SEED-TIME AXD HARVEST. 1 5 



late r-dvent of railways raised the wages in the districts through which they run, 

 from twenty-five to thirty-seven cents (with or without rations) ; and boys from 

 twelve to eighteen. Women are rarely, though occasionally, employed in the fields, 

 but prepare and carry to the laborers their meals. A ration {racion) consists of corn 

 {inaiz), beans [frijoUs], salt, and chile, or red pepper, in sufficient quantity. 



AGRICULTURE ON THE TABLE-LAND. 



Sartorius, to whom we again refer as the best authority on the agriculture of 

 Mexico, and one commended by Mexicans of high standing, has the following on 

 this subject : The immense plateaux extending from the sixteenth to the thirtieth 

 degrees of north latitude, which are from five thousand to eight thousand feet above 

 the sea, produce nowhere tropical plants. The jjlants of the Old World are here 

 met with, and maize, maguey, and the cactus for breeding the cochineal. 



The husbandmen either resort to artificial irrigation or sow during the rainy sea- 

 son. In the beautiful valleys of Chiapes and Oa.xaca, Perote, Puebla, Atlisco, Tlas- 

 cala, Mexico, and Toluca, in the rich lowlands of Rio Grande de .Santiago, and in 

 many plains of the northern States, the rivers and brooks, sometimes even the lakes, 

 are employed for artificial irrigation ; and, when this does not suffice, by means of 

 immense dikes elevated valleys have been converted into lakes, which fill during the 

 rainy season, and supply the fields afterwards with necessary moisture. Many 

 haciendas are furnished with expensive aqueducts which frequently convey the water 

 for miles. All these estates grow wheat and maize, but on a larger scale than most 

 European estates. The soil is plowed for wheat in October, the grain is sowed in 

 November, and the water admitted to the furrows. The seed soon shoots up, is 

 watered twice more during the winter, twice in spring, and ripens in May, or June. 



The threshing is performed by means of horses or mules, treading out the grain, 

 in the immediate vicinity of the fields. Many of the estates have their own mills, 

 and send the flour to the towns, where the consumption of fine bread is greater in 

 proportion than in Europe, while the native population of the villages consume 

 chiefly maize bread, tortilla. Rye is cultivated here and there, oats nowhere, but 

 barley to a considerable extent. Various sorts of maize are grown, which arc, 

 doubtless, varieties of one species, but must be selected according to climate and 

 soil. If, as is occasionally the case, the early crop of maize suffers from the cold, 

 barley is planted in the rainy season to make up for it, by which means the forage 

 keeps down in price ; for barley, with the exception of the small quantity lately re- 

 quired for brewing (now rapidly increasing) is used exclusively for feeding. Of the 

 summer plants grown on the estates none are so universal as beans, which are in 

 great request throughout the country. To these may be added horse beans, lentils, 

 pistachios, chile (capsicum annum), batate or sweet potato, and occasionally rape 

 and the potato. Vine cultivation is increasing in the north. The plateaux are rich 

 in numerous species of cactus, which nature produces in the strangest forms. 



The soil is rarely manured, the mineral components being such that their decom- 

 position by air and water causes extraordinary fertility, and is constantly renewed. 

 Many districts have been sown every year for centuries with maize, a plant that 

 exhausts the soil more than any other, and still one constantly sees rich crops. If 

 we r^egard the plants of Tlascala, Cholula, Toluca, and others, we find the soil 

 covered with decomposed volcanic matter, or ashes and lava, which by gradual de- 



