CORA-, WHEAT, AND SUGAR-CANE. 3 1 



the tropical forests of Vera Cruz and Tobasco. It is carefully cherished, requiring 

 skill and acquaintance with its habits for successful results, and its fruit yields 

 above half a million dollars annual returns. 



Sugar cane. — Three varieties of cane are planted in the Republic, known as the 

 Castilian, Havana, and Otaheite. The first is not so full of juice as the others, 

 but is more abundant in saccharine matter; the mixture of the three produces the 

 best results in the manufacture of the sugar. The tien-as calientes are especially 

 adapted for the cultivation of the cane, and the plantations and the amount of 

 improved machinery are increasing yearly. The methods of culture, and the 

 processes for crushing the cane, and crystallization of the juice, are the same as 

 those followed in Cuba and Porto Rico. The plantations are of great area, some 

 producing from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 pounds of sugar annually. The largest are 

 situated in- the states of Morelos, Jalisco, Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, Puebla and Yucatan. 



Sugar-cane was an importation of the Spaniards, the Mexican-Indians extracting 

 sweets only from the native honey, from the agave, which juice they called inetl, 

 and from the saccharine pith of the maize. It was brought into Mexico from the 

 Canary Islands, by way of the West Indies ; for the Spaniards planted cane in 

 San Domingo as far back as 1520. 



As early as 1553, sugar was exported from Mexico, from the ports of Vera Cruz 

 and Acajjulco, into Spain and Peru. In the early part of this century, according to 

 Humboldt, several million of pounds were annually exported at Vera Cruz. He 

 also estimated the rich soil of the State of Vera Cruz as being capable of produc- 

 ing twice the product of cane per acre as that of Cuba ; and Ward (another 

 authority), pronounced the same state able to supply sugar to all Europe. Yet, in 

 spite of these predictions, Mexico has never realized the hopes of her friends in 

 this direction. Either the native Indian element has developed a liking for sweets 

 that their early task-masters would not allow them previously to indulge, when 

 Mexico exported sugar to other Spanish colonies; or the foreign element aids 

 largely in its consumption; for sugar does not figure largely in the list of exports. 

 Indeed, there is not enough produced for home-consumption. And it may be added 

 that, as IVTexico's population develops a taste for the luxuries of life, as it is con- 

 stantly augmented by accessions from the United States and Europe, the demand 

 for sugar will so increase that it will be imported to a considerable extent. Protec- 

 tive duties now serve to keep out American sugar (especially the refined grades), 

 which sells in Mexico at high prices. Perhaps the radical reason for the inability 

 of Mexico's sugar-plantations to keep pace with the demand is, that the area 

 suitable for cane-cultivation is necessarily restricted. The plantations are not all 

 of them situated in the unhealthy hot lands, as cane can be raised in the tierra 

 tcmplada, as high as four thousand feet, and where the only fevers are the relatively 

 mild intermittents ; in truth, the finest and most beautiful haciendas that the writer 

 can call to mind, many of which he visited, are in a region very salubrious, though 

 of course, hot. Thos» of Oaxaca, which are quite productive, are in a valley quite 

 temperate in character, and near the healthful capital of the state. But the super- 

 ficial configuration of the Mexican territory, notably rough and mountainous, 

 forbids any extent of fertile valleys, in the rich mould of which alone the cane will 

 grow to perfection. Mexico can, undoubtedly, raise a much greater quantity of 

 sugar than she does now, when settled peace shall have given her planters an 

 opportunity to rebuild mills destroved by revolutionists, and to bring into cultivation 

 thousands of acres which have been neglected from the same cause. 



