AGRICULTURAL SKETCHES. 223 



climate, however, famishes a corresponding diversity of cuUivated 

 as well as indigenous vegetation. The temperate regions are favor- 

 able to the cereal grasses, and all the culinary vegetables and fruit 

 trees of Europe thrive. The cultivation of sugar-cane, indigo, cot- 

 ton, vanilla, cocoa, and tobacco, has been successfully prosecuted. 

 The banana grows in the warm and humid valleys ; and its fruit, 

 which is ten or eleven inches in circumference and seven or eight 

 in length, is an important article of food. Manioc, the root of which 

 also furnishes a nutritive flour called cassava, likewise grows in the 

 lint regions. The magney, or American agave, yields a refreshing 

 drink, called pulque, resembling cider. The dahlias, whose many- 

 colored blossoms give such a splendor to our flower gardens, at the 

 season when the approach of winter renders them doubly valuable, 

 are natives of the hilly parts of Mexico. The sugar-cane, cochineal, 

 etc. are among the productions of the Mexican States. 



Peru. 



Generally speaking, agriculture is in a wretched state. So languid 

 and backward is it on the coast, that Lima and many other towns 

 along shore depend on Chili for their provisions. This has been ever 

 since the great earthquake in 1793, which was followed by such 

 sterility of the vallies of Lower Peru, that the people in many places 

 ceased to cultivate them. The country has since in a measure re- 

 covered its fertility ; but till some alteration is made in the mode 

 of cultivation, and greater facilities of communication between the 

 interior and coast are introduced, there is no hope of any great 

 progress in agriculture. 



Cotton is found in a wild state, in great abundance, in the Mon- 

 tana Real, on the Guallaga, and on the banks of the Maranon. Flax 

 is common ; but the indians leave the stems to perish, and make a 

 kind of beer of the seeds. A species of cochineal, and coflee of an 

 indifferent quality, abound in some districts. The Peruvian pimento 

 is excessively strong ; and there is some cinnamon stronger than 

 that of Ceylon, though not so valuable. The cedar, the oHve, the 

 wild orange, the palm, the willow, and many other trees are found 

 there. On the coast and western slop3s of the Andes, are produced 

 the cabbage-palm, cocoa-nut, chocolate-nut, and cotton-shrub ; the 

 jine-apple, turmeric, plantain, and sugar-cane. The large-flowered 

 essamine, and the Datura arborea, diffuse their evening fragrance 



