104 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



but even then, and in the least fertile spots, it is 

 rare for the cultivator to realize less than from forty 

 to sixty bushels for each one sown. 



The system of husbandry employed is closely 

 analogous to that so often already referred to as 

 Tull's Horse-hoeing Plan. The seed is sown, from 

 three to five grains together, at regular intervals of 

 three feet, in rows sufficiently far apart to admit of 

 the passage of a small plough between them, for the 

 purposes of loosening the soil around the roots, and 

 of removing the weeds. The use of manure is alto- 

 gether unknown in Mexican maize husbandry. 



Humboldt states that in some warm and humid 

 regions of Mexico three harvests of maize may be 

 annually gathered, but that it is not usual to take 

 more than one. The seed-time is from the middle 

 of June to near the end of August. A great part of 

 the internal commerce of Mexico consists in the 

 transmission of this grain, the price of which varies 

 considerably in not very distant stations, owing to 

 the imperfect state of the roads, and the insufficient 

 means of transport. As an instance of this, Hum- 

 boldt mentions the fact, that during his stay in the 

 intendancy of Guanaxuato, the fanega (five bushels) 

 of maize cost at Salamanca nine, at Queretaro 

 twelve, and San Luiz Potosi twenty-two, livres. 

 For want of a proper diffusion of commercial capi- 

 tal, the Mexican public is without the advantage of 

 magazines for storing corn, and for preventing, by 

 that means, great fluctuations in price. It is a for- 

 tunate circumstance, and one which should be men- 

 tioned as adding very materially to the natural value 

 of maize in warm climates, that it will remain in 

 store uninjured for periods varying from three to 

 five years, according to the mean temperature of the 

 .district. 



This kind of corn is generally planted in the 



