The highest qualities of flavour depend on the grape and soil, and as the favoured spots are limited, and the struggle and competition for their acquisition great, the prices paid are always high, and occasionally extravagantly so; the proprietors of vineyards are very numerous, and the surface is split and partitioned into infinite petty ownerships. Even the _Pago de Macharnudo_, the finest of all, the Clos de Vougeot, the Johannisberg of Xerez, is much subdivided; it consists of 1200 _aranzadas_, one of which may be taken as equivalent to our acre, being, however, that quantity of land which can be ploughed with a pair of bullocks in a day--of these 1200, 460 belong to the great house of Pedro Domecq, and their mean produce may be taken at 1895 butts, of which some 350 only will run very fine. Among the next most renowned _pagos_, or wine districts, may be cited Carrascal, Los Tercios, Barbiana _alta y baja_, Añina, San Julian, Mochiele, Carraola, Cruz del Husillo, which lie in the immediate _termino_ or boundary of Xerez; their produce always ensures high prices in the market. Many of these vineyards are fenced with canes, the _arundo donax_, or with aloes, whose stiff-pointed leaves form palisadoes that would defy a regiment of dragoons, and are called by the natives the devil’s toothpicks; in addition, the _capataz del campo_, or country bailiff, is provided, like a keeper, with large and ferocious dogs, who would tear an intruder to pieces. The fruit when nearly mature is especially watched; for, according to the proverb, it requires much vigilance to take care of ripe grapes and maidens--_Niñas y vinos, son mal de guardar_. [Sidenote: THE VINTAGE.]