tions to the good wine-never in greater quantities than four or five per cent. while they remain in the cellar; and frequently not at all, unless the wine should become scuddy or mothery; and thus the finest wines are frequently entirely free from it; but, on their shipment, a small dose of brandy is considered absolutely necessary, even to fine wines to make them bear the voyage, as it is said; but, in reality, because strength is one of the first qualities looked for by the consumers. When wines become mothery in the London docks, they send them back to be cured, and this curing consists of nothing more than an addition of brandy; perhaps, indeed, it is chiefly effected by the motion of the voyage. The soleras, or store-casks, in which the wine is kept, are left with a void of one-fifteenth of their contents, and the access of the air is admitted through a loose wooden bung, which merely covers without closing the aperture. The wine is purchased by the exporters from the growers generally when it is one year old. The whole extent of the Xeres vineyards, which supply the genuine sherry for the British market, amounting to 2,500 butts, does not, it is said, exceed 700 acres. A great portion of the wines exported to England under the name of sherry, and sold by retail under forty shillings per dozen, is either that of Port St. Mary, St. Lucar, or Malaga.

In cleansing the wine-casks, a good deal of thyme is used as a sweetener: a little of this plant mixed with the liquor is considered to impart to it a more grateful savour, besides rendering it sudorific, healing, and restorative;* while red beet is often infused into various wines to improve their colour and appearance.

Around Alicant and the adjacent country, from which is obtained the vino tinto, (tintilla) or tent wine, are reservoirs erected for holding water for the refreshment of the vines, which must have cost immense labour and expense. One of these, El Pontano, situated between two mountains, within four or five leagues of the town, holds water sufficient to supply the whole district for a year. The walls of this reservoir are two hundred feet high, and at the base upwards of forty feet thick. Another in the canton called Huerta de Alicante, is surrounded by a wall sixty feet in height, and broad enough for three waggons to go abreast. At one time, a stupendous basin near Lorca in Murcia burst, by which 6,000 persons perished, and 24,000 other animals, while the loss was estimated at £2,083,333. In the vicinity of Murcia, two grand reservoirs still remain as monuments of the industry of the Moors, which have stood upwards of 700 years

Phillips' History of Cultivated Vegetables, vol. ii. p. 382.

unimpaired. Within one league of Merida, in Estremadura, are two very large reservoirs resembling lakes. The country people call them Albufera and Albuera. One of them is ninety feet in length and fifty-one in depth; it is surrounded by thick walls ornamented with two beautiful towers; a fine flight of steps leads to the bottom. The other reservoir is two leagues distant; it is small, but the walls which encompass it, and the great tower which serves it as an aperture for air, are much finer than those of the former. The basins are supplied by rain-water and by springs, and have fish in abundance. The great reservoirs at Constantinople resemble these more than any others of which there is a description. The roof of one of them is supported by six hundred and seventy-two marble columns, consisting of three tiers standing on the top of each other, enclosing a space capable of holding 1,237,939 cubic feet of water. Dr. Walsh, in his narrative, describes another magnificent cistern, scarcely known to the inhabitants of Constantinople, but which existed previous to the Turks taking possession of that city, yet affords the great supply of water to the inhabitants, is called the subterranean palace, and resembles a great lake extending under several streets.

Among the many works of art in Spain, the subterraneous receptacles for grain, called Siloes and Silhos, are remarkable. These are large, excavations which were constructed by the Moors for the preservation of grain to provide against scarcity. They resemble inverted cones, and are cased with freestone. They are dry, secure from damp and atmospheric air, and seem to have been made in imitation of those constructed in Boetia and other provinces of Carthagena. These public granaries and extensive magazines are termed positos, of which there are not less than 5,000 in the country. They are under the regulations of government; and when it is requisite to establish any of these granaries, every landed proprietor is obliged to deposit a quantity of corn proportionable to the extent of his farm. The following year he takes back the corn he had thus deposited, and replenishes the empty granary with a larger quantity; and in this manner he continues to increase annually the stock till a certain measure of grain is deposited. Then every one receives back the whole corn which he has furnished, and replaces it by an equal quantity of new corn. Whenever a scarcity happens, these repositories are opened, and the corn dealt out to the people at a moderate price. In some places, seed corn is also distributed to necessitous husbandmen, who are bound to restore as much in lieu of it during the ensuing harvest.

In a country where so much care is taken in the preservation of

grain, and its distribution is so well directed for the benefit of the community, it might be supposed that the people would be comfortable; but notwithstanding these precautionary measures, added to the extensive cultivation of the vine, many of the farmers are very poor. In the district of Malaga, distress is so great, that it prevents them from making their crop into wine, or waiting to the proper time of vintage. The consequences are, that they are constrained to gather the grapes before they arrive at maturity, and to sell them at a low price, to the great depreciation of the quality of the wines. To prevent these results and to relieve indigent farmers, the council of Malaga established a bank that issues loans to poor cultivators, which enables them to make their wine in the proper season and sell it to advantage.

Although wine-making principally occupies the attention of the Spaniards, yet other beverages are manufactured, among which cider is a favourite in some of the provinces. About the middle of the seventeenth century, the orange plantations in the Asturias and Gallicia. were converted into orchards, because the demand for cider was so considerable, as to render its manufacture a profitable speculation. From the Asturias alone, 28,000 arrobas* are sent anually to the settlements in America; the Biscay as well as the Bastan cider of Navarre is deemed excellent. Mead, from the quantity of honey which Spain affords, might be manufactured to any extent, but the wine and cider supersede its use. Honey of a peculiarly nice quality is obtained from the mountain districts; this article, which is in good demand in Italy, is said to owe its aromatic flavour to the rosemary plants, which abound in those mountains, and from which it is col- lected. In New Castile, the care of bees forms no inconsiderable portion of property. Near Alcaria, and in the mountains of Cuenca, the honey collected is of the best quality, and so abundant that 4,000 arrobas, or 1,000 quintals, equal to 964 cwt. have been secured in a season. From the quercus suber, or cork tree, portable hives are formed by rolling the bark, cut into lengths of three or four feet, into the form of a cylinder, with rests inside, and apertures for ingress and egress, and then placing them either in the fields or gardens. Though honey is not an article of great importance in Spain, yet it was stipulated by the articles of peace in 1715, between the Moors and natives, that a certain quantity of honey should be a portion of the contributions exacted by the Moors.

In Spain, there are but few breweries. On the coast of Biscay, at Santander, there are three, one of which furnishes upwards of

The arroba of wine contain 947 cubic inches.

200,000 bottles of beer, for the consumption of their foreign settlements. Little of this liquor is consumed at home, wine being the principle beverage. Grapes pay a tithe or duty, first as fruit, second as wine, third when converted into brandy or vinegar; hence the importance of their cultivation to the farmer, the trader, the clergy, the government, and the bulk of the people.

The Balearic islands, being contiguous to Spain, and forming as it were a portion of the Spanish empire, may here be properly noticed: In Majorca, vineyards are so numerous that they produce on an average 952,748 arrobas of wine, of which the natives consume 575,630 annually, and distil brandy to the amount of 37,400 dollars, half of which is exported. The quality of wine is excellent, of which the lightest and most delicate are Muscadel, Malvoisia, Pampot, Reda, and Montona. It has been computed that the whole exports of these articles to Spain and America, are to the value of 685,590 livres in wine, and to 177,000 livres in brandy. The quality of the brandy, particularly that distilled at Palma, is considered fine. Here is a distillery for orange-flower water. The vineyards are laid out with great taste, while the rugged and almost inaccessible declivities of rocks and mountains are rendered subservient to the comfort and industry of the inhabitants. The mountain, on which is situated the town of Banalbufar, is a striking instance of the care and enterprise of the natives. This lofty eminence, from top to bottom, is cut into steps, like a flight of stairs, and the earth is supported by little walls of flint and stone, and by this means is entirely covered with beautiful and luxuriant vineyards. The town contains upwards of 6,000 inhabitants, most of whom are employed in making wines of various descriptions.

In Minorca, the soil, though light and stony, is favourable to the vine. Red and white wines are made, and some of both exported, which, with the home consumption, may be valued at £1,600 annually. The honey of this island is of prime quality, but no mead is manufactured, hence the superfluous quantity is exported. Wheat and barley are cultivated, the grain is not thrashed, but trodden out by asses and oxen on the bare rocks, but the supply is too scanty to permit any distillation.

The small but fertile island of Ivica, produces fine fruit and good wine, but little more than what the wants of the inhabitants require.

The Spaniards are not more zealous in the cultivation of the vine than the people of Portugal. In many of the provinces of that kingdom, the sides of the steepest hills and mountains are converted by means of terraces into vineyards. In most places through the country, the vine grows

like a gooseberry or currant bush, two or three feet high and about three yards asunder. In pruning, all the branches are cut off in winter, leaving only the stump, with the remains of the stem, about half an inch in length. These shoot again, and by the time of vintage are ten or twelve feet long. The best grapes grow about the stump, and so abundantly as to conceal it altogether. The fruit is gathered in August and September, and conveyed to a house prepared for the purpose, having a stone floor, with grooves to convey the juice when pressed out through a tube into a cellar adjoining, where barrels are ready for its reception. The grapes are trampled by human feet and afterwards put under a press, wrought by machinery, where they are again pressed, till all the juice is completely collected, and the fruit becomes a solid mass. From this latter, mixed with an infusion of weak wines after a proper fermentation, spirits are distilled stronger than any brandy, and equal, for the most part, to spirits of wine. The cellars in which the wine is deposited for fermentation, are so very warm, and the inflammable gas evolved from the fluid so highly ignitible, that no candle can be introduced, lest it might take fire and blow up the concern. In 1681, although the wines of the Portuguese were of an inferior quality, large quantities were exported from Lisbon. The English, in particular, encouraged the manufacture to such an extent, that from 1750 to 1755, a pipe of the best quality could be procured for ten milreas, or £2 15s. 6d, of our currency.

During that period, many of the proprietors of vineyards, rather than sell their wines at reduced prices, or run the risk of loss in keeping them, converted the greater part of the poorer sort into brandy. Large portions of this were used to strengthen the wines intended for exportation, and the surplus was either sent to the colonies in America, or bartered for slaves on the coast of Africa.

The taste of the English, says Link, and their fondness for drinking, are evidently the causes that induce the Portuguese to mix so much brandy with the wines. All that they manufacture have now some brandy added, even before fermentation.*

In 1756, the board which was appointed to superintend the wine trade of Portugal, made a monopoly of the brandy distilleries for the provinces of Beira, Minho, and Tras os Montes, and after some time succeeded in procuring the entire management of them throughout the kingdom. This board had the power of regulating and fixing the prices of the different sorts of wines, and even of prescribing the

* Link's Travels in Portugal, p. 371