MEXICO. 



183 



Fruiu and 

 garden 



itulf*. 



Mexico, mile, a species of tigridia, the root of which yields a nu- 

 V~*' tritive flour; the loot-apple; the eart/i-pistnchio ; and 

 the different kinds of pimento, the fruit of which is a* 

 indispensible to the natives a* salt to the whites. 



The Mexicans possess all the fruit trees ancP garden 

 tuffs of Europe ; but it is not easy to ascertain which 

 of these existed among them before the arrival of the 

 Spaniards. It is certain that they were always ac- 

 quainted with onion*, haricots, gourds, and several va- 

 rieties of cicer ; and Cortez expressly mentions onions, 

 leeks, garlic, cresses, borrage, sorrel, and artichokes ; 

 but no species of cabbage or turnip appears to have 

 been cultivated among them. The central table land 

 produce* in the greatest abundance, cherries, prunes, 

 peaches, apricots, figs, grapes, melons, apples and pears. 

 The ecclesiastics, and particularly the missionaries, 

 contribute greatly to spread the European fruits and 

 vegetables from one end of the American continent to 

 the other. Even the orange and citron trees are now 

 cultivated throughout all New Spain, nay on the cen- 

 tral table land, and there can be little doubt that the 

 olive and mulberry, with hemp and flax, would equal- 

 ly flourish in New Spain, were not their cultivation 

 discouraged by the jealousy of the mother country. 

 Besides extracting liquors from the maize, manioc, 

 banana, and the pulp of different kinds of mimosa, the 

 Mexicans cultivate species of agate, called maguey 

 de pulque, for the express purpose of preparing a spi- 

 ritous liquor from its juice, which is carefully collected 

 by cutting the central leaves at the period of efflores- 

 cence, and of which one plant, about live feet in h> 

 will yield, in the course of five month*, a quantity 

 equal to 67.130 cubic inches. F.ven in an ordinary 

 soil, 150 bottle* may be procured from on* maguey 

 in the season, and the value of each day's juice is es- 

 timated at 10 or 12 sols. The plant multiplier with 

 great facility, and resists the cold of the higher re- 

 gion* ; and it* cultivation is found to be sure mode of 

 gain. The juice has a very agreeable sour taste, and 

 so very easily ferment*, that in three or four day* a 

 viscous beverage resembling cider is procured. It 

 has a fetid odour like putrid mett ; but, after custom 

 ha* surmounted thi* obstacle to it* use, it is generally 

 preferred by Europeans to every other liouor, and is 

 accounted stomachic, strengthening, and nutritive. 

 There are plantations in the north of Toluca, where 

 the best i< produced, which annually bring in more 

 than 1600 Sterling ; and this cultivation is so profit- 

 able to the r i i.nc, that, in W'JS, the duties which it 

 paid in the three cities of Mr .in, and Tolue- 



ca, amounted to the sum of L. 178,880 Sterling;. A 

 very intoxicating brandy i* procured from a different 

 specie* of the same plant, which is prohibited by the 

 government as prejudicial to the Spanish brandy trade, 

 but which i* manufactured in an illicit manner to a 

 great extent. The leave* of this agaue are also manu- 

 factured into thread and paper ; and it* prickle* were 

 formerly employed a* pins or nails by the Indians ; ao 

 that, next to the maize or potatoe, it may be considered 

 ai the most useful production in the mountainous dis- 

 tricts of equinoxial America. The fine i* little culti- 

 vated, in consequence of government restrictions ; but 

 might be raised with great succes* in all the moun- 

 tainous and temperate region*. 



The cultivation of those production* which supply 

 the raw materials of commerce tnd manufactures, has 

 recently increased in Mexico to a considerable extent. 

 The profit of raising cotton is more than double that 

 of grain, and that of tugar more than tour times ; but 



it is only in the wanner districts that the*e crops can Mexico, 

 be cultivated. In these districts there are already '*'*'* ' 

 plantations cultivated by free Indians, which yield an- 

 nually about a million and a half pounds of sugar; 

 and in process of time the continent of America is 

 likely to supplant the West India islands in the culti- 

 vation of sugar, coffee, and cotton. 



Cotton was one of the ancient objects of cultivation Cottoa. 

 in Mexico, and some of the finest quality is raised on 

 the western coast; but as the inhabitants of these pla- 

 ces are still unacquainted with the use of machines 

 for separating the cotton from the seed, the price of 

 carriage is a great obstacle to this branch of Mexican 

 agriculture. Flax and hemp may be advantageously 

 cultivated, wherever the climate does not admit the 

 growth of cotton ; but their culture has hitherto been 

 discouraged. Coffee is little used in Mexico; and i* Coffee- 

 only beginning to be cultivated in the country. The 

 cocoa tree wa* generally cultivated before the arrival 

 of the Spaniards by whom it was conveyed to the 

 Canaries of Philippines, but is now almost totally ne- 

 glected. It* seeds were formerly used as money, and 

 in some places are still applied to that purpose by the 

 common people, at the rate of six grains for one sol. 

 I'anilla, though bearing a high price in Europe, is Vanilli- 

 little cultivated in Mexico, except in the intendancies 

 of Vera Crus and Uaxaca. It thrives wherever there 

 is heat, shade, and moisture, and is planted so as to 

 climb along the trunks of tree*. It principally abounds 

 on the eastern slope of the Cordillera of Anahuac, be- 

 tween the 19 or 20" of latitude, and in the same lati- 

 tude is procured the tarta/tariUa and jalap (or purga 

 de Xftlapt,) of which last between two and three 

 thousand quintals are annually exported from Vera 

 Crux. Tobacco, anciently used by the Mexicans both 

 in smoking and snuff, might become an important 

 branch of agriculture, if the trade were free; but it i* 

 entirely prohibited, except in a few licensed spots, or 

 rather is grown only by the government. Indigo i* Indi - 

 very little cultivated in Mexico; and the plantations 

 along the western roast do not raise what in sufficient 

 for the few manufacture* of home cotton cloth. The 

 article is annually imported from Guatimul.i, where it 

 i* raised in considerable quantities. 



The domestic animal* of Mexico were very few be- Animal*. 

 fore the conquest. The Mexicans were not acquaint- 

 ed with the Llama, which wa* confined to the south- 

 ern hemisphere ; and they made no use of the wild 

 heep of California, or the goat* on the mountains of 

 Monterey, or the wild oxen in the vicinity of Rio del 

 Norte. Dog* were used in some of the northern 

 tract* in the carriage of tent*, a in Siberia ; and the 

 flesh of a mute specie* of these animal*, named the 

 Techichi, wan employed a* food. A numerous clas* 

 of tin- inhabitant-, named Flamann, were eoni|>elled 

 to labour as beast* of burden, and to pass their lives 

 on the highway under loads from 66 to 88 Ibs. weight. 

 But, since the middle of the Kith century, all the most 

 ii-et'ul animal* of the old Continent, oxen, horsen, 

 sheep, and hogs, have multiplied surprisingly in all 

 part* of New Spain, and especially in the vast plain* 

 of the Provincial Internas ; nor have they at all de- 

 generated in the New Continent, according tn the fan- 

 ciful hypothesis and ra*h assertions of Btijfon. Nume- 

 rous herds of korned cattle feed in the finest pasture* 

 along the eastern coast, particularly at the mouth* of 

 the rivers Alvarado, Guasacualco, and Panuco. The* 

 native* make little use of milk, butter, or cheese, and 

 it is only uaiong the mixed cuts that the latter is in 



