182 



MEXICO. 



Banana. 



Manioc. 



Mexico, ject of their agriculture. Among these the banana is 

 one of the most important, corresponding in utility with 

 the grain of Europe, and the rice of Asia ; and scarce- 

 ly any other plant is capable of producing so great a 

 mass of nutritive substance on the same space of ground. 

 The fruit is ready for being gathered in the tenth or 

 eleventh month after the suckers are planted ; and the 

 plantation is perpetuated by fresh shoots, without any 

 other trouble than merely cutting the stalks on which 

 the fruit is ripe, and digging slightly around the roots 

 once or twice a-year. A spot of 1076 square feet, con- 

 taining from 30 to 40 plants, yields about 4414 Ibs. 

 avoirdupoise of nutritive food, while the same space in 

 wheat is calculated to yield only 30 Ibs. and in pota- 

 toes not more than 90 Ibs. ; so that the produce of ba- 

 nanas is to the former as 133 to 1, and to the latter as 

 44 to 1. In fertile regions a legal arpent, (about 

 54,998 square feet,) planted with the large banana, will 

 maintain 50 individuals ; while the same extent sown 

 with wheat would furnish subsistence only to two per- 

 sons. The fruit is prepared in a variety of ways ; be- 

 ing dressed like the potatoe, or dried and pounded into 

 flour, or preserved like figs, by exposure to the sun, 

 when it acquires the aspect and odour of smoked ham. 

 In the same region with the banana is cultivated the 

 jitca, which yields the flour of manioc, the bread of 

 which is known under the name of cassave. This bread 

 is very nutritive, perhaps on account of the sugar 

 which it contains ; but, from a deficiency of gluten, it is 

 very brittle, and inconvenient to be carried. The fe- 

 cula of manioc, however, when grated, dried, and 

 smoked, is unalterable, and is neither attacked by in- 

 sects nor worms. Even the juice of the bitter root, 

 which, in its natural state, is an active poison, may be 

 converted, by boiling and skimming, into a nutritive 

 brownish soup. The cultivation of the manioc requires 

 more care than that of the banana, resembling rather 

 that of the potatoe, and yielding its crop about seven or 

 Mute. eight months after the plantation of the slips. Maize, 

 an indigenous American grain, occupies the same re- 

 gion with the two last mentioned, and is of still greater 

 importance than either. Excepting a species of rye and 

 of barley, maize is supposed to have been the only kind 

 of grain known to the Americans before the arrival of 

 the Spaniards, and is capable of being cultivated over a 

 much greater extent of latitude than the cerealia of the 

 old continent. Its fecundity in Mexico is above any 

 thing that Europeans can imagine. When favoured by 

 heat and humidity, the plant acquires a height of from 

 6'| to 9^ feet, and yields at an average, in the equi- 

 noxial region of New Spain, 150 grains for one. In 

 fertile lands, one fanega of maize produces from 300 to 

 400, and, in the beautiful plains between San Juan del 

 Rio and Queretaro, sometimes even 800 ; but, under 

 the temperate zone, it produces in general only from 70 

 to 80 for 1, though, sometimes, from 180 to 200. 



The maize is the principal food of the Mexicans, and 

 its price modifies that of all other provisions. There is 

 no grain more unequal in its produce, according to the 

 changes of moisture or of temperature, varying in the 

 ame field in different years from 40 to 300 for 1 ; and 

 when the harvest is poor, either from want of rain or 

 from premature frost, the greatest distress is experienced. 

 Its mean price is 5 livres in the interior ; but as there 

 are no magazines in the country, to make the super- 

 abundance of one year supply the deficiency of another, 

 it has been known to fall as low as 24 livres, and to 

 rise as high as 25. The natives, in these cases, feed on 

 unripe fruit, berries, and roots, which occasion many 



diseases and great mortality among the children. Some Mico. 

 kinds of maize ripen in six weeks or two months; so S *""Y""" / 

 that in warm and moist districts, two or three crops are 

 raised in the year. This grain is eaten boiled or roast- 

 ed, and its meal employed in gruels or made into 

 bread. By partly malting and infusing the grain of 

 maize, the Indians prepare a great variety of spiritous, 

 acid, and sugary drinks, generally known by the name 

 ofchicka, some of which resemble beer, and others ci- 

 der. The juice pressed from the stalk, which contains 

 a considerable quantity of saccharine matter in the tro- 

 pical region, yields a rough sugar, or may be ferment- 

 ed into a spiritous liquor, called pulque de mahis, 

 which is an important object of commerce in the valley 

 of Toluca. This grain will keep, in the temperate cli- 

 mates, for three years ; and, where the mean tempera- 

 ture is below 57' of Fahrenheit, for five or six, provided 

 the crop is not cut too early. The whole of New Spain 

 is calculated to produce at an average 17 millions of fa- 

 negas of maize, or 1765J millions of Ibs. avoirdupoise; 

 and, in good years, there is more reaped than the coun- 

 try can consume ; but as it almost never succeeds in 

 the warmer and in the colder regions, much of the in- 

 terior commerce consists in the conveyance of this 

 grain, great quantities of which also are sent to the 

 Spanish islands in the West Indies. 



The cerealia of Europe, viz. wheat, spelt, barley, oats, Common 

 and rye, are no where cultivated in the equinoxial part grains of 

 of Mexico, unless in elevations of 2600 or 2900 feet ; Europe, 

 and on the declivity of the Cordilleras, between Vera 

 Cruz and Acapulco, these grains are not sown under an 

 elevation of 3900 or 4200 feet; but it appears that 

 wheat will ripen in much smaller elevations, even of 

 1600 or 1900, under latitude 10. These grains, in 

 most parts of New Spain, suffer chiefly from the defi- 

 ciency of rain, and much use is made of irrigation in 

 their culture. The wheat is watered when the young 

 plants begin to spring up in January, and again in the 

 beginning of March, when the ear is becoming visible ; 

 sometimes the whole field is inundated before sowing. 

 In the more fertile parts of the table land, such as be- 

 tween Queretaro and the town of Leon, the wheat re- 

 turns 40, and even 50 or 60 for 1 ; and the mean pro- 

 duce over Mexico is from 25 to 30 for 1. The whole 

 produce of wheat in New Spain is estimated at 

 331,000,000 Ibs. avoirdupoise, and its mean price is 

 from 17s. to 21s. per carga, which weighs 331 Ibs. avoir- 

 dupoise; but the high price of carriage frequently 

 raises it to 37s. or 43s. The Mexican wheat is of the 

 best quality, large, white, and nutritive ; but is with 

 difficulty preserved more than two or three years. Rye 

 and barley are cultivated in the highest regions ; and 

 the latter yields abundant crops in places where the 

 thermometer is seldom above 57 of Fahrenheit. Oats 

 are little cultivated, and seldom seen in the country. 

 The potatoe appears to have been introduced into Mexi- 

 co along with the European grains, and to have been 

 brought from Peru or New Grenada. It is cultivated 

 in the highest and coldest regions of the Cordilleras, 

 and grows in some places to the size of nearly one foot 

 in diameter, while the quality is excellent. It is pre- 

 served by the natives for whole years by exposing it to 

 the frost, and drying it in the sun. Other nutritive 

 roots are, the oca, which grows only in the cold and 

 temperate regions ; the iguame, a root which, in a fer- 

 tile soil and warm climate, grows to so enormous a size 

 as to weigh not less than 55 or 60 Ibs. ; and the batate, 

 which also requires a warm country. Among the use- 

 ful plants of Mexico may also be mentioned the caco- 

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