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Exceeding fine hemp, watered. Maiz thick, and in ear. Many fine and tall pop-lars by the river.
They are now (July) ploughing their ftubbles for French beans. Their courfe is,
1. Hemp.
2. Wheat; and after wheat, French beans.
Three crops are therefore gained in two years. The products good. Very fine mul-berries. A journal, which is here alfo about an Englilh acre, of rich land m the vale,not watered, fells for 500 livres : watered, for 1000 livres.
Leaving Barcelona, enter immediately an extraordinary fcene of watered cultivation,and which muff have given the general reputation to the province. Nothing can wellbe finer. The crops in perpetual fucceflion—and the attention given to their culturegreat. Not the idea of a fallow ; but the moment one crop is off, fome other imme-diately fown. A great deal of lucern, which is cut four, five, fix, and even feven timesin a year; all broadcafl:, and exceedingly thick and fine, from two and a half to threefeet high, when cut. It is all watered every eight days. We meet many mule loads ofit going into the town, each four hundred and fifty pounds, or four quintals and a half,which fells for 4 pefettos, or near 4s. Englifh ; fuppofe it 4s. for five hundred pounds,it will not be difficult to calculate the produce of an acre. All I faw would yield tentons, green, per acre, at each cutting, and much of it a great deal more; let us fuppofefive cuttings, or fifty tons per acre, at 16s. a ton, this is 40I. fterling per acre. It is tobe remembered that the growth we faw was the third, perhaps the fourth, and that thefirft and fecond are in all probability more confiderable, it will not, therefore, be thoughtany exaggeration to calculate on five fuch. I by no means aflert that lucern yields al-ways, or generally fo, as I fpeak only of what I fee. I have very little doubt, however,but this is the amount of that portion, which is thus cut and fold to Barcelona ; poffiblyone-third, certainly one-fourth is to be deducted for the expence of carriage ; this is themod difficult part of the calculation, for it depends on how many times the mule goesin a day, which mull alfo depend on the readinefs of fale, and other circumftances. Theprofit is, however, amazingly great. All the other lucern I have any where feen finks,in my idea to nothing, on comparilon with the vaft and luxuriant burthens given by thefewatered grounds. The fineft crops I have known in England are drilled, but there isa fallacy to the eye in the drilled crops, in proportion to the diitance of the rows; theyappear thick while they are really thin, but in broadcafl: ones, which fatisfy the eye,there is no deception ; and thefe immenfe burthens, through wffiich the fcythe is withdifficulty moved, produce more at one cutting than two feet drills would at three, withthe advantage of the herbage being finer and fofter. But weeds in England and Cata-lonia are two very different things; it well deferves, however, with us, a better trialthan it has yet generally received; I have viewed broadcafl; crops, particularly Rocque’s,on a very rich garden foil, and Dr. Tanner’s, on a common turnip loam, which, thoughnot to be named with the Spanifh, were certainly encouraging.
Hemp, through all thefe watered lands, is the predominant crop, it is feven feet high,and perfectly fine; fome of it is already harvefted. I am forry to fee that the wateredpart of the vale is not more than a mile broad. Indian fig, called here jigua demaura ,grows fix or feven feet high, very branching and crooked, the arms at bottom as thickas the thigh of a common man ; thofe and many aloes in the hedges. Every gardenor farm has a fmall houfe, with a refervoir for water, which is filled in mod by a waterwheel, with jars around the circumference. The gardens between Barcelona and thefort, and alfo within the walls, are watered in the fame manner; the water is let into
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