een cut down, little by little, until the whole
surface of the land was changed, in process of time the climate would
become less dry, and vegetation more rapid and easy.

Ever since the expulsion of the Moors from Castile and Estremadura, the
land has been allowed gradually to go almost out of cultivation for want
of water, the wholesale devastation of forests, in combination with the
lapse of all irrigation, acting as a constantly accelerating cause for
the arid and unproductive condition of the once genial soil. Irrigation
has been the crying want of Spain for generations past; but even now the
Government scarcely seems to have awakened to its necessity. Perhaps,
however, the Spaniard who goes on his way, never troubling to listen to
the opinion or advice of his neighbour, has not, after all, been so
wanting in common sense as some of the more energetic of his critics
have thought. In spite of all the changes and disasters of successive
Governments, a steady and rapid advance has been made in providing means
of transport and shipping, by the construction of railways to every part
of the country, the making and keeping in condition of admirable
highways, and the building of breakwaters and quays in many of the
seaports, so that now the output of the mines and produce of all kinds
can find market within the country, or be shipped abroad freely.

[Illustration: A WEDDING PARTY IN ESTREMADURA]

If the money no longer being expended in railways and docks were now
devoted to irrigation wherever it is needed, a rapid change would become
apparent over the whole face of the country, and the population would
increase in proportion as the land would bear it. Irrigation works have
been more than once undertaken by the aid of foreign money, and under
the charge of foreign engineers; but the people themselves--the
landowners and peasant proprietors--were not ripe for it, and, alas!
some of the canals which would have turned whole valleys into gardens
have been allowed to go to ruin, or to become actually obliterated,
while the scanty crops are raised once in two or three years from the
same soil, which will yield three crops in one year by the help of
water. Difficulties arose about the sale of the water--a prolific cause
of dispute even in the old irrigated districts--and the people said:
"What do we want with water, except what comes from heaven? If the
Virgin thinks we want water, she sends it." Fitting result of the
teaching