^2 MEXICAN RESOURCES. 



Another factor in successful cane-raising, which is all-important in Mexico, is 

 water; and unless the present irrigation facilities can be extended in some remark- 

 able manner, the sugar product will never reach a point to admit of exportation to 

 other countries. The estimated yield for iS8o, was 70,000,000 kilograms, valued 

 at $8,716,000. Of the 2,019,823,614 pounds of sugar, imported into the United 

 States in the three years ending June 3Dth, 1880, only 1,792,171 pounds came from 

 Mexico, less than one-tenth of one per cent.' 



Tobacco. — Indigenous to Mexico at the time the Spaniards first set foot upon its 

 soil, was a plant which has since become famous throughout the world, tobacco, 

 called yctl by the Aztecs, and used by them as a mild narcotic. We have only to 

 turn to the history of that country to find that the lords of Montezuma's court, and 

 even the great chieftain himself, used it after their repasts, daintily smoking it 

 through amber tubes, and finding it especially grateful for the midday siesta. Mex- 

 ico may never, perhaps, take rank with Cuba as a tobacco-producing country, but 

 within her borders, especially on the confines of the tierra calientc of the east coast, 

 there is a soil particularly adapted to the growth of the plant, and an atmosphere 

 and temperature favorable for ripening and curing it. The tobacco of Vera Cruz 

 is rapidly winning its way to favor, and when sufficient care shall have been exer- 

 cised in the manufacture of Mexican cigars, they will, in all probability, compete 

 successfully with the Havanas. The region about Cordova has long been cele- 

 brated for its tobacco, which has yielded a large revenue to viceroys and other 

 rulers of Mexico for two or three centuries. The production of 18S0 is given as 

 7,504,990 kilograms, having a value in Mexico of $2,000,000. 



I See " Commerce between the United States and Mexico," Washington, 1S84. 



