AGRICULTURE IN SPAIN.

Evening Star, Issue 13090, 24 October 1908, Page 11

AGRICULTURE IN SPAIN.

The British Vice-Consul for Villagareia and Carril, in Spain, remarks in the course of a report : —“ Upon the whole, 1 do not consider that this country can be surpassed in the world for pleasant and profitable farming. The lands are so rich and respond so liberally to little cultivation that it has naturally engendered a chronic indisposition to labor in the working classes, who, contented with just a sufficiency to support them, make no effort to do more. One able-bodied man cultivates only three or four acres, and he does this with implements of the simplest and most antique pattern; the people generally manifest no desire to arouse from their lethargy and change the old manner for a better. I have visited many farms and found that they still plough with the forked limb of a tree, the foot of which has an iron point about lOin long. Thii natural plough boasts of but one handle, _nd is drawn by a yoke of oxen. It makes a furrow 4in deep and Sin wide. In addition to this primitive plough a short-handled hoe Is used in the cultivation of these various crops. As comparatively little small grain is here, such machinery as mowers, threshers, separators, etc., is never seen; on inquiry I am told that there exists an almost unconquerable prejudice against the use of modern machinery and implements, but I am convinced that before many years come and go these prejudices will give way, and that new ideas and a more vigorous life will be instituted. Ah ordinary laboring man is paid for farm work about 2s per day. He is required to work from sunrise to sunset, with two hours at noon for recreation. It requires kind but rigid firmness to control toe laborers satisfactorily.”