinately adhere to making these cow-houses 
or sheds far too open. The animals derive certainly some 
shelter from the rigour of the atmosphere ; but their food 
gets wet with rain^ and often they refuse to eat it in conse¬ 
quence, and thus become ill and weak, and liable to disease. 
The peasants are stupid and obstinate about this, and give 
as their reason, that if there is a shelter immediately above the 
cattle (afforded by a roof) the sides cannot admit too much 
air. It is singular how they persist in this view. 
In the middle of Spain, and in the northern provinces, the 
houses for cattle are, on the whole, well and carefully built, 
with windows and openings for air; but the animals never 
suffer from the rain or snow beating upon them or their food. 
These cattle are often worked, and they are much more 
attended to than the semi-wild herds in our beautiful pro¬ 
vince. It is supposed to improve the northern cattle 
(intended for exportation) to make them labour regularly 
and moderately at the plough and with the cart. 
In the spring the cattle in most districts of Spain leave off 
going into the houses or sheds, and live and feed on the un¬ 
cultivated portions of the large farms, a third portion of which 
is sown every year, the other two thirds remain uncultivated 
or fallow,^’ and there the oxen intended for labour and the 
market, &c., &c., graze. The rotation system, as regards 
“ fallowing,^^ is pursued with considerable regularity through¬ 
out Spain. After the harvests are reaped, the stubble lands, 
on which grow also some herbage and green weeds, afford 
abundant pasture, and the cattle graze these districts very 
advantageously. They produce largely the wheat-grass, 
triticu7n I'epens, which is considered nutritious and wholesome. 
This second system (mixed) of treating our cattle keeps them 
more directly under the management of the man under whose 
care they are. And thus it is only when there is abundance 
of food in the fields that they are not supplied with it in their 
stalls. The cattle thus brought up are, of course, many fewer 
in number than under the first detailed system; they suffer 
fewer privations, and are much finer looking; but most of 
the cattle in Spain are born under the wilder system of per¬ 
petual open-air pasture. I think that the second system is 
brought to most perfection in the provinces of Gallicia and 
Asturias. There they are also housed carefully during the 
heats of summer so as to avoid distress from flies and insects. 
The cattle are cleaned carefully and groomed ; and are also 
clothed during the rigorous nights of cold winter. They are 
more prolific than in Andalusia ; their milk is more abun- 
